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would it be worth while to revere him, unless he were forgiving. 'Not worth reverence,' because he would not be good; 'not worth while to revere,' because, as sin is for us inevitable, it would be hopeless to serve him. Who would not run away from and disown an unforgiving Father?

'Watchmen.' As the tired watchmen in the city yearn for the break of day, so Israel yearns for God to put an end to the long night of suffering which seems eternal.

§ 13. The one hundred and thirty-first Psalm.-A fascinating lyric of resignation and hope.

Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty Neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in things too high for me.

Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul,

As a weaned child with his mother:

My soul within me is even as a weaned child.

Let Israel hope in the Lord

From henceforth and for ever.

We seem perhaps to understand this Psalm more completely than we actually do. What are those great matters or things too high (literally things too wonderful') with which the Psalmist does not concern bimself? They are probably anxious problems and questions about the date and advent of the Messianic age, the continued rule of the foreigner, the prosperity of the lax and the indifferent, the sufferings of the righteous and the faithful. These puzzling perplexities the Psalmist leaves to the care and disposal of God, in whom he has brought himself to trust; in him he rests as quietly as a child in the arms of its mother.

We should be inclined to contrast the humble resignation of the Psalmist with a condition of anxious fretting and of worrying doubt. But the Psalmist seems to contrast it with pride. The heavens are the heavens of the Lord': to seek to fathom the meaning of problems to whose solution God alone can hold the key, to trouble oneself over the seeming non-fulfilment of divine promises-all this is to show not merely a lack of faith, but actual presumption. It is an overstepping of the human limit. Our Psalmist would not perhaps have sympathized with the mental wrestlings of Job. Profound humility is not, however, an impossible ally of the deepest philosophical investigation. But that happy peace and blissful contentment in God attained by the Psalmist still remain as an ideal for us all. Nor must we omit to notice the force of the image which he has chosen. The weaned

child is satisfied by the mere presence and nearness of its mother. So the Psalmist in his thought of God is not storm-tossed and agitated by a desire for earthly prosperities, for the punishment of his enemies, for the visible solution of life's perplexities; God himself is enough for him. In him he finds his rest. He does not cry to him for satisfaction. God is his satisfaction. In communion with Him he is at peace. The peace of God is no sleepy stupor or thoughtless ease: it is the peace which (for almost all who know it) lies on the other side of striving; noble deeds and holy living are both its presupposition and its fruit.

§14. Psalms one hundred and thirty-three and one hundred and thirty-four.-Of the two last pilgrimage songs the first (cxxxiii) celebrates the union of all classes and conditions of Israelites in common worship at Jerusalem. 'In the solemn feast which has brought them together to Zion, the scattered brethren of one faith enjoy the privilege of being near one another.' The two figures under which this 'pleasant' union is described are not quite easy. Does the first mean that the goodliness of the sight is as the goodliness of the sacred oil, or rather that the unbroken lines of the pilgrims are like the continuous flow of the oil? What is the dew of distant Hermon which flows down on Mount Zion? Does it mean dew as rich as that which falls on Hermon, and is the point of the comparison the reviving quality of the dew? The pilgrims gain fresh strength from their common worship even as the dew, goodly as Hermon's, which falls on Zion refreshes the herbage.

Professor Robertson-Smith, whose interpretation of the first two lines of the Psalm is quoted and adopted above, holds that the rest of it describes 'the scene under a figure. The long lines of the houses of Jerusalem, and the tents of the pilgrims, flow down the slopes of the Temple-hill even to the base, like the oil on Aaron's garments-a blessed sight. Nay, this gathering of all the piety of Israel is as if the fertilizing dews of great Hermon were all concentrated on the little hill of Zion.'

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is

That brethren should dwell together!

It is like the fine oil upon the head

That floweth down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: That floweth down to the skirts of his garments:

As the dew of Hermon, that floweth down upon the mountains of Zion:

For there the Lord hath appointed the blessing,

Even life for evermore.

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The last song (cxxxiv) seems to be an interchange of greetings between the lay worshippers in the Temple and the priests and Levites appointed for the night service' (Cheyne). The first two sentences give the summons; the third is the priestly response.

Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord,
Who by night stand in the house of the Lord.

Lift up your hands unto the sanctuary,

And bless the Lord.

"The Lord bless thee out of Zion,

He the maker of heaven and earth.'

CHAPTER VII

THE ROYAL PSALMS

§1. The eighteenth Psalm: Diligam te, Domine.'-In this chapter I bring together ten Psalms which, unlike in many respects, yet agree in this: that they either allude to, or are spoken by a ruler, a reigning prince, a king. Who this king may be is in each case a very difficult question to decide, and hence the 'royal' Psalms are among those which have given rise to the longest discussions and about which the most various theories have been suggested by the learned. It will obviously not be possible for me to refer to these discussions and theories except in the most cursory and summary manner.

The first Psalm to be cited in this group is the eighteenth. It bears the following heading: 'Of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.' This Psalm has been retained for David even by scholars who cannot see their way to admitting his claim to any other portion of the existing Psalter. But there is no good reason to make this exception, and the true bearing of the Psalm is veiled if we adhere to it. The Psalm is purely general, and the author of the heading was not unconscious of this, as we may gather from his curious phrase, 'on the day that the Lord delivered him from all his enemies.' There is, as Professor Wellhausen points out, a total absence of definite historical allusions.' The person of David is assumed by the poet, but it is in reality the community or the nation whose hopes and ideals are thus expressed. And these hopes and ideals are those with which we are already familiar. They are dependent upon the prophetic teaching; for this particular Psalm Mr. Gray has rightly called attention to a passage in the Second Isaiah (Part I, p. 500. I will make an everlasting covenant with

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you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, for a witness to the peoples I appointed him, a ruler and commander of the nations. Behold, thou shalt call a people that thou knowest not, and a people that know not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee').

The Psalm is therefore Messianic. It depicts dramatically and by the anticipation of faith the scenes of the final deliverance and its results. The king is either the royal nation itself which enters upon the heritage of David, or it is the future king of Davidic lineage who is to rule over a redeemed and regenerate people. Mr. Gray adopts the first supposition; Professor Cheyne the second. The latter scholar says, 'From the very first the Psalmist transports us to the Messianic age. The judgement on the nations has taken place; Israel, with a Davidic king at its head, has been raised to the height of prosperity. It is this Davidic king who speaks in the Psalm. He has no private ambitions, and can therefore interpret the thoughts of the community; indeed, the Psalmist sometimes forgets the king, and speaks for the personified people.'

This Psalm, with another not included in our present Psalter, has also been inserted in the Second Book of Samuel, breaking the connexion between two historical passages. I have quoted the Psalm almost in full in Part I, and made some comments upon its teaching (pp. 264-269).

I love thee, O Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;

My shield, the horn of my salvation and my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised :
So am I saved from mine enemies.

The billows of death compassed me,

And the floods of destruction made me afraid.

The nooses of Sheol compassed me about:

The snares of death confronted me.

In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried unto my God:

He heard my voice out of his temple,

And my cry came before him, even into his ears.

Then the earth shook and trembled;

The foundations also of the hills moved
And were shaken, because he was wroth.