Ver. 12.-The certainty of the Divine benediction. "He will bless us." The repetition of the word " bless " adds great effect to this passage. The Lord has many blessings, each one worthy to be remembered-he blesses, and blesses, and blesses again. Where he has once bestowed his favour, he continues it, his blessing delights to visit the same house very often, and abide where it has once lodged. Blessing does not impoverish the Lord; he has multiplied his mercies in the past, and he will pour them forth thick and threefold in the future. He will have a general blessing for all who fear him, a peculiar blessing for the whole house of Israel, and a double blessing for the sons of Aaron. It is his nature to bless, it is his prerogative to bless, it is bis glory to bless, it is his delight to bless; he has promised to bless, and therefore be sure of this-he will bless, and bless without ceasing. The subject dealt with should be this-The past is the pledge of the future. A nation make~ a fatal mistake when it separates itself from its past; though it misuses the past when it binds itself with precedents, and so destroys its own freedom and individuality. A man makes the gravest mistake when he separates himself from his past, but be makes as grave a mistake when he persists in forcing his present life and relations into the old moulds. What is always safe to do is, keep in mind what God has been to us in the past. Our- selves in our past seldom teach us much. In regard to human experience, Froude's word is a wise one, "Experience is like the stern-lights of a ship, which throw their rays on a way which has been taken." God in our past always teaches us much, seeing that we have no very definite e.im in working for ourselves, and he bas a very definite e.im in working for us. I. GoD llA.S BLESSED us. How true this is seen to be in a review of the history of God's people Israel ! Especially if we take, as the chief idea of God's blessing, over- ruling for God. The more clearly we understand our own lives, the more fully we shall realize that a.a our best idea of God's blessing. Certainly it is what would most come home to the restored exiles. II. GoD IS BLESSING us. '!'his is a fact of observation ; a conviction of feeling; and an argument from the nature of God. We cannot conceive of him as beginning to do 11, good, and leaving it off; and the blessing we need is blessing that we continuously need. III. GoD WILL BLESS us. Since we are well assured that our conditions, relations, nnd needs will remain much the same, and call still for his merciful overrulings and blessings.-R. 'l'.
Ver. 17.-The responsiblity of being alive. "The dee.d praise not the Lord." Joy in life is the characteristic of every healthy, right-minded person. Pining for death is, altogether and always, a sign of a morbid condition of body or of mind. It is a delusion to imagine that religion requires of us an indifference to life, and a. yearning for heaven. The psalmists and kings ol' the old Israelite times loved life and dreaded death. One says, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord bath chastened me sore, but he bath not given me over unto death" (Ps. cxviii. 17). Hezekiah expresses but the universal sentiment of the good men of his dny when he says, "The grave cannot praise thee; death cannot celebrato thee; they thnt go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shnll praise thee, as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known thy truth" (lsa. xxxviii. 18, 19). But if we have life, we must take it with all its responsibilities, and the first of these is that we acknowledge the God who runde us, on wbom we are wholly dependent, and who lays his righteous claims upon us. One of those claims is indicated \,y the psalmist. God calls for praise. All bis works praise him in their order and dtness, in the precise fulfilment of the end for which they were designed. But God seeks that higher praise which can be offered by intelligent and free-willed beings. And the time in which they can offer the praise is the time of their lives amid terres- trial things. It is the praise of the living that God wants. It is pr.iise while living that me.n can alone render. 70 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. CPS. CXVI, 1-19.
I. PRAISE-TIME IS THE PRESENT TIME. It is never n mere duty that hae been done; a dP1u~nd that has been met. The praise that is God's due can never be paid, so that we can get a receipt in full for all our obligations. It is never a duty that can be put off to some by-and-by, something that we can promise to do some day. It is the duty of the hour. It is immediate response to God's present blessings. II. PRAISE-TIME rs A LIMITED TIME. It is limited to life, and life is always short and always uncertain, so that a man's call to praise is a call of the moment. For praise "now is the accepted time." No man has any to-morrow until God gives it to him, and then he must call it to-day. Only by doing just the duty of the hour can any man meet his human obligations. III. THE OCCASIONS OF PRAISE DELONG TO THE PRESENT TIME. It is true that there is call to praise for Gud's past dealings with us; and call to praise in view of the promises on which we are permitted to hope; but we can always find, if we will, calls to praise in the things a::tually around us; God's good hand is ever on us for good, -R.T.
Vers. 1-18.-The honour due to God. A call to the God of Israel, the living God, to rescue the honour of his Name from the reproach of the heathen. L Goo rs WORTHY OF THE HIGHEST HO~OUIL In contrast to heathen idole. 1. Because of his loving-kindness or mercy. (Ver. I.) 2. Because of his truth or faith- fulness. (Ver. 1.) Emphatically" truth and grace came by Jesus Christ." 3. Though invisible, he reigns and rules from the exalted heaven. (Ver. 3.) The idole are earthly thlngs, and have no power. 4. God is omn-ipotent, able to execute his own will. (Ver. 3.) 'l'he idols are dead things, with no will; and their worshippers become as dead as they are. II. GoD rs WORTIIY OF TRUST. (Vera. 9-14.) 1. Because he is the Helper and Defender of those who trust in him. (Vers. 9-11.) 2. Because his past goodness is the pledge for future blessing. (Vers. 12-14.) He will bless and multiply both the great and the small together. Ill. GoD xs WORTHY OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. (Vera. 15-18.) 1 . .As the OreatO'f' of heaven and earth. (Ver. 15.) And the heavens are for the dwelling-place of Jehovah; 2. Beca'USe he hath given the earth to men for their possession. 3. God must be praised now and for ever-before we go down into the silence of Hades. (Vers.17, 18.) "The Old Testament," says Delitzsch, " knows nothing of a heaveoly exclusion that praises God without intermission, coosisting not merely of angels, but also of the spirits of all men who die in the faith" (but see Ps. ciil. 20-22).-S.