can furnish. He "must let that alone for ever" (Prayer Book Version); he cannot come up to the amount demanded; he cannot give even what might be sufficient to redeem the life from the grave. See how generations die, disappear, give place to other generations, all equally the prey of corruption; and yet fools continue to hope for immortality for themselves. Think of this infatuation; pause, meditate; the harp will be silent for a time that you may ponder it-" Selah!" But lift the veil ! Where are these sons of folly? In the grave; "Death leads them into his pastures," as his sheep (Hengstenberg); and "The righteous have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty consumes away; The grave is the dwelling for every one of them." (Ver. 14.) The First Resurrection is described in these few strokes, the Resurrection of the Just. They live and reign-have dominion-while “the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished." (Rev. xx. 5.) And to stifle all doubts in their birth, the Redeemer declares himself sure of resurrection; and if he, then they also, for he is the first fruits, the pledge of theirs. Surely, (TX) God shall redeem my soul from the hand of the grave; He shall receive me as Enoch was received, receive me up to glorious rest. (See Gen. v. 24, the same word, p?) Hear, therefore, the sum of the whole matter. The ungodly shall never see "the light" of that "morning" (ver. 14); yea, (ver. 20), “man in prosperity," even Antichrist in the flush of his power, "is like the beasts; he is to be rooted out," (Hengstenberg)—he has no lot or portion with the blessed. In such strains the Redeemer himself utters this melancholy Dirge of the Righteous over the unredeemed. PSALM L. A Psalm of Asaph. 1 THE mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, And called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. 3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: A fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. 4 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. 5 Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. 6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah. 7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee. I am God, even thy God. 8 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, Or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. 9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. 11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. 13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High! 15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: 1 will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, Or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? 17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. 18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, And hast been partaker with adulterers. 19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. 20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. 21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; Thou thoughtest that I was always such an one as thyself: But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. 22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Connection. Theme and plan 23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: And to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. "El, Elohim, Jehovah, has spoken!"* So reads the Hebrew. Arrived at the end-having sung of the elect's cry, the response to their cry in the Mighty One's appearing, the Mighty One's protection, the throne on which he sits, the city where his glory abides, and himself in the glory-having also sung that melancholy dirge over those who have no portion in this lot of the righteous-the Psalmist is led by the Spirit to strike his harp to one other strain of a kindred nature. He here sets forth the principles of judgment that guide the decision of the King "who sits on the throne of his holiness," and reigns from "out of Zion." It is the day of Rom. i. 18. The heavens are not silent now; angels come with the God of heaven. The glory of the Lord, and the gathering of the saints around him (see 2 Thess. ii. 4), those who over the sacrifice have entered into covenant with him, being celebrated in ver. 1-6, and the solemn Sel th-pause having given us time to fix our eye upon the scene, the Lord suddenly speaks, reasoning with men as to their wrong ideas of the way of salvation (ver. 7-15). Then follows their sinful practice (ver. 16-22). In ver. 22d the word No is emphatic-" Consider this, I beseech you, ye who forget God." Man treats God as if he were a being to be ministered unto, instead of a gracious, sovereign benefactor. Man acts in the view of God as if the holy God were such a one as himself. But the end comes. None shall enter into glory, none be shewn "the salvation of God," i. e, his glorious completed redemption (such as Paul spoke of, Rom. xiii. 11, and Peter, 1 Pet. i. 5) at the Lord's Appearing, excepting the man who "orders his conversation aright;" that is, who regulates his life by such rule as ver. 5; in other words, by gospel-rule --who prepares his way according to the preparation revealed to him by the Lord. The man who would so do must begin * Coming to judge, he appears as in Rev. xix. with all his names. "El," the Mighty God; " Elohim," God, the object of worship and fear; "JEHOVAH," he who has made himself known to Israel and his people, as having ail being and perfection. at the altar (ver. 5), and there "sacrifice,” or, “offer praise,” even as ver. 14 also declared. He must begin by owning Jehovah's benefits to us sinners, responding to the song of the angels at Bethlehem over a Saviour born, and answering to the Saviour's cry, “It is finished," by his soul's glad acceptance of that finished work. This is the "ordering of the conversation"--and to declare this is the object of this Psalm. It sets forth, at the lips of the Righteous Judge himself, The principles that shall guide the judgment of the Righteous One at the gathering of the Saints. PSALM LI. To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba. 1 HAVE mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindnesses: According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: And in the hidden parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy Free Spirit. 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: And my tongue shall sing aloud of my righteousness. 15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else wond I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The position of this Psalm, and subject of it The plan. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jeru salem. 19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering: Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. "THE riches, the power," (says a well-known writer), the glory of a kingdom, could neither present nor remove the torrent of sin, which puts the monarch and the beggar upon a level." No one has more keenly scrutinized his own backslidings, and more bitterly lamented them, "laying bare the iron ribs of misery," than David, in this Psalm. We saw a series of considerable length concluded in Psalm 1. The Psalm before us stands in an isolated position. It is not part of any series. It has a peculiarity that no previous Psalm has exhibited, for it is written (and the Hebrew title authenticates the fact) on occasion of David's adultery, and his detestable attempts to hide his adultery by murder of the basest kind. Now, no such circumstances as these could ever have in them aught that corresponded in the remotest manner to any circumstances in the life of the Surety, David's Son. On the contrary, so far is this Psalm from being fitted to express the work of the Surety, that it seems introduced at this point in order to lead us to look back on the former songs of David, and to say of what was set forth therein, "Surely this David, who here appears as a leper all over, with a heart as vile as the worst action of his life, cannot be the David of whom such glorious things were formerly spoken?" Viewed in this light, the Psalm before us is fitted, both by its title and its contents, to direct us in the other Psalms to the true David, as He of whom the lofty things of preceding Psalms were sung. Coming, as this Psalm does, close upon one which set the principles of judgment before us, it is not uninteresting to observe that it falls into its place very appropriately. For here we find a sinner-an individual sinner-realizing his position at that bar, and consenting to the decisions of a tribunal whereat nothing but justice has free course. The sinner acknowledges in verse 4 that his sin is all his own, and done in |