produce this happy effect, we shall have reason to be thankful for them.]
2. What, under all circumstances, should be the chief object of our attention —
[The Jews failed, because " their heart was not right with God." Let us look to this, that we indulge not hypocrisy in our hearts. If we call God our God, and our Redeemer, let our eyes be to him as our only, and our all-sufficient Help.]
Ps. lxxx. 17 — 19. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom, thou madest strong for thy- self. So will not we go back from thee : quicken us, and we tvill call upon thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of Hosts ; cause thy face to shine: and we shall be saved.
THIS psalm appears to have been written about the time when Sennacherib had invaded the land of Judah, and threatened the two remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin with the same utter destruction as had already been inflicted on the ten tribes of Israel. The writer, whoever he was, addresses Je- hovah in nearly the same terms as Hezekiah did on that occasion, even as " the Lord of Hosts that dwelt between the cherubim a." And when he says, "Be- fore Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thy strength, and come and save us ;" he merely desires that God would afford them now the same protection as he had formerly afforded to all his people in the wilderness ; which protection these three tribes had better opportunities of discovering than others ; be- cause, whilst three tribes preceded the ark, and three marched on either side, these three brought up the rear, and consequently were in a better situation for noticing the various interpositions of Jehovah in their behalf. The disconsolate state of the country at that time is set forth by the Psalmist under the figure of a vine, which had been planted there by Jehovah himself, and had flourished so as to fill the whole land ; but now it was exposed to all the rage of the
a ver. 1. with Isai. xxxvii. 15 — 17.