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all upon Thee. The less I see, the more I will wait upon Thee. And, O Lord, what relief to be able and allowed to lay before Thee all the details of my suffering! It is not as to an earthly friend, from whom I would fain hide what I feel of sin, as causing the affliction, and therefore as specially poignant in the taunts and slanders of my foes. But I come unto Thee, O Lord, to whom I may confess all my sins, and in whom I may still trust, because I can entreat Thee through Jesus Christ, my Saviour.

3. Still trust in God, my soul. He will not, in His grace He cannot, leave thee. The storm has swept away what was untenable; it has driven me closer to Jesus, the Friend of sinners. And here I will rest, and rest for ever.

Amen.

Он, how past all utterance happy,

Sweet, and joyful it will be

When they who, unseen, have loved Him,
Jesus face to face shall see!

In that day how good and pleasant
This poor world to have despised!
And how mournful and how bitter,
Dear that lost world to have prized!
Blessed, then, earth's patient mourners
Who for Christ have toil'd and died,-
Driven by the world's rough pressure
In those mansions to abide !

To those realms, just Judge, oh call me,
Deign to open that blest gate,
Thou whom seeking, looking, longing,
I with eager hope await!

Amen and

HYMN OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

(The Voice of Christian Life in Song.)

XL.

PEACE, BE STILL!

I As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God! When shall I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my meat day and night,

While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me :

For I had gone with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him

For the help of his countenance.

6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me :

Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites,

From the hill Mizar.

7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts :

All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

8 Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night his song shall be with me,

And my prayer unto the God of my life.

9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me?
Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
IO As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me;
While they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

II Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him,

Who is the health of my countenance, and my God.-PSALM XLII.

WITH this Psalm commences the second book of the Psalter, among whose various characteristics the prevalence of the name Elohim has been specially noted. For while in the first book the name Jehovah occurs 272 times, and that of Elohim only fifteen times, in the second book (Ps. xlii.-lxxii.), the name Elohim occurs 164 times, and that of Jehovah only thirty times. This book is also introduced by at least seven Psalms (Ps. xlii. and xliv.-xlix.), which seem to be the composition of the sons of Korah, though in the spirit if not under the direction of David. The history of that family as traced in Holy Writ is touchingly interesting, from the judgment of their ancestor down to the enthusiastic espousing of the cause of God by his descendants, who gathered around David at Ziklag (1 Chron. xii. 6), and their employment in the song and the service of the sanctuary. The characteristic feature of their hymns is deep attachment to the house of the Lord, to His service, and especially to Zion's heavenly King. One feature in their spiritual history, as contrasted with that of their ancestor, we can scarcely refrain from mentioning, as being expressed in that deep and humble. contentment with their office as door-keepers, on the ground mentioned in their Ps. lxxxiv. (ver. 6, 7): 'I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness, for Jehovah God is a sun and shield.' Without seeking in this meditation to enter upon the meaning of each separate verse in this precious Psalm, we note that it describes the feelings of one who, deprived of the privileges of God's house, under the scorn of enemies, and amidst the sorrows of his own heart, longs for fellowship

with the Lord, and at last in answer to prayer obtains the full comfort of faith,—the light of God's countenance becoming the health of his own. The general scope of this Psalm may be given in a condensed abstract from Luther: There is a twofold view of God. At times He hideth and covereth Himself, as when the conscience, under temptation, feels sin or other evils, whether spiritual or temporal, and is unable to comfort itself with the grace and mercy of God. Those who judge according to this hidden image of God, fall, without help, into despair and condemnation. But there is another and an unveiled likeness of God, revealing and discovering Himself as the gracious, merciful, compassionate, and reconciled God. And although the conscience affright, all evil threaten, and we be almost cast down by doubt, yet we rise again by faith, cleave to hope, and comfort ourselves that God will help, and again restore us to His service in the place which He has alone ordained upon the earth. And concerning the absolute need of such services under the old dispensation, Calvin remarks that as the Old Testament saints had not wings wherewith to fly upwards, they made use of ladders by which to mount up to God, while we to whom Christ and His benefits have been granted, no longer require such aids to our weakness.

Although, in general, we should be extremely careful in applying the Psalms to special situations, we can scarcely be mistaken in referring this to the time when David fled before the face of Absalom, when the curse of Shimei expressed the feelings of the ungodly, and when the king, having pitched his camp on the other side Jordan, the lyre of Israel sent its

plaintive notes from the land of Hermon and the hill Mizar. The deep spiritual depression of the king, and his upward look of penitence, appeared sufficiently in his reply to Shimei. Yet never before had David so certainly marched to true victory as when, with his face covered, he passed over the mount of Olives. Most precious is it to realize our safety in extreme danger and desertion, and to mark here also the footprints of our blessed Saviour. The sense of desertion expressed in ver. 6, found its full meaning only in the agony of the garden (Matt. xxvi. 38; John xii. 27). And thus, as applying to Christ, it also applies to His people. The circumstances which called forth this complaint were only its temporary occasion. What gave its bitterness to the cup was the sense of God's desertion, which breathed life into the taunts of the enemies. That one who so much longed for nearness to God, and fellowship with Him, should be a helpless exile from His presence; that over his soul such a storm should burst; that as wave incessantly rolled upon wave, deep should call unto deep; that all those waves and billows should have been His, constituted the deep problem of his anguish. Yet in this very fact also lay his consolation. For thus did faith, which laid hold upon that everlasting Arm, and prayer which rose from a heart longing, ' as the hart panteth after the water-brooks,' find 'in the daytime' His grace, and in the night His song. And all this 'commanded' by the God' of his 'life.' O how true of Christ; O how true of Christians! And thus the distress is made the occasion of the plea (ver. 9), and the complaint which is felt like 'killing' in his 'bones,' or innermost being, gives

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