The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 350

II. ILLUSTRATE ITS TRUTH, The endeavours against Israel in Egypt. The destruc- tion of Sennacherib. Haman's wrath and discomfiture. Deliverances of the Church in the age of the martyrs, through the death of persecuting emperors. Destruction of the Armada, etc. And there have been illustrations also on the side of those who had cherished good purposes, but put off fulfilling them. Felix, who said to St. Paul, "Go thy way, and at a more convenient season," etc. Herod, who heard John the Baptist gladly, but ended by putting him to death. And the sad but large army of the waverers and unready ones, who are found in every rank and order of society, in the Church and in the world, in public positions and in such as are ob~cure. All these furnish proof and illustration of our text. And there was that rich fool to whom God said, " This night thy soul shall be required of thee," etc. (Luke xii. 16, etc.). III. POINT OUT ITS LESSONS. They are such as these: 1. Of thankfulness; that God so puts an end to the evil purposes of evil men. 2. Of diligence. " What thy hand findeth to do," etc. Have done with the halting, wavering, fruitless thinkings, and do what God would have thee do; and at once, lest thy thoughts perish with thee. 3. Seek to have thy mind/Uled with thoughts that will not perish, but that shall live and bless thee and many more besides. 4. Commit thine heart into God's keeping; " for out of it are the issues of life." 5. By surrender to Christ hasten the day when all thine evil thoughts shall perish from out of thy mind, and Christ's thoughts shall take their place.-S. 0. , ___ .. ... _ _.. _ .. _ Vere. 5-10.-17ie happiness of him that hath the God of Jacob for his Help and Hope. These verses are a statement of the solid reasons of that happiness. L THE Loao's INFINITE POWER. (Ver. 6.) He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, "the sea, and all that therein is." He is the mighty God, and infinite in power. II. His ETERNAL TRUTH. He is faithful to his Word; he" keepeth truth for ever." None ever trusted in him and found his Word to fail. Contrast this with human help. III. HIS BOUNDLESS COMPASSION. See what an army of poor, helpless, and miser- able ones are here enumemted as the special objects of his goodness. 1. The oppressed. (Ver. 7.) For them, when none else can or will, be executeth judgmont, and avenges them of their adversaries. 2. 17ie hungry, the starving poor; to them he giveth food. 3. The prisone1·; those immured in the tyrant's dungeon, or shut up in rigid captivity. 4. 17ie blind. In all ages, in the lands of the Bible, blindness was a calnmity as common as it was terrible; to give them sight was, therefore, one of the cbiefest mercies of God, and declared his bounty and goodness as great indeed. 5. 17ie bowed down. What a vast company of these human experience has ever furnished I The burden of care, the weight of responsibility, the crushing power of sorrow,-tbese are ever at work to recruit the ranks of the bowed down. But it is the Lord's special office-an office to the fulfilment of which not only the pso.lmist here, but myriads of God's people in all o.ges, bear their testimony, to raise up them that be bowed down (Luke xiii. 10-17). 6. The strangers. In our day, in Christian lands, the stranger is not eo forlorn a being o.s he undoubtedly was in the days of the psalmist. Then, to live on the other side of a river flowing between one territory nud nnother, made a man a rival, a foe, as the very etymology of the word "rivnl" tells, and bound you to treat him as your deadly enemy, Hence, for a man to be a. stranger in a strnngo land was to be exposed to nil ma~ner of insult and wrong, and to be in continua.I peril of lifo itself. Israel had been such a stranger, and knew all the miseries of such a lot; but ho here bears his testimony that "the Lord prescrveth the strnngors." 7. The desolate by bereavement. The fatherless and the widow are selected as types of tho most desolate of all. Remember the parable of the importunate widow as showing the peril of oppression on the part of cruel ad vcrsnries, and of neglect and injustico on the part of a corrupt and unscrupulous judge. If God did not interfere for these deso- late ones, none o•;her would. Dut "he relievoth," etc. Such is tho compassion cf the Lord our God; and when a man knows this, not merely by bearin~ of it, but by actual experience, how can he keep from rendering praise to the Lord f The very stones would cry out if he were silent. IV. Hrs PERFECT RI0HTEousm:ss. Renee it is that he cxecuteth judgmcnt for the oppressed. He will not suffer wrong to prevail; but" the way of the wicked ho turllllth 8()4 THE DOOK OF PSALMS. PS, CXLVI, 1-10,