Ver. 88.-Divine quickening our supreme need. "Judge.d by his own, nnd, so far as we know, only work, the author of this psalm was a man wholly devoted to God and the Word of God. His confidence in that Word or Law, as the true rule of human life, bad been exposed to the severest trials. He had seen the wicked in authority, using and straining their power to oppress and destroy the righteous. He himself had been called to suffer a Iona ao-ony of anguish and distress, in which his soul fainted within him, simply because he b would obey the highest rule ho knew. In the time of his tribulation he had besouo-ht the J udcre of all the earth to do him right, to vindicate tha Word in which he put°his trust, ~ deliver him from his afflictions. And, though neither answer nor deliverance came, he held fast his integrity; ho refused to forget the statutes for hie obedience to which he suffered, or to relinquish. his trust in the God who did llOt save him" (S, Co:it). But if such au attitude is to be ml\intained, the 158 THE BOOK OF PSALMS, [PS. CXIX, 1-176,
good man will find he has constant need of one thing-Divine quickening. It may at the first starting of a religious life seem as if our supreme need were the precise Divine help in every detail of life and relation ; and so the prayers of young Christians are often exact and minute; they ask for particuhr things, and expect prer.ise answers. 'l'hen they often mistake contingencies for prayer-auswcrs, and are in peril of assuming that they stand in some special Divina favour. As experience enlarges, the one thing most impressed on the renewed man is the tendency of the Divine life in him to flag and fail. It is always dying down. .And it always needs requickening. It comes to us gradually that God would rather leave ns free in the movements of life, and expect to do the best work for us by "strengthening us with strength in our soul." .And we at last see that this constant quickening and requiekening and soul-vitalizing is pre- cisely our supreme need. Even Christian experience can reach no higher prayer than this, "Quicken thou me." So prayer in the good man's life gradually loses its detailed character: it becomes simply a heart and life opening to the Divine quickening; and that is found to involve the supply of all our real needs.-R. T. Ver. 92.-The supreme strain of a.ffiiction. This verse Luther selected as the motto for his own Bible, which is now in the museum at Berlin. So long as affliction keeps in the sphere of a man's circumstances it is endurable. We make too much of human afflictions when we fix our attention on them, and miss estimating the ways in which men are affected by them. What affliction is to a man, what amount of strain it involves, depend on the man's emotional nnture, the condition and character of his will and affections. We often observe that things are afflictions to one man which are no afflictions at all to another; and that the same 11fflictions affect men differently at ciifferent times. Here the psalmist recognizes that his afflictions would have altogether overwhelmed him, but for the condition of his heart, cheered as it was by the assurances and promises of the Divine Word. l. THE STRAIN OF AFFLICTION DEPENDS ON ITS RELATIVITY TO A MA:O'S INWARD CONDITION. This can be shown by illustrating what affliction is to a man when he is in a normal condition of bodily, mental, and moral health. 'fben nothing seems to be overwhelming; there is an nctivity of endurance and resistance which prevents a man's "perishing in his affliction." But man is seldom, if ever, found in this normal state. We can conceive it; but it is seldom realized. Man is usually below it, and therefore affliction becomes such a strain. Sometimes below it through untrained natural dis- position; through temporary states of bodily health; or through neglect of spiritual life. So man is unfitted, and affliction overwhelms. Man may be above the normal; and this he is by the infusion of Divine life through the Word. Then he is a nobler self. He has a consciousness of JX>Wer which masters the strain. 'l'he power brings a joy aud delight which put a man above himself. II. THE GRACE OF Goo BEARS RELATION TO A. MAN'S INWARD CONDITION. There- fore in it is found both the relief and the sanctifying of affliction. God makes and keeps the heart right, fills it with the joy of his Word and promise, and then man becomes master of all circumstances.-R. T. Ver. 96.-The disappointment of human hopes. "I have seen an end of nil perfection." "The true relation of the two parts of this verse to each other seems to be that of con- trast. No other relation brings out so clear and full a meaning. The meaning of the whole therefore must be something like this: Here is something called 'perfection' existi~g among :nen in a great variety of forms. 'But,' says th? psalmist, 'accor~ing to my experience and observation, these are altogether too superficial, and to? pre~arious, and too short-lived to make men happy, and the very beat of them, the 1deahsms of human life, can nevtr be attained. But thy commandment is exceeding broad,' aud that will do unless men hinder what nothing else will do." The human hopes referre,l to are a ma~'s wholly self-cent;ed purposes and ambitions. Let a man fashion some- thing for himself as a supreme aim of life; let it be something which he reg~rds as "perfection;" let it bear no relation to the blessing of hie fellow-m~n, or to the will ~nd honour of God, and there will surely be an end to all such perfection. Let perfection be humanly conceived success and happiness, and ere life closes the man will say with the" preacher," who had such a varied experience," Vanity of vanities, all is v1mi1y." PS. CXIX. 1-176.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 158