7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.

8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.

9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.

10 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.

II Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

12 I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.

13 For great is thy mercy

7. How simple! and how wonderful!

8. In the presence of universal idolatry. Can hardly understand the feeling without living in the midst of the heathen.

9. A bold and blessed anticipation. Well to take comfort in it when, like the psalmist, suffering and smarting from the world's wickedness and "contradiction."

II. Unite," i.e., to thee (God). The soul of religion. To have the heart united to God is the way to fear Him. The religion of Old Testament days was just the same as that of the New; that is, a matter of the heart, leading to practical fear, and all from God.

toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.

14 O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.

15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

16 O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.

17 Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.

12, 13. Forestalling an answer. The language of confidence, as often in psalms.

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14. The peril. "The lowest hell” (ver. 13): "the proud": blies of violent men":"have not set thee before them," i.e., godless. No doubt a very real peril, whatever it was.

16. "Son of thine handmaid." This may mean nothing more than that David had been God's servant "Born in the from his youth. house" (Gen. xiv. 14). So in Ps. cxvi. 16.

17. "A token for good," i.e., some outward sign of Thy favour. It is not wrong to ask that our faith may be encouraged.

Psalm 87.

I HIS foundation is in the holy mountains.

2 The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.

4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia,

WRITER: Unknown.

The mention of "Babylon" (ver. 4) makes it likely that he lived after or during the Captivity.

OCCASION: Unknown.
CHARACTER: Prophetic.

The meaning is somewhat obscure from its abruptness: but of this there can be no doubt, that it is a description of the future of Zion, which can have any rational fulfilment only in the conversion of the world.

I, 2. God's love for Zion. "His foundation means the foundation He has caused to be laid in Zion. See 1 Pet. ii. 6.

3. The future God has determined on: "are spoken of thee."

4-7. That future described with a few broad touches. This the point,

and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.

5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her and the highest himself shall establish her.

6 The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there.

7 As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.

that the nations are to be gathered in to Zion. Rahab (pride), i.e., Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia (2 Chron. xiv. 12) were not only heathen, but also active enemies of Israel. At any rate, they represented the heathen world all round Israel.

4. "To them that know me," must mean among them." "Born there": three times said: a very special and remarkable expression. Can have none other than a spiritual sense. Consider John iii. 3, 10.

6. God's register, 2 Tim. ii. 19. Compare Mal. iii. 16; Phil. iv. 3; Rev. xx. 12.

7. The gladness that will be the distinguishing feature of Zion's children. So Isa. li. 3, II; Luke xv. 23-25, and elsewhere in abundance. How lovely the last six words of psalm! Now in this present life.

Psalm 88.

Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.

I O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:

2 Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

3 For my soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength :

5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more and they are cut off from thy hand.

6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves.

8 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

WRITER: Heman.

Heman and Ethan were both called the "Ezrahite" (see Ps. lxxxix. title), but why is unknown. They and Asaph were David's chief singers. Read 1 Chron. xxv. 1-6 ("the king's seer," ver. 5). OCCASION: Unknown. CHARACTER: Practical. PRINCIPAL USE: For time of trouble.

1. "Lord God of my salvation": the one ray of light in the most dark and lugubrious of psalms. Not one cheering expression else. All there is to do is to observe the features of the dismal complaint. And yet there is comfort in even this. It shows how, even of old, depression was sometimes overpowering (whether it ought to have been is another question); and how it may be possible to be so cast

9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

IO Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee?

II Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction ?

12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

13 But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

down (yea, for a real believer to be so) as to be able only to pray in the dark. But then (and this is the great lesson), we should pray. See vers. 1, 2, 9, 13.

3-18. Bodily exhaustion (ver. 3). Forgotten (vers. 4, 5). The misery attributed to God: an object of aversion (vers. 6-8). Prayer unavailing (ver. 9). Bitterness (vers. 10-13). Abandoned by God, the worst form of depression (ver. 14). Constitutional nervousness (ver. 15, 16). The incessant nature of the trial (ver. 17). Desertion (ver. 18). "They" (ver. 16), not men, but

14 LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

3 I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,

4 Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations.

5 And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.

6 For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD ?

:

and again repeated. See vers. 1, 2, 5, 8, 24, 28, 33, 35. "Built up" mercy has to be constructed, as it were. "In the very heavens," i.e., so that it shall be manifest to all that God is true. "The 3, 4. sure mercies of David," ie., what the Jews rightly understood as Messiah's kingdom. See Isa. lv. 3; also note on vers. 19-37.

5-18."Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" is the subject of these verses, summed up in vers. 15-18. "The Holy One of Israel is our King" (ver. 18): this is religion, and this was the great privilege Israel had. "Assembly of saints" (ver. 7)=angels.