12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD;

And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

13 The LORD looketh from heaven;

He beholdeth all the sons of men.

14 From his firm throne

He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 15 He leadeth their hearts alike;

He considereth all their works.

16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: A mighty man is not delivered by much strength.

17 An horse is a vain thing for safety:

Neither shall any be delivered by their (the horses') great

strength. 18 Behold the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, Upon them that hope in his mercy;

19 To deliver their soul from death,

And to keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: He is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart shall rejoice in him,

Because we have trusted in his holy name. 22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us,

According as we hope in thee.

V. 1-3. The Psalmist invites the righteous and the upright in heart to praise the Lord, because none but they know how to do it aright. The melody of the voice without the melody of the heart cannot please the Lord. Such is the praise of the ungodly. The pious only can praise him in truth, for they only rejoice in his promises and appreciate his omnipotence and goodness. The bard, feeling that the heart and the senses are too slow and lifeless for setting forth the praises due to God, calls the sound of the harp to his aid, to arouse the indolent spirits and to give pinions to his praises. He calls for a new1 song as if all the former ones were not sufficient. Because human praises are at the best unworthy, the nations of antiquity as well as Israel used to accompany them by sacrifices, intending thereby as it were to complete and make up for the deficiency and poverty of human praise. The mention of the trumpet alludes to those sacrifices, as sacrifices used to be offered accompanied by the sound of the trumpet.

V. 4. 5. The first object of praise is that God fulfils his promises. Surely there cannot be anything more joyful to a pious man than to see that the divers glorious promises of God are for ever being fulfilled in the guidance of men in obedience to laws as unchangeable as those which direct the courses of the heavenly bodies. If we shall hereafter review the guidances of his people from eternity, may they not, to use the expression, seem like so many incarnations of the eternal word and the eternal promises of God? We shall then see, what the Psalmist here praises in faith,-that all the ways of the Lord are righteousness and goodness. The full glory of these attributes is not felt till we realize them as the attributes of the omnipotence of God: (1) Ps. xl. 4; xcvi. 1.

what would be the condition of us, the creatures, were his omnipotence other than the omnipotence of righteousness and love? For this reason the Psalmist praises in the following verses the omnipotence of God.

V. 6-9. How much toil and labour intervenes between the resolution and completion of our works? With God the word, the breath of his mouth, and the commandment, are at once the deed. Thus he formed the heavens and their host. Nothing greater could be predicated of the omnipotence of God: the Psalmist singles out one miracle of omnipotence which strikingly exhibits the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. Though the waters of the ocean are higher than the face of the earth, the secret hand of omnipotence keeps them back that they dare not flood the land. "Will ye not tremble at my presence, saith the Lord, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet cannot they prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it"?1 Again, the womb of the earth conceals subterraneous floods; these would devour the face of the earth and all on it, if the hand of omnipotence did not hold them back so that they must remain in the depth. Who does not fear and tremble before a God like this? But they who can believe that this omnipotence is the omnipotence of love, burst forth the rather in exultant joy.

V. 10-12. Israel is entitled to that belief-the belief that the omnipotence of God is that of love, for the Lord has chosen Israel for his own inheritance. What an election! His thoughts are eternal thoughts of grace which no power can annul. This is the consolation of the church of God in sight of her enemies. In the days of the Old Testament, when the church was a temporal kingdom like the kingdoms of the earth, her enemies were the heathen in their dominions; her enemies now are the enemies of Christ : the servants of Christ get edified by these promises that the merciful counsel of God cannot be overthrown, and that he bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought. Though scanned with the eye of sense, there never was a little band that had so little hope to prevail over their enemies, as the small band of christians, against whom the whole world stands in battle array; but with regard to the eternal counsel of mercy which God has decreed concerning his people, they entertain not a moment's doubt as to their ultimate success.

