indeed, if we found that in one and the same breath the psalmist wns triumphantly set upon a rock, and then in a minute or two bowed down with a weight of woe I We are not cnlled on to entertain such a doleful supposition; and are glad, therefore, to deal with this piteous prayer and plea as standing by itself. It is not difficult to seize the progress of the thought. I. HERE rs A souL IN DEEP DISTRESS. (Ver. 12.) Whether the "evils" are the iniquities themselves, or the form in which those iniquities are brought home to him, is not absolutely clear. Probably the latter is the case. Very often surroundina- circum- stances may bring to us bitterly painful reminders of past sin. And this may°be one of God's means of bringing a soul to repentance through the avenue of remorse and shame, II. HERE IS AN UTTER ABSENCE OF SYMPATHY FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD. Yea, something more than a lack of sympathy; for there is ridicule (ver. 15), there is joy over his sorrow (ver. 14, latter part); there is even an effort to aestroy bis peace, and perchance to further a plot a,,a-ainst his life. Note: In the moments of deepest distress, when we look for succour from man, we find that the greater part are so engrossed in their own affairs, that they have never a tear to shed over another's sorrows, nor a hand to help in another's needs. This is hard. But it is a part of the discipline of life; and it is made use of by God to drive us to himself. III. THE PSALMIST IS SHUT UP TO Gon. (Vera. 11, 13, 17.) It is not for nought that we are sometimes shut off from the sympathies of man. However trying, it is an infinite mercy when we are left with God alone. There, however, we have a perpetual Refuge. There are no fewer than four comforting thoughts specified here. (1) There is the name--Jelwvah; (2) there is the assurance of having a share in the thoughts of God (ver. 17); there is in God (3) loving-kindness; and (4) faithfulness. "Thy truth," i.e. thy fidelity to thy promises. Note: Whoever has such a Refuge to which to flee, is well prepared for the worst of times. IV. To Gon HE UTTERS A FERVENT, PLEADING PRAYER. 1. One part of his prayer, and n prominent part too, is against his enemies. (Yer. 15.) We need not imitate David here" (see our homily on Ps. xxxv.). Let us leave our enemies -in the hands of God ; or, rather, let us pray for them. 2. A second part of his prayer is on behalf of the godly. (Ver. 16.) Note: 'l'bis indicates that the psalmist was not moved by private feeling only, but by a pious public spirit. 3. A third part of hie prayer is for himself. (Vers. 13 and 17.) Note: It will be very selfish of us if we pray only for ourselves, and very unnatural if we do not include ourselves.-C.
Vere. 6-8 (taken along with Heb. L 6-9).-%e supreme surrender, and its eternal value. That some of the psalms are applied to Christ does not warrant us in applying them all to him ; 1 and even if some verses of any one psalm are applied to the Messiah, we are not thereby warranted in applying all the verses in such psalm to him.1 There are direct Messianic psalms, which apply only to the Lord Jesus Christ; such are the second and the hundred and tenth psalms. Critics-some of them, at least-demur to this as being contrary to psychological law. But it is not merely by the psychological law of the natural man that these Messianic psalms are declared to have been written. Vv e are pointed, for their origin, to a fourfold divergence from naturalistic psychology. 1. It is not of psychology we have to think, but of pneumatology. 2. Of the pneumatology of the spiritual man. 3. Of the pneumatology of the spiritual man when "borne along" by the Divine Pneuma. 4. Of such action of the Divine Pneuma ou the human for a specific Divine purpose. All this is indicated in 2 Pet. i. 21; and therefore all such critics as those to which we refer are totally beside the mark (see our remarks on Ps. xxxii.). But there are also psalms which are indirectly Messianic. They are marked, speaking generally, by the pronoun "I." The writer speaks for himself, in the first instance; but whether he knew or intended it or not, th_o word_s had such a far-reacbingness about them, that they could only bo filled up 1n their perfect meaning by the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Such is the case with the verses now 1 See Perowne's able article on the theology of the Psalms : • Introduction to the Psalms,' eh. iii.; and also bis notes on Ps. xl. • Not even Bishop Alexander seems to do so in this psulm. See his 'Witness of the Psalms,' etc., p. 217. • See Dr. J. Pye Smith's' Script. Test.,' vol. i. eh. iii. PS. XL. 1-17.] THE DOOK OF PSALMS. 817