Psalms 145

With this prayer of Jehovah’s anointed One end the prayers of the Book of Psalms. The remaining six Psalms consist exclusively of praise and high hallelujahs. Lord Congleton.

Look at a whole city, in the full tide of commercial prosperity and social indulgence. Abundance shall run down all the streets like rivers of water. Every scene of entertainment, from the glittering play-house to the lowest haunt of dissipation, shall be nightly thronged and illuminated. The men shall build palaces as playthings, and the women string diamonds as beads. The talk of the town shall be of the last night’s brilliancy and jewelry, raiment and banquet. Night itself shall be turned into day, not for vigils of prayer or praises of the Great Benefactor—if that were done the whole population would laugh aloud at the fanaticism—but it shall be done night after night for frivolity, for dancing and eating and drinking, for this world’s god, and no lip shall sneer at it. There shall be wealth enough for all this; and every new form of ostentation, and every new avenue of traffic, and every addition to the trappings of a material estate that wealth could provide, shall heighten the pomp. Now, would this be the strong city? What are the attributes of strength? Self-command, courage, faith, endurance, moderation; these are the signs of human strength. Has it these? God alone, the Almighty, is the source of strength; and that city alone is strong of which it can be said that “God is in the midst of her.” Can it be said of that city? Character is strength, and there is no character there. It is weakness at the foundation, weakness in the superstructure, weakness at the gates; weakness in the chambers; weakness at the heart. You have read history; and you know whether Tyre and Babylon and Rome just before they fell were strong.

Turn from that spectacle to another. By some providence the city is humbled. Its face is sober and thoughtful. Manners are simple; dress is plain; industry is more plentiful than entertainment; luxuries are not seen, but charities are abundant; its sanctuaries are thronged; its nights are still; its people are walking with God; its children’s indulgence is restrained. Wisdom is the ornament of grace about its neck. There are household prayers in all the houses. Righteousness is its law; and God is its king. Here is strength: “Clean hands and a pure heart.” Strong as well as happy is that people whose God is the Lord. Man is not strongest when his head is full of dreams and calculations of gain, his heart full of promotion and admiration, his hand full of this world’s gifts, and his mouth full of meat and wine. He is strong when he rules his spirit; strong when he works, and consecrates his work to God; strong when he is on his knees; strong when he forgets himself, and lives in the spirit of the apostle’s declaration: “It is no more I that live, but Christ liveth in me.” F. D. H.

1. I will extol thee, my God, O King; And I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 2 Every day will I bless thee; And I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 3 Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised; And his greatness is unsearchable. 4 One generation shall laud thy works to another,

And shall declare thy mighty acts. 5 Of the glorious majesty of thine honour, And of thy wondrous works, will I meditate. 6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts; And I will declare thy greatness. 7 They shall utter the memory of thy great goodness, And shall sing of thy righteousness.

8. The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion;

Slow to anger, and of great mercy.

9. The LORD is good to all;

And his tender mercies are over all his works.

10. All thy works shall give thanks unto thee, O LORD;

And thy saints shall bless thee.

11. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom,

And talk of thy power;

12. To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts,

And the glory of the majesty of his kingdom.

13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

14. The LORD upholdeth all that fall,

And raiseth up all those that be bowed down.

15. The eyes of all wait upon thee;

And thou givest them their meat in due season.

16. Thou openest thine hand,

And satisfiest the desire of every living thing.

17. The LORD is righteous in all his ways,

And gracious in all his works.

18. The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him,

To all that call upon him in truth.

19. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him;

He also will hear their cry, and will save them.

20. The LORD preserveth all them that love him;

But all the wicked will he destroy.

21. My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD;

And let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

THIS has been happily characterized as the “new song” promised in Psalm 144:9. In other words, it is the Song of Praise, corresponding to the didactic, penitential, and supplicatory Psalms of this series. In form it is an alphabetical Psalm, and like others of that class admits of no analysis, being made up of variations on a single theme, the righteousness and goodness of the Lord to men in general, to His own people in particular, and more especially to those who suffer. The letter nun is wanting, being omitted, as some suppose, for the sake of having three equal stanzas, each containing seven verses. A.—This is the last of the alphabetical Psalms, of which there are eight in all, if we reckon the ninth and tenth Psalms as forming one. Like four other of the alphabetical Psalms this bears the name of David, although there can in this case be no doubt that the inscription is not to be trusted. This is the only Psalm which is called a Tehilla, i.e., “praise” or “hymn,” the plural of which word, Tehillim, is the general name for the whole Psalter. P.

Very appropriately this is called a “praise-Psalm.” It groups together in lofty strains, from a full heart, the noblest utterances of praise; the richest testimonies to the universal benevolence of the Great Father. C.—Psalms are the praises of God accompanied with song; Psalms are songs containing the praise of God. If there be praise, but not of God, it is not a Psalm. If there be praise, and praise of God, if it is not sung, it is not a Psalm. To make a Psalm there go these three—praise, God’s praise, and song. Augustine.—In the original no other Psalm beareth such a title. It is appropriate to it, because this Psalm consists wholly of praise. T. Goodwin.—The eighty-sixth Psalm is David’s Tephilla, his own prayer. This Psalm is his Tehilla, his own praise, or thanksgiving. L. Andrews.

It was the Psalm of the mid-day meal in the ancient Church. It is the first of the series of doxological Psalms with which the Psalter closes. It falls naturally into three sevens, which may be parted into three couplets, followed by a single verse. The first seven speak of His general greatness and goodness; the second, of His grace and kingdom; and the third, of His readiness to hear and answer the prayers of His people. M.

