neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets," he filled up the measure of his guilt by having recourse to the witch of Endor,—an act which is expressly specified as one leading cause of his destruction. (1 Chron. x. 13, "So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it." 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, 7.) Truly God makes men's own sin their punishment, even as righteousness is its own reward. (Compare Isa. iii. 9, 11, “Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.") Men's sin will find them out. With divinely inspired prescience, Samuel denounced Saul's self-justifying excuses of his prominent act of disobedience in words awfully significant of the final issue : "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft (the very climax of guilt into which Saul finally fell), and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" (1 Sam. xv. 23). Truly we ought to pray, "Search me, O God, and know my heart-and see if there be any way of an idol (otzeb; or as in Ps. xvi. 4, above, any way of sorrow) in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." The way of idolatry, however refined, proves a way of sorrow, and shuts out from the way everlasting (Ps. cxxxix. 24).

It is written in 1 Chron. x. 13, "Saul died for his transgression-against the word of the Lord." The Hebrew word for "transgression" ma'al,) expresses prevarication of word and deed; Saul not doing God's commandments, yet wishing to appear to do them; shuffling violation of duty; as especially in the case of Amalek, whose men and cattle he destroyed only so far as God's will coincided with his own, and did not interfere with his lust for spoil, and for popularity. He even gave his very transgression, which he shifts upon "the people," a meritorious and religious character: "The people took of the spoil, to sacrifice to the Lord thy God." In marked contrast to this stands David's resolution (Ps. XVII. 3), “I am

دو

purposed that my mouth shall not transgress; or as Hengstenberg translates it, "my mouth oversteps not my thought." Notwithstanding exceptional falls, my mouth's claim to be righteous, that is, sincere, does not go beyond the real state of my heart, as seen by Thee: compare the end of verse I, "My prayer goeth not out of feigned lips." But lest this statement should savour of pride, David adds, "By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer."

The coincidence between David's phrase in the Psalm, "concerning the works of men," and in the independent history (1 Sam. xxiv. 9), “men's words," has been formerly noticed. Another coincidence is here. Twice in the history it is recorded, that David was "kept" from sinning, when sorely tempted to avenge himself. First in the case of Nabal (1 Sam. xxv. 39), "The Lord (he saith, as here, The word of Thy lips) hath kept His servant from evil." In the second case, the coincidence is more striking still. When the arch"destroyer" (Ps. xvii. 4) suggested at Hachilah Abishai's proposal in 'words," "Let me smite Saul," the Lord kept David from the spirit of impatience and self-revenge, and David replied, "Destroy him not " (1 Sam. xxvi. 9).

Furthermore, David's favourite phrase in the Psalms (Ps. xxxv. I, and xliii. 1), Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me," is the very one attributed to him by the independent historian in 1 Sam. xxv. 39, "The Lord hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from Nabal." God's word, which "is the path of life," alone can keep us from "the paths of the destroyer." How natural are these delicate coincidences! The minute consistency of David's character, as pourtrayed in the Psalms, with that of his portrait in the history, is just what one might expect, assuming both the history and the Psalms to be genuine.

Some have denied that the passage, Ps. xvi. 9, 10, "My flesh also shall rest in hope: for Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption," refers to anything further than David's anticipation of bodily deliverance in this life,-on the ground that "flesh"

commonly expresses the living body; and that the Hebrew for "leave" () may be translated, "commit to;" and the Hebrew for "corruption" may be rendered, ( shacath)

