John xvii.

haps ere evening. It is safety from perils like these that is spoken of. All these blessings are derived from and rest on verse 1, the position of Him that claims them "under the covert of the Most High." Hence, verse 9 brings this prominently into view again, and in the Hebrew the form of it is peculiar. The speaker says,

"Because thou, Lord, art my confidence !”

and forthwith a voice from heaven* seems to reply, “Yes,

“Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation.” (Psa. xc. 1.) And that same voice utters the blessing onward to the end. It is the Lord's own voice, for verse 14 has the words of Deut. vii. 7

"Because he has set his love on me,

Therefore will I deliver him.

I will set him on high

Because he has known my name."

Referred to in The tenor of the Psalm reminds us of John xvii., when the Lord prays down his own privileges and blessings on his disciples. How like is this last clause to John xvii. 6-25, where the Incarnate Son describes his disciples (ver. 14) by that same feature, "They have known thee." The "length of days," in verse 15, corresponds to Isa. liii. 10, "He shall prolong his days," but tells here of resurrection and eternal life to Messiah's seed as well as to himself.

One thing still let us notice

“I will shew him my salvation."

The salvation. This salvation is the full redemption-all the glory purchased by the Saviour as well as all the grace. "Salvation" is here used as in Psa. 1. 23, in Rom. xiii. 11, 1 Thess. v. 8, Heb. ix. 18, 1 Peter i. 5, and many other passages. It tells of the day that is yet to come, when Rev. xii. 10 shall be sung, and all the unknown glory of the New Jerusalem and its King shall burst on our view. "All these promises," says Bishop Horner, "have already been made good to our gracious Head and Representative. Swift fly the intermediate years, and rise that long-expected morning, when He who is gone to prepare a

* "A voice from heaven," remarks Tholuck, "seems to accompany the promise of God."

place for us shall come again and take us to himself, that where he is we may be also!"

Augustine speaks of this Psalm as, "Psalmus iste de quo Dominum nostrum Jesus Christum tentator tentare ausus est. And we may say of it, that it exhibits

More than Israel's blessings resting on Messiah and his seed

PSALM XCII.

A Psalm or Song for the sabbath-day.

1 IT is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord,

And to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High:

2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery,

Upon the harp, with a solemn sound.

4 For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work:

I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

5 O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

6 A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this.

7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish;

It is that they shall be destroyed for ever.

8 But thou, Lord, art Most High for evermore.

9 For, lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish;

All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn:

I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

11 Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies,

And mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. 12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

13 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourish

ing;

15 To shew that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

WHEN we have arrived at the eternal Sabbath, this "Song or The title. Psalm for the Sabbath-day" shall be enjoyed in full. In other words, when the last words of Psalm xci. are accomplished, "I will shew him my salvation," then shall this Psalm have its most fitting place, sung, as it shall be, in the stillness and calm

of the eternal day, when works are over-works of creation, works of redemption, aye, and works of providence, too-when Pharaohs are sunk in the deep, and when no sound but of psaltery and harp breaks upon Sabbatic quiet-sung, too, by the Lord of the Sabbath, not only at the beginning of his " glorious rest," but oftentimes, as the ages to come roll on-sung in memory of the past! Glorious, glorious anthem! taken up by every member of Christ, by every harper present in that congregation of the saved, by every sweet singer of the new song! The Chaldee paraphrast ascribes the original to "the first man Adam," forgetting that he could not refer to "ten-stringed instruments," nor to "Lebanon." Jewish writers generally refer it to Moses, in whose lips certainly the reference to the palm-tree," such as he might see at Elim, and to the "cedar on Lebanon," and that goodly mountain he longed to see, would be quite appropriate. It is handed down for the Church in all time, whatever may have been the circumstances in which it was first given, and whoever may have been the penman. The themes of It is tuned, we noticed, to the strains of the eternal Sabbath.* But still, it is no less suitable for every Sabbath now, inasmuch as every Sabbath speaks in type of the "rest remaining for the people of God." A redeemed soul will sing it gladly as he awakes on the Lord's day; our day of rest on which Jesus finished his work of resurrection, and which he seems, by his own act, to have set apart as "The Lord's day." The dawn of day, after dark night, the dawn of day without toil before him, cannot but seem a sweet type, or emblem of the Lord's “lovingkindness" appearing in salvation after a night of sin; while the bright day that follows, with its hours of enjoyment and peace, presents as true an emblem and specimen of the everlasting "faithfulness" that upholds his lot, fulfilling all the promises that mercy gave. And hence, at morning (perhaps over the morning lamb on the altar), "He shews forth God's loving-kindness," and at evenings, (Heb. i) (it may be, over the evening lamb,) he praises the Lord for realising all his expectations, proving himself a "faithful" God. He uses every instrument of praise that tabernacle or temple could

the Psalm.

