them over against your sorrows, and see which are most numerous. (5) And think, too, of what our deservings have been. Then see if you can deny any more that God has been mindful of you. II. LET us LOOK ON THROUGH THE NEW YEAR, AND BE ASSURED THAT Goo WILL HELP us. 1. It is an argument drawn from what has gone before-and it is valid. We reckon, in regard to men, that what has been will be. The law of habit ensures this. And we may reverently say that God himself conforms to this law. Hence we may reason from what he hath done to what he will do. 2. Furthermore, he has known ail along what reasons there are why he should not bless us. No one can tell God anything worse of us than he already knows. 3. And we are in Ohrist by faith in him. Therefore we are accepted in Christ. Shall not, then, God with him freely give us all things? CONCLUSION. 1. We will believe that he-will bless us. 2. Inasmuch as his blessing is given into the hands outstretched in prayer and faith, and that move in o'bedience to him, so shall our hands be, and thus will we confidently expect his blessing. 3. And we will tell others of this.-S. C. Ver. 1.-Honour in honouring God. This psalm evidently belongs to the time when the restoration from Babylon was only partially accomplished. The little colony settled in Jerusalem and the district immediately round the city, were the scorn of the neighbouring petty nations, which were all heathen, and of the Samaritans, whose assistance in building Jehovah's temple they, perhaps unwisely, had refused. This psalm in a way meets scorn with scorn. Jehovah's people scorn the idol-worship of the nations, and the idol-nations scorn the insignificance of the company that talked so grandly about restoring the kingdom of David. But that is the darker side of the psalm. It is better to see that the scorn was but an unworthy expression of a state of mind and feeling that was good and right. Among the restored exiles there was great zeal for God, great jealousy for the honour of Jehovah; and it was this that made them refuse association with the semi-heathen Samaritans, and think so scornfully of the idol-worshippers. Not limiting ourselves to the state of mind of him who wrote, and those who sang, this psalm, let us regard the psalm as expressing generally the humble, loyal, zealous feeling of all true Jehovah-worshippers, and then three things are suggested. I. PUTTING oUB BONOUB ABIDE. "Not unto us . . . give glory." It is a universal experience that when God is really apprehended, self goes into the second place. It mnst be so. God can be in no place but the ~first. In the sphere of morals it is true that the most miserable of men is he who is anxious about his own dignity. Hr, will turn everything into offence. In the sphere of religion it is true that the first oi 6 n of rege □ eration is the humility that claims nothing for self. "Not by works of righteous- ness which we had done; " " Not of works, lest any man should boast." II. SEEKING Goo's HONOUR. "Unto thy Name give the praise." Dr. Chalmers spoke of " the expulsive power of a new affection." It is fully true of the soul's affec- tion for God. It expels self and everything else, and compels a man to set God's honour first, to Jive for God (compare St. Paul's exclamation, "To me to live is Christ"). God's honour is sought by being good and by doing good; in relations, worship, and work. This aim glorifies all forms of life. fil FINDING THAT WE GAIN OUB HONOUR IN SEEKING Gon'e. In two ways. 1. The very effort to seek God's honour cultures us i □ the character that wins for us honour. 2. And God makes the honour of men come to us as hie be □ edictior, on our loyalty.-R. T. Ver. 2.-The taunt of tM =believer. "Where is now their God?" (comp. Ps. xiii. 3). The expression is to be understood by the help of the associations of the psalm. It is always trying to be despised; always hard to work on faithfully under jeers and taunts. The neighbours of the restored exiles did not dare actually to interfere with them, because they were under the protection of the Persian authority ; but they could taunt them -and laugh at them. And it must be admitted that there was apparent occasion. The exiles were poor and few. They had been stopped in building their temFle, and there were nothing but foundations to be seen. It might be said-If yow PB, OXV, 1-18,J THE B'DOK Olt' PSALMS. 67
God can do anything, he surely can get his own temple built. They dare not attempt to raise the walls and fix new gates and enclose the city; for every attempt would be checked. It might be said-If your God really cared for you, he would help you to defend yourselves. The pious souls were deeply hurt by t.his reproach ~t on their God, and could only find rest in :i.ssuring themselves that if his will was a soverei an will, it was influenced by covenant promises. We can always turn from our doubtin~s 0 as to what God does, and find our satisfaction in what God is. I. THE STRAIN INVOLVED IN INCOMPLETENESS. We start out with a distinct life aim and purpose; but the years pass by, and all we have, as the result of labour and waiting, is an unfinished building, like some of the cathedrals. Then we are apt to lose hope, and to say-Not done now, it will never be done. So the years bad passed for the exiles, and the new nation was still in a most incomplete state. No walls, no temple, no rea.l freedom, no independent native government. It was a big strain on faith to see the nation's hope ever realized. II, THE INTENSIFYING OF THE STRAIN THROUGH MISCONCEPTIONS. Ji was bard to see and to feel the incompleteness; but it was harder still to be told about it, to ha,e it pointed out, and to be taunted with it. Those enthusiastic Jews who came out from Babylon expecting at once to accomplish great things, could see well enough the mere foundations of the temple, and the heaps of the ruined walls; but it was bitter- ness indeed to have some one come up as they were looking, and whisper in their ear, " Where is now thy God ? " Ill. THE BELIEF OF THE STRAIN BY CHERISHING TRUSTFUL THOUGHTS OF GoD. (Ver. 3.) 'l'he check on our work God puts. Incompleteness is his permission. Failure is his discipline. If God is in them, and their state pleases him, then our incomplete things are blessings in disguise.-R. T.