Vers. 10---12.-He prays against his enemies. (Cf. homily on Ps. xxxv.)-C. Ver. 13.-The doxology of the He1Yrew (Jhurch. This doxology doeR not appear to be a part of the psalm to which it is annexed. The Psalms are divided into five books. The first book closes with the forty-first psalm. In all probability this was the earliest portion of the songs of the Hebrew sanctuary; and when made np (as we should say) into a volume, the collator added thereto a doxology-as was done also at the end of Pss. lxxii., lxxxix., and cvi. Perhaps the omission of any doxology after Ps. cl. Is because that psalm is entirely one of praise. We have no information as to the name of the collator, nor as to the date at which this first division of the Psalmll was made up, and the doxology appended thereto. But, nevertheless, it is of no small interest and ought to convey no mean instruction; showing us, as it does, most strikingly what Jubilation resulted from revelation. In pagan worship there is no delight in God; there is dread, there is homage to greatness, there is even thankfulness for a good harvest; but as for delight in God as God, there is none, and can be none, save where God has revealed himself; nor can there be any delight in adoring the Unknown, nor in the positivist's worship of humanity. Religious worship, as glad and jubilant, belongs only to those to whom God is known; paganism, whether in ancient or modem days, knows no such songs of delight or ascriptions of loving praise as those which rise up from the lips and hearts of the saints of God. L Goo, AB TIIE REVEALED GOD OF OUB SALVATION, IB THE FITTING OD-TECT OF GLADSOME SONG. The declared name of God would yield delight to pious souls (Exod. x.xxiv. 6, 7). The various terms added to the covenant name Jehovah show how the saints rejoiced in God: Jchovah-jireh, Jehovah-rophi, Jehovah-nissi, Jehovah-tsiclkenu. Many expressions in the Psalms show what God was to his people-Rock, Fortress, Light, Strength, Refuge, their exceeding Joy, their Deliverer, their Sun, their Shield, pitying as a father, gentle and comforting as a mother, One who put beneath his people "everlasting arms." Well might their joy rise to songs of rapturous delight-as in Deut. xxxii. 26-29. This joy in God would arise (1) from what God ,·s in himself -as a God of power, wisdom, loving-kindness, faithfulness, pity, o.nd love; and also (2) /r{Yffl, what he declared himself to be as Israel's God-giving pardon, help, strength, guidance, light, so.lvation. .And now that, through the larger Scriptures, through the Person of Christ, and through the baptism of the Holy Ghost, our knowledge is so much the larger, our joy should be proportionately greater, and onr songs the louder and sweeter, rising to snch heights as Eph. iii. 20, 21; 1 Pet. i. 3-5; Rev. i. 5, 6; v. 9-13; vii, 10; xv. 3. II. THE GLADSOME PRAISE 01' THE BAINTB IB THE BEFITTING RESPONSE TO Gon's REVELATION OF HIMSELF. "Blessed be," etc. Here believers ho.ve a cho.ngeless Object of delight. "From everlasting to everlasting.'' "The same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.'' 1'he response of believers to the revelation of so glorious o. Being may be looked at in two ways. 1. As that which God desires to evoke by revealing himself. God, being love, yearns to be loved. Divine love yearns for its object to respond, even o.s our need yearns for a Being to meet that need. 2. With the Divine revelation of himself there is a power working in and on human souls, whereby such response i.; elicited. A mighty host of believers, whom their God ho.s rescued from darkness o.nd death, are now exulting in songs of praise to the God of their salvation, acknowledging that all good is from him, that nil their trust is reposed on him, thnt nil their lovo centres round him, that all their strength is derived from him, and tho.t o.11 their hopeg are fixed on him; they know that he will never leave them nor forsake them. Yoa, it is the revelation of a redeeming God to which we owe the happiest henrts, the noblest songs, the grandest music, and the highest inspiration. And this song will never
yet one no Jess designe,1 of God-in the circumsto.nccs of our Lord's earthly life. This will be peculiarly the case here if Ahithophel be meant; for as David wns in much of his life o type of Christ, so the treachery of his trusted counsellor would be a foreshn<lowing of the treo.ohery of J u<las. The rendering in John xiii., •o Tptf,,yo,v ,....,., lµov Tbv 1/.p.,.ov, <1r11po lT' lµt T¾W 11Tlpvav a~Toii, is inclependent of the LXX., who ho.ve hero more literally, lµ.-yd>.. 11 vEv ,.,, iµ~ ,..,..pv10'µ&v. The Hebrew phmse is, 'lmth made great his heel,' which may either meon, • ho bath lifted it up on high, so us to trample on tho object of attack,' or, , oos given a harcl, violent blow with it.''' THE BOOK OF l'S.A.LMS.