* The Talmud is quoted by some writers as entitling it, "For the future age, all of which shall be Sabbath."

furnish, aye, adding one to all the other instruments, namely, "solemn heart-musing," to accompany the harp. For this seems the only plain sense of hy. It is upon the heart-strings, so to speak, as well as harp-strings.

But what thoughts are these that call forth such emotions? Verses 4, 5, 6, are the answer. The Most High's e, ovyo, nin, “works, deeds, thoughts"—his plans, and his plans accomplished, in creation, redemption, providence. The "brutish man," the carnal man, "a man-brute" (Alex.), understands not these ; but the Lord's spiritual ones do, beholding his glory in every act, and perceiving height, depth, length, and breadth of love, as well as holiness. in them all.

sanctuary where we consider their latter end, and see persecutors buried in their Red Sea), and especially the great Sabbath that fulfils all, comes to remove the veil from this part of the Lord's ways. The Lord is seen in the end all the more illus

triously exalted;

“ But thou, Lord, art HEIGHT (D) for evermore!" (Ver. 8.) Thou art found exceedingly exalted, nay, placed on the pinnacle of exaltation-height, or exaltation in the abstract !

Another of God's wondrous ways has been the trials of his own. But the Sabbath clears up these too. Indeed, every Sabbath gives a specimen of this, when the godly worshipper goes forth to the sanctuary, anticipating the refreshments of the final rest, and saying as the day advances

“But my horn shalt thou exalt as the unicorn (or reem);

I am anointed with fresh oil." (Ver. 10.)

These anticipations, no doubt, are only foretastes of the enjoyments and revelations of the eternal Sabbath; but they are tokens of its bliss. That clause, “anointed with fresh oil,” is peculiar, the word being, a term used in Numbers and Leviticus (e. g., ii. 4, 5), for “soaked in oil," copiously drenched in oil. And this abundance of refreshment, this overflowing of anointing oil, leads on the singer to other refreshings, as plentiful and as desirable

"The righteous shall flourish as the palm-tree,

He shall grow like a cedar on Lebanon," (his root fixed).

Is this the Lord Jesus? Is He the Righteous One? It may be, he is referred to as the model Righteous One, the only true full specimen of God's palms and cedars, though his members in him come in for their share. Indeed, is not He the true Adam, who takes up this Sabbath-song with all his heart and soul? On His resurrection morning, and on the morning of the resurrection of his own, it suits him more than any other.

If Sabbaths now are days of grace to men, what shall that great Sabbath be? O what shall saints be then! If now it be said,

“They are planted in the house of the Lord!

They flourish in the courts of our God!" (Ver. 13.)

how much more when the "house of God" is the "palace” of the Great King-when the earthly courts are superseded by the heavenly, even as Israel's typical courts were supplanted by the spiritual.

In "old age" we expect such fearers of the Lord to be found like Simeon and Anna; but what shall be their growth after ages on ages spent in the eternal Sabbath in the kingdom! Fat and flourishing !” fertile and vigorous, as those described by Isaiah lxv. 20. (Fry.)

All this—ruin to the enemies of God, everlasting blessedness and increase to his own-shall prove the truth of what in all ages had been sung, in confidence of faith, Ps. xxv. 8. It shall "Shew that the Lord is upright." (Ver. 15.)

It shall prove that Jehovah's ways, as well as his words, are all on the side of holiness. It shall be permitted to each individual soul in the kingdom to appropriate Him as his own-

* Jarchi says, "bearing abundant fruit," as the palm yields its precious dates. Tholuck quotes from Schubert's Journey-"The open country wears a sad aspect now; the soil is rent and dissolves at every break of wind; the green of the meadows is almost entirely gone. The palm-tree alone preserves its verdant roof of leaves in the drought and heat." Nor are we to forget the growth of the tall palm, a growth that can be marked. In the case of the cedar, its roots and its age, as well as its strength, are all to be considered.