It is marked by many of the noblest features of his character,—the sense of communion with God and calm confidence in His protection', -the tender love which forbids him to mention his son's name when it must be coupled with reproach, and the royal generosity which at the thought of the horrors of a civil war merges every consideration of self in a prayer for the wellbeing of the people of God2. I. The Psalmist, in the hour of peril and despair, Jehovah! how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me, many there be that say of my soul, 'there is no help for him in God.' II. comforteth himself with the recollection of the former favours of God, But Thou, Jehovah, art a shield about me, I 2 3 I am risen again, for Jehovah sustaineth me: I will not be afraid for ten thousands of the people, that have encamped against me round about. 5 6 IV. and resigning himself to the will of God prayeth for his people. Arise then, Jehovah! help me, O my God! 7 Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheekbone, to Jehovah belongeth the victory! Thy blessing be upon Thy people! Ver. 1. they that trouble me, i.e. the party in the state who instigated Absalom to rebellion. Ver. 4. I call, expressing a habit [see (I call) § 15 iv. 3] in contrast with the special occasion indicated by the tense (I laid) in verse 5. § 15. PSALM IV, THIS even-song1 belongs to the same time, possibly to the same day, as the last Psalm: but was sung in an hour of still greater trial. The king had heard meanwhile of the calumnies which had followed his flight2. Like all true and heroic natures, in the hour of peril and unjust persecution he awakes to a consciousness of his strength and integrity. The grandeur and royal dignity of David's character was largely due to his deep sense of the covenant between God and His Anointed3, and his constant endeavour to act worthily the part of God's vicegerent upon earth. His selection by Jehovah is to him an unanswerable reply to his calumniators and the surest proof of his own uprightness. This trait of David's character especially endeared him to his subjects, and was preserved in two distinct narratives, wherein his sense of the reverence due to the Anointed of Jehovah is shewn by his twice sparing the life of his persecutor Saul. Thus it is that in the attacks upon himself all feeling for his own personal wrongs.is lost in the sense of the sin and irreverence they imply towards Jehovah, The absence of any prayer or wish for revenge becomes more striking when we consider the feelings of the age in which the Psalms were written”, I. The Psalmist appealeth to God; Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness; Thou who didst set me at liberty when I was in trouble, have mercy upon me and hearken unto my prayer. II. urgeth his slanderers to repent; I O ye sons of men! how long will ye blaspheme mine honour? 2 how long will ye love vanity, and seek lying? Ver. 1. of my righteousness, i. e. who upholdest my right and maintainest my righteousness. 1 v. 9. 42. 3. 2 v. 2. 5 1 Sam. xxiv. 6; xxvi. II. 3 See particularly § 12. xviii. 19—30. 6 vv. 4 and 5. 7 Ex. xxi. 24-27. Matt. v. 38. § 70. xxxv. 26; § 73. Ixix, 22—28. know then that Jehovah hath chosen the man that is true to Him, 3 Jehovah heareth when I call upon Him! stand in awe and sin not! commune with your heart within your chamber and be still! offer the sacrifice that is due, and turn ye in trust to Jehovah ! 4 5 III. and prayeth for a ray of help to cheer his friends: for himself he trusteth in God. There be many that say, 'Oh! that we could see some good!' 6 lift up, O Jehovah, the light of Thy countenance upon us! 7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than when corn and wine increased: I lay me down in peace and straightway rest! for Thou, Jehovah, alone 8 9 wilt make me to dwell in safety! Ver. 4. stand in awe-be still, i.e. tremble at the thought of opposing God's elect: reflect on the folly of your endeavours, and still your slanderous tongues. Ver. 5. offer the sacrifice that is due, i.e. rightly due for the sin of blaspheming God and the king, in the hope that He will accept your sin-offering. Ver. 6. see some good, i. e. many of my adherents in despair say 'Would we could see some manifestation of divine favour!' Ver. 8. corn and wine. Great interest was taken by the kings in the tillage of the land. At this time the 'hunger, weariness and thirst' of his army in the desert naturally turned David's thoughts into this channel. See 2 Sam. xvii. 27-29. 'I § 16. PSALM II. WILL be his father and he shall be My son',' or, as it is echoed in the Psalms of the Restoration, 'I have found David My servant; with My holy oil have I anointed him ;...he shall cry unto Me, "Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation!' And I' will make him My firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth?' Such was the great promise uttered by Nathan to David, embodying the vital principle of the Hebrew monarchy. From it we learn 1 Chron. xvii. 9. 2 Sam. vii. 13. 2 § 124. lxxxix. 21, 27, 28. how great a change of being had taken place in the e-time of a single generation. Samuel had shuddered at the danger of the Theocracy, when the fire of that was assigned to a human usurper; but the graces of Dand's spine asigured the whole idea of Monerity, Sant had paid Inje amerion to the fact that he was a Sagan of the inheritance of Jehovah," whereas the mainspring of Dand's atticus was the sense of his relation to God. David may thus be said to have created the essential idea of the Israelite polity, that the King was only a regent in God's name, the deputy of Jehovah and the chosen instrument of His w So far from bouding his office as an asuper be looked upon himself as the constituted witness of the domition of Jehovah; and because be recognized the law, not of his own pleasure but of God, as the rule of his kingdom, he became closely associated with Nathan, the great prophet of his age, and received from him the promise of the blessing which should rest first on Solonot, and through him on all true kings of Israel It is sad to think that the next important interference of the prophetic order after Nathan had secured the throne to Solomon, was the symbolic action of the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite,—an action fraught with such momentous consequences to the future history of the Monarchy-when be 'rent the kingdom out of the hand of Sclomon and gave ten tribes to Jeroboam? A comparison of the utterances of Nathan embodied in this Psalm with the words of Ahijah affords a striking instance of the true moral basis on which the promises of the 64 Testament rest. If we possessed the biography of Solomon by Nathan' we might have a touching record of the prophet pleading with the apostate king, and recalling his former promises in words like thow in which a later psalmist appeals to the rulers of his time, ‘I have said, Ye are gods, and ye are all children of the most Highest, but ye shall die like men, and fall all the sort of you, ye princes3.' 2 1 Kings xi. 31. 32 Chron. ix. 29 4 So the term 'gods' is applied to judges' (Ex. xxi. 6): and bringing a case to trial beJa juga baca ed enquinig of God' (Exod. xviii. 15). Cp. also ib. ver. 19, Be thou www pope Godward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God'-implying a ***** the more important causes for the decision of the direct representative of God. " Will Diet juga. Perhaps too Judges v. 8 may be thus explained. Cp. § 53- Iviii, 5 § 83. lxxxii. 6, 7. |