Ver. 6.-0ur changing estimates of men. "I have said, Ye are gods . . . but ye shall die like men." Life, in its progression, involves a process of " disillusioning. n The youth builds " castles in the air," " castles in Spain ; " but advancing life deals with them as the growing sunshine deals with morning mists. We begin life with admiring and trusting everybody; it is well for us if advancing life does not find us standing beside the paalmist, and saying, "All men are liars." David thought Ahithophel was a fast and faithful friend. Be changed his ideas of him when he learned that" .Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom." No more bitter experience do men ever pass through than that of finding those they thought faithful "fail from among the children of men." Here the difficulty is the changed estimate we are sometimes com- pelled to make of our public men. The psalm concerns those in authority and office. The psalmist is distressed because he cannot think of them as he once thought, and as he would like to think; they had altogether fallen from the position in which he had placed them. L WHAT MEN OUGHT TO BE. There is a true and proper sense in which every man is a.n official. Every man has some one dependent 011 him, and every man can exert an influence, and be an influence, on some one. This may be put in another way- Every man is somebody's ideal. In the text the judges are thought to be what they ought to be-uncorrupt, simple, sincere; agents that convey the pure word and will of God to men. And this is what every one of us who has influence on a fellow-man should be. Those dependent on us should have good ground for making us their ideals. Using the word in its Old Testament sense, men shou!d ~ook ~n us1 an~ !n their admiration, say," Ye are gods." We ought to be such 1n integnty, s1mphc1ty, and nobility, as to make their saying so reasonable. II. WHAT MEN PROVE TO BE. Our ideas of them generally prove Illusions, but there is no reason why they should not change for better ideas. They need not change for the worse. But life proves a heavy strain for all men. Some are sanctified through it, but some are deteriorated. The text contemplates those who prove unfaithful, untrustworthy, and even come under the judgments of God, for special sins, as Adam did. Iwpreiis that the ideal Christ never yet disappointed any man. There has never been reason for changing our estimate of him.-R. T. Ver. 8.-God'a inheritance in. all nations. Bishop Perowne translates this," For PB, LXXXIU, 1-18.) THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 183
thou bast all the nations for thine inheritance." Bishop Wordsworth eays, "All nations are thine inheritance. 'fhou gavest a special inheritance to lirael; but all lnnds are thy Canaan, and all will be judged by thee." The term "inheritance" is used in a somewhat unusual way, and what we regard as its precise meaning is not to be pressed. The idea. in the mind of the psalmist was that Go<l is the rightful Sovere1~n of the whole earth, and therefore he may be asked personally to correct the ovilij of bis representatives. An" inheritance" is here viewed as something which comes to a man, and is absolutely his, over which be bas entire control. Israel was God'd inberilance because entirely in bis control. But those called gods, judges, princes, had nothing that was theirs in any such sense. But every land and every people is, in this way, God's inheritance. And when the subordinate servants fail anywhere, appeal can be made to the absolute Ruler and Judge. Aglen puts the poi1'.t of the verse in this way : "It is as if, despairing of the amending of the corrupt magistrates, the poet, pleading for Israel, tnkes his case out of their bands, as Cranmer in the play takes hie case out of the bands of the council, and entrusts it to the great J lidge of the world, to whom, as a special inheritance, Israel belonged, but who was also to shollT hie claim to the submission and obedience of all nations." The point to work out is this-when we are troubled by thoughts of the injustice and untrustworthiness of men in whom we ought to be able to confide, we may find consolation in large compre- hensive views of the supremacy of God-our God-over all the earth. In tl1is way we get helpful impressions of- 1 Goo's EXPERIENCE. These failures that surprise and alarm us are no surprise to the God of the whole earth. He has bad to deal with snch things and such people over and over again. He knows bow to deal with such cases. II. Goo's INTERVENTION, When we see God as having all nations for his inherit- ance, we r~alize that he must, through long ages, and he must still, be constantly engaged in righting things; bolily interfering with wilful men, putting confused things straight. Then we are reassured. He can put right what perplexes us.-R. T.
Vers. 1-8.-.A solemn rebuke addressed to those who, pledged by their office to uphold the Law, had trampled upon it for their own selfish ends. I. GoD'B RELATION TO RULERS. (Ver. 1.) 1. He has appointed them to a Divi,,e work. They are to represent the justice and righteousness of GJd. 2. He holds tiem responsible/or their manner of doing it. Judges them. II. THE BIGHT UBE AND THE ABUSE OF RESPONSIBLE POWER. (Vers. 2-4.) 1. 171e right use of power. To give justice and redemption to the poor and defenceless. To defend the helpless and the oppressed. 2. The abuse of power. "To accept the persons of the wicked" is to favour their caus~ ou accouut of their position or station. III. THE OOBBUPTION OF RULERS DEMORALIZES SOCIETY. (Ver. 5.) "The founda- tions of the earth are out of course." 1. The example of men high in station is more influential than that of others. 2. Law unjustly administered demoralizes and degrades a people.-.S
EXPOSITION. whereto the psalm e.nd the events it com- PSALM LXXXIII. memomtes belong. The preve.leut opinion TBE psalmist me.kee a passionate (lppenl to identities the movement with that made by God on behalf of Israel at a time of great Moab, Ammon, and Edorn, in the reign of du.nger. A confodere.cy has been formed Jehoshaphat, whereof an account is given nmong the surrounding nations, having for in 2 Chron. xx. (So Tholuck, De Watte, itd object the destruction of Israel's ne.tion- Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, Kay, Canon Cook, nlity (ver, 4). The conrederacy includes e.nd Proressor Aleimnder.) Another Yiew Etlom, the Jahme.elites, llloe.b, the Hagnr- held is that the psalm belongs to the time en(•e, Gebul, Ammon, Ame.lek, Philistie., of Nehemiah, and to the attempt th.,n e.nd Tyre (vers. 6, 7); aDll it has the mu.de to crush Israel by Sanballat, Geshem, support of Assyria (ver. 8). Much doubt and Tobiah (see 'The Psnlms chrouo- oii~ts IL8 to the period of Israelite history logically turanged,' by Fuur J!'rien,ls, p. 184 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [Pt!, Lll.Xlll, 1-18,