the Gibeonites, who banged them (1 Sam. xxiv. 21; 2 &m. xxi. 1-9). And then his great sin in the matter o'. Uriah--a sin in which no element of baseness. treachery, cruelty, and lust was wantmg; 11nd yet all the while he was a great psalm-siager (2 Sam. xi. 2-17). He piously exhorts Solomon to walk in the ways of the Lord; and r,et he bi~self ½ept bis harem crowded with ever more women (2 Sam. v. 13; 1 Kiags 11. 3). His terrible death-bed charge to Solomon to slay Joab and Shimei. His impre- oatory psalms (see Ps. cix.). And we have no record of any great good deeds to set off against these other terrible ones. Yes; it must be admitted that the choice of David needs vin,lication. A loud professor of religion, and yet, etc. II. BuT IT OAN BE VINDICATE □. 1. Becanse the expression so mv.ch complained of -David's being "a man ofter God's own hea,·t "-refers, not to his personal character, but UJ his offici,al, condv.ct. "He was called of God to restore the kingdom which Saul had destroyed, to subdue the Philistines, etc. These purposes he accomplished. So far he was a man after God's own heart. His moral delinquencies are recorded that we may know where the Divine approbation stops short" (F. D. Maurice). But we con- fess we do not lay much stress upon this. 1 Kingsxv.1-5 docs not bear it out. We prefer to 'l'indicate the Divine choice of David in another manner. 2. He was worthy when the words were spoken of him, and /01· a long while after. Had he been always what he afterwards became, such liigh commendation would not have been given. Then: 3. Be knew no better than to do as did all others. As to his life 119 au outlaw, a kind of Oriental Robin Hood, he was driven to it by the jealousy and hate of Saul; and as to his lies and stratagems, his ferocities and tortures, all such things were held lawful in his day; and, though they shock us as we read of them, they were held as altogether rigbt by his contemporaries. We must distinguish between the vitia tem- pori,s and the vitia hominis (Farrar), and not condemn the man for not being altogether diITerent from and beyond the public sentiment of his age. 4. W7zat he did know of right he mainly did. See his patriotism, his courage, his military ability, the salva- tioa of his country from ruin. See his delight and his trust in God, and his deep penitence for his sin. And see the unbounded honour and love of his people which he won and kept. Is all this to go for nothing? 5. And remember how he was punished for his sins. In his family. His sons had seen their father indulge himself: why :.houldn't they? (Kingsley). And in his nature he was punished. Its bent and bias became horribly sensual. Indulgence increased the evil, and so came about the shame- ful tragedy of his adultery and Uriah's murder, It was not a sudden fall, he bad long been tending that way. And in bis character. He never really recovered. He shuffles ahamefully to his grave; bis courage, his self-control, his nobleness, well-nigh all gone. Une is reminded of King Lear- " Vex not bis ghost; oh, let him pass; He hates him, That wonld upon the rack of this rough world Stretch ltim out longer." He dies a miserable and pitiful man, his last words being his charge to Solomon about Suimei: "His hoary head bring thou down to the grave with blood." Think of that as the last words of the David of the twenty-third psalm I What a melancholy falling away! There is no favouritism in God. If his children sin, they suffer, and that supremely. God loves them too much to let it be otherwise. III. AND IS FULL OF INSTRUCTION FOR OURSELVES. We learn; 1. Thanlcfv.lnes11 that we are born in a more enlightened age; that there would be shame now where there was then no shame. 2. Str01'ig religious feeling and profession are no certain safeguards against sin, but only heighten its guilt. 3. Repentance may be real, yet the n,sults of sin ,,wt be recalled. 4. We dare never remit even/or one day the waiting of our soul v.pon God in watchfulness and prayer. 5. The judgments of God against O'Ur sin are his mercy to our soul. 6. He who forgave the contrite David /orgives still. -s.c. Ver. 1.-.A ,n,nger in the dark. The previous psalm was written by a man in the dark, who could pray, but could not sing. The writer of this psalm can both pray o.nd ling. But there is a.n importa.nt difference between the "darknesses" of the two THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 249
p~almists. Heman suffered from severe bodily afll.ictione, such as are often attended by severe mental depressions. Ethan was distressed by aniious public or national conditions, which concerned him in an official rather than in a personal way. His hope in God was not clouded by bodily weakness. In him faith could triumph over fear. I. ETHAN's TIME OF DARKNESS, "Ethan was born in the time of David, but moulded chiefly by the influences, literary and religious, which characterized the age of Solomon." 'fhere is no reason for rejecting the ancient reference of this psalm to the reign of Rehoboam; to the breaking up of the Davidic kingdom; and tJJ the humiliating invasion of Shishak, the Pharaoh of Egypt. Exactly wbat would then come to the mind of the pious man was that the Davidic covenant seemed to have failed; God wae not fulfilling the promise to establish David's seed for ever. "It was in the reign of Rehoboam, when ten tribes had forsaken their allegiance to the Davidic dynasty, and the promise of the steadfastness of David's throne seemed suddenly revoked, that the faithful worshippers would most readily recall the vision of Nathan, with its attendant promises, and wonder where were the former loving-kindnesses which God aware unto David in his truth. Appropriate to this period is the apparent allusion to the raids of a foreign army." Distress that comes from public circumstances i~ rather intellectual than emotional, and the struggle cannot be so severe as when there is introduced the element of personal suffering. But they do invaluable service who can inspire the hope of a nation in its dark hours; for nations, too, "are saved by hope." II. ETHAN'B BONG IN THE TIME OF DARKNESS. A song of faith in a time of fear. A song of thankful memories in a time of present calamities. A song of joy in God himself, when God's ways seemed "past finding out." A man can sing in the dark, however dark it may be, and whatever form the darkness may take, only if he has right thoughts of God, and can keep firm hold on God. Tbings may he perplexing; but if we know the doer of the things, and have full confidence in him, we can quietly wait until his issues can be unfolded. Our song stops when we lose the sense of God's relation to our circumstances. Keep the relation, and we can always sing of God, and then we soon come to sing also of God's icays.-R. 'l'.