Yer. 142.-All-round rigldeousness. "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteous- ness." The psalmist uses the word "everlasting" in a figurative way. He would never take the trouble to say so small, and indeed so unnecessary, a thing as that God's righteousness would last for ever. That is a truism. All righteousness, God's and man's, lasts for ever: it can do nothing else. '!'here are no forces that can stop it or kill it. Goodness is in its very nature eternal. And everlastingness is but one of liO THE BOOK OF PSALMS. PS. OXIX, 1-176.
the qualities or attributes of righteousness; but in view of the limitations of human !anguage, i~ ma! be used to represent all the qualities of it; or, as we have expressed 1t, ernrlastrng righteousness may stand for complete, all-round righteousness. I. ALL-ROUND RIGHTEOUSNESS IS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF Gon. This is true not only of th11t abstra.ct idea of righteousness which we connect with God, but also of that p~actical idea of righteousness which concerns his relations with men and dealings w1 th them. " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Find God where you may, he is al ways doing right. You never take him at unawares; you never find him below himself. His righteousness is an always righteousness, and" always" includes "everlasling," but suggests much more than" everlasting." We think of man as a dual being, having an internal life of thought and feeling, and an external life of action and relation. As man is made in the image of God, we may think of God's righteousness as including himself and his doings. '!'here is no kind of failing harmony, but righteousness all round and quite through. A righteousness that never fails. II. ALL-ROU:!,"D RIGHTEOUSNESS IS TO BE TlIE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF MAN. Can man be satisfied with the assurance that the righteousness he may gain will last for ever? :Must he not say, "I am quite willing to leave that, if I can only be assured of the quality of the righteousness"? The man who wants a present righteousness, and must have aa all-round one, alone gains what is worthy to receive the everlasting stamp. .All-round righteousness is the sublimest conception a man may form. It includes right thinking, right willing, right feeling, right acting. Righteousness within. Right relations. .And a bloom on all-the Christly bloom-wonderful and beautiful as that which lies on autumn frnits.-R. T. Ver. 147.-7'ie plea of the prayerful. So intent was the psalmist on devout medita- tion and prayer, that he arose before the dawn for that purpose. And in his prayer he pleaded his trust. "I hoped in thy Word." It is as if he had said, " I trusted thee, surely thou wilt respond to my trust." There are two great pleas which man may uso • when approaching God in prayer-God's promise, his own trust. .And both are power- ful and prevailing pleas with God. I. TRUST DRAWS OUT THE BEST OF EVERY MAN. It is perhaps the mightiest of all moral forces. The parent gets the best out of the child by trusting him; and the child gets the best out of the parents by trusting them. In common business relations, the keen man, who trusts nobody, is badly served; the man who trusts his fellows is indeed occasionally deceived, but usually he gets the best attention, the best goods, E.nd the best services. The master who trusts his servonts and employees puts them on their mettle, and secures their best of energy and devotion. Show little or no con- fidence in your fellow-men, and all you can get from them is drudgery. It is often noticed how positions of trust rapidly develop a man's powers. It would be a world full of poor characters but for the ennobling power of mutual trust. Society is built on mutual trust. II. TBUBT DBA WB THE MOST GRACIOUS RESPONSES FROM Goo. .. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him." 1. God is to be thought of as a Father, and his relations with us understood through our paternity; and we have sucmested what wonders child-trust works in family life. 2. God is to be thought of as "ac>Master; and we have seen what response the workman makes to the trust of the master, and the master to the trust of the workman. 3. God is to be thought of as a Kinu • and we know how be is moved when any one relies upon his gracious Word. It i; 'but using imperfect human language, based on human analogies, if we say, "Would we take God at his best?" '!'hen we must trust him fully, absolutely rely on him, take him at his word, commit ourselves to him. This is our all-prevailing plea, "I have hoped in thy Word."-R. T. Ver. 148.-Tlie helpfulness of meditation. " Mine eyes prevent the night;..watches." "Prevent" is here used in the sense of" anticipate." When the night-watches come he is wide awake· he does not let them interrupt his meditations by their demand for sleep. He is not taken at unawares. .According to the psalmist's thought, morning is the fitting time for earnest resolves, and evening the time for quiet _meditation. Medita- tion can be underatood when contrlM!ted with study. Study deals with something PS, OXIX. 1-176.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 171