The title. The contents. PSALM LXXXVI A Prayer of David. 1 Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me! for I am poor and needy. 2 Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. 3 Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily. 4 Rejoice the soul of thy servant : for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 5 For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, And plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. 6 Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend unto the voice of my supplications. 7 In the day of trouble I will call upon the: for thou wilt answer me. 8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; Neither are there any works like unto thy works. 9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come And worship before thee, O Lord; And shall glorify thy name. 10 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone. 11 Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth! Unite my heart to fear thy name. 12 I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: And I will glorify thy name for evermore. 13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou has delivered my soul from the lowest hell. 14 O God, the proud are risen against me, And the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; And have not set thee before them. 15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, 16 O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; Give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. 17 Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: Because thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me. THERE was much, very much, of God's peculiar character, his glorious name, brought to view in the close of the last Psalm. This may account for its being followed by another, “A prayer of David," almost equally full of the character of Jehovah. The key-note of this Psalm is Jehovah's name. From verse 1 to 4, the worshipper states his case; "poor, needy," affording an argument in our approach to Him of whom we can say, "Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor" (such was his grace !), "that we through his poverty might become rich,” (2 Cor. viii. 9). There is emphasis in verse 4 in the words, " for to THEE"-to no other, "do I lift up my soul." But what, then, is the plea, verse 2, "Preserve my soul, for I am holy?" It is Tan, and we can refer at once to Psalm iv. 3,-"Know that the Lord has set apart him that is TD for himself." Is it a poor and needy member of Christ that prays still? that poor member is 7p; he is a saint, he is devoted to the Lord, and beloved by the Lord, and has that of which Psa. iv. 3 has spoken. He is set apart for the Lord; he is a temple-vessel; the Lord will own the plea, Keep the temple-vessel from being profaned or broken." And when the Lord Jesus so prayed, Jesus the true 7, what force was in the cry! 66 At verse 5 the worshipper begins to tell us what he sees in God-the God of love and grace- Thou, Lord, art good (love), and one whose very nature is forgiving, It is this sight that draws forth the requests of verses 6, 7, and then another look is directed to the Lord. At verse 8 the Lord is seen as unparalleled in heart and hand; and the full heart of the Psalmist feels (ver. 9) that there is enough there to encourage, not him alone, but whole nations, to draw near and adore. It is a note from the song of Moses, Exod. xv. 11. Then at verse 10 he looks again towards the throne and Him that sitteth thereon, and sees his greatness in Himself and his great deeds, which leads to the prayer of verse 11, for guidance in his way. It is surely a matter of spiritual skill thus to look first at the Lord, and then, with our soul bathed in his perfections, to pour forth our desires. Keep my heart to the one thing, to fear thy name!" (Tholuck.) But at verses 12, 13, he recalls the past kindness of his God, what he has done in his behalf already; and thus he is encouraged to ask for what he needs now, surrounded as he is by proud foes, (ver. 14). Once more, at verse 15, he gazes on the blaze of divine love; R Christ here. T and forthwith utters his request for his special needs, in verse 16. He quotes Exod. xxxiv. 7, and expects such favour as Moses found. And then, gathering strong confidence from the many views he has had of his God, the words of verses 16, 17, are a closing petition, in which he refers to Exod. xxiii. 12, "the son of thine handmaid" ("verna"), thy home-born slave, and asks a sign (an ♫IN), a rainbow-like sign of wrath for ever past (Gen. ix. 12), and mercy bending over him like a canopy. Let us think of Jesus uttering verse 8 to his Father; and Jesus amid such foes as verse 14 speaks of; of Jesus, “truly thy servant,” verse 16, and of Jesus asking a "sign for good." In His case, the sign would be resurrection-victory; this would be the true "helping and comforting" for all other "Ebenezers" led on to that final triumph. They of verse 16, is the “hosannah" of Psa. cxviii. 