Ver. 20.-Our God our glory. The "glory" of Israel was found, as this verse indicates, in the God whom her sons worshipped; not in her cultivated fields, not in her varied scenery, not in her peculiar civilization, not even in her temple and its rites, but iu her God. No other contemporary nation worshipped one, pure, righteous, pitiful God, who sought the well-being, material and spiritual, of all his children. Well may we, to whom God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, claim that our God is the glory of our land. Vers. 44, 45.-The hope of the ea:ile. Israel in exile had no hope at all, but in the mercy and the faithfulness of her redeeming God (Lev. xxvi. 41, 42). When a human soul is far away from God, and can sing no song of joy in the "strange land" of sinful alienation; when it is brought very low with a sense of Divine disapproval, and of a future which it dare not face; when it shrinks from the society of those with whom it once had sweet ai:.d sacred fellowship, and shuns the eye of hun,an piety ;-there is one thing to remember, oue refuge in which to hide-the boundless mercy and the inviolable Word of God. 'fhat will not fail a human soul at its very worst. Up that pathway there is an escape from the "lowest hell" to the highest heaven. 482 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, OVI, 1-48,
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-48.-The "nevertheless" of God's mercy. This is actually expressed In ver. 44-, but it is the theme of the whole psalm. Note concerning it- I. IT IMPLIES PREVIOUS AND TERRIDU, PROVOCATION. And, indeed, there had been ~~1ch: 1. In sins actually committed. What a catalogue of them the psalm contains I Sm at the very beginning (ver. 7). The former psalm reviewed the history of God's people as a subject for adoring praise, because of God's never-failing care. Here, also, a" Hallelujah I" is raised, in view of the same history, because of GoJ.'s never-failing forgiveness. .And the sins that needed this forgiveness are confessed here-the short- lived gratitude (ver. 13); the shameful murmuring (ver. 15); the wicked envy (ver. 16); the disgraceful idolatry (ver. 19); their uubelief (ver. 24); their sacrifices to Baal-peor (ver. 28); their murmuring at Meribah (ver. 32); their disobedience (ver. 34). What a melancholy list it is! .Aud this is not all; for see: 2. The mercies of God despised. (Ver. 13.) 3. Their treatment of Moses. (Vers. 16, 23, 32.) 4. Their hardened resistance, so that God's punishments had no power to change their evil will (cf. John i. 5). Yes, there had been provocation indeed. II. IT PROCLAIMS THE INFINITE COMPASSION AND FORBEARANCE OF GoD. Sin is the dark foil on which the brightness of God's mercy is all the more seen. 'l'ha.t is why the angels of God can never render the praises of the redeemed. What a marvel it is that he should have spa.red Israel I It is equalled only by the marvel of his sparing us. JIJ, WHEN THE SOUL BECOMES CONSCIOUS OF ALL THIS, IT IS OVERWHELMED IN GRATITUDE, LOVE, AND PRAISE. See the opening of this psalm and its close. Thus is God's mercy the spring and a.biding impulse of the new life unto him. See the well- known.verse- "Oh the sweet wonders of that cross On which my Savionr groaned and died Her noblest life my spirit draws From his dee.r wounds and bleeding side." B. o. Ver. 3.-The 'bkssedness of the holy life. I. SuoH LIFE IS POSSIBLE, It would not 'be spoken of here and throughout the Scriptures a.s it is, if it were only a.n ideal but not a possible life. Surely, if sin be the abominable thing which God hates, he must have contemplated, in his redemptive work, our deliverance from it. What is the :first and great commandment, but a command to cherish that spirit towards God which is the spring of the holy life? · II. IT IS ENTERED INTO BY A DEFINITE wAY. 1. By self-surrender, which consists in the abandoning of whatever we know to be contrary to the will of God; giving it up, though it be dear as the right hand or eye; and in the surrender of all our powers and possessions to the absolute control and direction of God. 2. Then, when we have thus given ourselves up to God, we are to believe that he accepts us, and we are to keep trusting him, day by day and hour by hour, to cleanse us by the blood of Christ from all sin. If we will persevere in this surrender and trust, nothing can hinder our entering into this holy life. Tben- IH. lT I! MOST BLESSED. 1. For what it es<XI,pes: the misery of a condemning conscience; of paralyzed power-for none can effectually work for God if they are abiding in sin ; of knowing that your influence has been evil rather than good; of God's face hidden from you. 2. For what it wiris: the blessedness of inward peace; of confidence towards God; of power with God for man, and with man for God; of the possession of God's loving-kindness, which is better than life (Ps. lxiii.),and of assured hope. When the people of God live this life, then there will be a. turning to God on tlie part of the world, a.s now there is not, and for long ages has not been, For men will ~ee that God's people posses~ a secret spring of joy, and peace, and purity, and strength, and they will come to covet it with a. great desire (vers. 4, 6).-S. C.
Vers. 4, 5.-.A ltoly aspiration. It is threefold (see ver. 5), and it is preceded by PB. OVI, 1-48,] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 433