Vera. 1-9.-God's glory revealed. "'l'he great spiritual truth containe,1 in the first passago of Scripture, that God made man in his own image, flashes forth in this psalm in trne lyric grandeur, a ray of light ncross the dark mystery of creation." Gou is the most wonderful thought of the human mind, and this thought retains its holtl upon us in spite of all atheistic influences. Here the thought is that God's glory is celebrated- !. BY CHILDHOOD, Putting to silence the clamour of the atheist. Christ uses tho p11s5ago against the scribes nnd Pharisees, and in another place says that God revenls to babes what he hides from the wise and prudent. We must be converted to little ci:iildren; "for of such is the kingdom of heaven." God reveals to babes unbounded trust, unbounded obedience to parents, the simple truthfulness, the guileless mind; and they proclaim all this aloud, and it tells of their Divine origin and inspiration, and they thus praise God, and ought to abash the irreligious. "Heaven lies about us [and within us] in our infancy." II. BY THE STARRY WORLDS, '!'he things which tell us most of God are: 1. N~qht. The solemnity and impressiveness of the heavens are greater by night than by day. 2. Their constancy and order. 3. Their immensity. We cannot compute their number and distances by any effort of thought. 4. Tlwir silence. God's greate8t works an, nll done in awful, impressive silence. Then we feel our physical insignificance. Ill. BY MAN'S SPIRITUAL GREATNESS, (Gen. i. 26-28.) Compared with the material heavens, he is but an atom; but God has "visited him,'' and made him great, by stamping him with his own image, and giving him the sovereignty of things. lie is made a little lower than God, or little less than of Divine stnnding (Elohim). But he is to ascend up to sovereignty. In Heh. ii. 6-8 the words are applied to Christ in a mnch wider sense, and by St. Paul .in 1 Cor. xv., became he is more perfected in his highest power, and is to have all rule and all authority. We have only begun to fi6 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
exercise lordship over the animal, the material, and the moml worlds, nud over our- selves, It is only as we rule ourselves that we learn the secre·; of rulu over others, Obedience is the road to sovereignty.-S.
EXPOSITION. PSALM IX. Ver. 3.-When mine auemies are turned back; or, becau$e mille enemies are turned Tms psalm, which, like the si:11. preceding back (' Speaker's Commentary'); i.e. mode it, is declared by the title to be "a Psalm to retreat, repulsed, driven before me iu of David," is a song of thanksgiving for the hasty flight. They shall fall and perish at defeat of some foreign enemy. It is the thy presenoe; or, they stumble and perish, eto. The psalmist represents the enemy, first of whnt are called "the alphabetio poetically, "as if they had been thrown to pBalms;" but the law of alphabetic order is the ground by the glance of Gci's fiery npplied in it somewhat loosely and irregu- countenance" (Hengetenberg). larly. All the four lines of the first stanza. Ver. 4.-lor thon hast maintained my commence with aleph; but after this it is right and my oause. David uniformly as- only the fir,;t line of each stanza that abilitv,hie cribes military euoceeeee, not to his own or even to the valour of his soldiers, observes the law. And even this nmonnt of but to God's farnur. God's favour, which observance is neglected iu the last stanza. is secured by the justice of hie cause, gives The poem is one of the most regular in its him victory after victory. Thou aatest in structure of all the psalms, consisting as it the throne judging right. While the late battle raged, God sat upon hie heavenly does of kn equal strophes of four lines throne, administering justice, awarding de- each. The words iu the title, " upon feat and death to the wrong-doers who had Muth-bbben," have been variously ex- wantonly attacked hie people, giving victory plained; but no explanation hitherto given and glory and honour to those who stood 011 is satisfactory. their <lefence against the aggressors. Ver. 5.-Thou hast rebuked the heathen; Ver. 1.-I will praise thee, 0 Lord, with rather, thou didst 1·ebulce; LXX., br,-rlµ71<Tas: my whole heart; rather, 1 will gi-De thanks i.e. on the recent occasion. When God (Kay, Cheyne, Re"rised Ver5ion). The th~nke would rebuke, be punishes; when he nre special for a grent deliverance-a dehver- punishes, by so doing he rebukes. Thou nnce from some heathen enemy (vers. 5, 15), hast destroyed the wiokod; rather, thou who has been signally defeated and IIJ.moet didst dest,oy. Thou hast put ont their exterminated (vers. 5, 6). It has bee:u con- name for ever and ever. If taken literally, jectured that the subjugation _of Ammon this should meo.n extermination, and so some (2 Sam. xii. 26-31) is the occasion referred explain (Hengstenberg, Kay, 'Speaker's to (' Speaker's Commentary'); but the ex- Commentnry'); but some allowance must be pectation o~ furt~er a~tack (vers. 17~2~) made for the use of hyperbole by n poet. scarcely BllltB tine period, when Dand B None of the nations with which David con- "ms were well-nigh over. Perhaps. the tended suffered extinction or extermination. earlier vicLory O'l'er Ammon and Syria (2 Ver. 6.-0 thou enemy, destructions are Sam. x. G-14), which was followed. by t~e come to a perpetual end. It is better to renewed invasion of the same nations m translate, with the Revised Version, The conjunction with "tb~ Syrian~ beyond the enemy are come to an end; they are desolai6 river" (2 Sam. x.16), 1s more likely to have for ever-a continuance of the hyperbola drawn forth the compositiou. I will show already noticed in tbo preceding verso. forth all thy marvellous works; rather, 1 And thon hast destroyed cities j their me- will tell forth, or I will recount '!ll thy morial is perished with them; rather, and wondrouB deeds. Not necessarily miracles, ae for the cities thou hast destroyed, their I.Jut any strange and unexpected deliver- TJery memory has perished. Thie coal~ only nnccs such as the recent one (comp. Pse. be an anticipation. It was fulfilled m the xl. 5 ;' lxxviii. 4). . . . complete disappearnnco from history of the Ver. 2.-1 will be glad and reJ01ce m names of Zoba, Deth-rehob, and Toh, after thee: I will sing praise to thy Name (see tlie victory described in 2 Sam. x. 13, 14. the comment on Ps. viii. 9). 0 thou most Ver. 7.-:But the Lord shall endure for High (comp. Pa. vii. 17; and see also ever; rather, lmt the Lord iB seated (i.e. ~pon Gen. xiv. 18, 19, 22). Elion ()1'7~) was his throno) for ever. Cities and nat10ne a recognizerl name of God among the Phro- perish, but Jehovah r~maine a King ~or nicians (' RtligiollB of the Ancient World,' evermore. ,vbile nil 1s change am] dis- p. 133). turbance upon enrth, the unchnngc<l uutl PB. nt. 1-20.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 67