The theme. The Lord's blessing. LUTHER calls this, "A wedding-song for Christians." It may be so used; but it is more. Attention to every duty, and, among the rest, attention to the Lord's ordinances and solemn feasts, is the means of prosperity. As in last Psalm the worshipper's words were to this effect, "Take no thought what ye shall eat; for which of you by taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?" (Matt. vi. 27), so in this Psalm the worshipper seems to sing," Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you,” (Matt. vi. 33). “Blessed is every fearer of the Lord! Every walker in his ways !” And then, to shew more personal sympathy with the man, the Psalmist looks in his face and says, “For thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands." Instead of the frown spoken of in Lev. xxvi. 10, Deut. xxviii. 30-36, he shall surely eat what he laboured for; his wife is like a vine by the house sides, yielding its clusters and its shade; her children are not brambles, but like the useful olive-tree that served "God and man" (Judges ix. 9), also surround the family-table with cheerful faces. “Behold! (note it) For thus is the man wont to be blest who feareth the Lord. Jehovah is wont to bless thee out of Zion." (Ver. 4, 5.) Then follows the imperative N., as if it were the very words of the uttered benediction “And (shall say), See thou the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life; Yea, see thy children's children.” And then the benediction uttered before at the close of Psalm cxxv. closes all—“ Peace upon Israel!" In such strains the well-satisfied worshipper encourages his fellows, rich or poor. In such strains the Lord Jesus used to admonish his band of pilgrim-like followers, telling them that not one of them that left father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for his sake and the gospel, but would receive a hundredfold even in this life,” (Matt. xix. 29; Luke xviii. 30). And when he added, “In the world to come life everlasting," explained as it had been by his having just promised to the twelve a seat on the twelve thrones, in the day of The Regeneration, was it not the equiva- The Lord's servant pronounces the present and future PSALM CXXIX. A Song of degrees. 1 MANY a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say : 2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth; yet they have not prevailed against me. 3 The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows. 4 The Lord is righteous! he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. 5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. 6 Let them be as the grass upon the house tops, which withereth afore it groweth up: 7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. 8 Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: We bless you in the name of the Lord. Perseverance. PERSEVERANCE to the end is the burden of this song, inasmuch The theme as in it we hear the pilgrim at another stage of the way recording deliverances and drawing from his past experience good hope of final deliverance. It is like 2 Cor. i. 10," He delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, Oh let Israel say!" (, I beseech you.) 99 Israel as a nation might refer to the time of their "youth;' see Hosea xi. 1, Jer. ii. 1, and every man of Israel might do the like. Every worshipper, and not least the Lord Jesus in the days of his flesh, could take up this song. Abel, Enoch, Noah, and all the elders, and not less the Church in its latter days, when feeling the terrible blast of the enemy, might describe their experience by its verses; all agreeing, too, in the expectation of final victory. The Lord cuts asunder "the cord” that fastens the oxen to the plough. "Ashamed and turned back shall be all the haters of Zion. (Ver. 5.) They shall be like the grass on the house tops, That withereth ere it is plucked up.” Not as Job v. 26, the shock of corn in its season, but as 2 Kings tions like these The Lord's servant reviews past sufferings in assured hope. The theme. Pardon and peace. PSALM CXXX. A Song of degrees. 1 Our of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. 2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. 3 If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. 5 I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. 7 Let Israel hope in the Lord: For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. 8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. A NEW series begins here. Though Horsley suggests the occasion of this Psalm to be "Upon bringing a sin-offering," there is nothing to fix it specially to this occasion. The costume of it is taken from a Levite, says the Targum, waiting for the first intimation of the hour of morning sacrifice; but it may just as well be said to be taken from the case of any watchman on his watch-tower, wearying for the dawn of day. It reminds us of Hab. ii. 2. The worshipper relates his former earnest cry (ver. 1, 2) from troubles and darkness that were to him like Jonah's deep waters, or the water-deeps of Psa. lxix. 14. The Lord of Pilgrims, as well as each of his band, became familiar with such deeps. He cried the cry of verse 1, feeling intense agony all the while, under his load of imputed guilt, 'If thou, Lord (Jah), wert to mark (Job x. 14, 16) iniquity, who, Lord, could stand?" (Ver. 3.) But he cried in expectation of being heard, being able to point to satisfaction given to the law for that guilt. "For with thee the forgiveness is" (D) Sept., 6 haouos sori. λασμος εστι The forgiveness spoken of in the law of sacrifice, such as Lev. iv. 20, 26, 31, verses 10, 13, and proclaimed at Horeb, Exod. xxxiv. 9, and in the Temple, 1 Kings viii. 34, 36, 39. This being so, the worshipper learns there "the fear of the Lord,” and goes on his way, waiting for further light and teaching, waiting for the opening out of the Lord's hid treasures from day to day, waiting for these discoveries with intenser interest than watchman wait for morning. With intense desire Israel waited for Christ's coming in the flesh, and for the offering up of the "one sacrifice for ever," that was to make the worshipper "perfect as pertaining to the conscience." Yet still he sees only a part; he waits for more of "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." And if the Lord's Second Coming be the chief time for the unfolding of all that the worshipper desires, then the waiting for that day is not one of the least intense of his feelings. And so, "O Israel, hope thou in the Lord;" for who knoweth the flood of mercies that shall yet burst on them and on earth, when Jacob's redeeming God (Gen. Ixviii. 17) brings "plenteous redemption," or, as it is literally, “shall multiply to his people redemptions,” as he " multiplied pardons” (Isa. lv. 6), at their first return to him. To all of them he fulfils the name "Jesus," saving from all transgressions. In such strains we find The Lord's servant relating his earnest cry and its results. The theme. PSALM CXXXI. A Song of degrees of David. 1 LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty : Or in things too high for me. 2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, My soul is even as a weaned child. 3 Let Israel hope in the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. THINK of the calm bosom of the Lake of Galilee that morning after Christ had spoken peace to the tempest--think of that glassy sea, resting in a morning without clouds under the rising sun. Was it not a fit and fair emblem of the soul of the man whose name had once been "Legion," whom Jesus that morning met, and whose spiritual storms Jesus calmed by a word? Is that man's soul now not as peaceful and at rest as that lake? It is such a picture of repose we have here. In the case of the Master, no previous storm had vexed it ; in the case of the disciple, the tempest has preceded the peace. It is the Master who can in full measure look up to his “Lord, my heart is not haughty, neither are mine eyes lofty ; He was willing on earth to be ignorant even of the day of his Surely (N like Isa. v. 9, &c.) I have smoothed and silenced my soul, Others say, “As a weaned child leans upon his mother,” (b) without any de sire to suck the breast as before. Not of this world, loving the Father, Christ walked through earth without a murmur, or suspicion, or doubt, as to his Father's will-" Not my will, but thine be done." And his heart |