kinds of men-the man of men, who renders good for good, and evil for evil; the man of the devil, who renders evil for good; and the man of God, who renders good for evil." So contrary was David's spirit to that of Saul, that the latter could not forbear expressing wonder at David having spared him, when in his power in the cave of Engedi, as something contrary to all the principles of the natural man. I Sam. xxiv. 19, “If a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day." How natural, that the charge which Saul had alleged against David as the plea for persecuting him, but which really lay at Saul's own door, should be uppermost in David's mind: and yet how unstudiedly it comes out in the fourth verse, "If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me," ie., that was my friend (compare Ps. xli. 9, "yea, mine own familiar friend;" Heb. "the man of my peace,” margin).

Again, how strikingly consistent with themselves, in their respective and opposite characters, do Saul and David appear in 1 Sam. xxiii. 21, and 2 Sam. ii. 5: Saul says to the Ziphites when these offered to betray David, “Blessed be ye of the Lord; for ye have compassion on me. Go see where his haunt is, and I will search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah." But when the men of Jabesh Gilead rescued Saul's body from the Philistines, David said to them, "Blessed be ye of the Lord, that ye have showed this kindness unto your lord, even unto Saul, and have buried him; and now the Lord show kindness and truth to you; and I also will requite you this kindness, because ye have done this thing." How happily, and at the same time undesignedly, this accords with David's spirit in Psalm xxxv. 12, 13, "They rewarded me evil for good but as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting."

Again, in Psalm vii. 3, "If I have done this," namely, what my calumniators allege, corresponding to David's language to Saul in the history: "Men's words, saying, Behold, David sceketh thy hurt" (1 Sam. xxiv. 9). "If there be iniquity in

my hands." How naturally, and evidently without design, David's very expression coincides with that attributed to him in the history (1 Sam. xxiv. 11), "My father, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand: for in that I killed thee not, know there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand; yet thou huntest my soul to take it." Who can doubt the identity of the David in the history with the writer of the Psalm? There are the same favourite expressions, "my soul," verse 2 ("lest he tear my soul like a lion ") and 5; and the same Hebrew verb in verse 1, "persecute me," [rodephai,] as in 1 Sam. xxiv. 14, "Whom dost thou pursue," or "persecute,", rodceph.]

The same scene of unrelenting persecution on the part of Saul, and of magnanimous forbearance on the part of David towards his enemy, when in his power, was enacted over again at the hill of Hachilah (1 Sam. xxvi.). Again the same peculiar Davidic expressions occur, ver. 18: "Wherefore doth my lord pursue after (persecute,' the same Hebrew as Ps. vii. 1) his servant? What evil is in mine hand?"

...

The same allusion occurs to the calumnies of men about Saul, who sought to ingratiate themselves with their master by maligning David (ver. 19): "If they be the children of men, that have stirred thee up against me . they have driven me out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord." Now in Psalm vii. 3-5, he alludes to these calumnies, and defends himself from them. And the title, "concerning the words," is tantamount to on account of the calumnies." Indeed, the Septuagint rendering (vπèρ Tŵv λóywv) actually gives it so. But how little of design is there on the face of all these coincidences; and yet, how real and convincing, when brought to light!

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The men about Saul were the ostensible calumniators, but Saul himself was the real calumniator; for his flatterers knew that in no way better could they please their master, than by accusing David. How well and naturally does that come out in the title," concerning (ie., on account of) the words of Cush the Benjamite."

But can we identify this enigmatical title with Saul? First,

I Sam. ix. 21: "Am

he was pre-eminently "the Benjamite." not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel?" His father's name, moreover, was Kish, of similar sound to "Cush." The character pourtrayed is one of ideal blackness morally. As "the Ethiopian (in Hebrew, Cush) cannot change his skin," so this persecutor cannot change his black heart. (Jer. xiii. 23; Amos ix. 7.) "In the Ethiopian, there is nothing white," says Trapp, "but his teeth; so in the hypocrite." David's predilection for such enigmatical titles was due not only to poetical taste, but also to his desire to elevate his Psalms above merely individual references, to meet the spiritual wants of the Church at large, and the liturgical service of the sanctuary in particular. Compare titles of Psalms ix., xxii., liii. The more latent the connection between the title and the contents, the more removed from suspicion of forgery is the coincidence between the Psalm and the history.

There is one more feature of coincidence which is prominent in the seventh Psalm, as in many more of David's Psalms; that is, the casting of his righteous cause on the judgment of Jehovah. In verses 8, 11, "Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness:" "God judgeth the righteous." The language attributed to David in the history (1 Sam. xxiv. 12, xxvi. 23) is singularly in accordance with that of the Psalm, and yet not like an agreement contrived by a forger: "The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee, but mine hand shall not be upon thee." "The Lord render to every man his righteousness."

"The event verified David's prophetical prayers (ver. 12 13): "If he turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow, and made it ready. He ordaineth His arrows against the persecutors." Saul, the persecutor, was smitten by the arrows of the very Philistines by whom he had hoped to kill David, and by his own sword. (Compare 1 Sam. xviii. 17, 21, with I Sam. xxxi. 3, 4.) David, of whom Saul had said, "Let the hand of the Philistines be upon him," was actually saved by Achish and the Philistines (1 Sam. xxvii.

So

1-3). It was Saul himself who was slain by them. accurately were the words of our Psalm (ver. 15, 16) fulfilled: "He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.'

How true a title, then, is the "Shiggaion," or "Aberrations of Saul." The erratic style of the melody answered to the strongly emotional character of the subject. And what accords with this view is, that Saul himself, on the occasion in question, used the cognate verb, Shagah, (1 Sam. xxvi. 21,) “Behold, I have played the fool, and have ERRED exceedingly!" Truly, "cursed are they which do err from God's commandments." Even already an earnest of God's final judgment is given in the retributions in kind so often dealt to the wicked. Let us, then, walk in sincere love towards God and man, and look for the "return to His high place of Him whose coming reign shall be in "righteousness," when all that is now dark shall be cleared up, and all saints shall acknowledge joyfully, "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints" (Rev. xv. 3; Isa. xi. 4, 5; Ps. lxxii. 2, 4).

LECTURE II.

PSALMS VII., XXII., XXV., XXXI., XXXIII., LIV., LIX., CI., CIX.

THE position of David at the court of Saul was one requiring more than ordinary tact and wisdom. The spirit of suspicion had taken possession of Saul, because of the innocent acclamations of the women : "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." Four times the history emphatically observes, "David behaved himself very wisely in all his ways, more than all the servants of Saul" (1 Sam. xviii. 5, 14, 15, 30). THE HUNDRED AND FIRST PSALM, with strikingly similar language, expresses his own resolution, yet without any of the studied harmony which a forger would employ: "I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way; I will walk within my house with a perfect heart." The time referred to in the Psalm is much later than that in 1 Sam. xviii.; for now he speaks as a king, “I will destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of Jehovah;" yet the language of his former self, when a subject, is in happy congruity with that which he used when now reigning over the city and people of the Lord. Again, in I Chron. xxviii. 9, with undesigned coincidence, he charges Solomon to the same perfectness of heart as he resolved by God's grace to cherish towards God: "Thou Solomon, my son, serve God with a perfect heart:" and in xxix. 19 he prays God to give the same to his son: "Give Solomon a perfect heart." All this is the harmony of truth, not forgery.

So also David says, PSALM XXXIII. 3, " Play skilfully;" using the very same Hebrew (1) as Saul had used on the occasion of David's first introduction: "Provide me now a