The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 1 — Section 263

vere. 4, 5, 6, 8 would ill become ue (cf. Rom. xii. 19, 20). 6. Nevertheless, it is perfectly true that severity to evil-doers is sometimes the greatest mercy to the Church of God (Acts v. 1-11). 7. God, even now, very often answers the agonizina prayers of saints by" terrible things in righteousness" (Ps. !xv. 5; Rev. viii. 3-5). 8. If we do not so far sympathize wi(h the spirit of this and other imprccatory psalms as to yearn to see righteousness triumphant and wickedness put to shame, we are fear- fully guilty before God, and are sinking immeasurably below tho morality and public spirit of those very psalms which are so unfairly critici~ed and so thoughtlessly condemned. To ·plead for the victory of righteousness and for the crushina0 and shaming of iniquity is a necessity of a good man's nature. He C.:\nnot help it. Yea, one petition in the Lord's Prayer involves the whole, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." And more than this, no one understands the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, who looks at it as providing only for the present forgiveness of individual souls: it is o. grand and glorious plan for the inbringing of universal and everlasting righteousness; and when the Saviour's blood moistened earth's soil, it guaranteed that earth should be rescued from the destroyer, that tho hosts of ill should be exposed and put to shame, and that Christ should wear the everlastin;; crown.-C. Vers. 1-28.-Theflesh and the Spirit. This psalm has been variously interpreted. Some say David speaks here representatively, not for himself, but for the community of Israel. Others say that he speaks prophetically, and with special reference to the days of Messiah. Others again hold that he spe,\ks as a holy mau, moved by the Holy Spirit to record the feelings that had pas~ed through his own heart in time of trial. '!'his last seems the more reasonable interpretation. I. First it:agrees best with THE METHOD OF INSPIRATION. The object of inspiration is truth. It is not. necessary that what is perfect should alone be recorded, but it is that the record itself should be perfect. Besides, there is undoubtedly an advance in the New Testament from the Old, both as respects the spirit of the prophets, and the greatness of the truths revealed. II. Further, this view agrees best with THE ANALOGY OF HoLY ScBIPTURE. In Job and Ecclesiastes and elsewhere there are different speakers, and they do not all speak the same thing. There is diversity of opinion, and high debate. We have to walk circumspectly. We have to discriminate, lest we shol1kl take the devil's lie or the counsel of fallible men for the eternal truth of God (Job ii. 4; xiii. 7). So of the Psalms. The record is true, but all that is recorded is not truth. There are various phases of thought and feeling, of character and life. Even the H1mo speaker cloes not always keep the same level; at one time he may cry, "I was as a beast bofore thee," and almost with the same breath," Whom have I in heaven but thee? " (Ps. lxxiii. 22, 25). III. Again, this view accords best with THE FACTS OF DAvrn's LIFE. He was not a perfect m11n; and who so ready to confess this as himself? Look at the historical pa1ts of Scripture, and you find him saying and doing things far from righteousness. Why should he be judged differently when he speaks in poetry than when he speaks in prose? ls it not reasonable to take what he say~, in tbe one case as in the other, as the honest expression of his heart, and to judge it by the same standard? No doubt the Psalms are to be regarded as spoken in moments of highest religious consecration; but if David is to be held as always speaking in the Psalws as a. perfect man, it will be hard to bring the facts into harmony with the other facts of his life, and, moreover, the effect would be to remove the psalms from the sphere of ordinary experience, and to empty them of much of their sweetness and virtue. Delitzsch ho.s so.id that" this whole psalm is as it were the lyrical amplification of that which David says when face to face with Saul in 1 Sam. xxiv. 16." Looking at it in this light, it seems the story of a soul's conflict-the struggle of the spirit against the flesh-painful and severe, with risings and failings, till at last peace is atto.inecl. It begins with a passionate cry to God for justice, and the language, full of fire and impetuosity, is such o.s would naturally rise to the lips of a man of war. His imagination works in the line of hi~ desires, and pictures an overthrow of his enemies, quick and terrible. '!'heir destruc- tion would be his "salvation," and for this he would rejoice o.nd givo God thanks  272 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [rs XXXV. 1-28.