Ver. 3.-Man's personal experience may be the basis of his hope In God. "Let Israel hope in the Lord;" let him, because he has such abundant reason for so doing, in the experience that he has had of the Lord's gracious working. This is the refrain of several of these "songs of degrees," which, wo have seen, are essentially "songs of uplifting," or cnlls to put trust and hope in God. I. MAN'S PERSONAL F.XPEBIENCE IS SELDOM, IF EVER, PRECISELY REPEATED. Froude suggests that experience is like the stern-lights of a ship, which show the way that has been taken. .And he hints that experience is of practically little use for the guidance of the way that has to be taken. But this is a very partial view. It would not culture a man in the dependence and trust, which are the key-notes of his nobility, if his life were a mere succession of precise repetitions, so that be might know pre- cisely how to act in each recurring case, and the lessons of experience were a mere routine; a fixed measure to be applied to every instance. Life with emergencies and surprises is alone a healthy life for a moral being in whom character is to be trained. It was a misanthrope who said, "The thing which bath been is, and there is nothing new under the sun." .And every man will be prepared to say, on looking over his life, that nothieg ever happened in his life which was a precisely imitative experience; nothing that proved to be exactly what he expected it to be. Then it may be hastily sai<l that experience is a delusion, and cannot really help us. What we have to see is that it cannot, and never was intended to, help us ns a yard-measure does. How, then, does it help? JI. MAN'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ESTABLISHl!B PRINCIPLES AND BRINGS KNOWLEDGE OF WBIOH MAN CAN MAKE PRACTICAL UBE. Israel restored from exile had a new set of experiences, but his knowledge of God's adaptations of grace to all previous experiences established confidence in him. It was easy to argue that God, hnving made adjustments to their need in forty-nine cases, was not likely to be baffled by tho fiftieth. And we can always get that persuasion out of a life-experience And we !>BA LllS- III, 8 258 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, CXXXII. 1-18.
can plainly see the force of this 1rinciple-all human experiences, though apparently unlike each other, go into dasses. We can always find something in past experience which belongs to the same class as our present experience; and then, if we can fully apprehend the Divine intervention in some case that belongs to the class, we can confidently say to our soul, " Soul, hope thou still in God."-R. T.
Vers. 1~.-Hurnility. "Lord, my heart is not haughty," etc. "The psalmist has learned from adversity the le~son of submission, and counsels the nation to fit itself in like manner for winning the blessings which arc still in store." The authorship is uncertain; but it was probably written after the Exile. 'rhe writer had le~rnE>d- I. Hu:t,ULITY. 1. Humility is exemplified in a lowly estimate of ourselves before God and man. Before God as well as before man. 2. In not aiming at things which are beyond our powers of attainment. Some men's ambition is greater than their ability. And yet none of us uses his ability to the utmost. We ought to learn how much God will help us to do. II. Suamssrn::s TO THE WILL OF Goo. 1. This implies the recognition of God's will as good. Not only as supreme, but as good. Only thus shall we be able to say from the heart, " Thy will be done." 2. The overruling of all discontent with the changes of circumstances. As a child that has been weaned at length learns to rest on its mother's bosom. III. lim.rrLITY AND SU13MISSION ARE CONNECTED WITH PATIENT WAITING AND HOPE. 1. God rewards the patient and humble. "Giveth grace," etc., "but knoweth the proud afar of." 2. .All the deeper knowledge of God, springing from humble patience, leads on to a greater hope in him. The deepest experiences lead to the highest hope in God.-S.
EXPOSITION. lost compositions spoken of so frequently in PSALM CXXXIL Chronicles (1 Chron. nix. 29; 2 Chron. ix. Tme present "Song of Ascents" is well 29; xvi. 11, etc.). suited to be e. "pilgrim-song "-snng by Ver. 1.-Lord, remember David, and all those wbo went up to Jeruse.lem to visit the his e.tlliotions; rather, remember to David temple, e.nd revi"ify their faith in the God all his a,,ffl,iction; i.e. reckon it to him, 11nd who he.d chosen Zio:i for his dwelling-pl11ce. rewe.rd him for it. 'fhe "affliction" in- It i..3 concerned almost entirely with the tended is the distresa that David felt o.t the thought the.t, while he dwelt in o. hou~e of temple, which it sets before the faithful cedar, the e.rk of God we.a only lodged from the first conception of it in the mind within curtRins (2 Se.m. vii. 2). of David to its fine.I glory when visited by Ver. 2.-Howhe swa.re unto the Lord (see the Redeemer. Vere. 1-5 are concerned the comment on vers. 1-5). And vowed with the birth of the idea. in David's mind; unto the mighty God of Jo.ooh ; ro.ther, the Mighty One of Jacob (see Gen. xlix. 24; Isa.. vers. 6-10, with its realization under Solo- lx. 16). mon; while vers. 11-18 point to the time Ver. 3.-Burely I will not come into the when David's trne Son would be set upou te.bernaole of my house. I will not take up David's throne, e.nd the Lord himself would my abode quietly e.nd comforte.bly in my suddenly come to his temple, and mnke the own solid e.nd subste.ntie.l house (see 2 So.m. v. 11). Nor go up into my bed. Indnlge, glory of the second house greater than the.t i.e., in luxnrious repose. (For o. con tro.ry of the first had ever been. feeling on the po.rt of some Isre.elitos, see Ii1etrically, the pea.Im consists of four HRg. i. 4.) s!e.nze.s, each of ten lines: vers. 1-5; 6-10; Ver. 4.-I will not give sleep to mine 11-13; e.nd 14-18. eyes, or slnmber to my eyelids. Exegotic11l of the last cle.use of ver. 3. Yers. 1-5.-David's a.basement e.nd vow Ver. 5.-Until I find out e. plaoe for the to God. Tli historical booke give no Lord. 'I'ho "pl11ce" which Do.vid desired account of this vow, which, ho" wer, rne.y to " find" w11s a pormaneut resting-place for have been recorded in one or other of the tho 11rk of God, wliioh he had 11lre11t!y PB. CXXXII. 1-18.] 'rHE BOOK OF PSALMS. 259