The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 207

things we can find in them. The church building in which we worship may really be a very plain end poor building, but if it 1 roves the house of God to us we soon think it beautiful, and almost worship its very stones. ' II. GLORIOUS THINGS WERE BEING SAID 011 THE Gon OF THE OITY, Recall the idea of the age, that the gods were limited to particular cities and countries. So out- ~id~rs associa~ Jehovah with Jerusalem and the Israelites, and, in recognizing the dehverance which came to them through Israel, recognized it as the work of brael's God. See by way of illustration, how Nebuchadnezzar delllands praise of Jehovah when some mighty work has shown his superiority to all surrounding gods. \Vork out what things the nations round were likely to say of the God of Hezekiah. His power was de_clared. His concern for his people was declared. His sovereign rights were declared. His mercy was declared. God as Deliverer and Redeemer was declared. So now if the attention of men is directed to us, to our example, our enterprise, our energy, ~ur success, it should _be our supreme anxiety that the glorious things they say of us Rhould really be said of our God, and of his grace in us. Observe this, too, that the triumph over Sennacherib was not something which Hczekiah's people had accomplished in their own strength, but something which Jehovah bad accomplished through them and for them. They had, therefore, no right to take the " glorious things that wen spoken" to themselves. Nor have we. Look as we may on what has been accom plished, we are compelled to say, "What bath God wrought?" And all the glorious things spoken of us we tum away, and have spoken of him.-R. T. Yer. 6.-Privileges of a birthplace, Keeping the associations with the times of Hezekiah, we may see, in this verse, a poetical representation of the revival of the nations, when the dread of Assyria was lifted off them. It was like a new birth to them. They entered on a new experience, and on new relations. And as Zion Wl\lt regarded as the centre and source of the deliverance-Jehovah from Zion-the nations are, in a poetical way, said to have their birth in Zion. It was thought of as the city of the new birth of the nations. This figure may be applied to the spiritual birth of individuals. Be they white or black, bond or free, from whatever clime they come, they may properly be thought of as born in Zion, where "'Onr dear Lord was crucified, Who died to eave UB all." The Zion birtbright belongs to every redeemed soul. "Salvation is of the Jews." L THE PRIVILEGES OF OUR NATURAL BIBTHPLA.OE. Curious is the admiration men have for the town and neighbourhood in which they saw the light. And the places of our birth have more to do with disposition, and with genius, than we are wont to think. Our early surroundings may waken poetic or artistic instincts. Our town and country may enjoy peculiar liberty, special advantages of education, etc. Illustrate by the claims of seven towns to be the birthplace of the poet Homer, partly because it honoured them to provide the first formative influences that reached the poet. II. THE PRIVILEGES OF OUR ADOPTED BIBTHPT,AOE. If actual life begins where we were born, our individuality, our life-work, our success, often begins somewhere else. We begin again, in some place of our selection and adoption. And as we look back in life, we can see how our surroundings and associations, in that new birthplace, have been privileges, helping to make us what we have become. Many of us, giving our birtbplace, feel that we want to say," We began to breathe at A, but we began to live at B, and B we think of as our true birthplace." Like these nations which felt they began really to live from the time of the Zion deliverance. III. THE PRIVILEGES OF OUR BPinITUAL BIBTHPLAOE, The place where we began to live unto God-began to live the soul-life. Many heep in dearest memory the time, the place, the incidents, of their first realization of the ~edeemi~g love ~nd snfficiency. For us that is Zion. 'fhe place where God met with us 1s our Zion, And, in one sense, it is always Zion, for it is always in the presence of the cross on which Jeewi died. _We feel we live by his "decease accomplished at Jerusalem." -R.T. Ver. 7.- Variou, powers 'U8ed in God's service. "As well the singers as the players PS. LX)[XVII, 1-7.) TEE BOOT{ OF PSALMS, 229