The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 189

which the bird can take advantage. The rescue from Egypt is the type of God'd deliverances. God removed the obstacle of the sea; but Israel had to take advantacre of this, and show promptitude and energy in crossing. It may sometimes be best f~r God to do the whole redemptive work, bL1t usually he does so much only as sets us free to do. Iu our deliverances we have to be" co-workers together with God." God saves man without humiliating or enfeebling him. II. OoR WORK IS RESPONDING TO TllE OPPORTUNITIES PROVIDED. As the ensnared bird does. The great deliverance from sin is no rescue without our wills. It is the lifting off us our bonds, and r.o leaving us free to live the life of righteousness. We must respond to the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus.-R. 'l'. , Ver. 8.-What God ha,s done, God can do. The stamp of" impossible" cannot rest upon anything if we are able to say concerning it, "It has been done." And that we are_ ~ble to say concerning eyery kind o~ strain or calamity that "turns up" in a religious experience. "There 1s no temptation ever overtakes us but such as is common to man," aud God has had to deal with just such things-and even with just such things in relation to just such people--before now. • I. WuAT Goo RAS DONE. 1. Compassed all the features and forms of the common- place of lifc. It is necessary to dwell on this, because of the frail human disposition to separate the thought of God from the little, and associate him only with the great. But life is in the main commonplace, ordinary, little. And we need to realize that God has had direct association with absolutely everything that can come into the common- place of life. In dealing with the first race of men, it may reverently be observed that God had no experience of what men would be and do, to guide his ways with them. Experience was in the making. It is made now. Enough generations of men in diversified relations have passed to cover the whole circle of human possibilities. Man can only repeat himself; he never surprises God. And God has adjusted his gracious help and guidance to every kind of ordinary human circumstance and need. Therefore is the Bible given to us so largely in the biographical form. We are to trace the working of God in lives that are essentially like our own. 2. Efficiently adapted Ms grace to the unusual of life. There is perhaps, strictly speaking, no unusual in life. From the Divine point of view there are no exigencies, no surprises. "The thing which is bath already been." But for instructive purposes we may point out that the unusual. though it may not be in things, may be in the relation of things to persons. God bas to deal with the disposition of each one, and with the effect of events on each disposition. But here again we may see that his experience of adjustments is so extensive that a new and bewildering set of complications/or him is inconceivable, II. WHAT GoD CAN DO. Be to us the Help which he has always been to his people. Do for us what he has always done for his people. What has he done in our lives? That he can still do. What has he done in the lives of others 1 That he can do in our lives if need be. What has he done in the vicissitudes of the ages? 'l'bat he can do for our age and for us. We are "not straitened in God," seeing that he can "supply all our need."-R. T. Ver. B.-The help of the Divine Name. It is important to keep in view the condition and anxieties of the returned exiles. The previous psalm brought before us their di~tresses through the irritating cc-nduct of neighbour enemies. It presented to us -their attitude while the trouble was on-they were patiently waiting on God. This psalm is a joy-song, sung when they are safely through the time of strain. They joy in God who has so safely brought them through; and this leads to the expression of confidence in God concerning whatever may have to be in the future. As a rule, poetical figures avoid minute descriptions of trouble. They are satisfied with suggesting them. The figures of this psalm recall to mind the Egyptian deliverance. The exiles were fond of referring to it, and comparing their experience with it. Note (1) a sudden and overwhelming peril; (2) the figure of the swollen stream; (3) the figure of the beast of prey; ( 4) the figure of the spread snare. Indicate what of the historical conditions of the exiles is suggested by these figures. 'l'he point of the psalm is given in the sentence, "The Lord was on our side." 'l'hat aloue could account to them for their enemie~• failure, and their triumph. And that conviction fixe~ for them the PS, CXXV, 1-5.] THE BOOK OF PSALUS. 2:U