him, the greatness of the salvation. (2) The deliverance had filled him with gl'ateful joy. "Put a new song into his mouth." Every new experience of the Di vine love should rouse anew the spirit of thanksgiving; it is a new revelation of God's mercy. His experience is," Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his tru~t." 2. For the Bebrew people as a nation. (Ver. 5.) Turns from the goodness of God towards himself to his larger manifestations of himself in the national history. His wonderful tl,oughts or purposes, and bis wonderful deeds on behalf of Israel, are too great and too manifold to be enumerated. But we turn to what God is doing for the world, and say, "God so loved the world," etc. ; not only our country, but the whole world. How great a Worker and Thinker God is for the whole universe I II. WHAT THE PSALMIST HAD DONE FOil Goo. (Vers. 6-10.) To manifest his gratitude. 1. By his deeds. (Vers. 6-8.) (1) He gives obedience to his Law, instead of seeking to please him by sacrifice. God had opened hia ears to hear and his eyes to read his will as prescribed to him in the roll of his book. Obedience better than any ceremonial '.observance. (2) His obedience was thus not only intelligent, but came from the heart. The Law was in his heart; he loved obedience. 2. By his word,. (Ver~. 9, 10.) Unwearied in proclaiming to others what Jehovah had done for him. (1) What he preached. '!'he righteousness, faithfulness, and loving-kindness of God. He preached what he saw in his own hiatory o.nd the history of the nation. f (2) Grati- tude gave him courage openly to declare God's goodness. If he had been ungrateful, or had wanted courage, he might have been tempted to hide God's dealings among the secrets of his private experience. Every man's duty to profess his convictions; and to declare that he is on the side of Christ and the Chnrch.-S. Vera. 11-17.-Disciplinll lifelong. Though the sufferer has been delivered from one great distress, he is still encompassed by great sufferings and_ dangers, from which he prays to be rescued. Suggests- !. THAT THE WOBX 011' OUR DISCIPLINE AND SALVATION IS .A Llll'ELONG WORK. No one act of deliverance is sufficient; no one deliverance can cover the whole of our experience. I. Fresh sin brings a renewed consciousness of suffering. (Ver. 12.) The psalmist suffered so in this respect that his eyes became dim from exhaustion; he felt his sins to be more than the hairs of his head, so that his heart failed in strength. Sense and soul both gave way. 2. Men in higll station are in constant danger from enemies. (Vers. 14, 15.) However righteous in couduct and blameless in character. Bad men have selfish ends to attain, and they try to get good men out of their way by slander and persecution. 3. As life advances, the sense of our poverty and need deepens. (Ver. 17.) If we are growing wiser and better, we get a deeper insight into what we ought to be and might become, and so nourish a Di vino discontent with our poverty and weakness. II. LIFELONG NEEi) WILL BEGET LIFELONG PBAYEB. 1. Gratitude for the past will inspire us to prayer. This was the case with the psalmist (vers. 1-10). 2. We a1·e encouraged to pray by the thought ,of the goodness of God. (Ver. 11.) He appeals to "the tender mercies," "the loving-lonllne,s," and "the truth," or the faith- fulness, of God to those who trust in him. He knows that "God tbinketh upon him." 3. He appeals also to the retributive ;'ustice of God. (Vera. 14, 15.) He is sure that God will deal righteously with his enemiei;. 4. He u emboldened to seek for speedy delivera-nce. (Ver. 17.) In the first verije he says he waited patiently for the Lord; here he becomes impatient for the Divine interlerence. The patience means pe_rsevering prayer ; the impatience means urgent prayer ; and both are right and acceptable e.nd necessary to tho believer in earnest about salvation.-S
EXPOSITION. titles, except Pss. f., ll., x., and xi:xiil. PSALM XLL The present psalm is closely oonneoted with THB forty.first psalm completes the first the other psalms of the ooncludiog group book of the Psalter. All the psalms con- (Pss. xxxviii.-xli.), which seem to have tained in it are assigned to David by the been all compose<l u. little before, durinir, PSALMS. y 322 THE BOOK OF PSALl\IS, [rs. XLI. 1-1:J.