The analysis of His Father's character is now again, as in Psalm xl., submitted to His faith, and the same attributes are fully before His view: "Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? thy faithfulness in destruction? thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?" Analogous to this, we hear from the lips of the same agonizing pleader, in Psalm vi., "O save me for thy mercies' sake; for in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave, who shall give thee thanks?" In Psalm xxxi., the last words of the expiring Saviour "Into thy hands I commit my spirit"-are addressed to His Father, as "The Lord God of truth;" and, contemplating Him in this character, His faith, in the exclamation-"Thou hast redeemed me," deals with His own redemption from the grave as accomplished, as, when in prospect of Calvary, He exclaimed-"It is finished!" Amid the horrors which gathered around Him in Gethsemane, and on the Cross-so graphically presented to us in verses 10-13 we may discern His mind resting on the same Man did "esteem Him stricken, smitten of God:" as man, He did esteem Himself so too; that it was the Lord who was "pleased to bruise Him," "to put Him to grief," and who made "His soul an offering for sin." How fully realized was this, when He, whose human heart was surely as susceptible of receiving and prizing sympathy as it was ever ready to impart it (His disciples having forsaken Him and fled), put forth the agonizing exclamation, "My God, my God, why hast THOU forsaken me?" aspect of His God, both in conflict and in victory. Have mercy on me. . . . . Save me for thy mercies' sake," is His cry in the one; and, together with truth (already mentioned), the "goodness” and the “marvellous kindness" of the Lord form, in the other, the subject-matter of His song. "Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room; He brought me forth also into a large place," is the echo of the triumphant note of Messiah in Psalm xviii. 19. Then, with "the tongue of the learned," and with knowledge (the result of dearly-bought experience), "to speak a word in season to him that is weary," He closes up His soul's exercises in this Psalm with an address to His Church, to strengthen their faith, and to animate their hope: "Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." Let us listen to Messiah's cry in Psalm cxxx. There, in those "depths," in which, as the antitype of Jonah, and as, in so many Psalms, we have seen Him plunged, we meet Him, as the same believing, waiting, hoping man of prayer; and, just as in the Psalm last quoted, having tested, in resurrection, the sufficiency of the resources in His God for His own redemption, being "saved by hope," He can turn round to His Church with His ever ready "word in season:" "Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the 5 Rom. viii. 23, 24; Ps. xxi. 9. Lord there is mercy (how well He knew this, from His own faith's experience, we have abundantly seen); and with Him is plenteous redemption; and He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." While on this part of my subject, I would direct attention to Psalm xlii. "The living God" becomes to the speaker, by an appropriating act of faith, the God of His life. His loving-kindness is before His view, as is His truth in the next Psalm (which may be regarded as a continuation of this). Hope, as in Psalm xvi., is in full exercise on resurrection, as its legitimate object. "Thou wilt shew me the path of life; in thy presence is fulness of joy," is the language of the one Psalm; "Hope thou in God, my exceeding joy.... the God of my life........ His presence is salvation" (verse 5, margin), we hear in the other. "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me," says David, speaking for "the Son of David." "Thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves," we have heard in Psalm lxxxviii. "All thy billows and thy waves passed over me," utters Jonah, the great type of death and resurrection. "O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore will I remember thee," is the cry of the one- "O Lord my God, when my soul fainted. within me, I remembered thee," exclaims the typical prophet. "My heart is glad, my glory rejoices," in Psalm xvi. “I shall yet praise thee," the reiterated resolve of Psalm xlii.—words echoed back to us from E the "fish's belly"—"I will sacrifice to thee with the voice of thanksgiving;" and wherefore? Salvation by God's presence we have seen to be the key-note of the song of the latter psalm; Salvation from “Hades,” and "corruption" that of the former. "Salvation," says Jonah, "is of the Lord"-salvation, according to him, too, out of both the one and the other-"Out of the belly of Hades cried I, and thou heardest my voice; thou hast brought up my life from corruption.” “My flesh shall dwell confidently,” is the literal rendering of Psalm xvi. 9. Abundant evidence has been adduced from "The Psalms," to which the Lord Jesus referred for the things concerning Himself, to establish that "THE NAME OF THE LORD"-His revealed character was the "strong tower," into which, as the "righteous One," in the hour of His need, He ran, and was safe; and—to adopt the language of Psalm xxxi., just considered-in this pavilion He was kept "secretly from the strife of tongues," and hid, in "the secret" of Jehovah's "presence, from the pride of man." The TRUSTING' Saviour had resolved, in His 6 Prov. xviii. 10. 7 In Psalm xci., admitted by Satan himself to testify of Christ, the promise runs-"Under His wings shalt thou TRUST; His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." "Preserve me, O God; for I TRUST in thee," is the opening prayer of Psalm xvi. "He TRUSTED on the Lord that He would deliver Him," is the testimony wrung from the lips of His deadly foes, while He hung, forsaken by God and man, on the accursed tree. In Hebrews îi. 13, the TRUST of the God-man is adduced to substantiate His oneness, as "He that sanctifieth," with the "sanctified." own experience, so as to hand over to His Church, as a tested fact, that truth, "They that know thy name will put their trust in thee." We may meetly trace that experience in the following lines, written originally to depict that of the believer, but alike applicable to Him whom we have been regarding, as not more the object of faith for salvation, than the perfect pattern of a believing, trusting man, leaving us "an example, that in this, as in other points, we should follow in His steps." I stand upon the battle-field: God, as my buckler and my shield, After some hesitation in applying these last four lines to the experience of Christ, I am satisfied as to the legitimacy of such application, as implying nothing more than what, from Scripture, I have been eliciting to establish the entirely human character of that experience. Is the utterance of David applicable to "the Son of David"?" Thy word have I 8 Ps. ix. 10. |