"pit." But I Sam. xvii. 44, shows this rule as to "flesh" is not universal. Moreover, the term is peculiarly appropriate of Him whose body even in death had indestructible vitality. David may have primarily thought of his own temporal deliverance only: as the Hebrew means "the pious," or "graciously favoured one," and "Hell" (Sheol) sometimes means great straits, or destruction (Ps. cvii. 20; cxvi. 3). But the Holy Spirit caused him to utter language which finds its exhaustive and main fulfilment in Messiah alone. Inspired prophets often spake words, the deep and far-reaching significancy of which they did not themselves understand, but which the Holy Spirit designed to receive their fulfilment in Messianic times. (Compare John xi. 50—52; 1 Pet. i. 10—12.) The Septuagint, centuries before Christ, and therefore unbiassed in favour of the Christian interpretation, renders it, not, "Thou wilt not commit my soul to Hades, nor suffer Thy beloved one to see the pit" (as Perowne), but as St. Peter, on infallible authority, quotes it, "Thou wilt not leave (¿ykataλéiYeis eis" Adŋv) my soul in hell (literally, "into hell;" put it into and leave it there: answering to the Hebrew in lisheol), nor suffer Thy pious one to see corruption," or destruction (διαφθοράν) Acts ii. 27.

The Hebrew for "corruption" () is identical in consonants with the verb to corrupt, and has “the pit” as a secondary meaning, because the pit or grave is the place of corruption. It has been forcibly said, "If David did not prophesy that Messiah should not see corruption, the Septuagint did." To explain it of David, "Thou shalt not suffer Thine holy one to see the pit," would be to make David deny that he should die at all. But verse II plainly implies, that David in the passage is looking beyond the present world: and as the words, "Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore," anticipated the future blessedness consequent on

the Resurrection, so the immediately preceding words, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (the unseen world of disembodied spirits, in the English sense), neither wilt Thou suffer Thy pious one to see corruption," must refer to the temporary stay in the grave, and the resurrection from it, which were to precede that everlasting blessedness. After God's promise to David through Nathan, that his throne should be established for ever in his seed, there is a spiritual propriety in his being inspired to foretell that the ultimate Heir of that kingdom must rise again. The promise of the everlasting throne to David's seed involved the necessity of His resurrection, though for a time He must needs pass through the sufferings and death which were antitypical to David's. David, as Peter reasons (Acts ii. 26, 27, 29—33), cannot be the one mainly meant in the Psalm, for David saw corruption.* The Son of David alone can be meant in the full sense; for He alone saw no corruption-a type of which is given in the Nazarite's separation from contact with a dead body. Herein, as always, Messiah the Antitype exceeded the type David. The saints, though they must "see corruption," unless found among the living at Christ's return, yet in another sense, by virtue of Messiah's death and resurrection, do not "see death" in their souls now, and shall not see it in their bodies at last. (John viii. 51, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.") May this be our happy "portion," that "when we awake, we may be satisfied with His likeness!"

* In Ps. vi. 5, " In death there is no remembrance of Thee," translate "there is no commemoration (or memorial) of Thee." There is in the separate state remembrance of God, but no memorial to His praise before men living in the body. Hezekiah (Isa. xxxviii, 18, 19) quotes this Psalm.

LECTURE V.

PSALMS V., XIII., XIX., XXXI., XXXIV., XXXV., XXXVIII., LV., LVI., LXXXVI., CXVI.

THE spirit of the Psalms is unfavourable to the occurrence

of individual and particular allusions. For they were all designed for the musical portion of the temple public liturgy. Therefore the coincidences that do occur between them and the independent history are necessarily latent and scattered. Thus we detect in the four times repeated "how long" of PSALM XIII. the feeling bordering on despair, which tempted David after Saul's persecutions had continued for years, and no hope of a termination appeared. The history (1 Sam. xxvii. 1), with undesigned coincidence, pourtrays this feeling when it records that, brought at last to his wits' end, he despondingly exclaimed, "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, and Saul shall despair of me to seek me any more in any coast of Israel; so shall I escape out of his hand." How exactly the Psalm reproduces this feeling: "How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?”.

The cry of David typifies Israel's and the Church's cry in affliction, "How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord?" Jehovah answers in Isa. xlix. 15, “ Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?" Yea, they may forget: yet will I not forget Thee." To David's and the Church's other complaint, "How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?" God's answer