Vera. 1-52.-The general subject-God's promise to David and his seed-but the present state of things is a bitter contrast to the promise, and a prayer that God would remove the contrast. Suggests- I. 'l'HAT Goo HAS ENTERED INTO A GRAND COVENANT WITH MANKIND. Given ns the greatest and most precious promises, 1. Promises that relate to our highest nature. "I will he a Father to them, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." 2. That relate to our greatest calamity. Redemption from sin and pardo □ to the penitent. 3. That relate to our endless being. The completeness and glory of the Divine work begun in us here. II. THAT Goo FULFILS HIS PART OF HIS COVENANT COMPLETELY AND PERFECTLY. 1. Because the covenant was made out of his love, voluntarily. 2. Because God is true andfaitliful, and cannot deceive. 3. Because God has the power and ability to do all that he promises. Not like men. III. IT IS WE WHO DEFEAT THE PURPOSE OF Goo's COVENA~'T. 1. We transgress, and bring upon ourselves punishmeut. The consequences which God has attaebed to tran8gression, 2. Our unreperded sins take from us the power to receive the Divine promises. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons 1Jf God." IV. BUT OUR SIN CANNOT ALIENATE Goo's LOVING-KINDNESS FROM us. (Ver. 33.) 1. He has sent CJhrist as the proof of this to a sinful, world. 2. H6 sends his Spirit into the heart to plead with us. 3. He is infinitely patient, waiting for our penitent retum.-S. BOOK [V. EXPOSITION.
PSALM XO. "return once more, o.nd replonish the enrth." There may bo an nllusion to tho THE ascription of this psalm in the title destrucliou_of mankind by the Deluge, o.nd to Moses must be e.dmitled to be very tile rep,,ophng of tl10 earth by the de,ccnd- remarkable. No other psalm is so a.scribed. e.nts of N oe.h, e.s Dr. Ko.y supposes; or the meaning may be that God is continunlly Nor indeed is a date given to any other bringing one gener.J.ti<m of men to an end, earlier than the time of David. The pso.lm nud then sr,tting up o.uother, having the itself, however, when examined, is found to same control over human life that he has accord with the tre.ditional date. Professor over inanimate nature (Ver. 2). Cheyne notes in it a "roughness,'' which is Ver. 4.-For e. thousand years in thy sight o.re but e.s yesterday. Time has no presumably a sign of antiquity. Em1.IJ says relation to GoJ; it does not exist for him. of it, "The poem bas in it something un- "One day is with the Lord e.s a thousand commonly striking, solemn, sinking iuto years, and e. thousand years e.s one de.y " the depth of the Godhead. In contents and (2 Pet. iii. 8). Therefore we must not judge language it is tbroaghout original and his methods of working by our own. When it is past; rather, as it passes. And e.s e. powerful ; and, as it is undoubtedly very watch in the night. To the sleeper a night- old, it would have been universally con- watch seems gone in a moment. sidered as correctly derived from Moses, Ver. 5.-Thou ce.rriest them e.we.y e.s with had we known exactly the reasons which e. flood. This verse is to be connected with guided the collector." Hengstenberg, Kay, ver. 3, "Thou sweepest mankind a.way;" i.e. removest them from the ea.rth, when it pleases Professor Alexander, and Dean Johnson thee. They a.re e.s e. sleep. Fan te.stic, accept unhesitatingly the Mosaic authorship. vague, forgotten e.s soon as it is over. In The psalm is termed, " A. Prayer of Moses, the morning they are like grass which the man of God." It is, however, only in groweth up (comp. Pss. xx:xvii. 2; lxxii. 16; part e. "prayer." Meditation occupies the xcii 7; ciii. 15; Isa. xl. 7). Ver. 6.-In the morning it flourisheth, opening portion (vers. 1-6); comµl:i.int e.nd groweth up; in the evening it is out follows (vers. 7-11); it is only witll ver. down, and withered (comp. Pss. cii. 4, 11; 12 that prayer begins. (For the application ciii. 15; Isa.. xl 7; Je.s. i. 10, 11). to Moses of the phrase, " me.n of God,'' see Ver. 7.-For we are oonsumed by thine Dent. miii 1; Josh. xiv. 6; Ezra. iii. 2.) anger. From the general reflections, and the general consideration of human wee.k- Ver. 1.-Lord, thou hast been our Dwelling- nees, which have hitherto occupied him, plaoe in all generations; or, "our habitation" the psalmist proceeds to epee.k particuhrly (see Ps. xci. 9); comp. Ps. :uxiL 7, "Thou of the weakness and sin of himself and bis a.rt my Hiding-place." 1''or well-nigh forty own people, which have brought upon years Moses had had no fixed material them e. painful visitation. God's anger is dwelling-place. hot upon them, e.nd has "consumed" them- Ver. 2.-Before the mountains were not utterly, but so that they are greatly brought forth (comp. Prov. viii. 25). The " troubled " and cast clown. By thy wrath " mountains " a.re mentioned as perhaps 1.he a.re we troubled. The expressions used grandest., and certainly among the oldest, suit the time of the later wanderings in the of o.ll the work. of God. Or ever thou hadst wilderness, when the generation the.t he.d formed the earth and the world; literally, especially sinned was being gradually or thou ga'Dut I.Yirth to the earth and the "consumed," the.t it might not enter the world (comp. Deut. xxxii. 18). Even Holy Land. from everla.Bting to everlasting thou art Ver. 8.-Thou be.at set our iniquities God (comp. Ps. :xciii. 2; Prov. viii. 23; before thee. Instead of hiding his face Micah V. 2; He.b. i 12). from their iniquitie~, turning a.way from Ver. 3.-Thou tlll'Ile&t me.n to destruction ; them and overlooking them, God he.a plo.ced or, "to dust" (comp. Gen. iii 19). And them steadily "before him," in the full ae.7ut, Betum, 7e children of men; i.e. searching and scorching light of bis own PS, OX, 1-17.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 255