This world-weariness may be of different kinds-from widely opposite causes. There is the case of the man who hll.S loved the world with all his heart, and is sick and sated, and still hungry and unsatisfied, He has loved pleasure, laid the reins on the neck of his luRts; and his reward is 11. diseased body, a worn-out heart, a blighted character, a guilty conscience. Or money; and while he has been piling up what men call a fortune, his heart has dried up, friends have grown estran?:ed, the power of enjoy- ment has dwindled as the material means of buying it grew. Or political power; and has learned how ihankless a task it is to serve people against their prejudices, how futile is popularity, party allegiance, how unstable earthly greatness. Like many a monarch and statesman, he is longing for freedom and rest. It is not these kinds of world-weariness the Holy Spirit depicts here. Those tired-out worldlings do not write psalms. They have sown to the flesh, and reaped corruption. What David and Jeremiah were so weary of was the wickedness of the world (vers. 3, 9, 11, 19). This is the key to the tremendous denunciations of the guilt and fate of sinners, in other psalms as well as here. Intense personal feeling is no doubt implied; but it is as rebels against God, not as private foes, they are described. The king-the Lord's anointed-ought to have punished them if he could; feeling his inability, he appeals to God. And be it borne in mind, God did punish them; as (e.g.) Ahithophel an<l Absalom. It is often asked-How can we reconcile these denunciations with our Lord's prayer, "Father, forgive them"? Answer: Remember the ground on which this forgiveness was possible: "They know not what they do." They were to have room for !epentance. Remember, that only two or three days before, Jesus had uttered, in the temple, denunciations more severe than any in the Psalms; and, lastly, that these woes were fulfilled to the letter, after forty years, in the destruction of Jerusalem. II. EVERY BEAL CHRISTIAN MUST KNOW SO.METilL."'IG OF THIS HEART-SICKNESS, SOUL- WEARINESS, ON ACCOUNT OF THE PREVALENCE OF SIN IN THE WORLD. The better he knows the world, the more he feels this. Once our Saviour gave a momentary glimpse of the daily burden this was to him (Matt. xvii. 17). If so very imperfect a sn.int as Lot "vexed his righteous soul from day to day " (2 Pet. ii. 7, 8), what must the Holy One of God have e:idured in the hourly contact with sin I He was the "Friend of sinners." The Chrittian Church of the present day-and society outside the Church- shows more than in any former age of the likeness of his compassion for sinners. But are we not sorely lackicg in that righteous indignation against wrong, and deep grief at the dishonour offered to God's Name, which are no less part of "the mind that was in Christ J csus"? III. WE MUST NOT ALLOW THIS HEART-WEAnINESS TO SLIDE INTO DESPAIR. It must not abate hope, slacken effort, hinder prayer, The temptation may bo strong- pnrtly from forgetfulness or ignorance of the past. When II great poet allows himself to exclaim, "When was age so crammed with meanness, ma<!ness, writ to □, spoken lies? " the reply is-,Vhat former age wns less so? ?7ot tno age of Isaiah, or of Jeremiah, or of Malachi. Not the age which cried, "Not this Man, but Barabbas ! " Nor the ages of the decline and fall of Rome. Nor what some call" the ago of faith;" others, more justly, "the dark ages." Nor of the Tudors aucl Stuarts. Nor the cold- hearted, cruel eighteenth century. No I It is an oM story, "The whole world lieth in wickedness." It is an ancient cry, "How long, 0 Lord, how long?" ,ve nre "as they that watch for the morning." But courage I "The night is fnr spent" (Rom. xiii. 12). Armour is not for flight, but fight. "Like a dove I" Ycs, David; if thou wert a dove I But thou art a king-God's servant., Israel's champion and prophet (Eph. vi. 13). If this prayer is David's, it is pathetic and instructive to remember that it was granted, though not as ho desired (2 Sam. xvii. 23). God can show us the unwisdom of our prayers by granting as well as denying. For the present, our Saviour's prnyer for his own is not that they be taken out of tho world (John xvii. 15). But whatever is right and true in this prayer shall in due timo be answered (Rev. xxi. 3, 4, 27).
Ver. 16.-Prayer. "As for me, I will call," etc. In this verse-the crisis or turn- ing-point of the whole psalm-you see the storm-tossed vessel making for the harbour, and casting anchor in safe shelter, A sorely wounded soul, vexed nncl out of heart with the tumult and strife of life, the wickedness of men, longs for PSALMS, 2 E (18 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, LV, 1-28,