25, both alike answered by the king Messiah riding forth in glorious triumph. And this shall be the full "help and comfort," as well as the overflowing cup of "salvation" bestowed on each member, too! In verse 9 there may be a glimpse, a passing glance, at the time of this -when all nations shall come and worship. There was a time when Israel sang verse 8 at the Red Sea; there has been a time when the Church has sung it in view of the cross; there is a time at hand when Christ and every member of his shall sing it before the throne, when all kingdoms troop together to acknowledge and adore Jehovah's name, revealed in his acts of redemption-grace. Here, then, is the theme of this PsalmThe Righteous One, in his day of distress, resting his faith and hope on the character of Jehovah. PSALM LXXXVII. A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah. 1 His foundation is in the holy mountains. 2 The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob 4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: 5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her; And the highest himself shall establish her. 6 The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah. 7 As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there. All my springs are in thee! tone. “A PSALM, a song, for the sons of Korah" -a title similar The title and to many former Psalms. "Repletus Spiritu Sancto" (says Augustine), "civis iste, et multa de amore et desiderio civitatis hujus volvens secum, tanquam plura intus se meditans erupit in hoc. Multa secum in silentio de illa civitate parturiens, clamans ad Dominum erupit etiam in aures hominum, 'Fundamenta ejus,""&c. He supposes this citizen of Zion, who sings of Zion, to be so rapt in soul, and filled with the Spirit, that he abruptly exclaims, as if giving unwitting utterance to his overflowing feelings “His foundations are on the holy hills !” or as more exactly rendered "His founded city is upon the holy hills !" We consider it a Psalm in which Jerusalem is celebrated as "the city of the Great King," and this in reference in some measure to the past, but in still fuller measure to the future, when Isa. xxxiii. 20-24 shall be fulfilled. "Look upon Zion," says Isaiah—and here is one looking on-like John, gazing on New Jerusalem and examining its splendour. These mountains, Moriah, Zion, Olivet, long famous in Israel, they are adorned now with a city of which The Lord loves it above all the other* dwellings of Jacob, or all his other cities, even as was announced of old, Deut. xii. 5. It is here he is to be for ever known as Jehovah Shammah," Ezek. xlviii. 35. And this is "a psalm, a song" of that glorious time. *Though "other" is omitted, this is the sense, as in Psa. cxxxviii. 2, "Magnified thy word above all thy name," i. e., thine other manifestations of thyself; so Psa. lxxxii. 6. The theme. Let us keep "Jehovah Shammah" before us as the key-note of the Psalm. The Psalmist says “I will bring Rahab and Babel to the remembrance of all my acquaintance. Behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia !" Having said this, the wondering narrator of Jerusalem's glory abruptly breaks off, as if to intimate to us that it is mere absurdity to speak of these in the same breath with Zion. As the Persian poet (see Dr Clark) introduces one saying, "What celebrity can Egypt or Syria, or any thing on earth or in the sea, pretend to, when compared to Shiraz? These are but villages; this alone is a city." So the Psalmist here. Speak of Egypt, proud Egypt (27), speak of Babylon, speak of Philistia, speak of Tyre! Speak of the far-off Ethiopia ! Speak of these in comparison-no, never! This is my boast to those that know me T “I was born there" (D) in yonder city, on the holy hills! For "this man" means no other than the speaker himself.* He goes on in his rapturous excitement, to tell more of the city's renown, in such a strain as this: Well may I glory in being a citizen of Zion, for many shall be proud of their relation to it when the cities of the nations have long been forgotten. I boast of my connection therewith, and many shall take up my boast. This man and that man was born in her. (LX) LX). And the Most High shall establish her." (Ver. 5.) Yes, says the Psalmist, it shall be thus; and happy am I who belong to that happy city; for the Lord himself, and not men alone, shall proclaim its pre-eminence, and give me my place as one of its citizens. "The Lord shall record, when he enrolls the nations,† This man (that is, I who sing) was born there.” (D), * That “ This man" may be the speaker himself, see Psalm xxxiv. 6. It is, q. d., I who am speaking thus,—as John ii. 19. † In Num. i. 18, "declared themselves to be born,” is an expression to be noted in connection with this Psalm. For here, as in Numbers i, the Lord is represented as taking the census of his Israel. |