Shiloh. She carried her private sorrows to the Great Congre- Hope in sorrow. gation, that in the midst of the many worshippers she might find the special presence of Jehovah. The complaint, in her case, was her adversary's tongue; so, here it is the tonguethe false tongue." At the same time, it is "sore distress,” for the form is emphatic (ver. 1), just as in Psa. iii. 3, ny is the emphatic form to signify complete deliverance. We see a worshipper, who enjoys little peace in his own The plan. country, coming up to the City of Peace, Salem, there to realise peace at one of those feasts which exhibited such a spectacle of united devotion. In the sanctuary, the pilgrim is enabled to see the end of those who so hate the godly, that they make war upon them. He sees "The arrows of the Mighty One sharpened;" as if anticipating the day of God, when he, the Mighty One, sung of in Psa. xlv. 3, shall send forth his arrows--arrows of fire-“ glowing embers of genista-fuel"—in other words, “The flaming fire that takes vengeance on his foes," (2 Thess. i. 8). Meanwhile, it is a saddening thought that as yet the days of the Prince of peace have not come. But we may have his sympathy, for once the Prince of peace felt thus himself, tabernacling among us, "Woe's me! for I tarry in Mesech ! I pitch my tents with the tents of Kedar !" As Isaiah i. 10 brands the apostate people and rulers of Jerusalem as "people of Sodom and rulers of Gomorrha," and as Ezek. xvi. 4 calls them "Amorites" and " Hittites," so does the Psalmist speak of his harassing foe, as like the barbarous men of Mesech in the obscure north (the Moschian mountains), or near the Caspian Sea (see Ezek. xxxviii. 2), and the everunsettled tribes of Kedar in the south. And so he sighs "It is wearisome for my soul to dwell with the hater of peace !" (Hengst.) Literally, "Enough of this dwelling!" Is not this the very feeling of the Church at this hour, in these days of never-ending forms of lies and vanity that assail the truth? They cry, "O when shall the Prince of peace arrive! And so felt the Lord himself, when on earth, as we see in his teaching his fol lowers the blessedness of being "peace-makers.' Indeed, who would sing this pilgrim-song so truly from the heart as "The Master?" It is a song for The servant of the Lord weary with the strife of tongues. The theme. Faith PSALM CXXI. A Song of degrees. 1 I WILL lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 1 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. 7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. From this time forth, and even for evermore. "A SONG FOR the goings up!" (ibya).* The pilgrim sings it as he leaves his home to meet the Lord in the Great Congregation at Jerusalem; and the believer (like the Master) sings it as he journeys through earth to the New Jerusalem. Abraham (Gen. xxii. 4) “lifted up his eyes" and saw the hills of Moriah on the third day. The worshipper sets forth with the desire to fix his eyes at last on the hills where his trials are, not, like Abraham's, to reach their crisis, but to end. “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills." (Ver. 1.) This is his resolution; his motive for leaving home and kindred is to reach "the holy mountains," as they are called, Psa. lxxxvii. 1,—those hills that are the emblems of Jehovah's faithfulness, Psa. cxxv. 1, 2,-that spot where Jehovah is specially present because of the Propitiation being there, (1 Kings viii. 42; Dan. vi. 10). *This is the only time that this form of the expression occurs, and so it is probably meant to signify something different from "Song of Degrees." It may be, in poetical style, like in "Psalm 77," Psalm composed by David, q d., a Psalm which the goings up to Jerusalem may be said to have composed. This, then, is his resolution. But there are perils by the way, and so he asks “Whence shall my help come?" (, which Phillip and others re mark, is always interrogative.) What a full answer is at once returned to his soul: “ My help is from ( from with, coming out from that depository of help) Jehovah, the Maker of heaven and earth.” And then he speaks to his soul, as the singer of Psa, ciii. does-" He will not suffer my feet to totter! Thy keeper is not one that slumbers!" He is not like Baal, (1 Kings xviii. 