rest in the "God of Israel, under whose wings he has come to trust." And here we may, with our Head, survey the turmoil of human wickedness, beholding (verses 9-14) their assaults, their snares, their lion-like anger, their conspiracies, and, in ver. 14, their luxury and worldly ease. My soul deliver from the wicked, by thy sword, From men, by thy hand, O Lord, From men!" (Perhaps, frail, dying men, if be connected with to die.) "From the transitory world !” Grieved at such scenes, the Righteous One suddenly darts his eye into the future, and anticipates resurrection-glory,—a glory that shall cast human splendour into the shade, and leave the Lord's people without one unsatisfied desire. Our Head sung, in prospect of his resurrection, and we, his members, sing, in prospect of ours,— “But as for me I shall behold his face in RIGHTEOUSNESS." (Ver. 15.) O righteous Father, O holy Father (John xvii.), I come to thee, and, for ever dead unto sin, and escaped from the world's miry clay, I shall stand before Thee who art righteous in the beauty of pure righteousness. And my dissatisfactions shall be forgotten when entering on that enjoyment,-thou appearing in glory to meet me, and I conformed to the glory that meets me at my rising, 'I shall be satisfied when thy likeness awakes" This likeness is spoken of in Numb. xii. 8. It is the manifestation of God in his glory. The "glory of the Father" (Rom. vi. 3) met Christ at the sepulchre, and He arose glorious, soul and body. So shall it be with each of his members. Christ our Life, the incarnate manifestation of the likeness of God, shall appear in glory; and we shall instantly be conformed to Him "seeing Him as He is" (1 John iii. 2). The appearing of that glory, in our dark world, whence it has so long been exiled, seems to be meant by the "awakening of His likeness." Psalm lxxiii. 20 speaks of it again, and attributes to that event the eternal confusion of the worldlings who had their portion and cup full for a season. It was in the act of singing these words, as they stand in the metrical version, that one of our Scottish martyrs, Alexander Home, passed from the scaffold to glory. With a solemn eye and glowing soul, he was able amid gathered thousands to express his rest and hope in these words, "But as for me I thine own face In righteousness shall see; And with thy likeness when I wake I satisfied shall be." And who of all the saints would not join him? Who would not take up every clause of the whole Psalm? Who would not sympathize in The Righteous One's dissatisfaction with a present world? PSALM XVIII. To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul : And he said, 1 I WILL love thee, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. 3 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from mine enemies. 4 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. 5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. 6 In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. 7 Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. 8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, And fire out of his mouth devoured :-coals were kindled by it. : 9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down and darkness was under his feet. 10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness his secret place; His pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. 12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed,—hail-stones and coals of fire. 13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens, And the Highest gave his voice;-hail-stones and coals of fire. 14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; And he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. 15 Then the channels of water were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered At thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. 16 He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. 17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. 18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity:-but the Lord was my stay. 19 He brought me forth also into a large place ;-he delivered me, because he delighted me. 20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. 21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 22 For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. 23 I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. 24 Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. 25 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; With an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; 26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; And with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. 27 For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks. 28 For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. 29 For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall. 30 As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried : He is a buckler to all those that trust in him. 31 For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God? 32 It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. 33 He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places. 34 He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. 35 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: And thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great. 36 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip. 37 I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: Neither did I turn again till they were consumed. 38 I have wounded them that they were not able to rise :-they are fallen under my feet. 39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. 40 Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; That I might destroy them that hate me. 41 They cried, but there was none to save them:-even unto the Lord, but he answered them not. 42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. 43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people: And thou hast made me the head of the heathen: A people whom I have not known shall serve me. 44 As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: The strangers shall submit themselves unto me. 45 The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places. 46 The Lord liveth! and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. 47 It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me. 48 He delivereth me from mine enemies: Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: Thou hast delivered me from the violent man. 49 Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, And sing praises unto thy name. 50 Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, To David, and to his seed for evermore. THIS is a Psalm of " The Lord's Servant," a title given to one called to specific services for God. It was given into the hands of "The Chief Musician" on the day when the Lord had delivered from every foe. The circumstances were peculiar, and so is the style of the song. Thus ver. 1, "I will love thee" is expressed by the unusual word D, which can be expressed only by some such paraphrase as " My bowels yearn in love to thee." And then the next term, "My strength," pin is rare but very expressive, equivalent to, “Thou who hast he'd me up firm and fast.” The title. It is meant for a greater than David, but David's circum- David here. stances furnished an appropriate occasion for giving to the Church a song such as might suit Messiah, and all his members too. David's circumstances, that made him suitable to be the vehicle of this divine communication, have moulded the lan* Sternhold had no doubt felt that there was something very energetic in the original, and so he has versified it thus, with considerable success : "O God, my strength and fortitude Of force I must love thee; Christ in it. guage; but we are not to carry the allusion to his history too far. Some have supposed that there is reference in verses 7-15 to some tempest that helped David's victory on some occasion; but we may be content with observing that the style is coloured by David's experience. Thus, ver. 2 amplifies the pin of ver. 1. "The Lord is my "my precipitous rock (like 1 Sam. -strong מצוּדָה My T xxiii. 28), which foes find inaccessible. But the Psalm was meant for the Lord Jesus very specially. It presents a singular history of some portions of our Lord's mighty undertakings, all related in such a manner as that his members (and David among the rest) might often use it for themselves. In Heb. ii. 13, Paul quotes verse 2 as our Lord's words: “I will put my trust in him;" to shew that Christ, as our brother, leant on God, just as we ourselves would lean our weakness on Almighty strength. And again, in Rom. xv. 9, he quotes verse 49, "I will confess to thee among the Gentiles," to shew Christ's deep interest in the world at large. So that we have, by means of these two references,-one from the beginning, the other from the close,-the whole Psalm marked out (bracketed within these two quotations) as belonging to Christ in a special and direct manner. It is, then, our Brother who here sings. (Heb. ii. 13.) He begins with telling his younger brethren what his Father ("His Father and ours") did for him in the day of the sadness of his heart. He is relating some of the hidden things, which are nowhere else recorded, but which fit in to the time of Gethse |