strong ones." He is like a lion that cowers and stoops before he springs upon his victim.

Lastly, his security and presumption. He vainly imagines that God will not notice what is done amiss; "He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten; he hideth his face; he will never see it."

Such is the picture which the Psalmist draws of the ungodly. It is true, all do not answer to this description. Some are less open and less daring in their sinfulness. Some reject God; and yet show kindness to their fellow-men. Some are outwardly correct, and almost blameless in their lives; but still they love not God, nor value the Saviour whom He hath sent. They are strangers to Him now, and must be strangers to Him for ever; for where He is they cannot be.

PSALM X. 12-18.

Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man seek out his wickedness till thou find none. The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare their heart; thou wilt cause thine ear to hear, to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

IN N the beginning of this Psalm, we have seen that an appeal was made to God to come out of His hiding-place, and take part against the wicked. That appeal is renewed in the twelfth verse; "Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble." Raise Thine avenging arm to punish the guilty, and Thy protecting arm to shelter Thy poor afflicted ones.

It is then asked how it is that wicked men are allowed to contemn (or despise) God, and to flatter themselves that He will not call them to account; "Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it."

Surely it is because God is long-suffering, and of great mercy; and He therefore bears with them, and gives them time for repentance.

The Psalmist goes on to say, in the fourteenth verse, "Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand." When Pharaoh was oppressing the Israelites in Egypt, God seemed for a while not to notice it. But at length He told His people that He had all along known their sorrows, and had heard their groaning. There was not an act of oppression and wrong that had escaped His eye. And so it was in the case of the Psalmist. And so too is it in our case. There is not a deed we do, or a sorrow we bear, or a wound we feel, that is unknown to God. There is an eye upon us that never closes, an ear that hears all.

With regard to the remaining verses, we may learn two principal things.

First, that God will one day punish His enemies. When it is said, in the fifteenth verse, "Break thou the horn of the wicked," it would seem to declare that God will break the daring arm which now seems so strong. He will so thoroughly "seek out" the sinner, and detect "his wickedness," that none shall remain undiscovered. The ungodly shall find that his little life of rebellion will soon come to an end; and then as a mere "man of the earth," he shall "no more oppress."

Secondly, we may learn that God's afflicted ones are under His loving care, and that the wronged will assuredly one day be righted; "The poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless." None are beneath God's notice or beyond His reach. The poor and the friendless are special objects of His compassion.

And as for their cries, they are heard even before they are uttered. The Lord declares this by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah, saying, “It shall come to pass, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." And here too, in the seventeenth verse, it is said, "Thou hast heard the desire of the humble." And soon

He will sit upon "the great white throne" as a king for ever;" and then He will "judge the fatherless and oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress."

The expression, "Thou wilt prepare their heart," means, Thou wilt settle or establish their heart, allaying all their fears, and giving them an assured confidence.

Oh then may we not safely put ourselves in the hands of our heavenly Father, and bring all our troubles and all our complaints to Him? May we not at once silence all our murmurings, with the humble assurance that God will undertake for us, and in His own good time and way will arrange

our cause?

PSALM XI.

In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous; but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

THERE is something very remarkable in the unshaken trust which David always had in God. This confidence never left him; and it is continually expressed in the Psalms.

Many a one was ready to alarm him, and to make him "flee" as a frightened "bird to the mountains." But no, his golden motto was, "In the Lord put I my trust." And such should be our motto, when enemies threaten us, and danger is near.

We have, in the second and third verses, the arguments used by false friends to show him the great danger he was in; "For, lo, the wicked