LECTURE IV.

PSALMS VI., XI., XVI., XVII., XXV., XXXV., XLIII, LVI.

HE Psalms took their rise in the religious awakening

which began under Samuel, and was fully developed under King David. The long times of growing declension which succeeded were for the most part barren of additions to the Psalter. The only such additions were made in the times of religious revivals, as, for instance, under the pious kings Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Psalms xlvii., xlviii., and lxxxiii. plainly commemorate the overthrow of the heathen confederacy against Judah in the days of Jehoshaphat; Psalms xlvi. and lxxxvii. similarly glorify God for the deliverance from Sennacherib's overwhelming hosts, under Hezekiah; and Psalms lxxvii., lxxxviii., lxxxix. probably belong to Josiah's reign. The religious reformation which resulted from the bitter, but wholesome, lesson taught by the Divine chastisement in the nation's captivity, was marked by a brief outburst of inspired psalmody. After the last new song (Ps. cxviii.) and its sister Psalms, sung to the Lord at the completion of the city walls under Nehemiah, no new Psalm was composed under inspiration.

David gives the tone to the Psalter; just as, in his turn, he rests upon the Pentateuch of Moses, one, at least, of whose Psalms he has preserved for us, viz., Psalm xc. His tone is elevated, and his poetical style abounds in rare forms, which create at times a difficulty. The pervading characteristic of his Psalms is the recognition of the retributive righteousness

of God, as the preservative against despair: hence we so often meet in them Divine consolations suddenly interposed in the midst of sorrowful complaints. David's faith addresses itself to, and triumphs over, David's fears. His imminent perils and sore trials, and the victory of his faith over them, issuing in his final exaltation from the lowest humiliation to the royal sceptre over God's own people, are what especially qualified him to be the vivid type of the Divine Son of David. Take as an illustration the mutually related pair of PSALMS, XVI. AND XVII. As Psalms xlii. and xliii., so Psalms xvi. and xvii. form one whole, consisting of two parts. The Psalmist's situation in both is that of one in imminent danger from godless foes; and the consolation is threefold: 1. Trust in Jehovah produces the assurance of life, and pleasures for ever to both body and soul; 2. Righteousness in the petitioner, 3. And unrighteousness in the oppressors, ensure God's interposition for His people's final and full satisfaction with His holy likeness in His presence. The first is the theme of Psalm xvi., the latter two are the theme of Psalm xvii.

The heading of PSALM XVI. is, "Michtam of David." This is a title which stands by itself, and is not found associated with Maschil, Mizmor, or Tephillah. Hengstenberg explains it a "secret," a song of deep import, conducting into the depths of the Divine life. The believer is admitted into the secret presence-chamber of his Lord, and fathoms mysteries hidden from the world. (Ps. xxv. 14, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.") But the root of Michtam (On, Katham) may also mean to "inscribe," or "engrave:" and in this sense the Septuagint take it, "a pillar engraving," (στηλογραφία). The precious truths shadowed forth in the Psalm, namely, the death and resurrection of Messiah, deserve to be deeply engraven on the heart, as if in capital letters inscribed on a pillar before the eyes. So Bishop Wordsworth.

It is a striking coincidence, that Job also introduces his sublime prophetical anticipation of the resurrection of the body by the power of the Redeemer (Goel) with a similar

heading: “Oh that my words were printed (engraven) in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day (rather, the last) upon the earth," etc. Hezekiah's 'writing' (, Miktab) seems a plain allusion to David's Michtam. He, too, like David, was brought to the edge of the grave, and was raised again. Hence, naturally there is a correspondence to David's Michtam and other Psalms in his Miktab. Moreover, it was

Hezekiah who restored David's Psalms to their liturgical use in the temple (2 Chron. xxix. 30, "Hezekiah commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer"). The coincidence, evidently natural, and unlike the invention of a forger, between his 'writing' or prayer (Isa. xxxviii. 9—20) and David's Psalms and those of his singers (vi. 5, "In death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the grave who shall give Thee thanks?" xxx. 9, “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise Thee? Shall it declare Thy truth?” xxvii. 13, "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living;" xlix. I, "All the inhabitants of the world; " cii. 24, “O God, take me not away in the midst of my days." With which compare Hezekiah's words, "I said in the cutting off of my days, . . . I am deprived of the residue of my years. I shall behold no more the inhabitants of the world. The grave cannot praise Thee; death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth. The living, the living shall praise Thee"), and their titles (Miktab answering to Michtam Psalms xvi., lvi., lvii.) are a presumption for the authenticity of the latter.

