Look again at the forty-sixth Psalm. It is the utterance of the faith of Israel's faithful ones, in the time of " Jacob's trouble." The earth is shaken (verse £, compared with Haggai ii. 6 ; and Heb. xii. 26, 27) ; the sea and the waves roar (ver. 3, comp. with Luke xxi. 25) : but there is a river whose streams gladden them. God is in the midst of her. Nay, " God helps her when the morning ap- peareth," (ver. 5, margin,) just as in the morning ivatch he looked out from the fiery cloud and troubled the Egyptians. Then the heathen are scattered at his voice, — he sweeps off every enemy, he makes wars to cease, and sets himself on high over the nations, as King of kings, " exalted in the earth." From which we gather that the morning brings with it de-
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liverance from danger, — victory over ene- mies,— the renewal of the earth, — peace to the nations, — the establishment of Mes- siah's glorious throne. What a morning of joy must that he, for the church, for Israel, for the whole earth ! — resurrection for the church, restoration for Israel, re- titution for the earth !
Look at the 110th Psalm. We see Jesus at Jehovah's right hand, — waiting till his enemies be made his footstool ; and then He who said unto him " Sit," shall say " Arise." (Psa. lxxxii. 8.) He is yet to have dominion on earth, and to sit upon the throne of his father David. Instead of " a gainsaying people," as he had in the day of his weakness, he is to have " a will- ing people in the day of his power;" all arrayed in the beauties of holiness ; more numerous and resplendent than the dew from the womb of the morning. Willing- ness, beauty, holiness, brightness, num- ber;— these shall mark his people in that
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morning of joy which his coming shall produce. " The dew (says one) is de- posited in greatest plenty about the break- ing of the dawn, and refresheth with its numerous drops the leaves and plants and blades of grass on which it resteth ; so shall the saints of God, coming forth from their invisible abodes out of the womb of the morning, refresh the world with their benignant influence; and therefore are they likened to the dew, for all nature is so constituted of God, as to bear witness of that day of regeneration which then shall dawn.55 *
Read also " the last words of David/5 (2 Sam. xxiii. 1—4,) in which, as in the 72nd Psalm, " the prayers of David are ended,55 or summed up. " There shall be a just one ruling over men, ruling in the fear of God ; as the light of the morn-
* It is interesting to notice, that while David speaks of " the womb of the morning " in connexion with the dew, Job asks, " Who hath begotten the drops of dew ? out of whose womb came the ice?" Job xxxviii. 28.
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ING shall he arise, the Sun of an uncloud- ed morning, shining after rain upon the tender grass of the earth." Not till that Just One comes is the morning to dawn, for he is its light ; and from his countenance is to "break forth that light in which all earth is to rejoice. Then the darkness of the long night shall disappear, and the brief tribulation tasted in the time of ab- sence be forgotten in the abounding blessed- ness of his everlasting presence.
Let us hear how, in " the Song," the bride refers to this same morning. She rejoices in the Bridegroom's assured love, and her desires or longings are not ques- tionings as to the relationship in which she stands to him. This is with her a set- tled thing, for she has tasted that the Lord is gracious. " I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." What direction then do* her longings take ? Her " eyes are towards the hills," over which she expects to be- hold him coming like a roe. Thus she i
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pleads with him not to tarry; "Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices." (viii. 14.) Thus also she an- ticipates the morning of fuller joy, even while enjoying present fellowship ; " He feedeth among the lilies until the day break and the shadows flee away." (ii. 16, 17.) And thus the Bridegroom himself, feeling, if one may so speak, the loneliness of the night, and that it is " not good to be alone," longs, like herself, for day, and resolves to climb the hills, where he may not only be regaled with freshest odours, but may catch the earliest gleam of dawn : " Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense." (iv. 6.) On that hill let us meet him in faith, and watch with him in hope, yet ever remembering, that though this joy which faith gives here is unspeakably comforting, it is not the gladness of the
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marriage supper, — it is not the blessedness of the bridal day. For he himself, while telling his disciples, " Lo, I am with you always/' says also this, " I will not hence- forth drink of this fruit of the vine until the day that I shall drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." (Matt. xxvi. 29.)