For they who hurt tho body soon have no more that they can do; bot these can eternally torment us-they can destroy both sonl aml body in hell. Therefore we may well, as Christ bids us, fear them. Nor a.re the most terrible of the prayers in these imprece.tory psalms out of place when we think of these foes. We are bound to hate them and pray against them, e.nd by God's help we will.-S. C. Ver. 1.-0w seven sorrows. "Many a time have they afflicted me;" so many times that it seemed useless to try and count them up. It is enough to represent them by one number, and that the representative of completeness, seven times. Israel may be said, as a nation, to have had e.n all-round experience of affliction e.nd discipline. Eliphaz the Temanite speaks rightly to Job for God when he says, "He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall be no evil touch thee" (Job v. 19). I. A FACT OF THE NATIONAL msTOBY. So far as the record reveals that history, it appears to be a series of calamities and distresses; some brought about by charac- teristic national frailties, some by individuals forcing their wilfulnesses, some by untoward circumstances, e.nd some by the active schemes of enemies. It would even seem that national sorrows are so well represented in this history that we may speak of its "seven sorrows; " and we may find the mission of all forms of human trial illustrated in the moral influence of these calamities and woes of Israel. But we need not assume that its experiences were unique. Every nation is born of, and moulded by, similar troubles. The peculiarity of Israel does not lie-,in its experiences, but in the reading of its experiences. The Bible reads them in the light of Jehovah's relation to them. This is the only true reading of human history,-and e.11 history needs to be read in this light. God is in the sorrows of a nation. TI. A FACT OF THE INDIVIDUAL msTORY. It does not matter where, or under what circumstances, or in what relations, a man's life is lived. A man is "born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." No man ce.n escape it. It would be his curse if he could. A man can, as a moral being, become righteous; but there is no·school in which he can be trained for righteousness save the school of affliction. It is no ground of boast- ing to any man that his life has been free from trials. If a me.n may boast at all, he should boast over his "seven sorrows," because he may indulge thA hope that God's grace has be"ln mighty in him, and he has come into much sanctifying discipline. -R.T. Ver. 3.-The figure ef the torn land. The expression, "They made long their furrows," can only be understood through the peculiar conditions of Ee.stern ploughing. The word "furrow" (maanah) signifies e. strip of arable land which the ploughman takes in hand at one time, e.t both ends of which, consequently, the ploughing team e.lwnys comes to e. stand, turns round, and begins a new furrow. Since the ordinary ox of Palestine is smaller e.nd weaker than ours, and easily becomes tired under the yoke, which presses heavily on its neck and confines its neck, they a.re obliged to give it time to recover its strength by frequent resting. This 11lwe.ys takes place at the termination of a furrow, when the peasant raises the unwieldy plough out of the earth, 11nd turns it over, clearing off the moist earth with the small shovel at the lower end of the goad, e.nd hammering the loosened edges and rings tight age.in, during which time the team is able to recover itself by resting. They do not, therefore, make the furrows of great length. 'l'he figure of this verse is explained by the over-exhaustion of the oxen, if the furrows through which they bad to drag the plough were made overlong. The suggestion of the 'Speaker's Commentary' is less natural. It takes the verse as a figure of scourging. (Improving on this, Dr. Wordsworth finds anti- cipation of the scourging or Christ.) "The lashes inflicted upon the back of the writhing slave by e. cruel master e.ro compared to the long furrows pierced in the passive earth by the share of the plougher." 'l'he figure must be explained in the light of the memories cherished by the psalmist, as representing the nation just returned from captivity. And the nation is symbolized by the land in which the nation dwelt. I. ISRAEL'S SORROWS HAD BEEN LIKE THE WORK OF A PLOUGH IN THE LAND. Atten- ticn is indeed fixed only on the tearing open e.nd turning over of the land; but we need not miss seeing that this etern dealing we..~ the necessary preliminary to seed- THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PB, 0XXIX, 1-8,
sowing and fruitage, (Compare" No trial for the present seemeth to be joyous," etc.) Better be torn land than harvestless land. II. THE AGENTS OF ISRAEL'S SORROWS HAD OVERDONE ':'HEIR WOBR', They had gone beyond their commission, had increased the length of the furrow. So we often think of our sorrows when we try to estimate their moral value. But that is what we can never do wisely. They never do go beyond God-arranged limits.-R. T.