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For it is not an enemy that revileth me; then I could bear it: Neither is it he that hateth me that is insolent towards me; Then I would hide myself from him:

But it is thou, a man mine equal,

My familiar friend, and mine acquaintance.

We took sweet counsel together,

And walked unto the house of God amid the throng.

But as for me, I will call upon God,

And the Lord will save me.

Evening and morning and noon I will complain and moan ; So shall he hear my voice.

He hath delivered my soul in peace that they should not come nigh me,

For there were many who had risen up against me. God heareth the cry of the afflicted;

Yea, he that is enthroned of old answereth them.

§ 16. Psalms fifty-six and fifty-seven.-The next two Psalms (lvi, lvii) are, as Professor Cheyne says, 'twins.' For lofty trust in God amid trouble and danger, simply and yet grandly expressed, they take a high rank among their fellows. Unfortunately, the text is in many places very uncertain and corrupt. I have adopted various emendations which afford a more probable sense than the existing text.

Be merciful unto me, O God, for man crusheth me;
All the day he fighteth and oppresseth me.
Mine enemies would crush me all the day,
For they be many that fight against me.
On the day when I fear, I trust in thee.
I boast of God continually,

In God I put my trust:

I have no fear; what can flesh do unto me?

All the day they plot against me, (?)

All their thoughts are against me for evil.

They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, They mark my steps; like a lion they wait for my soul.

Recompense them according to their wickedness;

In thine anger cast down the peoples, O God.

Thou tellest my wanderings: (?)

Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle.

When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back :

I know that God is for me.

Of God I boast continually:

In God I put my trust:

I have no fear; what can man do unto me?

Thy vows are upon me, O God:

I will render thank-offerings unto thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death: Thou hast saved my feet from falling,

That I may walk before God in the light of the living.

'I will render thank-offerings.' The Midrash says finely, 'If all prayers become needless in the future, the prayer of thanksgiving will never be abandoned; and though all sacrifices shall cease in the future, the thank-offering will cease not for ever.'

Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me;
For my soul trusteth in thee;

Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge,
Until these calamities be overpast.

I will cry unto God most high;

Unto God that dealeth bountifully with me.

He shall send from heaven, and save me

From the grasp of mine enemies :

God shall send forth his lovingkindness and his truth.

My soul is among lions:

Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and

And their tongue a sharp sword.

They have prepared a net for my steps;

They have bowed down my soul.

They have digged a pit before me:

They are fallen into the midst of it.

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens;

Let thy glory be above all the earth.

My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast:
I will sing and give praise.

Awake, my glory; awake, harp and lyre;

I will awake the dawn.

I will praise thee, O Lord, among the peoples:
I will sing unto thee among the nations.

arrows,

WAIT UPON GOD'

For thy lovingkindness is great unto the heavens,
And thy truth unto the clouds.

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let thy glory be above all the earth.

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§ 17. The sixty-second Psalm.-Another Psalm of Trust (lxii). "Wait for the Lord.' Fret not; be resigned. And not merely resigned passively. Let your being and your life be in harmony with what you feel to be the supremest Will, the purest Good. Live and act with God, not against him. May we thus, mystically and yet not fancifully, enlarge and paraphrase our Psalm?

Wait silently, my soul, upon God:

From him cometh my salvation.

He only is my rock and my salvation ;
He is my defence; I shall not be moved.
How long will ye rage against a man,

Would ye break him down, all of you,
As a bowing wall and a tottering fence?

They only consult to drag him down from his height: (?)
They delight in lies:

They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly.

Wait silently, my soul, upon God;
For my expectation is from him.

He only is my rock and my salvation:

He is my defence; I shall not be moved.

Upon God rest my salvation and my glory:

The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him, O assembly of the people,

Pour out your heart before him:

God is a refuge for us.

Surely men of low degree are a breath, and men of high degree are a lie:

Laid in the balance, they are altogether as a breath.

Trust not in perversity,

And become not vain through crookedness;

If riches spring up, give no heed to them.

God hath spoken once;

Twice have I heard this:

That power belongeth unto God,

And that unto thee, O Lord, belongeth lovingkindness, For thou renderest to every man according to his work.

'Against a man.' Professor Wellhausen thinks that the danger here mentioned 'is a public one, threatening the theocracy. It shows itself in an onslaught on a prominent individual, who is virtually the leader of the commonwealth. He is attacked by a Jewish faction which, while affecting piety, exerts a pernicious influence.' This individual, according to Professor Wellhausen, is probably a Maccabean leader or king.

Surely men of low degree are a breath.' Apparently the meaning is, trust in God, and not in men, who are here to-day and gone to-morrow, and whose promises are often illusory. Or it may mean, our adversaries are mere men; their vaunted power but brief and deceptive. Or it may mean, man is frail and fleeting; his strength is deceptive: vain and irrational is it therefore for such a being to adopt crooked and perverse methods of conduct so as to obtain ephemeral power or transitory wealth. To the ill-gotten gains of others let no righteous man give heed.

The interest of the Psalm may be said to lie in its general trend of thought, and in its vivid portrayal of a great and noble mind harassed by encountering the petty intrigues of jealousy, but cleaving to God for comfort and support, and thereby obtaining a true sense of proportion and a calm serenity of soul.

According to his work.' 'What does this imply?' says the Midrash. Many a man purposes to commit a sin, but does not commit it. But God does not account to him the sin until he has actually committed it. But if he purposes to do a good action and is hindered and does it not, God accounts it to him as if he had done it.' The Midrash desires to emphasize the mercy of God. It ignores the case where a man purposes or desires to commit a sin, but does not commit it through mere fear of the consequences or because he is accidentally prevented. Of him it might almost be said that in God's eyes he has committed it. On the other hand the words of Shakespeare are true:

'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall.'

It would be ridiculous to say that the man who was greatly tempted to commit a bad action, but overcomes the temptation, is not morally superior to the man who is not only tempted, but yields.

§ 18. The sixty-ninth Psalm.--The speaker in the next Psalm (lxix) is the same as in Psalms xxii and xxxviii (§§ 7 and 11). The

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period is perhaps the same also, or it may be the Maccabean. The pious believers suffer through their fidelity: they incur enmity and are estranged from their fellow-citizens by their zeal for the Lord.

Save me, O God;

For the waters are come in unto my soul.

I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing;

I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying; my throat is burnt up;

Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head;

They that are falsely mine enemies are more in number than my bones.

O God, thou knowest my foolishness;

And my sins are not hid from thee.

Let not them that wait for thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed through me;

Let not those that seek thee be confounded through me, O Lord God of Israel.

Because for thy sake I have borne reproach;

Shame hath covered my face.

I am become a stranger unto my brethren,
And an alien unto my mother's children.

For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up;

And the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

I afflicted my soul with fasting,

Which was to my reproach.

I made sackcloth also my garment;
And I became a proverb to them.
They that sit in the gate talk of me;

And I am the song of the drunkards.

But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord,

Shew me favour, O God, in the multitude of thy mercy; Hear me in the truth of thy salvation.

Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink;

Let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

Let not the waterflood overflow me,

Neither let the deep swallow me up,