confidence in God's ability to help now, by thinking ltow overwhelming was the destruction of God's enemies on other occasions. Compare our anxiety to know how many ,rnre slain on the field of battle. 'l'he two victories specially recalled are those of Deborah and Barak over the host of Sisera, and of Gideon over the mingled hosts of :Midianites. The subject suggested is the use we may make of Scripture knowledge• of the experiences of Christ's Church; and of ourselves and our own lives. We stand in the very midst of Divine dealings, Divine interventions, Divine deliverances. They have been abundant in the past, and they have meant the effective mastery of all kinds of foes. I. WE ll,U.Y LEARN THAT NO STRANGE CIBCUM:STANCES SURROUND US, God's people, have, over and over again, been in precisely such conditions as we are in now. Our trouble is no surprise to our nod. H. WE MAY FREELY CRY FOR DIVINE HELP, AS THOSE HAVE DONE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE us. They cried; they were encouraged to cry, No limit was ever put on the praying of earnest souls. III. ,vE MAY USE THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS AB THE PLEA IN OUR rRAYERS. We can always say, "Thou hast helped;" and so we can make a personal plea, and say, "0 Lord, the Helper, help me!" Constantly, in Bible prayers, what God has been to his people, and what he has done for them, is brought to his mind. IV. WE MAY HAVE THE FULLEST CONFIDENCE THAT WHAT Goo HAS DEEN HE STILL WILL BE. Resister of the wicked. Overwhelmer of the proud. Defender of his people. Deliverer of the imperilled saints.-R. 'l'. Ver. 13.-l?ie figure of the" rolling thing." "0 my God, make them as a rolling thing." A striking poetical figure, effective if applied to any light substance that is rolled over, whirled round, and driven forward with a high wind. Dickens has a very elaborate picture of wind-driven leaves in the opening part of' Martin Chuzzlewit.' The figure may be that of the whirlwind, which catches up the sand and hurls it helplessly along; and this would be a good fignre for the flight of a panic-stricken army. But Thomson, in his 'Land and the Book,' gives point to the poet's figure by his description of a very curious plant, known as the "gulgal,'' or " rolling thing." "It is a wild artichoke. In growing it throws out numerous branches of equal size and len,,,uth in all directions, forming a sort of sphere or globe a foot or more in diameter. When ripe and dry in autumn, these branches become rigid and light as a feather, the parent stem breaks off at the ground, and the wind carries these vegetable globes whithersoever it pleaseth. A.t the proper season, thousands of them come scudding over the plain, rolling, leaping, bounding, with vast racket, to the dismay both of the horse and his rider. A.n Arab proverb addresses this rolling thing thus: 'Ho, 'akkab, where do you put up to-night?' To which it answers as it flies, 'Where the wind puts up.' They also derive one of their many forms of cursing from this plant. • May you be whirled, like the 'akkab, before the wind, until you are caught in the thorns, or plunged into the sea! ' If this is not the ' wheel' of David, I bave seen nothing in the country to suggest the comparison." This "rolling thing" is wholly helpless in the i;trong hand of the wind. And the poet feels that even as helpless his enemies would be, if the band of God were upon them. The idea of their helplessness interests him, because he is so full offear concerning their numbers and apparent strength. A. good illustration may be found in the case of the Syrians who came to take Elisha, and were helpless in his hands, and actually led by him into the capital city of their foes. L MAN CAN NEVER ACT AGAINST Gon's PEOPLE, SAVE ON DIVINE PEllMISSION. !I. MAN lldAY RAVE IN HELPLESSNESS, IF THAT PERMISSION IS Wl'l'HHELD, Ill. fuN WILL HAVE MISERABLY TO FEEL HIS HELPLESSNES~, IF liE ATTEMPTS TO ACT WITHOUT PERMISSION. That which atfrights God's people before God arises to help tliem becomes pitia.ble in its helplessness when God ha.s arisen.-R. 'l'. Ver. 16.-The issue of Divinejudgments on the wicked. "'rh:it they ma.y seek !by Ne.me, 0 Lord.n This is a very remarka.ble qualifying of our idea that psalmists prayed in a. revengeful spirit for the destruction of the national enemies. In truth, their supreme idea was the glorifying of God, and they asked for judgments bccanso PB, LXXXIV, 1-12,] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 191
throu~h judgme~te would come the honouring or God's Name; and, in this honouring, tho higher blessing for the foes themselvea. Here the psalmist prays, " Fill their faces with shame ; " but be sees in their humiliation the hope that they will be drawn to God. l. WE MAY PRAY FOi\ THE HUMILIATION OF OU"$ ENEMIES. II. WE MAY NOT PRAY JN VIEW MERELY OF THEIR BUFFERING. Ill. WE MAY PRAY, IF WE DESIRE THEIR LASTING GOOD THROUGH THEIR HUMILIA- TION. IV. WE MAY PBAY, IF WE BET BEFORE OURSELVES THE GLORY OF GoD rn TilEI!t BECOVEI\Y. It is a sign or triumph over hateful and revengeful feelings if we can pray God to deal with our enemies in the wisdom of bis righteous love. It is not be6ttinu that the Christian should ever think of judgments and punishments as merely destructive. To him all judgment is remedial, all punishment is corrective. God will get honour to his Name out of all his dealings. It should be shown that the "for ever" and the "perish" of ver. 17 are to be treated as poetical terms. Or ver. 16 may be reuarded as the better view, which the psalmist. was hardly able to keep to. Ver. 17 fall; hack upon the harsher view of God's dealing with his foes. Christianity willingly lets pass the harsher vie1v, and sets ever more prominently before us the better and more hopeful view. 'Speaker's Commentary' on ver. 16 says, "'l'his is a feeling altogether peculiar to God's people." The object of all the judgments which the true prophet desires is to bring all nations into snhjection to God. Their calamities will be converted into blessingR, unless they persist in rebellion.-R. T.