Israel be broken, and his land cleft asunder, a thousandfold more terribly than David's wars or any of the desolations of his time ever threatened, yet that desolation ends. (See ver. 4.)

"Thou hast given a Banner to them that fear thee.”

Here is the voice of Israel owning Jehovah's gift of Messiah to them. Messiah is the ensign or banner, Isaiah xi. 10.

"To be lifted up as an ensign, because of truth.”

Holding up this banner-in other words, owning God's truth, or the fulfilment of his ancient promise to Adam, to Abraham, to all the fathers—Israel may expect favour; and they find it. For suddenly, ver. 5, Messiah appears himself, urging their request, and at ver. 6 he gets a favourable answer; "God speaks in holiness," [or as Israel's Holy One,] and grants the desire of him who asks. Shechem, where Jacob's first altar rose, and where he bought the first parcel of ground (Gen xxxiii. 18), and where afterwards destruction threatened the whole feeble family because of Levi and Simeon's enormity, is now re-possessed in peace. Succoth, where Jacob first erected a dwelling (Gen. xxxiii. 17), and booths for cattle, as one intending to remain, is next claimed permanently. The country beyond Jordan, under the name Gilead, where stood the mountain famed for healing balm, emblematic of healing to Israel, comes next, and along with it Manassch, on the opposite side; thus stretching his wings over the breadth of the land. Ephraim comes in as being to push the foe with his horns (Deut. xxxiii. 17), while Judah appears as "Lawgiver," or "Ruler," the tribe of Messiah. The nations round submit; Moab stands as a slave at his master's foot; Edom picks up the sandal cast down at his feet by his lord (Hengst.); and Philistia is compelled to receive the king with triumphant shouts. And whose power is it that accomplishes all this? Who is it that leads the conquering nation and its king to the strong city? even to Edcm's strongholds, and to the battle-field of Edom in the latter day? (Isaiah lxiii. 1.) It is the very God who once cast them off-the very God that scattered them. Glory to the Lord of hosts, and to Him only! Israel and Israel's Leader rest on Him, and so do valiantly—as Balaam, pointing to Moab and Edom, long since foretold (Num. xxiv. 18, 19). And thus the scene of Psalm lix, is happily reversed at length.

The Righteous One asks, and rejoices in, Israel's restoration.

PSALM LXI.

In this life, every member of the Church has a varied lot-now at rest, then troubled; now hopeful, then fearful; now a conqueror, then a combatant. Seated as he is on the Rock of Ages, immovably seated, he sees at one time a fair sky and bright sun; then, the thick cloud spreads gloom over nature; soon, the beam struggles through again, but soon all is mist once more. Such being the sure complexion of our

sojourning here, we rejoice to find sympathy therewith evinced by our God who knoweth our frame, and evinced even by the fact that He so often turns in the Songs of Zion from one state of mind to another, and from one aspect of our case to another.

Here is the Head and his members in a state of loneliness. As if suggested by the case of dispersed Israel, language (in ver. 2) is adopted such as we find in Deut. xxx. 41 and Neh. i. 9. Our Lord could well use such a Psalm in the days of his humiliation, looking to the Father, as in John xiv. 28, " the Rock higher than I," higher than the man Christ Jesus, higher than all his members. At v. 5 we are reminded of Psa. xxii. 25. The tone of the Song changes; all thereafter is hope, sure anticipation, a future of bliss realised as already at hand.

are the "Live,"

Two things let us specially notice. "Mercy and truth" (v. 7) are the attributives which preserve him. Now, "mercy and truth' prominent features of Redemption-blessing; God able to say, and yet to do this without retracting the sentence, "Thou shalt die." Christ's pillar-cloud was mercy and truth ; the Christian's pillarcloud is the same. Christ, by harmonising, magnified these perfections of Godhead; the Christian magnifies, by pointing the Father to, these harmonised perfections. Thus this prayer is answered,

66

"O prepare mercy and truth,

Let them preserve him!”

Perhaps the unusual word 2, "appoint," "prepare," may have been chosen as conveying a reference to manna, the wilderness-proviGive a manna-like provision of mercy and truth. This be our everlasting food while we dwell before God!

sion.

