awful sound of their hungry roar drowns thou me.yest give them their meat in due almost all other sounds, and shakes with see.son (nee vera. H, 23). As cattle have terror tho hearts of thoso that hear. Sud- "grase,:' and lions "mea~," from (~od, so denly, however, night turns into do.y- every kmd of animal receives from the .s'lme Vers. 22, 23.-The sun ariseth. Briaht source its proper food. beams of light flo.mA up the eastern sky; Ver. 28.-'Ibat thou givest the'll they and earth basks in the sun's smile. But gather; literally, thou givest to them; they it is o. signal to tho lions and the other gaJ,her. Thou openest thine hand, they ara wild beasts to wilbdraw. They gather :filled with good; or, "are sati,fied with themselves together, and lay them down good" (Kay, Revised Version). in their dens. Hiding themselves from the Ver. 29.-Thou hidest thy face, they a.re eye of day, and retreatiug into places where tronbled. If God withdraws the light of they nre safe. Then it is tbc turn of his countenance from any living thing, in- humanity to reappear. Humanity wakes stantly it feels the loss. It is "troul:,Jell," up; and man goeth forth unto hfa work cast down, confounded (comp. Ps. xxx. 7). and to his labour until the evening; i.e. Thou takest away their breath, they dia. ma.n proceeus to his appointed task, which As the living things have life from God, so is "work"-once a curse (Gen. iii. 17-19), they have death from him. Not one of now e. blessing (Eph. iv. 28). them perishes but he knows it, aud c.:.i:ses Ver. 2!.-0 Lord, how manifold are thy it or allows it (see Matt. x. 29). And return works! 'fhis is a parenthetic ejaculation, to their dust. Return, i.e., to the dead from which the psalmist canuot refrain, matter out of which they were created. as he contemplates creation so far. It breaks Ver. 30.-Thou sendest forth thy spirit; the continuity of his description (vere. 2- or, thy breath. As God "breathed into 32), but not unpleasingly. In wisdom hast man's nostrils the breath of life" (Gen. ii. tho11 made them all (comp. Prov. iii. 19, 7), so it is an effluence from Lim that gives "The Lord by wisdom bath founded the life to every living thing. They a.re created: earth ; by understanding bath he established and thou renewest the face of the earth. the heavens"). (On the "wisdom" of Goel, As after the Deluge (see Gen. vii. 4; viii as shown in creation, see the whole series 17). of 'Bridgewater Treatises.') The earth is Ver. 31.-The glory of the Lord shall full of thy riches; or possessio1lB (comp. Pa. endure for ever; rather, let the glDTy of the cv. 21). "The earth is the Lord's, and the LoTd, etc. The psalmist prays that there fulness thereof" (Ps. xxiv. 1). Creation may be no further interruption of the glo- gives the right of ownership. rious course of nature besides the Deluge, Ver. 25.-So is this great and wide sea; which ha.s come into his thoughts in con- rather, yonder sea too (is thy work), so great nection -with the destruction of animal life and wide-st1'etchi11g. Wherein a.re things (ver. 29). Henceforward he trusts and creeping (rather, moving things) innumerable. prays that the Lord shall rejoice in his 'fhe abundant life of the sea, even in its works, and not again repent Lim that he depths, is tbe admiration of all natumlists. ha.s maue thel!l (Gen. vi. 7). Tens of thousands of microscopic shells Ver. 32.-Re looketh on the earLh, and it have been brought to light by the dredger's trembleth (comp. Psa. xviii. 7; oxiv. 7). The labours almost everywhere. Both small earth "trembles," ue knowing that it can be and great beasts. Microscopic shell-fish destroyed at any moment. He touoheth the on the one hand ; seals, walruses, sharks, hills, and they smoke; or, Iha mountains- whales, on the other. the strongest portions of the earth (Pss. Ver. 26.-There go the ships. These nxvi. 6: lxv. 6)-" smoke" when he may seem out of place among the works touches them (sec Exod. :xi.x. 18; Deut. iv. of God. But are they not his, in a. certain 11 ; Pa. cxli v. 5). scnso? Did he not contemplate them when Vere. 33--35.-The peroration (like the he made the sea., a.nd make it to some opening) is simple prafae of God himself, extent for them? And did he not give men wisdom to invent and perfect them? considered in himself. All his life the There is that leviathan. "Leviuthan" ie psalmist will praise God (var. 33)-his soul here probably the whale, whioh may in shall praise him (ver. 35), he will bo glad early times have frequented the l\lediter- in him (ver. 34); finally, he calls upon all ranean. Whioh thou hast made to play men to join in his prai.:!e (ver. 35, last therein; or, to play with him. So the LXX. (lµ1rat(«v ab-rcp); a.nd, among mo- clause). derns, Ewald, Hitzig, Olshausen, Koy, Ver. 33.-I will sing unto the Lord a.a Cheyne, and our Revisers (in the margin). long as I live (comp. Pss. hiii. 4; cxlvi. 2): 'fhe anthropomorphism is not beyond that I will sing praise to my Oo.i while I have of other passa.ges. my being. A.n echo of the preceding hemi- Ver. 27.-These wait all upon thso; that etich. 400 'l'HE DOOK OF PSALMS. [PB, OIV, 1-35,
Ver. 31.-My meditation of him shall be more, Repetition for the eake of emphasi1. sweet; rnther, may my meditation be pi.easing Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Then, ,,, him! (K"y, Cheyne, Revised Vel'Bion). I when this blot is removed, when the triBle will be glad in the Lord (oomp. Pss. xxxii. of the godly, from the perseoutions and 11; xxxiii. 1, etc.). Rejoicing in the Lord vexations of sinners, are over, it will be the is a form of praising him. part of my son!, with greater heartiness Ver. 35.-Let the sinners be consumed than ever, to "bless the Lord," Praise ye ont of the earth; i.e. "Let the great blot the Lord. Then, too, all mankind may well upon creation--sin and sinners--€xist no be called upou to join in a ohorus of praise more. Let the harmony upon the earth be and blessing, and to sing, as saints llnd complete, by the elimination of this •• one angels sing in the oourts of her1ven, "Halle- jarring string." And let the wioked be no lujah I" (Rev, :six. 1, 8, 4, 6),