Vers. 1-6.-.A sunny picture of tl,e life of a good man. "Blessed is every one that fcareth the Lord," etc. l. THE GREATEST, MOST INFLUENTIAL, RELiaION IS COMPOUNDED OF "THE FEAR" OF TIIE CONSCIENCE AND THE TRUST AND LOVE OF THE HEART. "The fear,, is the elevating fear of offending against the highest law, and the strongest, tenderest love- one of the holiest feelings that Christ has generated in the new life. II. SocH A CO:!>:TINUA.TION RESULTS IN THE BEST, MOST OBEDIENT, LIFE. "That walketh in his ways." The "walking" in the ways of God is the habitual life of God-like ways-not any occasional outburst of righteous iwpulse~_ or endeavours. Tbe walk of a man in his settled character. III. SucH A LIFE GIVES HIM A LOFTY INDEPENDENCE. "He eats of the labour of his hands." He enjoys the satisfaction of living upon his own labour, and not upon what others have done for him. This entails health, competence, and the highest prosperity. "Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee." IV. Al-.,> PRODUCES ALSO THE HAPPINESS OF THE HOME bFE. The wife is the image of rich abundance; the children, of vigorous health. •This is supposed princi- pally to spring from the life and influence of the good man-his life is reproduced in the life of the wife and children; and they depend upon him, as the vine depends upon that to which it clings. The whole passage is richer in what it suggests than in what it pictures. v. Suen A MAN STANDS IN USEFUL AND HAPPY RELATIONS WITH THE CHUROH AND THE CITY. (Ver. 5.) He is blessed out of Zion, and sees the good of Jerusalem. Individual character is the centre of all life, both in Church and State; and when each is filled with the power of Christ in his personal life, he helps to flood the life of the Church and of the State with the only enduring elements of the highest prosperity. VJ. HE REJOICE!l IN A HAPPY OLD AGE, AND IN THE OOMPANIONSHIP OF HIS CHILDREN'S CHILDREN. The good man, whose affections and sympathies remain pure down to old age, takes great delight in children, and grandchildren, and sees in them the pledges of fature peace to the Church and the country.-S.
EXPOSITION. and suffering the just reward for their mis• PSALM CXXIX. deeds. Tme psalm consists of a retrospect (vere• 1--4) and an anticipation (verd. 5-8). The Ver. 1.-Many a ';ime have they e.fllioted me from my youth. Israel's reoollection ia retrospect shows Israel oppressed by enemies one of frequent, nlmost constant," 11ffli0Uon." for a long term of years, but finally vindicated She bes been dr wntrodden beneath the fee* and delivered (ver. 4). The anticipation of Egyptio.ns, Moe.bites, Mesopotamians, shows her enemies affiieted in their turn, Canao.nites, Ammonites, l'hilistines, Syrians, re. CXXIX, 1-8.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 241
Aeeyrio.ns, Bo.bylonians. Her sufferings "they ~.hall all be confounded," or "put to began in her extreme youth, ll9 soon as she shame. And turned back. Made to turn was e. nation (Exod. i. 11-22). Me.y Israel their backs upon their foes. That hate Zion. JIOW say; rather, let Israel now say, The Tho.t have shown themselves enemies to psalmist directs hie countrymen to look Israel. Tht1 main verbs are in the future back upon their past history. tense, ?ut may be taken o.s expreesi ve either Ver. 2, -Many a time have they afflicted me of e. wish or of a confident expectation. from my youth. The repetition emphasizes Ver. 6.-Let them be as the grass upon the fe.ot of Israel's long a.ud bitter suffering. the house-tops; literally, they shall be aa Yet they have not prevailed age.inst me. the grass of home-tops. The flat roofs of Israel has not been given as e. prey to the Oriental houses e.re usually covered in early heathen's teeth (Ps. ex.xiv. 6). She is still spring with a crop of bright-green grass. e. nation, unsubdued: she holds her own; But the scorching rays of the sun soon bum the struggle is not ended. this up, and it becomes dry Emel withered Ver. 3.-The plowers plowed upon my (see 'The Land e.nd the Book,' p. 682; and back. A strong metaphor, which does not comp. Isa. xuvii. 27). Which withereth elsewhere occur. The idea is perhaps taken afore it groweth up ; literally, before it ia from the cruel treatment of captives in unsheathed ; i. e. before the blossom has left tboso days, who, in certain ea.see, were "put the sheath in which it is formed. under so.we a.nd harrows of iron" (2 Sam. Ver. 7.-Wherewith the mower ft!Ieth not xii. 31), or, as it is elsewhere expressed, his hand. Which is so worthless that no " threshed with threshing instruments of one takes the trouble to mow it. Nor he iron" (Amos i. 3). They me.de long their that bindeth sheaves his bosom. Much lees furrows; i.e. "lengthened out their tor- does any one bind it into sheaves and store tures." it away. Ver. 4.-The Lord is righteous. Still, Ver. 8.-Neither do they which go by say, God is just. He allowed these sufferings The blessing of the Lord be upon you ; we to be inflicted on us because we deserved bless you in the name of the Lord. Har- them; and he interposed ou our behalf vesters were thus greeted (Ruth ii. 4), and when we had been sufficiently punished, still are to this day. "These expressions," e.nd cut asunder the cords of the wioked, says Dr. Thomson, "are most refreshingly Cut, i.e., the cords wherewith they had Aro.bio. Nothing is more natural than for bound us. The "retrospect" here ends, Aro.be, when passing by e. fruit-tree or corn• aud in the next verse the "anticipo.tion" field loaded with e. rioh crop, to exclo.im, begins. Barak Alla/,! 'God bless you I'" (' The Ver. 5.-Let them all be confounded ; or, Land and the Book,' p. 682).