time is not infrequent in our translation from the original language. We may read, therefore, He hath sent down from on high to fetch me: He hath delivered me from my strongest enemy. This was David's happy position at the moment of Saul's death: he was delivered from them which hated him, and were too mighty for him; the Lord being his upholder. The verses which follow breathe the spirit of thanksgiving, rather than of prayer, which affords another good reason for the change of time already spoken of, as it respects the two preceding verses. For the Psalmist, acknowledging that the Lord had brought him forth into a place of liberty, because He had a favour unto him, foresees the future reward of his own integrity and righteous dealing, and proclaims it with all the confidence of the strongest faith. There never was seen, perhaps, in any generation of mankind, any other person in whom the power of religious faith manifested itself with so much strength, and in such unabated continuance and growth, as in the character of David. There are examples of a sublime resignation to the will of God in the last extremity, to be found in Holy Writ, as that of the dying Jacob in the Old Testament, and that of the martyr Stephen in the New. But it was the duty and the high privilege of the Psalmist to record from time to time his own immoveable faithfulness, through many years of the severest trial and the most imminent dangers; as well as under the more encouraging experience of deliverances from them. In all, he acknowledges the hand of God: and it is upon his grateful reflections on the past that he founds his reasonable confidence of future protection, and guidance, and recompense. It is, however, from his own consciousness of integrity that he derives encouragement to come boldly to the throne of grace, to look for future mercies, and with the hope to find grace in all his times of need. And herein lies the true secret of obtaining that great gift of God, a true and lively faith. No man can ask any thing in faith, believing, while his conscience is burthened

with the weight of past sins, unrepented of; or while labouring under that greater impediment to advancement in spiritual life, an evil heart of unbelief in the necessity of Christian practical obedience. Yet how few are they who can approach the Mercy Seat with those inspiring reflections which animated the courage of the son of Jesse:-I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have an eye unto all his laws; I was also uncorrupt before Him, and eschewed mine own wickedness. Upon this rested his confidence in the Divine Justice, as well as in the mercy of his God. Therefore, says he, (and this thanksgiving for coming mercies is repeated,) therefore shall the Lord reward me after my righteous dealing; and according unto the cleanness of my hands in his eye-sight.

Ver. 25-29. The language of the two first of these verses is obscure, if not mysterious, as addressed to God Himself: but they bear an explanation which will make plain their hidden meaning to the humblest mind. The sense of the passage is, that he who to the best of his ability hath striven to purify his mind from unclean and unholy thoughts, and his life from positive vices; he can desire nothing that he will not find in the perfect purity of the Divine Character. This was exemplified before the eyes of men in the life of our Saviour, who was the Deity Himself, manifest in the flesh: this passage therefore may be taken as prophetic of our incarnate Redeemer's exemplary course upon earth. But with God the Judge of all, the froward and evil minded man shall learn the fierceness of his anger against the wickedness of his doings: he shall find that the Almighty not only opposes a firm and irresistible hand to his presumptuous course; but that He is in the end a consuming fire to all such as delight in lies, and in the frowardness of the wicked. All sinfulness is pride; and as this is in the sight of God the object of his deepest hatred, so is humility of mind the earnest of all other Christian virtues: and that which He will accept in the absence of more ostensible and active graces.

This is what is meant by saving the people that are in adversity. David felt the value of this sacred ornament in himself: it inspired him with comfort and confidence that subdued all his fears it shed a light upon all the ways of adversity which he had trodden :—Thou also shalt light my candle; the Lord my God shall make my darkness to be light. So that, how numerous soever mine enemies, how mighty and threatening their bulwarks raised against me; by the help of my God I shall triumph over them, and pursue my victorious course, in the exercise of that authority which He hath placed in my hands.

