The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 193

"They who trust in the Lord shall be," etc. No object was more familiar to the devout Jew than Mount Zion and the mountains round about Jerusalem. As often as they went up to the house of the Lord, and day by day, all those who dwelt in or near Jerusalem, as did most of those who came back from the Exile, Zion and the surrounding heights were conspicuous before them. And good was the nee they made of them. They beheld in them a symbol of their God, and a promise of what they themselves should be if they put their trust in him. Thus did this familiar everyday scene speak to them. Happy are they who, from the common surroundings of their everyday life, the many gifts of God's love which daily they enjoy, hear a.nd listen to a voice which speaketh to them such holy truths as these! As one ha.a well said, "Believing Englishmen, you may specially bless God that your country gives you a.n admirable picture of yonr own security, by dwelling a.Jone, separated by the floods from all other nations. This is the security of our beloved isle." "He bade the ocean round thee flow; Not bars of bra.ss~uld guard thee so." They that trust in the Lord shall be a.s these happy islands, which shall not know the rod of the oppressor, for the Lord has guarded them with a better defence than walls or bulwarks. Hebrew comparisons were most fit for Hebrew believers but those nearer home should serve us as theirs served them. But now to turn to this blessed truth itself which our text declares-the ever-abiding, the immovable stability of them that trust in the Lord. L CoNSIDER T:a:E BLESSING HERE PROMISED. To "be as Mount Zion, which cannot," etc. From the days of Melchizedek, in the early patriarchal age3, right on· and down to onr own, Jerusalem has been an historic place. It has never been moved. Other great cities, like that of Nineveh, Babylon, and the cities of Asia, we can now but faintly trace where they stood. But Jerusalem has not only preceded, but has long survived them all But in what sense can God's people be said to be as Mount Zion? l. Of the Church of God it is historically true. If by violent persecution or other calamity she has been driven from one region-as from all North Africa-it has only been to settle more immovably in other and wider lands. There is no more reassuring argument to the mind anxious for the welfare of the Church of God than her history in the past. This psalm is truer of her than it was of Israel. 2. Of the individual believer it is also true; for be cannot be moved. His feelings may be. He may, as <lid the psalmists often times, imagine that "the Lord has cast him off for ever, and bath in anger shut up his tender mercies." But it is not so really. Read the triumphant challenge of St. Paul at the close of Rom. viii. That tells the real truth, as doth this psalm here. For the city of Divine grace lietb foursquare, like the city of God told of in the .Apocalypse, and is defen<led with all tpose within it-as God's people are- by the mighty walls of God's omnipotence, rig'h,teousness, love, and grace-even the grace of the Holy Spirit working within us. Therefore is this psalm true. II. THOSE FOB WHOM THIS BLESSING 1s DESIGNED. " They that trust in the Lord." Now, this trust is: 1. A very simple thing. Anybody can trnst-old and young, rich and poor. It requires no long study, no store of learning. 2. .And it may be a very imperfect thing. Not mature, not strong and mighty at all; but yet it is trust, l,ke him who cried, "Lord I believe: help thou mine unbelief." 3. It does not matte,· how or where we may have been brought to it. Blessed be God I III. 'l'HE CONNECTION BETWEEN THIS TRUST AND so GREAT BLESSING. 1. Because God so delights in our trust. 2. It is the transforming grace. 3. It identifies us with Christ in his life. 4. It devitalizes our connection with the first Adam, and grafts us into Christ.-S. C. Vers. 3-5.-" The lot of the righteous." The previous verses have told how securE' it is; these add other facts concerning it. I. THE. BOD OF THE WICKED SHALL NOT BEST UPON IT. 1. lt may come flpon tl16 righteous. Often had done so; but it should not_ continue. It has beeu thought that reference is made here to the troubles of the nghteous Nehemiah, by reason of the uppoaition and treachery he had to meet with (see N eh. ii. 16; vi. 10-14, 17). It may be so; but the tnith is ever applicable. 2. J/ it cor.tinue outwardly, it will no• PS, CXXV, 1-5.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 21$