V. 13-17. People of God, he means to say, let not the world persuade you that the throne, on which your king is seated is an idle easy chair; no, He is seated on a throne, on a judgment seat, from the lofty eminence of which proceed the destinies of the world. People of God, he means to say, firmly believe, that all things are either openly or in a hidden manner subject to the influence of his might; not only the works of men, which are evidently so, since the issue never rests with them, but also the secret movings of their hearts, which God can strike with blindness, and can make foolish the understanding of the prudent and wise the hearts of babes. People of God, believe not in appearances according to which kings conquer by their might and warriors triumph in battle by the strength of their horses: it is appearance only, for as all earthly power is borrowed from the Governor of the world, he may withdraw it at any time and give it to whomsoever he pleases: so that all the victories on earth are won by his strength.

V. 18-22. While such omnipotence terrifies those who fear not the Lord, it is rich in consolation to those who hope in his mercy. The whole people commit themselves to the Lord, rejoicing in him and trusting in his name.

(1) Jer. v. 22; cf. Ps. xxiv. 2; civ. 9; Job xxxviii. 8. (2) Rom. xi. 29.

* The heathen poet Longinus has praised the sublimity of this sentiment of the Psalmist.

PSALM XXXIV.

A Song of Thanksgiving composed on the same occasion1 as Psalm lvi. with this difference, that Psalm lvi. was composed in the midst of the danger which threatened David, when the courtiers of Achish the king of the Philistines, with whom he had taken refuge, were persecuting him, while the Psalm before us was composed after he had escaped from that danger. Though we owe our most beautiful spiritual songs or hymns to special circumstances, they treat not of these, but alternately mount to universal complaints or to universal praises of God. So the Psalmist praises not so much his special deliverance, as the mercy of God, who hears the cry of the afflicted. The title names Abimelech and not Achish; which may be explained on the presumption that Abimelech (i.e. father of kings) was a general title of the Philistine kings, as was Pharaoh (i.e. the king) of the Egyptian. In Gen. xx. 2; xxvi. 1; two different kings of Gerar, the Philistine capital, are called Abimelech.

Filled with gratitude, the Psalmist promises to make the praise of God the business of his life, because he hears the prayers of the afflicted (v. 2—8). He also calls upon others to open their eyes and hearts because the goodness of God is everywhere manifest, and annexes the condition on which alone it can be experienced (v. 9-11). The indispensable condition is the fear of the Lord, which he earnestly and affectionately recommends from verses 12-23, and to which his assurance of faith ascribes glorious promises.

1

A PSALM of David, when he changed his behaviour

before Abimelech: who drove him away, and he departed.

2 I will bless the LORD at all times:

His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 3 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: The afflicted shall hear thereof and be glad. 4 O magnify the LORD with me,

And let us exalt his name together.

5 I sought the LORD, and he heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.

6 They that look unto him, get lightened:
And their faces are not ashamed.

7 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him,

And saved him out of all his troubles.

8 The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that

And delivereth them.

9 O taste and see that the LORD is good:
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

10 O fear the LORD, ye his saints:

For there is no want to them that fear him.

11 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger:

fear him,

But they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.

12 Come, ye children, hearken unto me:

I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

(1) 1 Sam. xxi. 11, etc.

13 What man is he that desireth a happy life And loveth many days, that he may see good? 14 Keep thy tongue from evil,

And thy lips from speaking guile.

15 Depart from evil, and do good; Seek peace, and pursue it.

*

16 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, And his ears are open unto their cry.

17 The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

18 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth,

And delivereth them out of all their troubles.

19 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

20 Many are the afflictions of the righteous:

But the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

21 He keepeth all his bones:

Not one of them is broken.

22 Evil shall slay the wicked:

And they that hate the righteous shall be guilty.

23 The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants:

And none of them that trust in him shall be guilty.t

V.2-4. Every day of a pious man's life is marked with the monuments and tokens of the mercy of God, so that he has every day to sing a new song. But each separate experience of that kind should fill our heart to such a degree as to furnish the theme of gratitude and praise for the entire period of our lives. With a feeling of this kind, we see David celebrate the deliverance he has just experienced. He realizes the fact that many hearts will echo back his songs of praise, because the joys of the godly are always universal. He invites the sharers of his feelings not to keep them within their joyful hearts, but to blend their praises with his, because songs of praise rise more triumphantly to heaven as bright flames than as isolated sparks.

