heart for its misgivings, and bidding the soul to hope in God, as one from whom deliverance was sure to come. The sequel shows that David's faith was not disappointed. The impious and unnatural rebellion, before whose fury he was fleeing when he wrote this and the preceding psalm, was speedily suppressed, and he restored to his throne, and to the sanctuaryservices, whose loss he felt so keenly, and laments so pathetically. 2 Sam. xix. 9, 10, &c. His faith had not apprehended more than it had realized. All that he had longed and prayed for in his exile, God had granted to him in his restoration. May such be the final result of all our contests with evil within us and around us! And if truly penitent for our sins, while looking to Christ to deliver and cleanse us from them, let us address our souls-however sorely our hearts may at times misgive us-let each of us still address our soul, as David addressed his, "Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Who does not see in this psalm the contest between faith and fear, the spirit and the flesh, so graphically described by St. Paul, the flesh crying out continually, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?" and the spirit as continually rejoining, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ."

LECTURE ON PSALM XLIV.

THE historical occasion of this psalm was probably the same as that of the sixtieth. The caption of that psalm reads, "To the chief Musician upon Shushaneduth, Michtam of David, to teach; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, when Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of Salt twelve thousand." The Edomites, as the descendants of Esau, owed the Israelites, as the descendants of Jacob, an implacable grudge. They could not but remember with resentment how Jacob inveigled his brother Esau out of his birthright, as the first-born. Gen. xxvii. They therefore availed themselves of every opportunity to make the Israelites feel their resentment at having been thus deprived of the pre-eminence as the favoured people. They accordingly took advantage of David's absence, in carrying on war in Arabia and Syria, to make an irruption into his kingdom, slay a great number of his subjects, make captives of others, and load themselves with spoil. But before they could reach, and plunder Jerusalem, David's wars in Syria taking a favourable turn, he sent Joab, the captain of his hosts, in pursuit of the Edomites, of whom, overtaking them in the region of country south of the Dead Sea, he slew twelve thousand, and took possession of their country. 2 Sam. viii. 13; 1 Kings xi. 15, 16. It was while his people were, in his absence, slain, made captives, and pillaged by the Edomites, that David is supposed to have composed this psalm. It seemed strange to him, that, while he and his

faithful soldiers were fighting the battles of the Lord abroad, his people should be so severely tried at home. God had been the help of Israel in all time past, and was under covenant obligations to be their helper still, so long as they continued faithful in their allegiance to him. And yet the present posture of their affairs looked as if he had forgotten them, though Israel had not forgotten him, neither dealt falsely in his covenant. (See verse 17.) David, however, notwithstanding a state of things so calculated to shake his faith, cannot but believe that God will still be the helper of his people, as he ever had been in time of need, when they sought him with their whole heart. It is only by a review of the past, that he is enabled to dissipate the dark clouds of the present.

VERSES 1, 2. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers

have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.

As the Lord our God is of one mind, and changes not-the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever-what he has done once, we may expect him, under similar circumstances, to do again, always. What, therefore, "we have heard with our ears," we may expect to see with our eyes. Hence the testimony of God's Church elsewhere is, "As we have heard, so have we seen.' Ps. xlviii. 8. Experience has always confirmed the testimony of the past. And yet an earnest faith will speak just as positively of the future-as we have heard, so shall we see. It is this anticipative faith that sustains David here. However calamitous the evils may be under which he and his people may be suffering, he cannot but believe that they would be

delivered as their fathers had been-that He who had wrought so powerfully for the fathers, would not allow the children to perish out of the land which he himself had given. It is well for us to remember in seasons of trial what God has done for others under like circumstances; for what he has done for others, we may expect him under the same circumstances to do for us.

VERSE 3. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.

It was not by military prowess, but by the favour of God, that Israel of old prevailed. It was his favour, vouchsafed to faith, that enabled five of them to chase an hundred of their enemies, and an hundred to put ten thousand to flight. Lev. xxvi. 8. When God strengthens us, no creature-power can overcome us, or do us harm. We need no other hand than God's right hand, no other arm than his, to ensure us the victory over every enemy. This was the experience of God's Israel of old; David hoped that it would be the experience of the Israel of his day.

VERSE 4. Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.

As the Lord's being the King of ancient Israel secured them deliverance, so David here virtually pleads the same relation as a reason why he should deliver the Israel of his day. The Lord was their King too. They had stood firm in their allegiance to him, and could therefore expect the favour always vouchsafed to faithful subjects. the Israel in the wilderness and Canaan, were the elect of God.

They, as truly as in the conquest of Here, and again in

the sixth verse, David speaks in the first person singular; not, however, as an individual, but as one giving utterance to the feelings of the entire national heart. It was not as David, but as the leader of Israel that he speaks.

VERSES 5-8. Through thee will we push down our enemies : through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah. In each of these four verses there is a silent parallel run between the Israel of old and the Israel of David's day. Did the former trust in God alone to thrust down and trample their enemies under their feet? so did the latter. Did the former renounce all reliance on their bow and sword to save them? so did the latter. Did the former experience continual deliverance out of the hands of those that hated them? so did the latter, until the present sore calamity overtook them. Did the former boast themselves in God all the day long, and praise him continually as their Help and Deliverer? the latter did the same. But notwithstanding these parallels between the faith and practice of the two Israels, which would lead one to expect a parallelism in the treatment of the two, he goes on to say:

VERSES 9, 10. But thou hast cast off and put us to shame, and goest not forth with our armies. Thou makest us turn back from the enemy; and they which hate us spoil for themselves.

In these and the six following verses we have represented the contrast between God's dealings with his people in the conquest of Canaan, and his dealings with them at the date of our psalm. In their conquest of Canaan he cast down every enemy that