Ver. 3.-Tlie provision of inward strength. "And strengthenedst me with strength in my soul." Whether this precisely renders the thought of the psalmist may be doubtful. It certainly presents a suggestive thought to us. The statement is certainly true of God's ways with us. His best blessings come to the inward, spiritual self-to the true individuality, the real us. The various rendering is, "Thou madest me proud; " the Revised Version gives, "Thou didst encourage me with strength in my soul;" the Prayer-book Version has, "and enduedst me with much ~trength." God does, as he may see fitting, make provision for the needs of our lire, by altering and mastering our circumstances. But if he does not work for ns in this way, we may be quite sure that he will "strengthen us with strength in our soul;" answering us as he did St. Paul, saying, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Inward strength to bear is a far higher provision than any mere mastery of the ills and troubles of life. In recalling sorrows, for the bearing of which we had inward peace, because our mind was stayed on God, we are conscious of recalling the noblest times of our past experience, and the times when we were most truly master of our circumstances. The Patriarch Job mastered Sabreans, and Chaldeans, an,l lightnings, and the four winds, and a tempting wife, and Satan himself, by being soul-strong, and able to say, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" We are accustomed to say that a man is not utterly lost until he has lost heart. But if God supplies inward strength, we never shall lose heart, and so never shall be lost. God is prepared ever to make a man's soul triumphant over his circumstances. He may be very poor; God can make his soul very rich. He may be very full of troubles; God can make bis soul quiet and calm with Divine peace; God can comfort him with the support of " the everlasting arms.'' Outwardly a man may be tossed about, worn, wearied, wounded, almost broken; yet iuwardly he may be kept in perfect peace; he may be "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might."-R. 'l', Ver. 6.-The Divine regard for the lowly. "Lowliness and humility are the court- dress of God; he who wears them will please him well." "Respect unto." Bends down to look on them; draws them near to communion with him ; gives them office and place beside him; entrusts them with honoumble commissions for him. There is sharp contrast with God's treatment of the proud. Them, too, he knoweth; but them he knoweth afar off; be keeps them at a distance; he bas no intimacy with them, and could have no pleasure in their company. 'l'he proud man is the self- sufficient man, who is his own centro. Ho does not want God, and would not know what to do with him if he had him. And there is no reason why God should want him, or trouble to find a place for one who does not want any place found for him. I. GoD HAS REGARD FOR THE LOWLY BECAUSE THEY WANT HIM. All good persons are fully responsive to frail, weak things, that are entirely dependent on them. See the mother with a sickly child; or the teacher with a backward but loving child. Lowliness is a noble quality. It must not be confused with timidity, or self-conscious humiliation. It is that kind or estimate a man has of himself, when he has set before himself a worthy standard. But what is here more especially in view is that lowliuess is the consciousness of want; and, in its best form, the consciousness of wo.nt which only God can supply. 'l'be lowly man is "not sufficient of himself;" "his sufficiency is of God." It is of the very nature of God to be the "Friend of the friendless and the faint." II. GoD HAS REGARD FOR THE LOWLY BECAUSE HE WANTS THEM. God ever alone, in solitary and isolated grandeur, is a totally inconceivable idea. Gou is Love; and love wants somebody to love. And the lowly ones are precisely those whom God can love, whose love he can enjoy, and on whom his love can be wi~ely expended. Bonar has a striking hymn, beginning, "Thou needest me, even me." IH. Gon HAS RF.GARD FOB THE LOWLY BECAUSE THEY ARE LIKE HIM. It may be difficult to recognize lowliness RB an essential of the Divine character, but it is of the essence of goodness; and it is plain enough in God manifest in the fle,h. Kinness in this brings mo.n and Christ, man and God, into loving fellowship.-R. T.
Ver. 7.- Walking in tr<>Uble. "Though I walk in the midst of trouble." This 1,uggests a particular phaso of human experienco. Sometimes troubles come upon UB, 8H! TB:E BOOK OF PSALMS. [rs. os:xxvm. 1-8,
crash after crash, until we are, like Job, utterly crushed; and can but clothe 011.r selves with sackcloth, and sit in ashe~. But the text indicates a more frequent if less readily_ recognized, _experience. '£he tone is gentler; there is no crashing of sudden calamity, no burstmg of wild and desolating storms. The man is moving to and fro in the ordinary scenes of life, meeting his obligations and doing his duties. But everywhere things seem to go wrong; on all sides trouble, anxiety, worry, seem to attend him. He cannot get free night or day. These dog his steps continually. He walks in the midst of trouble. How true to uni versa! experience all this is I I. w ALKING IN TROUBLE IS A MOST DEPRESSING EXPERIENCE. The constant wear- ing produces a fixed weariness; the constant worry produces a fixed fretfulness; the constant fear of some new anxiety produces a fixed hopelessness. Because nothing goes right, we are too ready to say nothing ever will go right. And then the heart is taken out of us; we become unfitted for battling with difficulty, and so largely increase our troubles; we make them for ourselves, as well as have them made for us. And those we make for ourselves are always the worst to deal with. '!'here is one etrikin" illustration of this depressed mood in the life of David. He walked in the midst of various and well-nigh overwhelming troubles, and in a hopelessness that was both pitiful and sinful, he exclaimed, "I shall now one day perish by the hand of Saul I" It may further be shown that such depressed moods, responsive to surrounding worry, very much depend on natural disposition, especially on that nervous irritability which can always see, or expect, evil. w II. ALKING IN TROUBLE MAKES UB ORY FOB DIVINE REVIVING. "Thou wilt revive me." The state of mind induced by the circumstances is much more important in the sight of God than the circumstances. And this the good man recognizes. His hope is in God's soul-cheering, God's inward reviving, God's keeping from despair, and freshening trnst and hope. And God does lead the walker out "into a large place," in his own good time.-R. '1'.