V. 5-8. He was no doubt greatly afraid. What fate could he expect to meet were he delivered into the hand of Achish? The alternative was, that he, as a national foe, who had slain Goliath and actually carried his sword during this flight,' would either be sacrificed to the vengeance of the Philistines, or ignominiously delivered into the hand of Saul, his enemy. This poor man cried unto the Lord, who heard him, and delivered him out of all his troubles. He therefore calls upon all, when reduced to the extremity of trouble, neither to turn to the right nor to the left, but to Him who is all-sufficient. We often fear that we are forsaken-but not so. He surrounds us with his Divine messengers, as with an invisible host: and while we look anxiously for help on earth, they fight our battles. If our eyes were opened like those of Elisha's young man, we should frequently when we are most inclined to despair, see horses and chariots of fire round about us.o‡

(1) 1 Sam. xxi. 9.

(2) 2 Kings vi. 17.

I.e. honesty, "good;" cf. Ps. xxxv. 20; xxxvii. 37, in the Hebrew.

+ Cf. Introduction to Ps. xiv.

One angel of the Lord is mentioned, who at the same time is said to encamp round about. This seems to indicate that the word "angel," which primarily means "a message from

V. 9-11. Heaven and earth are replete with the goodness of God. We omit to open our mouths and eyes, on which account the Psalmist desires us to taste and to see. Such an invitation would be unavailing to the ungodly, to whom if they persist in their obduracy even the best of gifts are fraught with destruction, and to whom rays of light turn into consuming flashes of lightning. He therefore addresses himself to the saints, who in virtue of their exercised senses1 are able to see the hidden sweet in the bitter, and the bow of peace above the darkened cloud. "They have no want," means not exemption from the common lot of mortals, as is clear from verse 20, where it is said that "many are the afflictions of the righteous." But if blessings attend us like those which David affirms himself to enjoy in Psalm xxiii. 5, that in sight of his enemies he is seated at a full table with anointed headwe must be silent about want. We shall feel no want though we be in want. The possession of power and strength cannot of itself secure satisfaction and prosperity. The lion, armed with mouth and claws, has often to suffer hunger, while helpless and afflicted men, whose only refuge is the Lord, have enough and to spare.

V. 12-19. Most men consider untruth, fraud, and oppression, the surest means of prosperity. This leads David most urgently to exhort them to regard the fear of the Lord as the true source of temporal prosperity. To rouse the indolent, he clothes his exhortation in the form of a question, "What man is he that desireth a happy life?" as if he had asked, How is it, that, while every one without exception desires to be happy, there are so few who adopt the proper means for the attainment of happiness, but on the contrary make themselves wretched and miserable by their own mistakes? He names two things, which, though they may sometimes fail, will in most instances tell upon men, and lay a solid foundation to their temporal prosperity. Firstly, let none imagine that crooked ways and falsehood are the royal roads to prosperity, for even in a spiritual sense the straight way is always the shortest. Secondly, to confound all evil backbiting by the practice of good works. However much enmity against God may influence the wicked against the good qualities of the godly, there will always be a class of men, who find it impossible so effectually to silence the judge from within, that they should desire to acknowledge the merit of these, who with firm perseverance and strict conscientiousness, are bent upon the pursuit of righteousness and virtue. Much time may be needed till such acknowledgment be forthcoming, and in the case of thousands be looked for in vain; David therefore once more regards the righteous in affliction, and comforts us by saying, that the Lord at least does not ignore a pure and true life, that his eyes look upon his servants, that his ears are open to their cry, and that though not exempt from troubles and affliction, his deliverance is sure to come.

V. 20-23. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous:" this might at first sight seem contradictory of verses 10. 11; but we should remember that the pious often lack that purity and irreprehensibility of conduct, which compels the esteem of the world; the difficulty of attaining it, and that even after it has been attained we are utterly unable to impress the consciences of the thoroughly obdurate. The truth must then stand that "many are the afflictions of the righteous," or as the New Testament expresses it, "It behoves us through much tribulation to enter into the kingdom of God." And it is a good thing that such is the case. For were the pious freed (1) Heb. v. 11.

God," denotes here as well as in many other passages of the Old Testament, not one separate angel, but the effluence of Divine strength. Cf. Sack. Comm. Theol. p. 19. v. Coelln. Bibl. Theol. vol. i. p. 191.