Vers. 13, 14.-The mystery of being is with God. The expression translated, "hast covered me," reaJly is, "thou weavest me," as boughs nre woven into a hedge. The "reins" may denote the sensational and emotional part of the human being. It is not possible to deal with the detailed expressions of this psalm in a public ministry. Reticence in regard to the human origin and birth, and in regard to the inner mysteries of bodily life, is characteristic of our times. Eastern people are still accustomed to talk freely of such matters; and conversation was much less delicate at the time our Bible was translatcrl. It must suffice for us to set before our mind~ the great truth concerning God which is thus illustrated. I. THE DESIGN OF A HU~IAN BEING IS THE TilOUGHT OF GoD. Here we may be met by the doctrine of evolution, which teaches that the bodily organization of man is a development out of some lower forms of life. But this in no way affects our position. It does not say that man is an accident-made without any design; it only explains to us what the design was; it unfolds for us the particular method in which the Divine design was out-wrought aud accomplished. Because God's design took ages to comp!ete, it did not cease to be God's design. God thought a man. But a man is much more than a body. Man is not the fulfilment of God's design until God has got him into his image, breathed into him the breath of life, o.nd even requickened him with a spiritual life. But what a thought that design of G0d was! It embraced all the complicated and delicate organs of man's frame, all the subtle relations of body and mind, and all the varying response which body and mind must over make to surrounding circumstances. A man designs a houso or a machine, and his work is within limits that can be grasped. God designs a man, and the complications are beyond us ; we can only wonder and adore. II. THE WORKING OUT OF HIS DESIGN IB IN THE HANDS OF GoD. A man may give his design into tbe hands of a follow-man, and entrust him with tho duty of working it out. God can never trust his design to anybody; for tbcre is nobody who could understand or grasp it. He must work it out himself. And to us the great glory of the complex story of humanity is this-humanity is God's thought o.nd God's purpose, and that thought and purpose God himself is working out.-R. T.
Vera. 15, 16.-What a man can be and do God knows. 'l'he latter clause of ver. 15 has been well rendered, "When I was wrought with a needle in the depths of the earth." There is an evidence of allusion to the sacerdotnl robes, and the undescribable texture of the human system is compnred to the exquisite needlework of the high priest's garments. Every man is a bundle of possibilities ; but no man has precisc_ly the samo possibilities as any other man. Each man can be what nobody else can be; each man can do what nobody else co.n do. '!'his does not mean that any man can trnnscend the sphere and limitations of man, only that there is a very wide variety within the limitations. There are, indeed, general powers and faculties, and general elements of character· and disposition, so that men can bo classified; but within the classes there is what may be called an infinite individuality-romarkablo varieties of ability, and even more remarkable combinations of ability and disposition and sphere. Nothing oppresses so much as to think what we should do if it were laid on us to find their right places for every man and every woman. 324 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, OX.XXIX, 1-24,
I. G-oD KNOWS EVERY MAN 18 INDIVIDUALITY. Science may trace tbat individuality to hered!ty, to th«: bodily and mental condition of parents, to food and atmospheres, or any~hmil: else; 1t remains the fact tbat the estimate of the individuality is possible only with God. Man must have the actual story of another man's life and experience ere he can discern his individuality. God alone can know it anticipatively from the beginning. A man's individuality is not shown in any one thing; it is the stamp on the life, and the life mu~t be lived before it cau be seen. God knows the end from the ueginning, because he knows what man essentially is. Of Christ it is said, "He knew what was in man." II. GoD CAN PRESIDE OVEB THE ADJUSTMENT OF MAN 1S PLAOE A.ND WORK TO ms llHHVIDUALITY. Oftentimes the surprise of life is the place in which God puts men, and the work he gives them to do. Men always err when they force themselves to do what they think they would like to do. We are only on safe lines when we do what God gives us to do. He knows us; he knows all places, all work, all circumstances; so he can fit things and people together, and make both work together for good. "My times are in thy hands."-R. T.
Ver. 18.-The abiding sense of the Divine presence. "I fall asleep, exhausted with the effort of counting thy thoughts or desires ; and when I awake I find myself still engaged in the same spiritual arithmetic, which is my dearest delight." L IT IS THE SUGGESTION OF DELIGHTFUL THOUGHTS. The psalmist excl11ims, "How precious are thy thoughts unto me I" This may mean, "my cherished thoughts of thee," or," thy loving thoughts of me, of which I have the most comfortable assurance." Probably the psalmist meant the former. "Thy presence wakens in me such loving, tender, trustful thoughts concerning thee." " We cannot conceive how many of God's kind counsels have been concerning us, how many good turns he bas done us, and what variety of mercies we have received from him." The sense of God's presence excites meditation; and what is lacking in modern Christian life is that which meditation can supply. IL IT IB THE ASSURANCE OF DIVINE SECURITY. Compare the absolute confidence of the psalmist when he sings his refrain, " The Lord of hosts is with us ; the God of Jacob is our Refuge." Compare apostolic assurances: "If God be for us, who c11n be against us?" "For be bath said, I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee." If God is with us, we can always have this confidence-whosoever would deal adversely with us must take account of Goel, and deal with him; and "He is safe, and must succeed, For whom the Lord vouchsafes to plead." III. IT IS THE INSPIRATION OF NOBLE ENDEAVOUR. It is not just a cold doing of actual duty, "as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye." The loving child-soul never talks about the" great Taskmaster." It is a parental presence that wakens everything noble and beautiful in the child. And God's presence is peculiar in this, that it brings to us the sense of power. It makes us feel that we can do whatever he inspires us to do. "I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me." IV. IT 1s THE COMFORT OF EVERY TROUBLE. The hardest thing in trouble is to have to bear it alone. It is eased if another sympathetically shares it with us. We are never alone in trouble-bearing if we cherish the sense of God's presence.-U. T.