It is a Psalm differing in its aspects from most others, for it presents to us, Messiah prayed for, and prayed to, by his waiting people. PSALM XXI. To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David. 1 THE king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; And in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! 2 Thou hast given him his heart's desire, And hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. 3 For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. 4 He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever. 5 His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. 6 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. 7 For the king trusteth in the Lord, And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. 8 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: Thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. 9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour 10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, And their seed from among the children of men. 11 For they intended evil against thee: They imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to per- 12 Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back : When thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the 13 Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength; so will we sing and praise of Psalms pointing to Messiah, WE have entered on a series of Psalms that more directly A series fix the eye on Messiah alone as their theme. This is the second of the series. It takes up the theme of the former Psalm. We are at once shewn the King Messiah, already triumphant at the Father's right hand; and yet, as King, to triumph more ere all be done. The plan Messiah, David, now on the throne at Hebron, and soon to be on a loftier throne at Jerusalem, might be the original of the typical scene; but certainly he was not more than this. It is of our King that the Holy Spirit speaks. The plan is very simple. From ver. 1-7, we have Messiah's exaltation after his suffering: then ver. 8-12, His future acts when He rises up to sweep away his foes; and ver. 13, the cry of His own for that day, as their day of realised bliss :— "Be exalted, Lord, in thy strength! So will we sing and praise thy power.”* He who was the "man of sorrows," and "whose flesh was weak," now (ver. 1), "joys in thy strength, greatly rejoices.” And how sweet to us to hear verse 2, "Thou hast given Him His heart's desire," remembering, in connection with it, John xi. 42, “I I know that thou hearest me always;" for it assures us that He did not mistake the depth of the Father's love, or err in His faith in the Father's kindness of purpose towards Him. He knew what was in man, but he knew what was in God also, and declares it to us, sealing it with the "Selah"-pause of solemn thought. The Father "came before Him with," or rather, anticipated, outran, His desires; for that is the meaning of "For thou preventest Him with the blessings of thy goodness." And in the "crown of pure gold," already set on His head, we see this verified, inasmuch as it is not the crown which he is to get at his appearing. The Father has at present given Him the crown, mentioned in Heb. ii. 9, "Glory and honour," but it is as an assurance and pledge of something more and better, the "many crowns," (Rev. xix. 12). Let us often stay to rejoice that the man of sorrows is happy now—“ most blessed for ever!" He feeds among the lilies. Shall we not rejoice in the refreshment of our Head-in the ointment poured on him-in the glory resting on his brow * One who paraphrases the Psalms (Barclay) has given this as the essence of the one before us : "The battle fought, the victory won, The Church rejoicing in the spoil, Gives glory to her Lord alone, And hails Him home from all His toil." in the smile of the Father which his eye ever seeth! Shall the members not be glad when their Head is thus gladdened and lifted up? Shall such verses as ver. 5, 6, not form our frequent themes of praise? In ver. 4, his prayers are referred to-those prayers that He offered during the lonely nights, when He made the desert places of Galilee echo to his moans and the voice of His crysuch prayers as Heb. v. 7 tells of, and such as Psalm lxxxviii 10, 11, gives a sample of. He asked deliverance from death and the grave-and, lo! He has now "Endless life" (Heb. vii. 16) in all its power. Verse 6 resembles in construction verse 9, and so presents the contrast of meaning more forcibly. The one is, “ Thou hast set him blessings;" the other is, “Thou hast set them like a furnace.' And here we see that "He is the author and finisher of faith;" for if his prayers and cries prove him to have had truly our very humanity in sinless weakness, no less does ver. 7 shew that his holy human soul fixed itself for support, like ivy twining round the tower, on the Father by faith. In this He was our pattern. "The King trusted in the Lord." (Ver. 7.) He is the true example of faith, surpassing all the "elders who have obtained a good report;" he is "captain and perfecter of faith;" he leads the van and he brings up the rear, in the examples of faith given on this world's theatre. (Heb. xii. 3.) And the Father's love rests on Him for ever; that love ("tender mercy," ver. 7) of which he prayed in John xvii. 26, that the same might ever be on us. And now the scene changes; for, lo! he has risen up! "Thy hand finds out all thine enemies ; "Thou puttest them in a furnace of fire," &c. (Ver. 8, 9.) It is his rising up to judgment! His foes hide in the caves and rocks of earth, but he finds them out. It is the day which burns as an oven (Malachi iv. 1) that has come at length. It is the ; the time of his presence; the day of his appearing; "the day of his face"-that face before which heaven and T earth flee. His enemies flee, and they perish in their impotence, his arrows striking them through, (Ver. 12). “They formed a design which they could not effect,” is truly the history of man's attempts to thwart God, from the day of Babel tower down to the day when Babylon and Antichrist perish together. And who would not have it so? Who will not join the Church in her song, "Rise high, O Lord, in thy strength?"—the song of Messiah's present joy and future victory: PSALM XXII. To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. 1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? 2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; And in the night season, and am not silent. 3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel! 4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. 5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. 9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. 10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly. 11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. 12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; And thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: They pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. 18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. 19 But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me. 20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. 21 Save me from the lion's mouth for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. 22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren : In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. 23 Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of 24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; 25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: They shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. 27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. 28 For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the governor among the nations. 29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: And none can keep alive his own soul. 30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. 31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness Unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. of this Psalm. Christ hero alone. WHAT a change! Instead of the songs of victory, we hear the The position moaning of one in anguish. It is not the voice of those that shout for the mastery, as were the preceding songs of Zion, but the voice of one that cries in weakness. And yet this abrupt transition is quite a natural one. We saw the warrior-we saw the fruits for his victory-we saw the prospects of yet farther glorious results from that victory. Now then we are brought to the battle-field and shewn the battle itself--that battle which virtually ended the conflict with Satan and all his allies. We hear the din of that awful onset. Our David in "the irresistible might of weakness" is before us, crying in the crisis of conflict, "Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani !” the words uttered on Calvary, and preserved in every syllable as they were used by the Saviour then. Some have sought to mingle the believer's confidence with |