David's

Another thing worthy of brief notice is v. 6, "The King." title was, "King," though a wanderer in Judah's deserts; David's Son, too, had the same name and title; and in the right of their Head, disciples of Christ claim kingship under Him, and look forward with hope and expectation to the days of his visible manifestation as King in the kingdom that has no end. Here, then, we have

The Righteous One, when an outcast, looking for the day of his

Restoration.

PSALM LXII.

There was a "" Rock" spoken of in Psalm lxi. 2. The God of Israel had long been known under that name, ever since Jacob, and Moses, and Hannah, had appropriated the Rock, with its many properties of shade, shelter, strength, solidity, dignity, to give a people accustomed to level deserts and sands an emblem of the Unchanging One to whom the helpless may resort. This Rock is prominent throughout this Psalm. At the commencement, the soul of the speaker is seen under it as his shelter-he reposes in its shade, and on its strength.

"Truly at God (as a rock)

My soul takes rest.”

At the close, a voice is heard uttered from this Rock, as if clouds and storm had gathered round it, and the thunder of power were hid within its bosom. In truth we have here the soul of the Righteous One-Christ and his members-resorting to Jehovah while iniquity surrounds them, and persecution tries them. We hear them calling on Him, stirring up one another to do the like. (V. 8.)

"Trust in him at all times, ye people," (DV, true Israel of God!)

The sons of men are a mere vapour; their greatness, even when it shall flash up to the splendour of Antichrist's dominion, is a mere mirage. The sentence against it is on the way. Already you may hear God speaking; it is no fancy. Two things have been declared by our God-viz., that He will bring down the proud, and that He has mercy for his own.

"One thing God has spoken,

Two things there are which I have heard

viz., That might is God's;

And that mercy is Jehovah's also!"

In this certainty we look for the great day of the Lord-the day when a mismanaged world shall be set in order-a day sure to come, and sure to satisfy us when it has come,

"For thou renderest to every man according to his work." When (according to the title) the musical instrument called after the name of Jeduthun (1 Chron. xxv. 1), was brought out to be appropriated to this Psalm, or when, as others think, the choir of singers at whose head was Jeduthun sang it together, the godly in Israel would feel their souls raised to the height of confidence, sympathising with

The Righteous One, looking to the Rock for help.

PSALM LXIII.

A Psalm first heard by David's faithful ones in the wilderness of Judah; but truly a Psalm for every godly man who in the dry worldwilderness can sing "All my springs are in thee." A Psalm for David-a Psalm for David's Son-a Psalm for the Church in every age-a Psalm for every member of the Church in the weary land. What faith, what assurance, what vehement desire, what soul-filling delight in God, in God alone-in God the only fountain of living water amid a boundless wilderness! Hope, too, has its visions here; for it sees the ungodly perish (vers. 8, 9, 10), and the King on the throne surrounded by a company who swear allegiance to Jehovah. Hope sees for itself what Isaiah Ixiv. 16 describes-every mouth "swearing by the God of truth;" and what Rev. xxi. 27 has foretold, the mouth of liars closed for ever-all who sought other gods, and trusted to other saviours, gone for ever.

The of ver. 2 and of ver. 4 is interesting. In ver. 2 the force of it is this "No wonder that I so thirst for thee; no wonder that my first thoughts at morning are toward thee; no wonder that my very flesh longeth for thee! Who would not, that has seen what I have seen? So have I gazed on thee in the sanctuary, seeing thy power* and glory!" The " SO " is like 2 Peter i. 17, "Such a voice!" And then, if the past has been thus exquisitely blessed, my prospects for the future are not less so. 66 I see illimitable bliss coming in as a tide; SO will I bless Thee while I have being !" (ver. 4.) Yes; in ages to come, as well as in many a happy moment on earth, my soul shall be satiated as with marrow and fatness !

O world! come and see

The Righteous One finding water-springs in God.

PSALM LXIV.

We may illustrate this Psalm by referring to the case of Joseph and his many foes. Here is the Righteous One, or "the Perfect" (ver. 4), set before us-a name applicable to Christ in its fullest significancy, but applied also to his members, as being such in purpose and in prospects, impartially aiming at the whole will of their God in heart and life. But the world hates such, as his brethren hated Joseph; the world lays snares, and levels arrows of malignity at them. "The archers have shot at them."

