It seems to be apostate Israel (Tholuck says, "heathenishminded Israel") that is primarily described in verse 5 as "the heathen," q. d., these children of Abraham who are now children of the devil-Israelites become Goim! (Comp. Isa. i. 10.) They are in character and conduct like city dogs, prowling for prey, feeding on the filth of the town, scouring its streets as if to clear them of the godly. But Jehovah-he who in Psalm ii. 4 was seen on the throne of his glory deriding the kings of earth in their vain attempts-laughs at these impotent apostates. In verse 7, the Psalmist complainingly utters, "For who is there that hears?" And then (verse 8) as one confident in God, he exclaims,

"His strength !" (Yes, this is our stronghold-the idea flashes hope through the soul

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"Jehovah's strength !”)—“ I will wait on thee." (Ver. 9.)

The "sin of their mouth” may be specially their declared rejection of Messiah's grace. Then, an intercession ascends, like that of Elijah against Israel-a prayer that these blinded apostates may be scattered, though not destroyed from the earth.* The prayer of verse 13

“Consume them, in wrath consume them till they be no more”—

reminds us of 2 Thess. ii. 16, "Wrath has come on them to the uttermost" (sis reλos). As a nation, as a kingdom, they are "consumed," but as a people they are "scattered," and men to earth's end are taught of Jacob's God by their doom. It is a doom of retribution for their treatment of the righteous. A solemn "Selah" follows, like that which in verse 5 closed the prayer for divine interposition, that we may ponder the awful judgment, Jacob driven to the ends of the earth! (ver. 13.) Now they are as hungry dogs in another sense than when they snarled at the godly--they prowl about the world for food. (Verses 14, 15.) In spite of them, the Just One flourishes, singing of Jehovah, mighty and merciful, and looks forward to a time when he shall sing louder still-a morning after a

*Not destroyed-that they may be a whetstone to others' faith-as the Spartans (mentioned in Plutarch's Apothegms) refused to allow the destruction of a neighbouring city which had often called forth their armies, saying, "Destroy not the whetstone of our young men !"

dark night, viz., the resurrection-morning, "Mane, transactis tentationibus; mane cum nox hujus sæculi transierit; mane quando jam latronum insidias, et Diaboli et angelorum ejus, non expavescimus; mane quando jam non ad lucernam Prophetiæ ambulamus, sed ipsum Dei Verbum, tanquam Solem, contemplamur," (Augustine).

In verse 11, the Righteous One seems to see the sword hanging over apostate Israel, as when it was suspended over Jerusalem in the days of that pestilence that cut off 73,000 men of Israel. Seeing this exterminating sword, he cries, "Slay them not!” He asks a mitigation of their doom, even that which has been granted their dispersion instead of their extirpation. Let them be as Cain, Gen. iv. 12; "make them wander." Still, he fully agrees with the Lord as to their deserving wrath to the uttermost, and expresses this entire agreement in the closing verses. It is therefore a Psalm wherein the Head and members present an appeal against apostate Israel, and then consent to their long-enduring desolation, in prospect of mercy breaking out of the gloom at last, “in the Morning." It is The Righteous One's appeal against apostate Israel, to the Lord's might and mercy.

PSALM LX.

To the chief Musician. Upon Shushan-eduth 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.

10 Gon, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us,

Thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again.

2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it :

Heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.

3 Thou hast shewed thy people hard things:

Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment.

4 Thou hast given a banner to them that feared thee,

That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.

5 That thy beloved may be delivered; save with thy right hand, and hear me. 6 God hath spoken in his holiness;

I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.

7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine;

Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;

8 Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me.

9 Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? 10 Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off?

And thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies?

11 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

12 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

THE Sweet Singer outlived the dismal days of Saul. Seated The time firmly on his throne, he saw his armies go forth and return crowned with victory. One of his victories, gained by Joab, was over the king of Zobah, who, it appears, had engaged the men of Mesopotamia (Aram-naharaim) to take his side. When the trophies of victory from the river Euphrates (2 Sam. viii. 3) were brought in, David's harp awoke, touched by the Spirit of God. It sang of a happier day to come--happier than that triumphant day of Israel in the birth-land of their father Abraham-a day when Israel's breaches shall be for ever healed, and Israel's strongest foes for ever subdued.

and the title.

