in 11lippery places. The wioked have at no fallen away, but have kept alwaya my bold time ,my sure hold on their prosperity. upon thee:" and, on thy part, thou ha■t They arc " set in slippery plaoes "-plRCeB holden me by my right hand ; i.e. thou bast from wbicb they may easily slip and fall. upheld me and prevented me from slipping Thou oastedst them down to destruetion. (oomp. Pss. xviii. 35: lnxix. 21; oxix. The fall often comes, even in this life. The 117). flourishing cities of the plain are destroyed Ver. 2i.-Thou 1halt guide me with thy by fire from heaven; Pharaob's land is counael. The pse.lruist expresses full con- ruined by the plagues, e.nd his host de- fidence in God's continual guida.nce through stroved in the Red Sea; Senne.cherib's nrmy all life's dangers and difficulties, notwith- perishes in e. night; Jezebel is devoured by et.anding his own shortcomings a.nd " fooliBh- dog,9: Athaliah is slain with the sword; ness." He then looks beyond thiB life, and Antiocbus Epiphanel! perishes in a distant excla.ims, And afterward (thou wilt) reoeive expedition; Herod Agrippa is eaten of me to glory. Even Professor Cheyne sees in worms; persecut.ors, like Nero, Galerius, this "the story of Enooh spiritualized." Jnlian, come t.o untimely ends. A sign&! " Walking with God," he says, "is followed retribution visits the wicked iu hundreds by a reception with glory, or into glory; " and thousands of instances. When it does and he compares the paBBage with Ps. not, the question remains-Is death the xlix. 16, which he has previously explained end? This point is not formally brought as showing that" the poet ho.s that religious forward, but it underlies the whole a.rgu- intuition which forms the kernel of the ment; and, unless retribution after death hope of immort1ility." be rega.rded as certain, a single exception to Ver. 25.-Whom have I in heaven but thP genel"f'l rule of retribution in this life thee ? Who is there in all the host of would .ipset the solution which the psa.lmist heaven on whom I can place any reliance, finds satisfactory. exoepting thee? None of thy "holy ones," Yer. 19.-B:ow are they brought into neither angel nor archa.ngel, can afford me desolation, e.s in a moment! There is some- any support or sustenance, preserve or guide thing very striking in the suddenness with or save me, hut THOU only (oomp. Job v. I). which the prosperity of a wieked man often And there is none upon earth tho.t I desire colla.pses. Saul, Jezebel, Athaliah, Epi- beside thee. Much less can earth supply phanes, Herod Agrippa, are ca.ees in point, me with a substitute for God. On him my likewise N era, Galerius, J alian. The first heart's affections are centred (comp. Ps. and second Napoleonic empires may also !xiii I, "My soul tbirsteth for thee, my be cited. They a.re utterly consumed with flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty ten-ors ; Ii terally, they perish ; they come to land, where no water is"). an end through terrors (comp. Job xvili. 11; Ver. 26.-]l[y 11.esh and my heart faileth. xxiv. 17; x:nii. 20). The meaning is, " Though my flesh and my Ver. 20.-As a dream when one awaketh; heart fail utterly, though my whole cor- so, 0 Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt porea.l and animal nature fnde away and deapise their image. A.e men despise their come to nothing, yet something in the dreams when they awake from them, so, nature of a heart-the true ' I,' conscious- when God" stirs up himself and awakes to ness, will remain, and will be upheld by judgment" (Ps. xxxv. 23), he will despise God." God is the Strength of my heart, and such mere semblances of huma.nity (Pd. my Portion for ever. "A strong assertion xx.x.i.L 6) as the wicked are. of personal immortality" (Cook). "Thie Ver. 21.-Thus my heart was grieved; is the mysticism of faith; we are on the literally, for my heart wcu grie?Jed, or "was verge of St. Paul's conception of the ..-v•vµ.a, soured." The "for" refers to a suppressed the organ of life in Goel" (Cheyne). phrase of self-condemnation, "But at the Ver. 27.-For lo, they that itre far from time I did not see all this-the solution thee shall pariah. AB God is the eouroe of did not present iteelf to me." I was too full all life, to be "far from hiru " is to perieh- of grief and bitterness t.o consider the mat- t.o have this life depart from us, even if ter calmly and dispassionately. And I wu existence of any kind remains. The pea.lmiat pricked in my 11einl ; i.e. "a pang of pa.s- is vague with respect to the ultimo.ta fate of eioute discontent had pierced my inmost the wicked, confident only of the continued being" (Cheyne). existence, in a oondition which he deolo.rcs Ver. 22.--So foolish was I, and ignorant: to be" good," of the righteous. Thou hast I was as a beast before thee. I had no destroyed all them that go a-whoring from more intelligence than the brute beasts; I thee. The strong phrase here used is rare was wholly unable t.o reason aright (comp. in the Psalm~, occurring only in thiB place Pss. x:u:ii. 9; xcii. 7 ; Prov. xxx. 2). and in Pe. cvi. 39. It commonly refers to Ver. 23.-11 everthele11 I am continually idolatrous pro.ctices, but is used sometimeH with thee; i.e. "nevertheleas, I have not of other kinds of declension and alienation PB, LXXIU, 1-28.] 'l'ltE BOOK OF PSALMS. 73
from God (see Lev, XL 6; Numb. xiv. Still all my song shall be, 83). Nearer, my God, to thee, Ver. 28.-:But H is good for me to draw Nearer to thee." near to God; or, "but es for me, nearness to God is my good " (Key). Compere the I have put my truat in the Lord God ; well-known hymn- Jiterelly, in the Lord Jelwr!ah (Adonai Jehovah}-an unusual combination. That I " Nearer, my Goel, to thee, m&y declare all thy work■. With the in- N eerer to thee; tention of ever hereafter declaring and Even though it be e cross magnifying all thy worka. That raiseth me;