right hand hath planted and the branch that Thou madest so strong for Thyself. But the hedge which God had placed around her was broken. Israel and Judah were divided the one from the other; and both turned to idols, and forgot Him Who was their defence. They despised and transgressed His law. Then the nations round about them laid their country waste; and the Assyrian king, like a wild boar ravening in a vineyard, destroyed and uprooted Israel. Their enemies devoured them as savage beasts devour their prey. The few that were left, and they that beheld their desolation, could only trust that God would at length turn Himself to behold their sad and captive state, and visit them in mercy, as He had visited them in wrath, once more to build up the walls of His Church and vineyard, and to raise the broken and withering vine, even the people, which was once His own; for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant.' : 16. It is burnt with fire, and cut down and they shall perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance. 17. Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand and upon the son of Man, whom Thou madest so strong for Thine own self. : Now Israel is destroyed, her sons are led captive, and her cities are cast down and burnt with fire; but in the mercy and power of her God these chastisements may soon be turned against her destroyers. In the frown of Almighty anger, the wild beasts of the nations and the boar of Assyria will perish and be utterly destroyed. But their hope can only lie in Him Who will come, 'the Man Whose Name is the Branch,' the true Benjamin, the Son of the right hand, even that Son of Man Who, in His own good time and His own mighty grace, shall gather together the dispersed of Israel, and shall bring the outcasts of Judah into the Church of the new covenant, and shall teach them to hear His voice, when He says, 'I am the Vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit for without Me ye can do nothing.' 18. And so will not we go back from Thee : O let us live, and we shall call upon Thy Name. 19. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts: shew the light of Thy countenance, and we shall be whole. Then shall they repent and not go back; then shall they know and see Him Who is the true Life, and shall say, 'Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.' The repentance of Israel when they were led captive was too late, the repentance of Judah under Hezekiah saved them but for a time; but in that last great repentance, when the children of Jacob shall once again be turned unto Christ their God and King, there shall be no more falling. They shall be blessed for ever with a perfect blessing, by a greater Priest than any of the line of Aaron, a blessing of deed and not of word, the very seeing of the face of God, and the very being saved with His salvation. This Psalm is " to the chief Musician upon Shoshannim-Eduth, or the lilies of the testimony." Compare the titles of Psalms lx. and Ixix. The title as given by the LXX. is, "For those who shall be changed, a testimony of Asaph, a Psalm on the Assyrian." It was undoubtedly written by the younger Asaph, about the time when Samaria was taken and Israel was carried away captive by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, (2 Kings xvii.) That the Psalm refers to the affliction of Israel rather than that of Judah, is clear from verses 1, 2, where Joseph and the tribes sprung from Rachel are especially named, while no allusion is made to the temple, or to Sion. The comparison of Israel to a vine or to a vineyard is very frequently used in the Scriptures, as in Isaiah v. 2-7; St. Luke xx. 9-17; and for this reason the emblem of a large golden vine was placed above the gate of the vestibule of the temple. The sight of this emblem has been supposed to have given occasion to our Lord, as He was proceeding with His apostles to the garden of Gethsemane, to address to them that discourse on His being the true Vine, which is found in St. John xv. Verses 3, 7, 14, 19 of this Psalm refer to the solemn blessing which was pronounced by the high-priest, (Num. vi. 23-27,) the fulfilment of which Israel had forfeited by their idolatries. PSALM lxxxi. Exultate Deo. 1. SING we merrily unto God our strength : make a cheerful noise unto the God of Jacob. 2. Take the psalm, bring hither the tabret : the merry harp with the lute. 3. Blow up the trumpet in the new-moon : even in the time appointed, and upon our solemn feast-day. Hymns of joy and merry songs well become the mouths of those who have God for their strength. Gladness and cheerfulness spring naturally from earnest faith. God will give us what we should sing, if we will sing it aright. Let us, the members of His Church, bring willing hearts and tuneful voices, and chaste and holy music, and He will give us the psalm of praise which will fit with our days of festival. The tabret and the harp, the lute and the trumpet, are, as it were, our earthly members, which we consecrate to the praise and service of our God; the psalm is that inspired song of spiritual melody which the Holy Spirit bids us take into our mouths. Like the Levites at the feast of trumpets at the beginning of the seventh month, so must we 'lift up our voice like a trumpet,' to proclaim the righteousness and faithfulness of our God, 'rejoicing in the Lord alway,' Who by His grace and love hath made all our life a festival of joy. 4. For this was made a statute for Israel: and a law of the God of Jacob. 5. This He ordained in Joseph for a testimony when he came out of the land of Egypt, and had heard a strange language. Heb. And I heard a language I knew not. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.' This was ordained that the chil dren of Jacob and of Joseph, who had long dwelt in Egypt, should for ever remember that blast of the trumpet, ever louder and louder, and that proclamation of the law of God on Sinai, which He Himself made unto them, Whose voice man had never heard before. If, then, the feasts of the law were to be kept by Israel with holy joy, and praise, and song, much more should the festivals of Him, Who delivered us from the more dreadful dungeon than Egypt, and the fiercer tyrant than Pharaoh, and taught us the deeper mysteries of the Gospel, be hallowed with melody and solemn gladness! 6. I eased his shoulder from the burden : and his hands were delivered from making the pots. 7. Thou calledst upon Me in troubles, and I delivered thee and heard thee what time as the storm fell upon thee. Heb. I heard thee in the place of thunder. 8. I proved thee also: at the waters of strife. On the return of each one of these solemn feastdays, God seemed to recal to the memory of His people the mighty deeds He had done for them,— how He had given their shoulders rest from the heavy burdens of clay, and had delivered their hands from the wearying toil of the brick-kiln; how He had saved them from the rage of Pharaoh, when they cried in their distress and fear; how He had |