His glory, that is to say, his tongue that gives utterance to the emotions of a soul made in the image of God, shall not be silent, but be continually sounding forth the praises of God's grace and mercy, truth and goodness. Nor was this a vain promise on David's part. Henceforth to the end of his life, his walk with God was closer than it had ever been before. Moreover, having selected and consecrated a site for the temple, the place where the angel of the pestilence had stayed its ravages, and returned its sword to its scabbard, David employed the greater part of the remainder of his days in collecting together the vast and costly materials to be used in the construction of the sacred edifice. He laboured to make it sure that the temple should stand upon Mount Moriah, where his altar stood and the pestilence ceased, as a monument and memorial to all generations of the forgiving mercy of God to his people. And now, beloved reader, can we recall no instances of God's sparing and forgiving mercy to us, which should move us, as it moved David, to a holier walk and a more useful life? Can we recall no instances in which, if God had dealt with us in justice rather than in mercy, we must have perished? Depend upon it, that all time not spent in the service of God is time misspent, and worse than lost. Time not so spent will meet us at the judgment, terrible as the ghost of a murdered friend, and haunt us through eternity with ceaseless upbraidings.

LECTURE ON PSALM XXXI.

VERSE 1. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.

DAVID'S prayer for deliverance in this verse is based upon the assumption that it is a righteous thing in God to deliver those who have put their trust in him. He takes it for granted that the righteousness of God will not allow such to be put to shame, to be disappointed in their hopes of his mercy. This is a feeling that cannot be dislodged from the believer's heart. However unworthy he may feel himself to be, and however imperfectly-though he hopes with sincere endeavour-he may have served him, the believer cannot but feel that a righteous God must and will make a difference between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not. This is evidently the feeling that pervades and animates David's cry for deliverance in the verse before us. It springs, not from any sense of worthiness in himself, but from the feeling that God cannot fail to help those who fear him, and hope in his mercy. It is a feeling justified by the teachings of God's word everywhere.

VERSE 2. Bow down thine ear to me: deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me. David's danger here is imminent; it presses hard upon him; and unless help comes speedily, he feels that all will be over with him. There was many a time in his history when there seemed to be but a step between him and death. At such times his prayer was no doubt the prayer of the verse before us: "Bow down thine ear to me; hear me speedily:

be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me." When dangers press upon the soul, and threaten it with destruction, God is the only rock upon which it can stand secure; his omnipotent love the only house of defence in which it can take refuge and be safe.

VERSE 3. For thou art my rock and my fortress: therefore, for thy name's sake, lead me and guide me.

What David prays in the preceding verse that the Lord would be to him, he here declares that he isnamely, his Rock and Fortress. On this relation between himself and God he grounds the prayer, "therefore, for thy name's sake, lead me and guide me." God had certainly glorified his name, and especially his attributes of truth and mercy, in the many deliverances he had wrought for David; and David prays that he would still glorify it by adding another to His many deliverances of him. "For thy name's sake lead me, and guide me!" A thought how full of comfort and encouragement do we find in these words!--that God will, for his name's sakemoved to it merely by the regard that he has for his own character and glory, "lead us and guide us in the way wherein we should go."

VERSE 4. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.

It was through the strength of God alone that David could escape being caught in the net privily spread everywhere to ensnare him. The case is not otherwise with any of us. We can escape the snares of evil spread everywhere in this world, only as we escape them in the strength of God. His grace alone is sufficient for us.

VERSE 5. Into thy hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

It was his knowledge of God as the God of truth that emboldened David to commit his life and soul to his keeping. He was confident that God could never falsify any promise of help that he made to his people; and that, having promised to deliver the righteous man out of all his troubles, he would make his promise good. He therefore casts himself upon this promise, and commits his spirit into God's hand. These words are found elsewhere. David's Divine Son repeated them on the cross the moment before he bowed his head and gave up the ghost, saying, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Luke xxiii. 46. This is the glorious privilege of the believer-to commit his soul-when heart and flesh are failing him-to commit his soul into the hands of the God of truth, the God who will never disappoint any hope excited in the minds of his creatures by any of his great and precious promises.

VERSE 6. I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the Lord.

David here contrasts the God in whom he trusts with the gods in whom the heathen trust. The God in whom he trusts is the God of truth; the gods in whom they trust are lying vanities. The object of his trust is the Lord, the great I AM; the Fountain of all being and all bliss. The object of their trust is-nothing-senseless idols, in which their votaries trust only to be deceived and disappointed in their hopes. And there is still the same contrast between the Christian's trust and the worldling's trust now, that there was in David's day. The Christian, trusting in the Lord as his fountain of good, is never

disappointed; the wordling, trusting in earthly things as his fountain of good, never fails to be disappointed; so entirely so, that after the world has given him everything that it has in its power to bestow, he is obliged to inscribe on the whole, "vanity and vexation of spirit."

VERSES 7, 8. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities; and hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; thou hast set my feet in a large room.

David has many reasons for being glad and rejoicing in the mercy of the Lord. His eye of love had been upon him in adversities; he had been a present help to him in trouble; he had not left him to be overcome by the enemy that he most feared, but had made his feet to stand in a place where he could move freely and in safety. He is supposed to refer here to the deliverances wrought out for him by the Lord from the hand of Saul. And let us all remember that every one of us has his Saul—-Satan, with his myriads of emissaries, seeking our destruction. If God delivers us not out of his hand, we perish. If He be not with us when trouble and adversities come on us, we shall be overcome.

VERSE 9. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble

mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. How sore David's trouble, from which he prays to be delivered, was, we may infer from its effects upon his body. His "eye was consumed by the grief" that it had caused him; indeed, his whole mental and physical nature seemed to be sinking under the weight of it. There is no sorrow like to spiritual sorrow in its depressing effects on mind and body.