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'

445

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

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.

'SEEK YE MY FACE'

Take not away my soul with sinners,
Nor my life with bloody men:
In whose hands is mischief,

And their right hand is full of bribes.
But as for me, I walk in mine integrity:
Redeem me, and be merciful unto me.
My foot standeth on even ground;

In full assemblies will I bless the Lord.

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On this Psalm I subjoin the second half of the Psalm (xxvii) which immediately succeeds it. For it would seem that the first portion is really a separate Psalm which will more fitly find its place elsewhere.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice;

Have mercy upon me, and answer me.

(Thou hast said unto me,)

'Seek ye my face':

Thy face, O Lord, I will seek.

Hide not thy face from me,

Put not thy servant away in anger.

Thou hast been my help; leave me not,

Neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.

For my father and my mother have forsaken me,

But the Lord will take me up.

Teach me thy way, O Lord,

And lead me on an even path, because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the passion of mine enemies; For false witnesses are risen up against me,

And such as breathe out violence.

If I did not believe to see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living

Wait on the Lord:

-!

Be of good courage, and let thine heart be strong;
Wait, I say, on the Lord.

The words, 'If I did not believe,' are what grammarians call an aposiopesis: the construction is incomplete. If he did not believe in deliverance, he would indeed despair. It is possible, however, that the text is corrupt, or that we should translate, 'I am confident of seeing.' 'The land of the living' is earth, for the life on earth, according to the belief of the Psalmists, to whom, or at

any rate to almost all of whom, the life with God closed perforce at death, is the only period during which the divine goodness could be 'seen' or realized. We have to read into these expressions of the Psalmists a somewhat different sense. 'Unless I believed there was in the last resort and in the divine mind a meaning in suffering and in evil, I should indeed despair of goodness and of God.' To the Psalmist outward deliverance was the only proof and test of God's justice. But we seek to maintain our faith in God, even though many a righteous man go to his earthly end amid pain, oppression and calamity.

§ 10. The thirty-first Psalm: 'In te, Domine, speravi.'—In the next Psalm (xxxi) the 'I' must be interpreted as in Psalm xxii (p. 442). It is the community of the pious who speak, of whom the writer feels himself one. Some refer the Psalm to the period of Nehemiah.

In thee, O Lord, I have taken refuge, let me never be ashamed;

Deliver me in thy righteousness.

Incline thine ear to me; deliver me speedily;

Be thou to me a rock of strength, a house of defence

to save me.

For thou art my rock and my fortress;

For thy name's sake thou wilt lead and guide me.

Draw me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: For thou art my stronghold.

Into thine hand I commit my spirit,

Thou redeemest me, O Lord, thou God of truth. Thou hatest those that regard lying vanities,

But I-in the Lord do I trust.

I will be glad and rejoice in thy lovingkindness,
For thou hast beheld mine affliction,

Thou knewest the distresses of my soul.

Thou didst not shut me into the hand of the enemy,
Thou didst set my feet in a broad place.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;
Mine eye is consumed with grief,

My soul and my body are confounded.
For my life is spent with anguish,

And my years with sighing;

My strength faileth because of my affliction,

And my bones are consumed because of my foes.