27). Behold, he never slumbers ! He never falls asleep, the Keeper of Israel (Num. vi. 24). that Jehovah in whom Israel is blessed (Num. vi. 24) by their High Priest-whose blessing awaits the pilgrim who reaches the city. He shall keep thee, making thy experience in thy journey to become oft-times a type of the rest where "the sun* shall not smite them nor any heat," (Rev. vii. 16)—the rest in the Kingdom, and the rest of which Israel shall partake in the latter day, (Isa xlix. 10). Thus shalt thou be kept till the glory comes, and thou "goest no more out," but art a pillar in the temple of God, “From henceforth and for ever!” * The Psalmist speaks of "the moon" smiting. He may mean all the noxious influences of night, but still he refers most specially to the moon. The force of this allusion may be understood by the following quotation from Wallstedt's City of the Caliphs : :-" The glare of the moon in the Persian Gulf is so baneful, and creates feelings so disagreeable, that at night a person may be seen sheltering himself from those rays with the same care as he would in the day from the heat of the sun. The effect of lunar rays in producing decomposition of fish, and other animal substances, is known, though not yet explained; all in the East and West Indies are familiar with the fact." Moonlight specially injures the traveller's sight, as the coup-de-soleil endangers his very life. Prof. Piazzi Smyth, at Teneriffe, lately ascertained that there is some heat in moonbeams, for his thermometrical instruments were sensibly affected by the moon's rays. In these tropical climes, meat putrifies rapidly in moonlight, and negroes, who do not hesitate to expose themselves to the sun, muffle head and face from the moon, believing that it causes distortion of the face and swelling. With such a song of faith, keeping in sight the faithfulness and love of Him in whose law he delights, whose feasts he keeps, in whose ways he walks, the Master and his disciples no doubt often left the peaceful shores of the Lake of Galilee to go up to Jerusalem to worship; often realised, under some fig-tree's seasonable shade, or some convenient cloud bringing down the heat by its shadow the deliverance from the sun's intolerable rays; and found in all an emblem of their journey through earth to the Kingdom whose capital is New Jerusalem, and whose congregation is the Assembly of the first-born. It is a song of The Lord's servant, as he goes forth on his journey, committing himself to Jehovah alone. Love and joy. PSALM CXXII A Song of degrees of David. 1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. 2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, () Jerusalem. 3 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: 4 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, To give thanks unto the name of the Lord. 5 For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! they shall prosper that love thee. 7 Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. 8 For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. 9 Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good. A PSALM of David." Hope was the prevailing feature of the first Song of Degrees; faith characterised the second; and surely love and joy abound in this one which we now take up. The first verse strikes the key-note "O'twas a joyful sound to hear Our friends devoutly say, Up, Israel! To your Temple haste! And keep your festal day."- (Tate and Brady.) “I have rejoiced," says the worshipper, “among (or, over those who say, Let us go to the house of the Lord!" David, who wrote this song, had felt that joy fill his whole soul, because of the love he bore to the Lord of the place. And lo! instantly the pilgrim-worshipper fancies himself arrived-he is already standing at the gate in the early morning, waiting to enter, along with those who said-" Let us go." “Our feet are standing at thy gates, O Jerusalem !” The gates are thrown open, and they enter; the city on every side engaging their attention. They see in it a city, not ruined by war, but built in its place-not like the straggling dwellings of the villages, nor like the wide spaces of Babylon, with gardens between, but with firm-built streets of stately edifices. "Jerusalem is builded as a city! (A city) which is bound together." (Ver. 3.) The very compactness of its streets suggesting the close union of its inhabitants in brotherly love. "(A city) where are* the tribes who go up, The tribes of Jehovah." (Jah, as Psa. lxviii. 4, &c.) How pleasant to meet, not the Canaanite-not the uncircumcised-but the tribes who, with one accord, worship the Lord; who go up to this city for that end. "(A city where is) the testimony (given) to Israel, That they might praise the name of the Lord.” "The Testimony" is by some considered to mean “The Law;" by others, more probably, The Ark, so often called “The Ark of the Testimony;" as we also find "The Tabernacle of Testimony." We may perhaps best understand it as a reference to all these together-they together setting forth Jehovah's character, and will, and ways, to men. And there, in its gateways, sit those who explain and enforce these laws and testimonies, according to the ancient promise in Deut. xvii. 8, 9 ; and there, also, sit the king and his princes. * The here, and in verse 3, is, according to Hengstenberg, the old popupar dialect of common life, as found in Deborah's song. If it be the popular style, it is most suitably adopted in a song for the nation at large at its feasts. B. b |