Barry's outline of this section is suggestive. "The key-note of this meditative section is struck in the first words. God's dispensation is wondP.rful: • As the heaven is higher than the earth, BO are his ways higher than our ways.' His Word gives light only to simple faith (ver, 130); it sa:tisfies only those who long for it and love it (vers. 131,132); it saves from oppression only those who rest on his promise, and are willing to be taught (vers. 133-).35); for those who ,vill not bow their hearts to it, there is no salvation; over them we can but weep (ver. 136)." S. T. Coleridge says, "All know- ledge begins and ends with wonder; the first wonder is the child of ignorance; the last wonder the parent of adoration." The Scriptures are "wonrlcrfnl," with respect to (1) the matter which they contain; (2) the manner in which they are written; and (3) the effects which they produce. The following outline is from T. Manton: Wonderful (1) in their majesty and composure; which striketh reverence into the hearts of those that consider. (2) They are wonderful for the matter and depth of mystery, which cannot be found elsewhere, concerning God, and Christ, the creation of the world, the souls of men, and their immortal and everlasting condition, the Fall of man, etc. (3) They are wonderful for their purity and perfection. The Decalogue in ten words compriseth the whole duty of man, and reacheth to the very soul, and all the motions of the heart. (4) They a.re wonderful for the harmony and consent of all the parts. All religion is of a piece, and one part doth not interfere with another, but conspireth to promote the great end of subjection of the creature to God. (5) They are wonderful for the power of them. 'l.'here is a mighty power which goeth along with the Word of God, and astonisheth the hearts of those that consider it and feel it. Wonderful, as a term, does much more than express admiration and appreciation. It implies unusualness; the thing to which it is applied is other than we expected. And the otherwiseness suggests a higher and Divine source. The wonderful is the super- natural.-R. T. Ver. 133.-God practically applying his own Word. "Order my steps in thy Word." It would seem as if the psalmist were asking God to do what he ought to do for him- self. Ordering footsteps, she.ping conduct, is a man's own business. But that is to miss the point of the psalmist. He knew well enough that God only works with a man ; and that God will order no man's footsteps uuless the man is ordering his own. It is not extravagant to sec in the psalmist's plea an anticipation of the higher truth or Christianity, that God, as the living God, is actually in his Word, and working its work. God was in Christ, using for the redemption of man his human manifestation. Christ, risen, living, spiritual, is actually in his gospel, as it is proclaimed to meu, using it for the carrying out of his redemptive mission. In this we have but the unfolding, the development, of what has been the truth concerning God's ·word through all the ages. In whatever form it has come to men, it has been inseparable from God. God has been in it. We are always wrong when we try to make two things-God's Word, and God. Tho Word is a living thing, and its life is God. Then when the psalmist is most anxiously seeking the counsels of the Word for the guidance of his conduct, with the most resolute intention to shape his conduct by what he discovers to be God's will, he can most sincerely pray the prayer of this text, for God is in the Word, prepared to make all due applications of it, in the lire that is freely and fully opened to him. When the genuine man takes God's Word into his mind nnd heart, lie takes God in, nod he therelore has not knowledge only, but knowledge and power, He knows what he ought to do; he feels what he wants to do; but beyond and above this, he realizes what he can do. God is no distant Being communicating a rule for his guidance. God is with him, and in him, prepared to order his footsteps, to help him in ordering his footsteps by tho rule.-R. 'f.
Ver. 134.-Freedom in order to be righteous. The tone of this entire psalm is that of a man who is in some kind of bondage to his fellow-man, either material, mental, or moral. It may reflect the feeling of the exile in Babylon; but perhaps it reflects better the feeling of the restored exile, whose endeavours to resuscitate the Israelite nation nnd reliaion were so variously opposed by the neighbouring kin~doms, and by pclitical parties. b The restored exile, because of his joy in his new-found liberty, felt all the more deeply tho way in which he was checked and hindered by fresh forms 16S 'l'HE BOOK OF PS.\LMS. [PR. CXIX, 1-116,
of the" oppression of man." And true to the JewLlh instincts, he saw the oppression chiefly as a hindrance to his hope of restoring the Je·novah-worship. I. THE VALUE OF FREEDOM DEPENDS ON THE us:n WE MAKE OF IT, A child had better not be free, because he does not know what to do with freedom. He gradually gains the freedom as he gains the control of himself and the control of his circumstances. Some men never can be free. They are not masters of themselves enough to have so ~erious a trust. Freedom is a passionate desire of humanity everywhere, and in all its stages. It is God's gift to man, and his inalienable right. .And yet with this passion for his own freedom there goes another passion to hold his brother in bonds. Man would use his freedom to take away his brother's ; or to satisfy his lower animal nature. There is dignity and peril in mental freedom and in moral freedom. They depend on the use we make of the trust. JI. "\VE USE OUR FREEDOM ARIGHT ONLY WHEN WE PUT OURSELVES IN BONDS. The psalmist wants his liberty in order that he may keep God's precepts. Liberty for man is but licence when it is simple freedom from restraint. It is a noble and intelligent thing only when a man uses it to fix rules for himself, or to put himself into the Divine rule, Men think of freedom as getting rid of the restraints of right- eousness, so that they may do what they like. But the true liberty, the only liberty a man can desire who looks aright on life, is getting rid of the restraints of evil, self- will, and self-pleasing, so that he may be free to do what God likes. Ho wants liberty to be righteous.-R. 'l'.