Ver. 30, 31. These two verses consist of a pious reflection of the Psalmist, introductory to a long enumeration of the mercies he had experienced, and the support he yet hoped to experience, at the hand of his God. He meditates on the way of God, on the Word of God, and on the faithfulness of God, as the defence of all who put their trust in Him. It is necessary, my brethren, first to obtain a knowledge of God, before we can reasonably hope to acquire that faith in him which is the source of all true peace here, and the earnest of eternal peace and safety hereafter. We can gather a knowledge of his ways, that is, of his providential dealings with mankind, only from those long preserved records of his government, which were written for our learning. The brief history of the Creation, which is unquestionably a work of divine inspiration, is only an introduction to the knowledge of the Creator, gradually expanded through the details of the manner in which He displayed his attributes to the understanding of his intelligent creatures, in the exercise of his universal sovereignty. We who have the advantage over any one generation of our earlier progenitors, of comparing the progress of events through thousands of yearswe are enabled, as it were at one glance, to see the connexion of causes and effects, in all the operations of Divine Power, and in all the dispensations of Divine Providence; and the better we acquaint ourselves with the historical records of God's dealings

with every generation, and with every distinct division of the human race, the more shall we be constrained, nay, compelled to acknowledge, that the way of God is an undefiled way:-"O God Omnipotent! how perfect is the way of the Lord! how just and equal the reasons of his Providence!"* Let us take only the history of the seed of Abraham, from their first separation as a distinct people, to their final dispersion, and we shall require no other text whereon to build up a just though imperfect conviction, that the way of the Lord is an undeviating course of truth and equity. So also, as the Psalmist proclaims, is the Word of the Lord tried in the fire. And perhaps not less in our own day, than in the time of the Egyptian bondage of his people, or in that of their subsequent deliverance. The awful threatenings of divine vengeance are recorded for our caution; yet how numerous, how continuous are our provocations! By these is the Word of the Lord tried. For though, as the Apostle reminds his Roman converts, though God hath said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; yet is this no encouragement to presumption; for the same written Word proclaims the incorruptibility of Divine Justice. And God's faithfulness is no less manifest in the dispensation of his judgments, than in that of his forbearance and loving-kindness towards his creatures: though herein, as the Psalmist intimates, is the display of his brightest attribute:-He is the defender of all them that put their trust in Him. It is as the reward of our faithfulness that God, through Jesus Christ, manifests his faithfulness towards us: in that He forgiveth all our sin, and healeth all our infirmities; and hath saved our life from destruction, and crowned us with mercy and loving-kindness. And to inspire the faithfulness which leads to this consummation, the Psalmist thus argues:-Who is God, but the Lord: or who hath any strength, except our God?

Amyraldus (in loco) in Davidis Psalmos.

Ver. 32-51. Though, as it has been stated in the opening argument of this Psalm, it is prophetically commemorative of the honour and glory of Christ's dominion over all things and for ever; yet this view of it is a fitter subject for private meditation than for a written commentary. We will confine its application therefore to the Psalmist himself, his experience, and his strong faith. The voice of inspiration is echoed in every passage of this triumphant hymn-the celebration of a future and perfect triumph, rather than of any past stages of a protected and victorious life. David, however, humbly ascribes all his prospective power and success to Jehovah, who had so long and so signally shielded him from unequalled perils. And though he speaks of blessings in prospect with as strong a certainty as if they were in possession; he does not overlook his own past frailties, nor think ungratefully of his past sufferings, as though they were the unmerited inflictions of the divine anger; but he ascribes to them the healing and strengthening power, which manifests the love of God, in all his chastisements of the children whom He loveth. David admits, at once honestly and piously, that his advancing greatness shall not be less owing to the divine correction than to the divine support: —Thy right hand shall hold me up, and thy loving correction shall make me great. And this duty performed, the inspired penman revels as it were in the boundless vision of the temporal blessings that await him, as the anointed ruler of God's peculiar people, as the conservator of Israel's peace, and as the guardian of the Sanctuary, now established on the hill of Zion which God loved. It is difficult for us, brethren, to enter into the feelings which must have warmed the breast of the pious young king at this moment of exultant faith; but the re-perusal of these twenty verses again and again, must kindle in the dullest heart a joyous sympathy with the grateful historian of his own experience and especially among those who have attentively read the sacred biography of his earlier eventful life. And it is