Lord arose, resolved to throw down every barrier to his love, smiting foes, and erecting his tabernacle on its fixed seat at Jerusalem, and giving to his people David, the type of a better David yet to come— "And he built his sanctuary, like lofty palaces; Like the earth, he has established it for ever." (Ver. 69.) This is ever to be a renowned spot, "morally gigantic (Hengst.), and not to be as Shiloh, forsaken for ever. There are great things to come, awaiting that very spot. The type of the scene in David's days is not yet realised in full. At verse 70, the Singer has his eye on what Ezekiel (xxxiv. 23) has foretold,—the David and the Tabernacle of that coming day, when our "Beloved," led up from the Bethlehem manger to the throne, shall feed Israel and Jacob, with upright heart and skilful hand-dealing prudently, exalted, extolled, and very high. Grace shall reach its zenith then. Our earth shall bask under the hot noonday sun of grace, grace no more thwarted and slighted, no more forgotten and denied, no more disbelieved and hated. Come quickly, Faithful and True Witness! Come quickly, and be again among us, not King only, not Priest only, but Messiah, the Prophet, shewing us that God's ways are not our ways. PSALM LXXIX. A Psalm of Asaph. 1 O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance! Thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. 2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. 3 Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; And there was none to bury them. 4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, A scorn and derision to them that are round about us. 5 How long, Lord? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire? 6 Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. 8 O remember not against us former iniquities: Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low. 9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: And deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake. 10 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen in our sight, By the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed. 11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee! According to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die; 12 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom Their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. 13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: We will shew forth thy praise to all generations. ANOTHER of the "Asaph-Psalms"-the cry, evidently, of The title. widowed Zion in the ear of the righteous Judge; such a cry as our Head (Luke xviii. 7) describes the Church at large as raising in the Latter Days. It suits alike the Church in Israel in Asaph's time, and the Church scattered over earth in these Last Days, and not less will it suit Israel in the days of their final tribulation, (Zech. xiv. 1, &c.). It tells of martyrdom (1-3), with a remnant left behind, The contents. appealing to the Lord with somewhat of the awful power we feel to be in the cry of the souls under the altar (Rev. vi. 9)— q. d., "Pour out thy wrath on Antichrist (see 2 Thess. i. 8), and on the nations that know thee not and that persecute thy people, "Even as they poured out the blood of thy servants.” (Ver. 3.) When they confess (ver. 8) “former iniquities,” is not this in the lips of Israel an acknowledgment of their forefathers' unbelief, when Jerusalem rang with-"His blood be upon us and upon our children ?" It includes this, no doubt, and their idolatry, too, presenting the long-expected cry spoken of in Lev. xxvi. 45, on hearing which the Lord shall arise, and as they are brought very low," shall fulfil Deut. xxxiii. 16,when he seeth that their power is gone. "Let the avenging of thy servant's blood be known," (ver. 10). When (ver. 11) we hear them plead, "Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee," we call to mind Manasseh in his Assyrian dungeon. We seem to see Israel taking Manasseh's position, and obtaining Manasseh's wondrous pardon. Nor are they like Manasseh only, but are, besides, "children of death," ", that is, exposed to a continuing death; νεκρωσις” is more than And then there is "the just as מות is more than תְּמוּתָה for "Javaros" (see Beza on 2 Cor. iv. 10). reproach" that lay upon them, the essence of which (like the reproach of Egypt," Josh. v. 9, Num. xiv. 13) had been, "Is God able to accomplish his promises? Where is their God?" (Ver. 16.) The Melody from freed souls bursts on our ear at verse 13. old pastures, Sharon, Carmel, Bashan, are repossessed by the long-lost sheep; and this is the burden of the praise of these ransomed of the Lord, returning to Zion with songs and everlasting joy: "And we are thy people, and sheep of thy pasture ! We will give thee praise for evermore ! We will record thy praise to all generations !" We, too, belonging to the Church at large, shall join in this hallelujah, and take part in this eternal song to the faithful Jehovah-that same incarnate Jehovah who once wept on the Mount of Olives, over Jerusalem ready to become heaps. With them, therefore, let us join in raising this Cry of widowed Zion to the Righteous Judge. PSALM LXXX. To the chief Musician. Upon Shoshannim-Eduth. A Psalm of Asaph. 1 GIVE ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock! Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth! 2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, Stir up thy strength and come and save us. 3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. 4 O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? 5 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears: and givest them tears to drink great in measure. 6 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves. 7 Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. 8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. 9 Thou preparedst room before it, ૐ And didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. 10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, And the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. 11 She sent out her boughs unto The Sea, and her branches unto The River. 12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, So that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? 13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. 14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine: 15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, And the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. 16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. 17 Let thy hand be upon the Man of thy right hand. Upon the Son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. 18 So will we not go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. 19 Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine! and we shall be saved. THE sun in the firmament shone cloudless on the field of Aus- The title. terlitz, where a conqueror of earth was gaining his renown; and that bright sun was recognised by the victors as a fit accompaniment of what they reckoned a day so glorious in its triumphs. It may have been on this principle of suiting the external symbol to the nature of the theme on hand, that the temple musicians selected for this Psalm an instrument called "Shoshannim-eduth." In Psalm xlv. we have mention of "Shoshannim," and in Psalm lx. we have the "Shushaneduth," referring, as some fancy, to the joy or the lily-bloom that shall overspread the land, when the nation that alone possessed God's “Testimony" should receive the answer of these prayers. But more than this we cannot say. say.* * It is a conceit of the Jews to mark thein verse 13, as the middle letter of the Psalter, by suspending it above the line of the other letters. . The tone and plan. It is an Asaph-prayer again, full of pleas in Israel's behalf. It is as if they had before them Isa. lxiii. 11, "Then he remembered the days of old." They call to his mind the days of Joseph, when (Gen. xlix. 24) the Lord miraculously fed them in Egypt. And then the tabernacle-days, when first, since the days of Eden, the Lord was known to dwell between the cherubim, on the mercy-seat. They call to his mind wildernesstimes (ver. 2), when their march was gladdened by his presence, Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh" lookir g on the Pillar of Glory as it rose before them, the guide and partner of their way (see Num. x. 22–24). "O God, bring us back again ! Cause thy face to shine! and all shall be well again!" They appeal to his power, verse 4, " O God of Hosts" (ver. 4 and 7), and to his love for his people (ver. 4). Why smokes thine anger, rejecting the smoke of incense that speaks of favour? Instead of joyful feasts (ver. 5), we weep sore, and foes divide our substance for spoil, instead of the safety our fathers enjoyed in serving thee (Exodus xxxiv. 24). O God of Hosts, bring us back again! Cause thy face to shine! and all shall be well!" Again the harp sounds to a melancholy reminiscence of the past. Memory recalls the time when Israel was the Lord's Vine-an emblem of him who is the True Vine. Taken out of Egypt, and made to spread (Isa. v. 2), it filled the land. The hills of Judah on the south, the cedar region of Lebanon on the north (ver. 11), the great Mediterranean sea on the west, and the Euphrates on the far eastern border, were all witnesses of the Vine's luxuriance. How desolate now! 66 Look down from heaven, God of Hosts, come back, we pray! Some think that in verse 17 they are acknowledging Messiah, calling him by the name, "Man of thy right hand,' "Branch made strong for thyself." The Chaldee Targum says, this is "King Messiah." Others claim these names for Israel; for Israel is God's Benjamin, and God's strong rod wherewith to rule the nations. The words are in the original such as surely point to Messiah; for they are not, "son of thy right hand," but ", "Man of thy right hand," and "son of |