is, to shew us, how much the habit of referring every thing to God characterizes, composes, and elevates the Christian mind.
In the psalm before us we see this truth exempli- fied in the experience of David : in illustrating which, we shall notice, I. The resolution he formed —
The first verse of the psalm is somewhat differently rendered in the margin of our Bibles : " Shall I lift up mine eyes unto the hills ? Whence should my help come ?" This, whilst it affixes an important sense to the passage, gives it peculiar force and beauty. It represents the Psalmist as expressing his conviction of the utter insufficiency of all earthly powers to assist him, and his determination to confide in God alone. And in this view the passage exactly accords with that declaration of the Church in the prophet Jeremiah, " Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of IsraelV
But as it stands in our translation, it is a reso- lution of David to look unto Jehovah, who dwelleth on Mount Zion, or rather in the highest heavens, and to trust in him as the one only source of all good. Now this was,
1. A wise resolution —
[When our Lord said to his disciples, " Will ye also go away V Peter replied in the name of all, " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life." In like manner we must ask, To whom can we go for help, except to the Lord our God ? No creature can afford us any effectual aid. The creation itself subsists only through the continued agency of Him who first called it into existence, and in all its parts needs the same superintending care that we ourselves do. Whither- soever we turn our eyes for help, every creature uniformly replies, " It is not in me ; neither in me." To look therefore to Jehovah, is our truest, our only, wisdom.]
2. A pious resolution —
[A man duly sensible of his dependence on God, abhors the idea of trusting in an arm of flesh. He would not so
»' Jer. iii. 23.