» A. C. Benson, The Leaves of the Tree, 225. = N. D. Hillis, The Investment of Influence, 274.
The Brook in the Way.
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Literature.
Chadwick (G. A.), Pilcdds Gift, 266. Hanks (W. P.), The Eternal Witness, 81. Hunter (J.), The Angels of God, 27. Jerdan (C), Gospel Milk and Honey, 245. , Jones (J. D.), The Unfettered Word, 145. Norton (J. N.), Old Paths, 231. Piggott (W. C), Tlie Imperishable Word, 190. Smellie (A.), Service and Inspiration, 49.
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The Brook in the Way.
He shall drink of the brook in the way : Therefore shall he lift up the head.— Ps. ex. 7.
1. This jubilant and magnificent psalm opens with a passage which was taken possession of by the Apostles, in the name of their Lord, so long ago that it has lost any suggestion of foreignness; and just as some of our older colonies have acquired a look of England overseas, so do we welcome these verses when we come upon them, as if they were an outlying tract of the New Testament. They give a description of the King, set at God's right hand, a Priest for ever, which in itself is great ; and yet, in the writer's view, it was only a preparation for something else. These things were spoken of Him that faith might have a chance ; for what possessed the poet was not that his King was great and highly favoured, but that a King so great would go far and that of His conquests there would be no end. It is through getting big thoughts of the King that men are prepared to cherish worthier expectations with regard to the Kingdom.
2. The poet first shows the kingship at rest, as it is in its dignity, created and secured by God, and when his heart is full of that he goes on to show the kingship in action. A royalty based upon the will of God, which, indeed, is nothing else than an instrument of that will, cannot but make way ; present and future have nothing in them to withstand it, and thus it will go farther and farther, passing out at last beyond the imagination of men. That is the poet's idea, which a rhetorician would have expressed in some resounding phrase ; but as an artist this man had no liking for vague words without any picture in them. He wanted men to feel that the King beyond their sight was pushing His conquests still, and he manages that by a quaint touch of imagination. The King, urging on His enemies in their flight, PS. xxv.-cxix. — 24
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stops for a moment to drink, and then He passes off the scene with head uplifted, fresh as when the battle-day began. There He is — the true King, God's gift to men, travelling out beyond our sight, on always vaster enterprises, and without a sign of flagging strength. That fired the poet's soul, and it should live with us as the scope and outlook of the psalm.
I.
The Ideal King.
1. Who is this King and Captain that the poet celebrates ? The answer must be that we have here not a portrait but an ideal, which embodies the dream of those who trusted that God would give them one day a ruler who should be all that a king can be to men. The poet follows this warrior priest, this priestly king, to the war ; he sees him winning victory after victory, until the earth seems filled with the slaughtered bodies of his foes. But he grows weary and tired in the conflict ; his tongue cleaves to his mouth for thirst ; his sword well-nigh drops from his hand for sheer weariness as he toils on beneath the fierce glare of the Eastern sun. And it seems as if he must faint and fall before the full fruits of victory are reaped, when suddenly a little brook of cool and limpid water presents itself to his gaze, and the faint and tired warrior stoops and drinks a long, deep draught, and the clear, cool water brings refreshing and new strength to his ex- hausted frame, so that, with new vigour and determination, he resumes the pursuit, and makes the victory final and complete. " He shall drink of the brook in the way : therefore shall he lift up the head."
2. This ideal King overthrows all His enemies and wins a lasting dominion because He is God's own partner. He knows how to conquer. He is content that His battles should be taken out of His hands, and that the victory when it comes should be God's victory and not His own. In Him there is no self-assertion or display; He accepts what God allows and asks no more. Inferior men may be restless, as they take on themselves the burden of the world and its future, striking hotly in defence
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of their view of truth, and growing troubled and dejected when that view does not make way. But in the true Master of men there is a superlative trust in God ; He suffers His own effort and His own message to pass into the sum of God's providential forces, which are working for new heavens and a new earth. He does not bear the burden of the world anxiously, but leaves it in the strong hands of Him who can sustain it all. Peter speaks of Jesus " sitting at the right hand of God, expecting," which is a word of admonition for all unquiet minds so ludicrously solicitous about the interests and the work of God. But whilst He was still on earth, Jesus suffered God to fight His battles for Him. He tarried for the Lord's leisure. He believed in powers which work slowly and without noise, and He knew the rest of heart of those who wait for God and are content that He should work.