nection with what has gone before. These works of God in creation, in providence, and in grace all testify of Him; then, so must I. Let me lean, O my Father, upon Thy strong arm, as on that of a loving friend; keep Thou my heart and its meditations. May never a word cross my lips that is not in accordance with Thy will and acceptable in Thy sight. O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer; my kinsman Redeemer; my Saviour; my Elder Brother; my King! Oh, may God grant that we may all in His great mercy be kept safe upon that Rock, the Rock of Ages, and rejoicing in the sweet love and fellowship and company of that blessed Redeemer!

PSALM XX.

HELP FROM THE SANCTUARY.

'The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;

'Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; 'Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah. 'Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. 'We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banner: the Lord fulfil all thy petitions.

'Now know I that the Lord saveth His anointed; He will hear him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.

'Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

"They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.

'Save, Lord: let the King hear us when we call.'

THIS Psalm is by some said to have been composed by David with the express object of being sung in the sanctuary at any time of great national anxiety, as for instance on the eve of the king's going forth to battle.

But this view does not appear to me to meet, in any degree, the requirements of the Psalm; and there is this great difficulty at the outset, that if it be thus regarded

the sudden change at the 6th verse, gives us a confused view of the whole Psalm. Here let me read a few words to you from a recent publication, which is to my mind. deeply interesting in its bearing upon the subjects now before us, how the Word of God stands firm against the many attacks which of late years have been made against it. Nay, it not only stands firm, but just in proportion as efforts have been made to undermine the doctrine of the plenary inspiration of Scripture, just so has it shone forth, more clearly, brightly, and gloriously, as the Word of the living God, which 'holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.'

Now with regard to the 'anticipation of a Messiah,' so manifest in every page of these writings, this author says, 'If this be a fact' (the anticipation of a Messiah,) ‘it arose, as I believe, from a certain special Divine manifestation, which was vouchsafed to favoured individuals, by which they were enabled to behold in the essence of the Divine Nature, the Person of the Son of God: the veil which in ordinary cases hides the Christ from men, so that they cannot discern His Being or Person, was in their case rent aside, and revealed to their spirit the Messiah, the Son or Word of God dwelling from all eternity in the bosom of the Father. And thus being in direct union with Him, their words expressed and bore direct evidence to the effects of that union, and therefore clear testimony to the existence of Him, who was afterwards manifested in the flesh; which testimony could not but be recognised by all who believed in Him, while the correspondence they were thus enabled by the Spirit to detect between the manifested Christ and the unmanifested Being who was with God and was God, who made Himself known to patriarchs and prophets, constituted, to such believers, the very strongest evidence in confirmation of their faith. In other words, the knowledge of the Messiah, which I hope to show is an undeniable fact in the writers of the Old

Testament, was the knowledge of a mysterious Person existing in the essence of the Divine Being, rather than that of an individual man holding the Messianic office, and afterwards to be revealed. In short, it was the Christcharacter of God, which it was the blessed privilege of these men to have been permitted to perceive. Their illumination and inspiration consisted above all things and pre-eminently in this, that they knew of the personal existence of the Lord's Anointed, and that the heart of God was human.'

This to my mind, beloved, pointedly expresses what I desire to bring out in these Psalms concerning the sacred writers who thus testified of Christ, viz. that their inspiration was not simply an afflatus miraculously communicated to them, but was derived from their close, personal and supernatural connection with the Divine Being, so that whatever they uttered was communicated to them directly from God Himself. St. Peter says, 'of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, searching what (i.e. what time), or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.' So that David and others like him were not merely groping in the dim twilight, and wondering how these things could be, but were drinking deeply of this manifestation of Christ and each and all fully understood that whensoever that other manifestation took place, it should be that of a glorious Messiah, reigning and ruling over His people.

And so, beloved, I think we find that this Psalm does not point to the Church of that day, or to the Church of the present time, but that it was the utterance of this man, so deeply taught of God, concerning the Lord's Anointed.

"The Lord hear Thee in the day of trouble,' and ' fulfil all Thy counsel.' Could there be anything more precious

than this? The day of His trouble! The day of the sufferings of our blessed Lord, of His humiliation and deep sorrow! The Lord hear Thee in that day! 'The name,' the character rather, 'of the God of Jacob defend Thee'! Send Thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen Thee out of Zion.' Was it not so, beloved? At the close of that terrible hour of agony in the garden, it is written, that there appeared unto Him an angel from heaven strengthening Him.’

'Remember all Thy offerings, and accept (or, reduce to ashes) Thy burnt sacrifice.' He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit, a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world; 'He saw of the travail of His soul, and was satisfied.'

'We will rejoice in Thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners.' Now this expression naturally arises from the Psalmist's consideration of the past. He knows how his Saviour, in the hour of trial, put all His enemies under His feet; and so he bursts out triumphantly, 'In the name of our God will we set up our banners.' And again in the 60th Psalm, 'Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.'

'The Lord fulfil all Thy petitions.' Beloved, if with reference to what we read of Christ's work on earth this is said, how much more now that He has gone up into heaven and taken His place at the right hand of the throne of God, 'where He ever liveth to make intercession

for us,' shall we pray this prayer, 'The Lord fulfil all Thy petitions'? When your hearts are downcast and weary and you cannot even find words to express what you feel, you may yet realise that He pleads for you above, and let the prayer arise from the depths of your heart, The Lord fulfil all Thy petitions.' Ah, how strong the soul becomes then, in the assurance of His strength!

See

'Now know I that the Lord saveth His anointed.' the increasing depth of David's experience. He will

hear Him from His holy heaven by the saving strength of His right Hand.' So we read Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared,' or rather because He feared.'

6

'Some trust in chariots, and some in horses,' that is, in outward things. Give me this saving strength of His right Hand.' 'We will remember the name of the Lord our God.' He is on our side; and He is 'greater than all that can be against us.' They who trust in chariots and horses shall not stand. They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright.' 'Save, Lord,' our trust is in Thee alone, in none other; only in Thee; for ever in Thee. 'Let the King hear us when we call.'

6

And thus, my dear friends, from first to last this Psalm points to our Lord Jesus Christ; it is an anticipatory statement of His sufferings and sorrows and final triumph. And when we view it first and chiefly in this highest light, it seems to me that it then also, in a subordinate sense, tells upon our desires and prayers for each other. Yes, beloved, this is my prayer for you, for each of you: 'The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble.' May His loving ear be ever open unto your cry; that your joy may be in Him, and that those deep, tender, anxious thoughts may find a sympathising Friend in Him. The name, the character, of the God of Jacob defend thee. May His name be your strong tower, unto which you may ever 'run and be safe.' 'Send thee help from the sanctuary.' No other help will do, beloved, if you are weak and weary and sad and sinful; no 'help' save 'from the sanctuary; no strength but out of Zion;' Zion, His own dwellingplace. May He strengthen you out of Zion, 'remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice.' I ask Him, dear friends, to accept it, this your sacrifice