Sometimes it is the nation, sometimes it is the leader of the The speaker nation, that sings. (See ver. 1, 5, 9.) It may be used by Israel, or by Israel's Lord as one of themselves. But what is "upon Shushan-eduth?" It must be connected with "joy," or with "lilies," (2), and may speak of some instrument such as Psalm xlv. and Psalm lxxx. refer to. But no writer has come nearer certainty in regard to "Eduth” than that it may allude to Israel as the nation that had the "Testimony” (MTV), or the Ark of Testimony. "To teach"-as if pointing back to Moses' song, Deut. xxxi. 19, and indicating that this also is such a national song as that.

The Psalm may be said to take up the preceding one's hope The plan. expressed at the close. The dispersion of Israel does not last for ever. Though they have been broken, and though God has put into their hand a cup of wrath that stuns them (Isa. li. 22), yet they shall arise. Their's is not the malefactor's cup of myrrh that deadens pain just as a prelude to death and utter extinction. Though Israel be broken, and his land cleft asunder a thousandfold more terribly than David's wars or

any of the desolations of his time ever threatened, yet that desolation ends. (See verse 4.

“Thou hast given a Banner to them that fear thee.”

Here is the voice of Israel owning Jehovah's gift of Messiah to them. Messiah is the ensign or banner, Isaiah xi. 10.

“To be lifted up as an ensign, because of truth."

Holding up this banner*-in other words, owning God's truth, or the fulfilment of his ancient promise to Adam, to Abraham, to all the fathers-Israel may expect favour; and they find it. For suddenly, verse 5, Messiah appears, himself urging their request, and at verse 6 he gets a favourable answer; "God speaks in holiness," (or, as Israel's Holy One,) and grants the desire of him who asks. Shechem, on the west side of Jordan, where Jacob's first altar was raised, and where he bought the first parcel of ground (Gen. xxxiii. 18). and where afterwards destruction threatened the whole feeble family because of Levi and Simeon's enormity, is now re possessed in peace. Succoth, on the east side of Jordan, where Jacob first erected a dwelling (Gen. xxxiii. 17), and booths for cattle, as one intending to remain, is next claimed permanently. The country eastward beyond Jordan, under the name G lead, where stood the mountain famed for healing balm, emblematic of healing to Israel, and which was one of the first districts settled and peopled by Israel, comes next, as well as westward Manasseh, on the opposite side; thus shewing us the stretching of the wing over the breadth of the land. Ephraim, full of power, comes in as being to push the foe with his horns (Deut. xxxiii. 17), while Judah appears as "Lawgiver," or " Ruler," the tribe of Messiah. The nations round submit ; Moab stands as a slave at his master's foot; Edom picks up the sandal cast down at his feet by his lord (Hengst.);† and Philistia is compelled to receive the king with triumphant shouts.

Philistia, shout to me The conqueror !”

And whose power is it that accomplished all this? Who is it that leads the conquering nation and its king to the

* Harmer says, that delivering a banner into the hands of a supplicant, was a sure pledge of protection in the East.

†Tholuck says, that the casting of the shoe is still an emblem of subjugation in India and Abyssinia.

strong city? even to Edom's strongholds, and to the battlefield of Edom in the latter day? (Isaiah lxiii. 1.) It is the very God who once cast them off-the very God that scattered them. Glory to the Lord of hosts, and to Him only! Israel and Israel's Leader rest on him, and so do valiantly-as Balaam, pointing to Moab and Edom, long since foretold (Num. xxiv. 18, 19). And thus the scene of Psalm lix. is happily reversed at length.

The Righteous One asks, and rejoices in, Israel's restoration.

PSALM LXI.

To the chief Musician. Upon Neginah. A Psalm of Davida

1 HEAR my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.

2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed:

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

3 For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.

5 For thou, O God, hast heard my vows:

Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.

6 Thou wilt prolong the king's life: and his years as many generations.

7 He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.

8 So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my

VOWS.

"ON Neginah," (like Neginoth, unknown), and "by David," The tone and perhaps sung at Mahanaim, (Tholuck). In this life, every member of the Church has a varied lot-now at rest, then troubled; now hopeful, then fearful; now a conqueror, then a combatant. Seated as he is on the Rock of Ages, immoveably seated, he sees at one time a fair sky and a bright sun; then, the thick cloud spreads gloom over nature; soon, the beam struggles through again, but soon all is mist once more. Such being the sure complexion of our sojourning here, we rejoice to find sympathy therewith evinced by our God who knoweth our frame, and evinced by the fact that he so often turns in the Songs of Zion from one state of mind to another, and from one aspect of our case to another.