the ideas rushing through the mind of the Psalmist, so various and so fast. They are literally rendered thus "Thou wilt lead me by thy counsel. And afterwards, glory! Thou wilt receive me ! " Not unlike Psa, xlix. 16-" God shall redeem my soul from the grave" (equivalent to "afterwards glory !")" for he shall re ceive me. Thus God is "the rock of my heart;" my heart rests on The glory. him as on a solid basis. All foes, and all prosperous wicked men, are from this point seen as ruined. No wonder. For has glory come? has the glory of the kingdom dawned on us? has the Lord himself welcomed us in? has he given us a place beside himself? Then, from this height we look down and see the impotency and ruin of Antichrist and all such opposers of God, "who go a-whoring from thee." (Comp. Rev. xvii. 5, "mother of harlots.") Meanwhile we draw near to God, reenter paradise, enjoy our lost fellowship; and our great employment is to praise Him, all clouds of providence being now cleared away, and no more unbelief to hinder our "telling of all his works.” The tone of this Psalm, especially of the latter part, is that of James v. 7, 8-"Be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." The prevailing topic may be said to be, "Messiah's people almost offended in Him.” PSALM LXXIV. Maschil of Asaplı. 1 0 Gon, why hast thou cast us off for ever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture ? 2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; The rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; This Mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt ! 3 Lift up thy feet into the perpetual desolations; Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. 4 Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; They set up their ensigns for signs. 5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees. The title. દર 6 But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers. 7 They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, They have defiled by casting down the dwelling-place of thy name to the ground. 8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land. 9 We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. 10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? 11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom ! 12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength : Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. 14 Thou breakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, And gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. 15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers. 16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. 17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter. 18 Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord, And that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name. 19 O deliver not the soul of thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked: Forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. 20 Have respect unto the covenant : For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. 21 O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name. 22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. 23 Forget not the voice of thine enemies: The tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually. Maschil” refers us to something (as elsewhere remarked) in the mode of setting the Psalm to music, or playing it on the harp, of which we know nothing. As in the last Psalm, so in this, Asaph's name appears. Some, however, suppose this Asaph to be a later individual of the same godly family. Patrick adopts the idea that he may have been the Asaph who was "the keeper of the king's forest" (Neh. ii. 8), and hence some of the allusions to the cedar-trees and the like. It is arresting to the fancy to set before us Asaph led to compose this melancholy hymn amid some of the lonely woods of his now desolate Land! But all we can say is, that it certainly is the composition of an Asaph long after the days of David, who perhaps was one of the family mentioned in Ezra iii. 10 (for 2 Chron. xx. 14 is too early), and so possibly the very "keeper of the king's forests." and plan. The desolation of Israel's land and people are spread before The tone the Lord. The Head of the Church, who wept over Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, and lamented their too sure ruin, could use these strains, and pour them into the Father's ear. Every Israelite's heart would thrill in singing such a solemn melody. Every believer's soul should fully enter into the sorrow for ancient Israel which is taught us here. "The signs" of verse 4 and verse 9, are the holy emblems. The significant pillars, "Boaz and Jachin," the brazen sea, the altar, the lavers, mercy-seat with cherubims, candlestick, and the like, all had disappeared. The standards of the enemy appear in the sanctuary instead! Oh how unlike (in significance as in form) the vail that hid the ark because Jehovah was there, and the ensigns of Babylon that too surely proved that Jehovah had forsaken his heritage! The "synagogues” may mean places where the elders met to exhort and pray with the people. (Tholuck.) 66 In verse 5 some render the line to this effect :The enemy makes himself look like, and known as, one who lifts up the axe on the trees," applying it to the same subject as verse 6. But our version gives the better meaning. When the temple was building, every man that cut down a cedar on Lebanon to help in the glorious erection was reckoned famous; whereas now, men have become renowned by using "chisel and club" in destroying the carved work and tracery of the sanctuary walls.* In verse 9, the “no prophet” is like Lament. ii. 9. In verse 11 we have "Pluck (it) out of thy bosom "—literally, 7, "finish-destroy." It is meant to express something far more * Barclay expresses the idea in another form : "In former days of Jerubbaal, An high renown was truly won, By hewing down the groves so tall, Where foul idolatry was shewn." (Judg. vii. 28.) other times. terrible than "plucking the hand out of the bosom," it is a cry for "destruction on foes;" and, as Hengstenberg says, “the annihilation proceeds from the bosom of God, when his right hand is at the moment reposing." May we not add, “from that bosom whence came his Son!" just as the fire on Sodom was "out of heaven, from God." This appeal represents to our imagination the suppliant gazing upward on the bosom of his King, to see if that right hand begins to be plucked forth! Thereafter, reasons of confidence are rehearsed. No less than seven times is the emphatic "" used," the sevenfold thou" (Hengst.), while his deeds are set forth; dividing the Red Sea, drying up the "ever flowing river" (ver. 18), and the like; and forthwith the suppliant, as if thus anew invigorated to hope, urges his plea 66 "Give not up thy turtle dove to the greedy host," (Phillips). (Ver. 19.) Applicable to If this Psalm was written by a later Asaph, the verse 20, which speaks of the covenant in connection with earth's dark places, might tacitly refer to such predictions as Isaiah lx. 1-3. The nations are said, in Rev. xi. 18, to be in the very condition spoken of here at the close, when the Lord arises to judge the earth, and to make the kingdoms become "The Kingdom of our God, and of his Christ." Israel's case will be attended to that day; Israel's wrongs will be avenged; Israel's sins forgiven; Israel's sorrows relieved. That will be the day when this wailing appeal shall find at the hands of Him who hears the voice both of his own Son, our Head, and of the members of his Son, a full acknowledgment of this The appeal of the scattered heritage to the mighty God of PSALM LXXV. To the chief Musician. Al-taschith. A Psalm or Song of Asaph. 1 UNTO thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: 2 When I shall receive the congregation, I will judge uprightly. 3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the 4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly! and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn! 5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. 6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. 8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; It is full of mixture, and he poureth out of the same: But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them, 9 But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. THE same Asaph takes the harp again, at the bidding of The title. the Holy Ghost, to write an ode that, like many of David's (see Psa. lvii.), has been marked "Al-taschith," and called, “A Song," lively in theme, and with life in every line. "We have praised thee, O God! we have praised thee ! And (now at length) thy name is near, Thy wondrous works are telling it." This is the delighted cry of Messiah's people, who see Him near at hand, and could join with Isaiah xxv. 9, "Lo! this is our God!" Their hosannahs are becoming hallelujahs. And Messiah himself responds, as in Isaiah lxiii. 1, 2, explaining his ways. He refers to their words regarding "his name being now near," his long-hid discovery of his person and promised deeds, "I will take a set time" (Heng.), or rather thus: '(It is so) for I now get the appointed day! (Acts i. 7.) I ("]N, unlike earth's usurpers), judge uprightly. Earth and its inhabitants have melted away. I am he who ("ƆÍN) have poised its pillars. Selah." (Ver. 2, 3.) He has weighed the pillars and so knows, and has power to order earth. After a pause, Messiah opens his lips to utter the sentences of doom. He addresses the apostate nations, with Antichrist at their head (ver. 4)— "I say (, the word has passed my lips) to the boastful, Boast no more," &c. No help will come to you from east or west, i. e., from land or P The plan. |