"They search deep into iniquity," (to find out the most deadly device). "We have got it ready. Here is a well-matured plan!" (This is their shout over their deep-laid plot.)

"And close is each one,

And deep of heart.”

But there is another that is an Archer: God has his bow, and his time is coming (ver. 7). "All their hard speeches" are to be brought into judgment at the Lord's coming (Jude 15); and if they wounded others sorely, sorely shall they in turn be wounded. Theirs shall be a doom like Korah's (ver 8.), when all Israel fled at the cry (Num. xvi. 34). All earth shall then discern the righteous ways of God. That is the day of his Redeemed so often spoken of, so long expected-the day when the Righteous shall "enter into the joy of their Lord," and utter aloud their rejoicings and their glorying in Him.

"The Righteous One shall be glad in the Lord,

And flee for refuge to none but to him;

And all the upright in heart shall boast themselves." (Ver. 16). May we not, then, describe this song of Zion as one wherein we find

"Our Joseph and his seed foreseeing the end of the archers that have shot at them"?

* "Thy power"-with special reference to the "Ark of his Strength" (2 Chron. vi. 41). In Psalm 1xxviii. 61—“ his glory,” is his Ark.

ON THE PROPHETIC PERIODS OF DANIEL.

DANIEL gives his several dates under several different words; days,

: שבעים : שנים : ערב בקד : תמיד : מועד : .weeks, years, times, &c

ימים

1. In Dan. xii. 11, 12, 13, "DAYS" are mentioned.

יָמִים The Hebrew word is

When Moses spake of certain "days" in the month Abib, in Deut. xvi. 3, 4, 8, this is the word he used.

ing of the "fifty days" of Pentecost. 2. In Dan. ix. 24, WEEKS

שִׁבְעִים The Hebrew word is

93 66

Or in Jer. xxiii. 16, in speak

are mentioned.

This is the word used by Moses in Deut. xvi. 9, 10, of the "feast of weeks," seven WEEKS shalt thou number unto thee," &c. Cunninghame has stated, that nowhere else in Scripture is this word used to denote anything but a literal week of days.

3. In Dan. xi. 6, 8, 13, and ix. 2, we read of "YEARS."

שָׁנִים The Hebrew word is

Moses uses this same word of the literal year in Deut. xvi. 16, "three times in a year shall," &c. It is also used of the year of jubilee, the sabbatical year, &c. &c. (Lev. xxv.)

4. In Dan. viii. 14, we read of “ days,” marg. 66 EVENING, MORNING."

עֶרֶב בּקֶר The Hebrew words are

Whenever the morning and evening burnt offerings are spoken of, these are the terms invariably used: "One lamb shalt thou offer in the morning” (pa), "and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even" (1) (Ex. xxix. 39.) See also Num. xxviii. 4; 1 Chron. xvi. 40; 2 Chron. ii. 4 ; xii. 11; xxxi. 3 ; Ezra, iii. 3. (Also Ex. xxvii. 21, lamps; xxx. 7, 8, incense.) The same two words are used also throughout Gen. i. of each "day." And, again, in 1 Kings, xvii. 6, "the ravens brought him bread and flesh and bread and fleshy,” they unquestionably signify a literal"day."

5. But the signification of the date, "unto 2300 evening, morning," lies in its being a reply to the question, "How long shall be the vision concerning THE DAILY?" (Ch. viii. 13.)

תָּמִיד The Hebrew word is

The connexion of this word with the two preceding words, decides the meaning of both. For "the daily" () is the continual burnt offering; and is so used in Ex. xxix. 38; Num. xxviii. 3, 6; 1 Chron. xvi. 40; 2 Chron. ii. 4; and Ezra iii. 5. (Also in Exod. xxx. 8, of the incense burnt morning and evening.) The expression is strictly Jewish, and familiar to any Israelite. For 2300 literal days, ¿. e., morning and evening, "the daily" or continual burnt sacrifice was

to cease.

6. In Dan. vii. 25, and xii. 7, "TIMES" are spoken of.

מועד The Hebrew word is