and gold there was not one feeble person among their tribes. 37. Egypt was glad at their departing for they were afraid of them. Thus severely chastised, 'the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men.' And when Israel departed, strong in their God, though not in themselves, they exacted a tribute of the Egyptians, jewels of silver and jewels of gold, as conquerors exact a tribute of the conquered, and they spoiled the Egyptians.' 38. He spread out a cloud to be a covering and fire to give light in the night-season. 39. At their desire He brought quails and He filled them with the bread of heaven. 40. He opened the rock of stone, and the waters flowed out so that rivers ran in the dry places. Nor did the love of their God cease with their deliverance. The sign of His presence abode with them continually, in the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, which was a guide to them, and a shelter from their enemies. He led them towards the land which He had promised to them, giving them by the way tokens of His love, and foreshadowings and types of the sacraments of His grace; He filled them with the bread of heaven, the foretaste of the true Bread Who was to come as the Life of the world. He gave them drink in the desert from the smitten rock of stone, and that rock was Christ.' 41. For why? He remembered His holy promise and Abraham His servant. 42. And He brought forth His people with joy and His chosen with gladness; 43. And gave them the lands of the heathen and they took the labours of the people in possession; : 44. That they might keep His statutes : and observe His laws. And why were all these mercies shewn to Israel, and all these bounties showered upon them? Because they were the children of the promise, the people of the covenant. Because of the oath which God had sworn unto Abraham, did He bring his seed from Egypt, breaking their chains and comforting their sorrow, that He might lead them into the land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey, and might give them fields which they tilled not, and cities which they had not built. He thus delivered them, He thus had mercy upon them, because He had chosen them to be His own, to know Him and serve Him, to 'keep His statutes and observe His laws.' The end of election is obedience. And we also, the members of the Church of Christ, the people of the second covenant, the true children of Abraham, the Israelites indeed, are delivered from the bondage of sin, and guided by grace, and refreshed by sacra ments, because we also are 'elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.' This Psalm is closely connected with the following one; they form a pair. But the first of the two celebrates the dealings of God with His people, in accents of praise; the second relates the return which Israel made to God, in a tone of penitence. The 105th is a meditation on the covenant as performed on the part of God, the 106th on the covenant as kept by Israel. They both dwell on the predestinating will of God, electing men to holiness and obedience, and the mode in which human sin opposes itself to that will, and yet can not make it void. The short sententious style of the poetry of these Psalms, conveying the facts of the history of the people in the briefest form, and the best adapted for preservation in the memory, much resembles those inscriptions, as far as modern learning has been enabled to decipher them, which are found engraved on the rocks in the deserts of northern Arabia, and especially in the valley near Sinai, called the Wady Mokatteb, which are traditionally supposed to have been written there by the children of Israel in their wanderings. It may be noticed in connection with verse 36, that the word which in Exod. iii. 22, xii. 35, is translated "borrowed," should properly be rendered "exacted as tribute." The first fifteen verses of this Psalm form part of the hymn given by David to the singers of the temple, (1 Chron. xvi.) Evening Prayer. PSALM Cvi. Confitemini Domino. 1. O GIVE thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious and His mercy endureth for ever. : 2. Who can express the noble acts of the Lord or shew forth all His praise? : 3. Blessed are they that alway keep judgment and do righteousness. 4. Remember me, O Lord, according to the favour that Thou bearest unto Thy people : 0 visit me with Thy salvation; 5. That I may see the felicity of Thy chosen : and rejoice in the gladness of Thy people, and give thanks with Thine inheritance. The continual grace and ever-enduring mercy of our God call forth our heartfelt thanks. We cannot sufficiently celebrate the glories of His goodness, or shew forth the full praise which is His due, for our spirits are too cold, our lives too brief, for that which is the office of angels during the eternal ages. But it is not the hearer, or the speaker, but the doer of God's will that is blessed in his deed; nor is it enough to do righteousness for a little while: we require the gift of perseverance, 'for he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved.' Trying ourselves by this test, we soon fall from the exaltation of thankfulness to the abasement of prayer; thinking on our sins and those of our fathers, we put away from us the voice of praise, and turn to confession and repentance, if perchance the God of grace and mercy will remember us, and visit us with His salvation, even the revealing of the Saviour, so that at last we may be among the true Israelites, and may enter into that heritage of rest and peace which He has promised to give unto His own elect. 6. We have sinned with our fathers: we have done amiss, and dealt wickedly. 7. Our fathers regarded not Thy wonders in Egypt, neither kept they Thy great good ness in remembrance: but were disobedient at the sea, even at the Red Sea. 8. Nevertheless, He helped them for His Name's sake that He might make His power to be known. 9. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up so He led them through the deep, as through a wilderness. 10. And He saved them from the adversary's hand and delivered them from the hand of the enemy. 11. As for those that troubled them, the waters overwhelmed them there was not one of them left. 12. Then believed they His words: and sang praise unto Him. As the graces and mercies shewn to Israel are pictures of those shewn to us, so their sins and doubts and disobediences are a lesson to us, and their repentances and confessions are a model to us. They looked back upon a long sad history of ingratitude and disobedience. We, like them, need to acknowledge that we have sinned with our fathers and have done wickedly. They remembered not their mighty Baptism in the waters of the Red Sea, when God in His power led them through its depths. How often do we forget the seal of our election? Yet they, when they were set free, at length believed in His words of love, and praised Him for His power and |