Vera. 2-4.-Nature-figures of the Divine glMy. These a.re of peculiar interest, because they appeal to me.n universally ; the language of nature is the common, universal language. Only when men attempt to express their ideas and feelings by the languages of the tongue do they get into confusions and misunderstandings and aepe.rations. There is hope of reuniting humanity if it can be brought to heed the voice and witness of nature. Dr. Chalmers shows the connection of this psalm with the preceding one. "It begins, as does Ps. ciii., with the view of God's goodness, but on a different subject; the former psalm being addressed to God, as sitting on a throne of grace; the present psalm to God, as sitting on a throne of nature and of creation; and never have the works of God, and his sovereignty over them, been so magnificently set forth. The glory of the Divine is made palpable, in this psalm, through the medium of the senses.'' I. THE Lonn's VESTURE. Observe that no attempt is made in Scripture to describe God himself. He can ouly be known through revelations of himself that he is pleased to make. The immaterial can only be known through the material. God must take form, because man can only apprehend the formal. Moses could only see the "back parts," the after-glow, when the sun had passed down beyond the edge. Elders only saw a "paved work of sapphire." Isaiah only saw an incense-veiled throne. We can see God's garments, and argue from them what he must be who is clothed with such a vesture. Wbe.t a glorious thing is light, sun-rays, sunshine! Mysteriously pure; transcendently fine; surpassingly beautiful! It is the robe of God. Royal robes are supposed to represent, with some fitness, royalty. It is true of God that no conceiv- able robe can be worthy to represent him; it can do no more than suggest him. A young woman gained her eight e.t th_e age of twenty-three, by the help of a surgical operation. Looking out upon a sunlit landscape, she exclaimed, "Oh, how beautiful! I never dreamt of anything so beautiful as this." What is he "whose robe is the light"? II. THE LoRn's TENT. By "tbe heavens" the psalmist means the firmament, the vast blue dome that spans the earth. No doubt the firmament was then conceived as a solid sheet spread out e.s are the curtains of a tent. The earth was as a tent-floor, and those long lines of light which we see between heaven and earth in times of moisture, which do indeed seem to rest in or spring out of the sea, are thought of, by the psalmist, as the poles or pillars of the tent. After unfolding this figure, show that estimates of the wealth and greatness and power of a king are formed from the splcmdour of his palace and it-s appointments. Then what must he be whose "canopy is space"? III. TIIE LORD'S CHARIOT. It is not the terror of tempest-clouds that is in the poet's mind. It is the ever-fascinating sailing of the clouds across the sky, at tbe impulse of the upper winds. The moving of the vast masses of billowy clouds, eyer taking fresh and more fantastic shapes, and now silvered with the midday sun, or tinted with wondrous colouring in the evening light, is e. perpetual wonder and joy to all sensitive souls. We judge the status and wealth of our fellow-men by their equipages. What, then, must he be who "mnkcth the clouds his chariot," and, in place of mere horses, is borne away on "the wings of the wind"? So the nature-figures bring home to our minds the sublimity of God. These things-the heavens, the light, the clouds, the winds-are the sublimest things that come into the field of human knowledge and obsorv r,tion. 'They are not God, they are only something God has made; only 410 THE DOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, OIV. 1-35,
BOmething God uses; only something that may suggest what cannot be altogether concei,ed. Impress that rightly reverent, ndoring, wondering views of God ought to be encouraged. Vi~ e all need to have his glory as well as his grace ever kept before us. Pr:ore~sor Agess1z even points out the importance of right impressions of God to the scientific man. "I tell you that my experience in prolonged scientific investigations, con,inces me that a belief in God, a God who is behind and within the chaos of Yanishing points of human knowledge, adds a wonderful stimulus to the man who attempts to penetrate into the regions of the uuknown."-U. T.
Ver. 4.-Natu,·e-forces are Divi11e mi11?°sfries. The precise renderincr of this verse is ~iscussed in the Exposition. Now we treat it as a poetical suggestion, which fits rnto the general plan of the psalm. It is a hymn of admirations of the eternal King. 'l'he first part of the psalm sees the glory of the King through the splendour of his ?ourt or pal~e surrouudings. The second part of the psalm sees the glory of the King rn the prov1S1ons, the order, the arrangements, the happiness, of bis kinadom. At the court, the psalmist is moved by the sublimity of the "light" as God's" robe, the blue dome of the sky as God's tent-curtain, and the wind-driven clouds as his chariot. And he further notices the grandeur of the royal attendants, the courtiers, who wait to do the royal bidding. All the forces of nature are at the Divine command, and the force that represents them all-the force that is most mysterious and sublime-is the force of lightning. Illustrate what a marvel of human power and skill it seems to be that man has, in some measure, chained the lightning, and compelled it to yield him light, and to carry bis messages. What, then, must he be who has used the lightning force in his service through all the long generations? The figure is a sublime and suggestive one. All the august and awful nature-forces are conceived as ministrants in the court of the eternal King. illustrate by the vision of Isaiah; the six attendant seraphim. I. THE ROYAL MINISTERS DECLARE THE GLORY OF THE GREAT KING. When an impression is to be made on us of the magnificence of Solomon, we are told the number and the dignity of hie attendants and courtiers. Their nobility assures us that he must be yet more noble on whom they wait. Then show how grand are the forces of nature--physical, chemical; rain, snnshine, wind, fire, electricity, etc.; or take storms, famine, plague. What must he be who is daily served by such ministrants? II. '£HE BOYA.L MINISTERS ILLUSTRATE THE OPERATIONS OF THE KING. They execute his behests, carry out his plans; they execute his thoughts; and so we can read hie mind in their doings. 1. The multitude of his ministers suggests that he is con- tinuously working, ceaselessly active. Some of these nature-forces are always at work for him. 2. The skill of bis ministers suggests that he is ever efficiently working. These nature-forces can do what be wills. 3. And the mystery of his ministers reminds u.s how we are made to feel the surprises of the Divine wisdom.-R. T.