Ver. 1.-The cry of the humbled. The psalm belongs to the nge of true national contrition, when nothing would satisfy but deliverance from sin, as well as from its punishment (comp. Lam. iii. 65; Jonah ii. 2). When men are disheartened and depressed, overwhelmed with anxieties and troubles, we familiarly speak of them as "down in the depths." It is a natural and universal figure. "On the bills" repre- sents excitement and joy; "in the depths" represents depression and anxiety. "'!.'his psalm is distinctly a song of ascent, in that it starts from the very lowest point of selt'- abasement and consciousness of evil, and rises steadily, and, though it may be slowly, yet surely, up to the tranquil summit, led by a consciousness of the Divine presence and grace." "The psalmist thinks of himself as of a man at the bottom of a pit, sending up to the surface a faint call, which may easily be unheard. He does not merely mean to express his sense of human insignificance, nor even bis sorrows, nor his despondency. There are deeper depths than these. They are the depths into which the spirit feels itself going down, sick and giddy, when there comes the thought, 'I am a sinful man, 0 Lord, in the presence of thy great purity.' Out of these depths does he cry to God." I. THE DEPTHS ARE THE PLACE FOR us ALL. Every man amongst us has to go down there, if we take the place that belongs to us. II. UNLESS YOU HAVE CRIED TO Goo OUT OF THOSE DEPTHS, YOU HAVE NEVEi\ CilIED TO HIM AT ALL. Unless you come to him as a penitent, sinful man, with the consciousness of transgression awakened within you, your prayers are shallow. The beginning of all true personal religion lies in the sense of my own sin and my lost con- dition. Whenever you find men and women with a Christianity that sits very lightly upon them, that does not impel them to any acts of service and devotion, antl never rises into the heights of communion with God, depend upon it the man has never beeo 250 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. (rs. cxxx. 1-8,
down into the abyss, and never sent his voice up from it. "Out of the depths" he has not cried onto God. III. You WANT NOTHING MORE THAN A ORY TO DRAW YOU FROM THE PIT. It is not that. your cr1ing will lift you out; it is that your crying will bring you help. T~e "i_ntant crymg in the night" does nothing for itself by its crying; but the cry bnngs its mother, And the cry means that hope of self-help is altoo-ether abandoned the soul having to say, "Myself I cannot save," cries after Christ, saying," Jesu, hav~ mercy on me!" (part Maclaren).-R. T.
Ver. 3.-The fears of conscience. In pleading for her father'd life before the first Napoleon, a poor girl said, "Sire, I do not ask for justice; I implore pardon." The inward sense of our sin will never permit us to make n. claim for anything before God. His love of forgiving, and triumph over all hindrances in the way of forgiving, are our only pleas, and our only grounds of hope. The searching character of the Divine inspection is indicated in Ps. cxxxix. and in Heb. iv. 12, 13. Conscience freely admits that the Divine examination of the life cannot be endured. "If thou, Lord, sbouldest mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand?" There need be no difficulty in under- standing what conscience is. Some, indeed, regard it as a separate and independent power, which acts in a mau as a sort of sentinel, giving notice of the approach or presence of evil. But it is altogether simpler to regard it as the ordinary faculty of judgment exercised by a man concerning the quality of his own actions. That self- judgment inevitably brings·a man into/ears. I. CoNSCIENCE TESTIFIBS DOTII THE GOOD AND THE DAD. This is often missed from view. Usually conscience is thought of as concerned only with the evil; and so its power and witness are only dreaded. Conscience ought to be the cheer of life. A man knO'lys when he has done right. Appraising his lifo, ho can sometimes approve. " Conscience makes cowards of us all; " but it is equally true that "Conscience can make brave men of us all" II. CoNsCIENCE TESTIFIES TO THE BAD IN THE GOOD. And that is the l'eal ground or our fear. Self-esteem may see only good ; conscience never does. It finds tha sinister mark everywhere, and always has to qualify its approval and praise. "Never- theless, I have somewhat against thee." A "bar sinister" on every escutcheon. III. CONSCIENCE TESTIFIES TO THE GOOD IN THE DAD. And this keeps fear from becoming hopeless and despairing. 'l'he irretrievably bad is a conception that can only be associated with devils, not with man. And it is not a genuine conscience that judges in a blind, sectarian way, and makes a man accuse himself as hopelessly bad. IV. CONSCIENCE PUTS BOTH BAD AND GOOD OUT OF THE SELF-LIGHT INTO TIIE DIVTh"E LIGIIT. According to the sense a man has of God will be his conscience- judgmen t of his own co_nduct. Right ~ense_ of God will make conscience-estimates induce fear. The consCience of good WIii brrng a reverent and humble fear; the con- science of evil will bring an humiliating and anxious fear. The seir-estimate of iniquities is painful enough, but what shall we say of the Divine estimate of those same iniquities?-R. T. Ver. 4.-Forgiveness generating fear. God's mercy is, with striking truth to nature, made a ground for godly fear. "Iu the sense of his mercy we know best the exceed- ino- • sinfulness of sin;' so far as we feel that sin is still clinging to us, we must fear with godlv fear; eo far as we feel its chains nre broken,' fear is cast out by love.' Thus the ·cross is to us at once the ~ecret of penitence and of faith." 'l'hese three points may be opened, illustrated, and enforced. I. GoD's FOilGIVENESB BEVEALB OUR BIN. Here a distinction can be made. God's denunciations, puuishments, and judgments, which we may hear about or observe, brinrr us what may be called, and what are primarily, intellectual apprehensions of the evil ~f sin. Very many, indeed, only know sin through the teaching of its consequences. Dut it is certain that siu cannot be really or worthily known in that way. Its root is not in the intelligence, but in the will ; and the atmosphere in which it thrives is not knowledge, but feeling. It is a moral matter, and it !s revealed in moral actions. God's forgiveness touches feelin;:, and feeling throws its own special light on thot which is forgiven. 'l'he wr011g of it comes to feeling; the peril of it comAs to intelli- rs. oxxx. 1-8.J THE BOOK OF PSALMS, 251