world come with their offering to Him Who is the King of the better and heavenly Jerusalem, Who indeed ought to be feared, because the armies of death and hell have fallen before Him! He is the true King of kings, and all authority and all kingship is but a charge given in trust by Him. They who use it rightly, as ministers of authority under Him, shall, like Hezekiah, trust in Him in their dangers and be safe; they who abuse their power and disown Christ as their King and Judge, shall perish like the captains of Assyria; and over them the Church shall exult, like Judah over the fallen king,-'Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria : thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered in the mountains, and no man gathereth them!' There can be very little doubt but that the same Asaph who wrote the seventy-fifth Psalm during the invasion of Sennacherib and the Assyrians, also was inspired to deliver this glorious song of faith and triumph upon the signal destruction of the army of the invading king. The LXX. give as part of the title, " An ode regarding the Assyrian.” Before the sword of the destroying angel, or before the blast of the sudden pestilence, the arrows and the bow, the shield and the sword, the horse and the chariot, and all the power and circumstance of war, were crushed and made utterly in vain. By this terrible act not only was the faith of Israel confirmed in God as their Deliverer and King, but His glory and might were displayed before the heathen nations, and especially before the Assyrians, who had blasphemed His majesty. (2 Kings xviii., xix.; 2 Chron. xxxii.; Nahum iii. 3, 18.) PSALM lxxvii. Voce mea ad Dominum. 1. I WILL cry unto God with my voice: even unto God will I cry with my voice, and He shall hearken unto me. 2. In the time of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran, and ceased not in the night-season; my soul refused comfort. Heb. My hand in the night is stretched out without ceasing; My soul will not be comforted. LXX. With my hands toward Him in the night, And I was not deceived. 3. When I am in heaviness, I will think upon God when my heart is vexed, I will complain. : Prayer is man's real strength; not careless prayer, which turns to God merely among other helpers, but ardent, ceaseless, unwearying prayer. If sickness be our trouble, we must seek for health; if hunger be our trouble, we must seek for food; if the absence of God's Spirit be our trouble, we must seek the Lord. Pain and grief, like a smarting wound, may drive away sleep from us; but as our pain ceases not, so our prayer must not cease. The soul will not and cannot be comforted, unless by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. In that heaviness is the time to think upon God; when the heart is vexed with its own weakness and helplessness, it learns to pour out its complaint to Him. 4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: am I so feeble, that I cannot speak. : 5. I have considered the days of old and the years that are past. 6. I call to remembrance my song and in D the night I commune with mine own heart, and search out my spirits. 6 Trouble and sorrow at the dealings of God keep the eyes in sleeplessness; and with continual grief the mouth grows silent, and cannot speak aloud even to pray. But though the tongue cannot speak, the heart can meditate-can recall the memory of things long past, and the wonderful dealings of God in the ages that are gone. Such meditation is a silent prayer. To them who so meditate God giveth songs in the night;' and the soul so communing with itself can turn to Him, like the dove, sighing amid its singing, and yet singing amid its sighing. Then in the darkness and silence, apart from the noise without and the tumult of human things, the spirit can hold converse with itself, and search out its weakness and its strength. 7. Will the Lord absent Himself for ever: and will He be no more intreated? 8. Is His mercy clean gone for ever: and is His promise come utterly to an end for evermore? 9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious and will He shut up His loving-kindness in displeasure? Its weakness is its want of trust; its doubt, as to whether God will hear prayer and will be entreated; its fear, that His mercy is come to an end, and that His promises have been forfeited beyond recall; its dread, lest He has ceased to give His gifts of grace to those who have so long misused them, and lest the power of His love is restrained by His anger at unbelief and sin. 10. And I said, It is mine own infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most Highest. 11. I will remember the works of the Lord : and call to mind Thy wonders of old time. 12. I will think also of all Thy works and my talking shall be of Thy doings. Its strength, on the other hand, is to know that its doubt, and fear, and dread arise from its own weakness and infirmity, and are not in any wise true respecting God. Our distress and trouble make our faith weak, but they do not alter the eternal purposes of God's love and grace. From the very beginning God's right hand has been working out eternal plans of mercy and love to man. With the history of these wonders may we instruct our fears and confirm our trust. He changes not, but is ever the same: therefore must we think not of our own troubles, but of His mighty works; and talk of His doings, of His endless faithfulness and living truth. 13. Thy way, O God, is holy who is so great a God as our God? 14. Thou art the God that doeth wonders and hast declared Thy power among the people. : 15. Thou hast mightily delivered Thy people: even the sons of Jacob and Joseph. The way of God is eternally holy. He comes to us in holiness; He would lead us to Himself by the way of holiness; and His Holy One came to be Himself the way. Who or what is great as our God in righteousness, in patience, in pity, in love? He hath done wonders from the beginning of the creation; and especially in watching over and protecting them who trust in Him. He has made and will make all the peoples of the earth to know His power and to confess His truth. This He shewed in that strange deliverance by which He brought His people, the seed of Abraham, the twelve tribes who were the children of Jacob and of Joseph, out of the land of Egypt, confounding their oppressors with a mighty arm. 16. The waters saw Thee, O God, the waters saw Thee, and were afraid the depths also were troubled. 17. The clouds poured out water, the air thundered and Thine arrows went abroad. : 18. The voice of Thy thunder was heard round about the lightnings shone upon the ground; the earth was moved, and shook withal. Then the waters of the Red Sea saw the Lord, and retired like a timid slave from before his master; the depths were uncovered to make a way for His |