David's persecution by Saul, to such a degree that, despairing of life, he fled to the Philistines (1 Sam. xxvii. 1; compare xxi. 10), among whom God marvellously "preserved" him (compare ver. I, "Preserve me, O God"), probably suggested the sixteenth Psalm, though not actually composed till later times, when he was on the throne. What confirms this is, that another similar Michtam of David (PSALM LVI.) is expressly in

the title attributed to this occasion: "when the Philistines took him in Gath." The sorrow-multiplying idolatries around him, whilst there, would naturally suggest the resolution, "Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips" (ver. 4). The names for idol-gods and sorrows are almost identical (1, 'atzeboth; YY 'atzabbim); a bad augury for those who "hasten after (maharu, with a dowry buy as a wife) "another god." All lovers of idols, literal or spiritual, buy them at the cost of "sorrows" here, and death for ever hereafter. In blessed contrast to this, he contemplates his own goodly spiritual heritage in the Lord : " The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my lot;" of which Saul, though he drive me into exile, cannot dispossess me. "The lines (which measure out my allotment) are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage."

In undesigned coincidence with this, we find David at Hachilah, in his appeal to his persecutor Saul, fixing on this as the main hardship of his forced exile from the Holy Land (1 Sam. xxvi. 19): "Cursed be they (who have stirred thee up against me); for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go, serve other gods." The correspondence of the very words is of that natural and unobtrusive kind which fits in with the supposition that the Psalm and the history alike are what they profess to be, genuine representations of David's actual words and sentiments.

In the first verse of THE ELEVENTH PSALM, David uses a peculiar expression, "How say ye to my soul, Flee (as) a bird to your mountain?" Birds are more exposed in the open plain; and therefore on a sudden alarm fly to the covert of a hill. No image could be more appropriate in Palestine, abounding, as it does, in caves on the hill-sides. (Compare I Sam. xiii. 6, "The people did hide themselves—from the Philistines-in caves, rocks, and high places.") But the history furthermore shows, that it is the very image David would be

likely to use, if the David of the Psalms is the David of the history; for when he was fleeing before Saul, he says to the latter, (1 Sam. xxvi. 20,) "The king of Israel is come out -as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains." Here again is a delicate coincidence such as truth alone was likely to produce. Literally, David did flee (1 Sam. xix. 18), but the flight counselled by carnal friends was a spiritual one -that he should flee from his high-place of trust in Jehovah ; and this David's spiritual instincts recoiled from; as Nehemiah long subsequently said to like counsellors, "Should such a man as I flee?" (Neh. vi. 11.)

Once, for a brief space, his stronghold of faith failed at this period, and he sought a carnal mountain; for he "said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul; there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines." He narrowly escaped the penalty of his distrust (1 Sam. xxvii., xxviii., xxix.). But at the time of writing the pair of Psalms, xvi. and xvii., faith had recovered its power. For natural fear and divine confidence are the two opposite poles of the believer's life (compare I Sam. xxx. 6, "David was greatly distressed-but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God,") and it is only at the last we realize "in vain is salvation hoped for from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel" (Jer. iii. 23).

Another coincidence with the independent history is latent in Psalm xvi. 7: "I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel." In the providence of God, Abiathar, one of Ahimelech's sons, escaped, from Saul's slaughter of the priests at Nob, to David (1 Sam. xxii. 20). David had thus at his side one through whom, as a priest, in God's appointed way, he could continually seek "counsel" of the Lord. The history (1 Sam. xxx. 7, 8; compare xxiii. 2, 4, 6, 9) expressly records that David did so "enquire at the Lord" through Abiathar. Saul, on the contrary, by the very act of slaying the priests, bereft himself of those through whom he might have consulted the Lord. So at last, when "the Lord answered him not,