Vers. 169--176.-God's salvation. These verses may bring before us the successive stages of salvation. I. SEEKING AFTER Gon. (Vers.169, 170, 174.) The heart "longs for salvation;" it "cries for deliverance;" it looks to God under a deep and strong sense of danger and of need. 'l'hen comes- 11. OuR CHOICE. (Ver. 173.) 'l'he decisive hour comes when we have finally and fixedly to determine whether we will or will not accept Jesus Christ for our Divine Lord and Saviour; whether or not we will spend our days and our powers in his service. The crisis of our cause is past when we can say," I have chosen thy precepts ; " I have chosen to do " the will of God in Christ Jesus." III. A LIFE OF SUSTAINED DEVOTION. As the psalmist's prayer intersperses his other utterances, so should devotion blend with our outward life, sanctifying and ennobling it. Especially should we be coustantly looking for Divine help (ver. 173), that we may be enabled to do our duty faithfully, to bear our burden meekly, to resist temptation manfully and successfully, to use our opportunity wisely and devotedly. IV.' OUR CONFESSION OF PARTIAL FAILURE. (Ver. 176.) This wandering (of the text) is not the first departure of the soul from God, the going away into the "far country" of estrangement or rebellion; it is rather the deviation of the good man from t-he straight line of holy service, calling for recognition and return to the favour of God. "If we (Christian disciples) say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and t~e truth is not in us." If, when we thus err, when we "go astray,'' we "confess our BID, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, anu to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." " For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee" (Ps. xxxii. G). It is a ve_ry great pomt in Christian life to understand and to acknowledge our error, our parl1al failure, our need of the Divine hand to lead us back into the path of righteousness and wisdom. Y. OoR BTUDY OF Goo's WILL AB REVEALED IN ms WoRD. (Vera. 174, 175.) 120 'I.'HE BOOK OF PSALMS. [I's. onx. l-1'70.
VI. OUR SERVICE OF SPEECH AND BONG. (Vera. 171, 172, 176.) 1. Recognizing the supreme excellency of Divine truth, its intrinsic worth, and its power to save and heal, "our tong1:1e will speak God's Word." From the Rustained and prepared discourso to the bumble dialogue and the parting word of warning or encouragement, true service may be rendered to our Lord. 2. Taught God's will by bis Spirit as well as bis Word, our soul as well as our body alive because quickened by Divine power, our heart and our mouth will be filled with praise. Prayer and praise will be the two accompani- ments that will never fail, along all the path of life, until the witness is borne, and the work is done, and the rewarJ. is ready.
SUPPLEMENTARY: Vers. 15, 23, 30, 48, 69, 78, 97.-Meditation: its place in Ohru.tian culture. In these days and in this country we may speak of meditation as a lost art, if not, indeed, as a lost faculty. We have become incapable of sustained thought, of prolonged consideration of Divine truth. Even with the aid of a well- studied and well-spoken discourse, and the presence of sympathetic fellow-listeners, it is found difficult to maintain continuous attention for more than half an hour once or twice a ~eek. The psalmist again and again recurs to this sacred duty ; he speaks of it as a much-prized privilege. The best men of Old and New Testament times were men of meditation as well as of action-Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah, Nehemiah, John Baptist, St. Paul, John the apostle-all of these illustrate the truth. Our Lord himself sou11:ht the mountain fold for eolitn<le and communion with his own heart and with bis Father. The best men that have lived and wrought during this Christian era have been men that found time for contemplation, and for the devotion in which that reaches its highest point. In a tim~ and a land where action is felt to be everything; where there is a multitude of distractions; where every hour may easily be occupied with some lawful or even laudable activity; where a positivo effort has to be made to secure a quiet hour ;-there is serious danger lest our Christian character suffer from want of earnest and devout meditation. I. THE TWO THINGS ON wmcn TO DWELL. These are God's Word and our own "ways." We should meditate on God's statutes or precepts ; we should "think on our ways." What a field for thought is here l The nature and the character and the work of God as revealed in sacred history and in Jesus Christ; the truth spoken to us by our Lord, and written for our learning by inspired men; the ways in which Di vino truth has been illustrated and enforced in human history; the path along which God he.s led us; the witness we have borne, and the work we have done; the failure to become and to effect what we might have been and have done; the lessening distance before us this side the grave; the immortal life beyond, etc. II. THE STATE OR ACT IN WHICH IT CULMINA'£EB. In prayer. Meditation is the best friend of devotion; it is its source and safeguard. '!'here is much that passes for prayer which, in the absence of meditation, is only mechanical repetition; there is 110 real meditation which does not pass into genuine, acceptable, fruitful prayer. III. !Ts PRACTICAL 1ssuE. "I turned my feet," etc. (ver. 59). 'l'o be nothing at all but a thinker, or even a student, is a sad mistake. We must come forth from tho chamber of communion to the field of conflict. But there is little danger now of too much seclusion. Much serious consideration, passing into prayer, is the best prepara- tion for the "world's broad field of battle," for the dangers to be dared and the duties to be done. Vere. 2 4 10 34, 58.- W11ole-heartednea1. Success in every sphere of action is ' 'tborou"hness, attained by ' by concentrating our forces, an d wor k"rng " wit • h our wboIe heart.'' Many a m';in has allowed his life to be a failure because he has dissipated his strength. He "has done a great many things ?adly." Dut i_n _no sphore of thought or action is thorou"bness so much demanded as m that of rel1g1on. Surely we should offer the very be~t, our whole self, to our Creator, to our Saviour. This applies to- I. OUR APPROACH TO HIM AND PURSUIT OF HIS FAVOUR, (Vers. 2, 10, 68.) To engage in the worship of God, or to read his W~rJ, o! to ~eek hi~ friendship and furgivin" love in a formal and ceremonious fashion, with little ser1ousnoes and no earn~sta"ess of 'spirit, is to make a sad mistake; it _is to lode the ?attle_. Our relation to God is immeasurably higher than any other relation can be j his claims are absolutely l'B. OXfL 1-176,] 'tHE BOOK OF PSALMS. 121