PSALM L. 16-23.

But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.

IN the former part of this Psalm we observed

how the Lord addresses His own people. He speaks to them as a Father, lovingly remonstrating with them for the formal service they too often rendered Him, and encouraging them to come before Him with the sacrifice of prayer and praise.

But in these verses He speaks to the wicked; and what does He say to them? He tells them that their knowledge of His laws, their profession of obedience, and their boasting of His covenant, were worthless, seeing that their lives did not

accord with this; "What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?"

St. Paul uses very much the same language in speaking to the ungodly Jewish professor in Rom. ii.; "Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in.the law, and makest thy boast of God. Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?" And then he enumerates the sins which these professors indulged in.

And so here the Psalmist speaks of "the wicked" to whom he is referring, as being

Ist. Impatient of God's teaching, and rejecting His counsel; "Thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee."

2ndly. Consenting to what is evil, and taking part with the thief and the adulterer.

3rdly. Indulging in gross and unseemly language; and

4thly. Slandering their neighbour and their brother, whom they should have loved and helped. And all this was done because God seemed not to notice it. He was silent. He did not directly interfere. And so they presumed upon His forbearance, and imagined that He would overlook their wickedness, like one of themselves.

But not so; for God is a jealous God. "I will reprove thee," He says. "I will arraign thee at

my bar I will charge thee, one by one, with all thy sins." And then He adds, with a voice of solemn warning, "Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, and there be none to deliver."

The time is coming when God's patience will have an end. He may bear with sinners now, but He will punish them then. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, and to be dragged away to punishment. O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, deliver us from the judgment we deserve. Blot out all our sins for Thy mercy's sake.

In the last verse, the Lord turns once more to His beloved people, and closes with words of encouragement to them. He had bidden them, in the fourteenth verse, to offer Him thanksgiving, as being the sacrifice that He loved best; and now He leaves them with a gracious promise; "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth his conversation (or course of life) aright will I show the salvation of God."

We must not say one thing with our lips, and another with our lives. If we come before God with thankful words, our daily conduct must show that we have indeed tasted that the Lord is gracious.

PSALM LI. I-II.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean : wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

THE breathing of David's heart in this Psalm

is much like the language of the repentant Prodigal, and also of the heart-broken and humbled Publican, in our Lord's two parables.

It was probably written at the critical time when God, by His Prophet Nathan, brought home to David his grievous sin, and when his carnest desire was to obtain forgiveness. He may at that

time have put up many prayers to heaven, but this only is preserved to us.

Feeling, and owning, his exceeding guilt, he throws himself upon God's mercy and lovingkindness. David speaks of his sin being "ever before him." It haunted him night and day. It clung to him like an evil disease. And he was ready to cry out with St. Paul, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

Again, he speaks of his sin as against God Himself not merely as a grievous wrong done to Uriah whom he had slain, or against Bathsheba, whom he had corrupted, but against God whom he had offended; "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight." No one seems to stand between him and God. The arrow of his guilt strikes Him alone. And truly this is what the true penitent must ever feel, when, under the convincing power of the Holy Spirit, he discovers the real nature and extent of his sin. His exclamation is, "How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

And now see how earnestly he cries for pardon. He implores God, to "wash him," to "blot out his sin," to "cleanse him from it," to "purge him," to "make him whiter than snow;" and all this, not because he deserves pardon, but because he needs it. He knows that he brought sin with him into the world, and it has clung to him ever since. He