yourself to be. But I cannot believe that the Psalmist, whose words show such keen faith in God and such joy in communing with him, was guilty of arid self-righteousness or of spiritual conceit.

§ 7. The twenty-second Psalm: Why hast thou forsaken me ?’Another group of prayerful hymns from days of persecution and sorrow opens with one of the most famous Psalms in the Psalter (xxii). The speaker, though in one sense the representative of the pious in Israel, and writing in their name, is in another sense an ideal figure, and almost a dramatic creation. In some respects he is the Psalmic counterpart of the Servant in the prophecies of the Second Isaiah, of whose book the author of this Psalm was a devout student and admirer. The date is once more some season of gloom and danger during the Persian rule. As with other Psalms, so here, the change from agonized petition to jubilant assurance is sudden and significant. The faithful believers obtain through prayer the conviction of their sure deliverance. Then they will fulfil the Servant's mission, and sing God's praises to the whole people of Israel, and to the world at large. We may note that no word of impatience escapes from the lips of the Psalmist, above all none of revenge against the enemies who have filled the cup of his miseries to overflowing.'

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Thou art far from my cry, and from the words of my roaring.

O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not;
And in the night season, and have no rest.
But thou art the Holy One,

Enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

Our fathers trusted in thee:

They trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered:

They trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man;

A reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn:

They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 'His redeemer is the Lord; He will rescue him!

Let Him deliver him, seeing He delighteth in him! ' But thou art my God from of old,

Thou hast been my trust from the beginning.

'THOU ART THE HOLY ONE

Be not far from me; for trouble is near;

For there is none to help.

Many bulls have compassed me:

Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. For dogs have compassed me:

The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They gape upon me with their mouths,

As a ravening and a roaring lion.

I am poured out like water,

And all my bones are out of joint: My heart is like wax;

It is melted within me.

My palate is dried up like a potsherd;

And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;

And thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

For dogs encompass me;

I

A company of villains encircle me.

may number all my bones:

They look and stare upon me.

They part my garments among them,
And cast lots upon my vesture.

But be not thou far from me, O Lord:
O my strength, haste thee to help me.
Deliver my soul from the sword;

My dear life from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion's mouth:

Deliver me from the horns of the wild ox.

I will declare thy name unto my brethren :
In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
Ye that fear the Lord, praise him;

All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him;

And fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

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For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;

Neither hath he hid his face from him;

But when he cried unto him, he heard.

Thy faithfulness shall be my praise in the great congregation:

I will pay my vows before them that fear him.

The meek shall eat and be satisfied:

They shall praise the Lord that seek him:
Let your heart revive for ever.

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord:

And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him.

For the kingdom is the Lord's:

And he is the governor among the nations.

All they that be fat upon earth shall surely worship him:
They shall bow down before him to the dust.

The seed of his servants shall recount the work of the Lord for the generation to come;

They shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born.

The bulls and dogs are metaphors of enemies, both external and internal. The pious are near to death. Yet the community will not die. Their seed at any rate will recount the work of the Lord to a people and a generation yet unborn. Note the striking metaphor in the first stanza. 'But thou art the Holy One; enthroned upon the praises of Israel.' Israel's praise of God forms a spiritual throne of glory.

'The affliction of the afflicted.' It can also be rendered, 'The poverty of the poor,' the ideas of affliction, humiliation and poverty being in Hebrew closely allied. The Midrash so translates it, and has many pretty illustrative stories. As for example: A woman brought a handful of flour to the Temple as a meal offering, but the priest treated it contemptuously, and said, "What a sacrifice is that!" But in a dream a voice said unto him, "Treat it not contemptuously; I regard it as if she had sacrificed herself."'

§ 8. The twenty-fifth Psalm.—The following Psalm (xxv) is one of the tenderest and most beautiful in the Psalter. Like a few others, it is alphabetic,' each verse beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The alphabetical arrangement aided the memory, and also gave formal unity to a string of disconnected thoughts and aspirations. The last verse of the Psalm is a liturgical addition. The writer is thinking of, and speaking for, his community and his people. Their sorrows and their joys are his. Note the beautiful phrase: "The communion of the Lord is with them that fear him.' Some translate 'secret,' others 'friendship.' On the basis of reverence there may come that

'THE COMMUNION OF THE LORD'

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higher intimacy, that inward and secret communing with the Eternal Spirit, which is the crown and flower of the religious life. Professor Wellhausen says: "This alphabetical song is an epitome of the world of religious thought and of that religious vocabulary which we find in the Psalms. The poet everywhere keeps the entire community in view, but in such a manner as to leave each individual at liberty to appropriate for his own benefit the truths which belong to the whole.'

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed,
Let not mine enemies triumph over me.

Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed:

Let them be ashamed who rebel without cause. Make me to know thy ways, O Lord;

Teach me thy paths.

Let me walk in thy truth, and teach me:

For thou art the God of my salvation;

On thee do I wait all the day.

Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving

kindnesses;

For they have been ever of old.

Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: According to thy mercy remember thou me

For thy goodness' sake, O Lord.

Good and upright is the Lord:

Therefore doth he teach sinners in the way.
The meek doth he guide in righteousness :
And the meek doth he teach his way.

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and faithfulness
Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity;
For it is great.

What man is he that feareth the Lord?

Him shall he teach in the way that he should choose. His soul shall dwell at ease;

And his seed shall inherit the earth.

The communion of the Lord is with them that fear him;
And he will shew them his covenant.

Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord;

For he shall pluck my feet out of the net. Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me;

For I am lonely and afflicted.

Relieve the troubles of my

heart:

O bring thou me out of my distresses.

Look upon mine affliction and my pain;
And forgive all my sins.

Consider mine enemies; for they are many;

And they hate me with cruel hatred.

O keep my soul, and deliver me:

Let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me;

For I wait on thee.

Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

$9. Psalms twenty-six and twenty-seven (b).—The question of self-righteousness is again raised in the next Psalm (xxvi). The same remarks apply here as before. The speaker identifies himself with his community, and, writing out of their heart as much as out of his own, ascribes to himself the virtues which he fully believes to exist in them. For the pride of party existed undoubtedly-even as it has ever existed, and still exists to-day. In this Psalm we get clear allusions to that deep affection for the Temple services, and to that effective spiritualization of them, which will meet us again in many a subsequent hymn. The idea contained in the 'judge me' of the opening verse is, 'secure my right,' 'vindicate my cause,' 'bring about my triumph.'

Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity:
I have trusted in the Lord, and have not wavered.
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me;

Try my reins and my heart.

For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes:
And I have walked in thy truth.

I have not sat with vain persons,

Neither do I come together with dissemblers.

I hate the congregation of evil doers;

And do not sit with the wicked.

I wash mine hands in innocency;

So that I may compass thine altar, O Lord,
That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving,
And tell of all thy wondrous works.

Lord, I love the habitation of thy house,

And the place where thy glory dwelleth.