"meal" intemlcd. Whether the "people cruel 011,ptivity, or elee !en e.s n mieer11ble of chrnllere in the wilderness " are 011nnibal remnant in an exhausted and dosolo.led tribc>e, or j1wkals and hyenas, is perhaps lo.nd-in either case needing much God'■ doubtful. protection and "remembrance," Ver. 15.-Thou didst cleave the fountain Ver. 20.-Have reapeot unto the oovenant. and the flood; rather, and t.lu! torrent ( comp. The "covenant" intended is probably thnt Exon. xvii. 6; Nnmb. xx. 11). Thou dried.at made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, up mighty rivers; i.e. the Jordan (Josh. iii. whereby Canaan WW! assured to their 13, et Beqq.). deecendante, e.s "the lot of their inherit- Ver. 16.-The day is thine, the night also ance." Israel is being deprived of its ie thine; thou hast prepared the light and inherito.nce, and dragged off into "de.rk the sun (see Gen. i. 5, 15, 16); rather, thou places." Will not "respeot for hie oove- 1uut preparro him lightand sun. "Lumine.ry" nant '' induce God to interpose, and even (i\N?;l) is probably a class-name for the now at the last gasp deliver his afflicted heavenly lights generally. The snn is then ones? For the dark places of the earth are partioule.rized, as so much the most impor- full of the habitations of cruelty. Israel is tant of the luminaries. But the reault is being dragged into "dark placee of the "an imperfect parallelism" (Cheyne). earth "-benighted lands. where there is no Yer. 17.-Thou ha.n set all the borders of glimmer of the light of God's truth-and the earth. The "borders of the earth" e.re lends, moreover, which are "full of habi- the boundaries of land and sea, which e.re tations of cruelty," abodes, i.e., where e.ecribed to God in Gen. i. 9 (c.omp. Job captives taken in war are treated with ::uvi. 10 ; xxxviii. 8; Ps. xxxiii. 7; Prov. harshness and violence. viii. 29; J ~r. v. 22). Thou hast m&de Ver. 21.-0 let not the oppressed return summer and winter; literally, summer and ashamed ; i.e. let not this oppressed nation icinter thou dirist form them; i.e. they e.re turn their back on thee ID shame and con- the result of thy arrangement of creation. fusion at thy forsaking them. Rather, let Tera. 18-23.-In conclusion, the psalmist the poor and needy praise thy Name; i.e. show them some mercy, some deliverance, prays earnestly that God will deliver his which may tum their sbame into joy, and people from their wicked oppressors (vere. call forth from them songs of praise. 18, 19), the.t be will remember bis covenant Ver. 22.-Arise, O God, plead thine own (ver. 20), canse the oppressed ones to praise cause ; i.e. assert thyself, show forth thy him (ver. 21), and assert himself against power, avenge thyself on thine enemies. Remember how the foolish man reproacheth th05e who insult and oppose him (vers. thee daily (comp. ver. 18, and see the com- 22, 23). ment ad loc.). In the ancient world the Ver. 18.-Remember this, that the enemy conquest of a people was always regarded bath reproached, 0 Lord, and that the fooliBh ee a triumph over tbe people's god or gods. people have blasphemed thy Name (comp. Naturally, insults to the god found a place Lam. i 7; ii. 7, 15, 16). Every nation of in the victor's songs of triumph (see 2 idolaters is a " foolish people " to the sacred Kings xix. 10-13; Isa. x. 8-11), writers, whatever cleverness or intellectual Ver. 23.-Forget not the voice of thine capacity it may poesess. Nabal, the word enemies. God does not forget insults of translated " foolish," designates a folly that this kind, but punishes them (see 2 Kings is closely akin to wickedness. xix. 28, "Because thy rage against me, Ver. 19.--0 deliver not the soul of thy and thy tumult, is come up into my ears, turtle - dove unto the multitude of the therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, wicked; rather, 0 delifJer not thy turtle-do~e and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn unto the greedy multitude (Revised Version 1hee back by the way by which thou margin). Israel is beautifully compared to ea.meet"). He punished Babylon uftor a a pet dove, the gentlest and tenderest of time with extreme severity (see Jer. L nnd birds. The Babylonians are the "gr~edy Ii.). The tumult of those that rise up multitude" ready to kill and devour it. against thee inoreaaeth oontinually; rather, Forget not the congregation (or, th~ multi- ascendelh ccmtinually-goee up before God's tude) of thy poor for ever. The "multitude throne, crying for vengeance (comp. Gen. iv. of God's poor" ill being carried otf into a 10; xviii. 20, 21; E:x.od. iii. 9, eto.).
HOMILETICS. Ver. 22.-God', came that of his people. "Arise, ... thine own cause." The great problems of life, and the inner depths of human experience, are the same in all ages. The surface of society changes marvello118ly; but heart still answers to heart. P~. LXXIV, 1-23.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. BG