Until I make thine enemies thy footstool."

2 The Lord shall extend the sceptre of thy power out

of Zion;

Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

3 Thy people shall be ready in the day of thy power, in holy splendor;

Thy youth shall come forth like dew from the womb of the morning.

4 The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent:

"Thou art a priest for ever,

After the order of Melchizedek."

5 The Lord is at thy right hand,

He shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.

6 He shall execute justice among the nations;

He shall fill them with dead bodies;

He shall wound the heads of his enemies over many countries;

me in the government of my people. Jehovah was regarded as the supreme King of the Jewish nation, and Mount Zion as the seat of his government.

Ver. 3. The meaning of this verse is, "Thy people shall be ready to follow thee to war, when thou musterest thy forces in military array; thy youth, i. e. thy young men, shall come forth," &c.

Ver. 4. "Thou art a priest," &c. In these words David is declared to be appointed by God the successor of that ancient and venerated priest and king, Melchizedek, the contemporary and friend of Abraham, who reigned in Salem, now called Jerusalem, which David had wrested from the Jebusites, and established the future metropolis of the Israelitish nation.

Ver. 5 and 6. This description of the triumphs of Jehovah, in images drawn from human battle-fields, is in accordance with David's character and that of his age.

7 He shall drink of the brook in the Therefore shall he lift up the head.

way;

PSALM CI.

RESOLUTION TO GOVERN WITH EQUITY

1 I WILL sing of mercy and judgment; Unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.

2 I will have regard to the way of uprightness; O, when wilt thou come unto me?

I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. 3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes; I hate the work of transgressors;

It shall not cleave to me.

4 A froward heart shall depart from me;

I will not favor a wicked person.

5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I

cut off;

Him that hath a high look and a proud heart will not

I suffer.

6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me;

but to

Ver. 7. Here there is a change of person, and the pronoun "He" refers, not to "the Lord," as in the preceding verse, David. The image of drinking from the brook is frequently used as one of refreshment and delight, and in the arid and sultry re gion of Palestine must have been most forcible and expressive. Ver. 2. "O, when wilt thou come unto me?" i. e. to bless

me.

He that walketh in a perfect way,

he shall serve me.

7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my

house.

He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.

8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, Till I cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord.

PSALM LXVIII.

REMOVAL OF THE ARK TO MOUNT ZION.

THE Ark of the Covenant was a chest of acaciawood, about three feet nine inches long, two feet three inches high, and two feet three inches broad. It was overlaid with gold within and without. There was a ring of gold at each of the four corners, into which staves were put for bearing the ark. In Numb. x. 35 et seq. we are told that, when the people marched through the wilderness, the ark was carried before them; and "when the ark set forward, Moses said, 'Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee."" The sixty-eighth Psalm begins with these words, and is a triumphal ode on the occasion of the removal of the ark to Mount Zion. In 1 Chron. xv. 16 we are told that "David spake to the chief of the Levites, to appoint their brethren to be the singers, with instruments of music, psalteries and harps and cymbals sounding, and lifting up

the voice with joy." David himself danced before the ark; and when reproached, by his wife Michal, for so humbling himself in the eyes of the people, he answered, "It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel; therefore will I play before the Lord."

1

PSALM LXVIII.

LET God arise, let his enemies be scattered; Let them also that hate him flee before him.

2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; As wax melteth before the fire,

So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

3 But let the righteous be glad : let them rejoice before God,

Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.

Sing unto God, sing praises to his name; Extol him that rideth through the desert.

Jehovah is his name, rejoice before him.

A father of the fatherless, and a protector of the widows,

Is God in his holy habitation.

6 God setteth the solitary in families;

Ver. 4. "Through the desert." See Isaiah xl. 3: "Make straight in the desert a highway for our God."

Ver. 6. "God setteth the solitary in families," &c. An allusion to the change of conditions, by which the Israelites were delivered from Egyptian bondage, and brought into a land abound

7

He bringeth out those which are bound with chains, But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, When thou didst march through the wilderness,

8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God;

Yea, Sinai itself trembled at the presence of God,

the God of Israel.

9 Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain,

ing in all good things; while the idolatrous inhabitants were cast out, and driven into the wilderness.

Ver. 8. "The heavens dropped," &c. This refers to the rain which, we may suppose, accompanied the thunder and other phenomena at the giving of the Law at Sinai. Exodus xix. 16 - 18.

Ver. 9. "Didst send a plentiful rain," &c. This is generally supposed to refer to the manna, which fell like rain; or as a figurative expression, to include all those miraculous interpositions which attended the march of the Israelites. But if the words be understood literally, it need not surprise us that the gift of rain should have been regarded as worthy to be named among the other signal proofs of God's favor, when we remember that it was to the Israelites a rare phenomenon, and as welcome as it was rare, especially during their sojourn in the wilderness. The supply of moisture for the soil by means of rain, instead of by irrigation from the river, which they had been accustomed to in Egypt, is mentioned by Moses as among the chief of the advantages which the Promised Land should possess. See Deut. xi. 10, 11: "For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot; but the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." The expression "with thy foot" refers to the manner in which, in the process of irrigation, the water is directed over the field by embankments and channels made by the foot.