2. Forever and ever will the poet extol God and bless His name; because the praising of God is his deepest need, in this devotion to the ever-living King he forgets his own mortality—this impulse of the soul, an impulse begotten by God Himself, toward the praising of the God to whom the soul owes its origin, in which praise it finds its noblest enjoyment, is indeed a practical proof of a life after death. D.

Praise. Praise is thankful, lowly, loving worship of the goodness and majesty of God. And therefore we often find the word “praise” joined with “blessing” and “thanksgiving;” but though all three are akin to each other, they are not all alike. They are steps in a gradual scale—a song of degrees. Thanksgiving runs up into blessing, and blessing ascends into praise; for praise comprehends both, and is the highest and most perfect work of all living spirits. Manning.

Every day will I bless Thee. Praising God must be our daily work. No day must pass, though ever so busy a day, though ever so sorrowful a day, without praising God; we ought to reckon it the most needful of our daily employments, and the most delightful of our daily comforts. God is every day blessing us, doing well for us; there is therefore reason that we should be every day blessing Him, speaking well of Him. H.

4. “One generation shall laud Thy works to another,” fathers to their sons; the aged and those of mature years to the young, bearing their testimony to the great deeds of Jehovah, so that this knowledge of what God has done may pass down traditionally through all human generations. This is fully in harmony with the Divine order, with the duties enjoined upon parents in the Mosaic law, and with the spirit of their commemorative institutions. C.

All the best things and treasures of this world are not to be produced by each generation for itself; but we are all intended not to carve our work in snow that will melt, but each and all of us to be continually rolling a great, white, gathering snowball higher and higher, larger and larger, along the Alps of human power. Thus the science of nations is to be accumulative from father to son; each learning a little more and a little more; each receiving all that was known, and adding its own gain. The history and poetry of nations are to be accumulative—each generation treasuring the history and songs of its ancestors, adding its own history and its own songs. And the art of nations is to be accumulative—just as science and history are; the work of living men not superseding, but building itself upon the work of the past; all growing together into one mighty temple; the rough stones and the smooth all finding their place, and rising, day by day, in richer and higher pinnacles to heaven. Ruskin.

5. His language labors to express his meaning; he multiplies the terms by which he would extol Jehovah, his King. Everything which has to do with the Great King is majestic, honorable, glorious. There is nothing about the infinite Lord which is unworthy of His royalty; and, on the other hand, nothing is wanting to the splendor of His reign; His majesty is honhonorable, and His honor is glorious; He is altogether wonderful. S.

In v. 5, I will muse is the primary and more usual sense of the Hebrew word. It suggests that these glorious qualities of God’s character and deeds should be not merely talked about and extolled in song, but be deeply pondered, laid close upon our very heart, that so their legitimate impression may be wrought into our very soul, and may mould our whole spirit and character into God’s own moral image. C.

6. We must see God acting and working in all the affairs of this lower world; various instruments are used, but in all events God is the Supreme Director; it is He that performs all things. Much of His power is seen in the operations of His providence; they are mighty acts, such as cannot be paralleled by the strength of any creature; and much of His justice; they are terrible acts, awful to saints, dreadful to sinners. These we should take all occasions to speak of, observing the finger of God, His hand, His arm, in all, that we may marvel. H.

7. The memory of the abundant goodness of God is the theme of universal, overflowing acknowledgment, and the righteousness of God the theme of universal exultation. Having sung the glorious self-attestation of God as regarded from both its sides, the poet now lingers over the bright side, the front side, of the name Jehovah as unfolded in Ex. 34 : 6. D.

They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness. God’s goodness is great goodness, the treasures of it can never be exhausted; nay, they can never be lessened, for He ever will be as rich in mercy as He ever was. It is memorable goodness, it is what we ought always to have in mind and preserve the memorials of; for it is worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance; and the memory we have of God’s goodness we should utter, we should abundantly utter, as those who are very full of it, and desire that others may be acquainted and affected with it. But whenever we utter God’s great goodness, we must not forget at the same time to sing of His righteousness; for as He is gracious in rewarding those that serve Him faithfully, so He is righteous in punishing those that rebel against Him. Impartial and inflexible justice is as surely in God as inexhaustible goodness; and we must sing of both together (Rom. 11 : 22). H.

They shall sing of Thy righteousness. The righteousness of God, whereby He justifieth sinners and sanctifieth the justified, and executeth judgment for His reconciled people is the sweetest object of the Church’s joy Dick- son.—It is easy to perceive God’s righteousness declared in the punishment of sins; the cross alone declares “His righteousness for the remission of sins.” It magnifies justice in the way of pardoning sin, and mercy in the way of punishing it. M’Laurin.

8. Full of compassion. To the suffering, the weak, the foolish, the despondent, He is very pitiful; He feels for them, He feels with them; He compassionates freely, constantly, deeply, divinely, and effectually. In God is fulness in a sense not known among men, and this fulness is all fragrant with sympathy for human misery. Slow to anger. Even those who refuse His grace yet share in longsuffering. Greatly patient and extremely anxious that the sinner may live, He “lets the lifted thunder drop,” and still forbears. And of great mercy. This is His attitude toward the guilty. When men at last repent, they find pardon awaiting them. Great is their sin and great is God’s mercy. They need great help, and they have it though they deserve it not, for He is greatly good to the greatly guilty. S.—Mercy hath misery for its object, and is that attribute toward which the eyes of a fallen world must necessarily be turned. She is above the heavens and over all the earth, so that the whole creation findeth that refuge under the shadow of her wings of which, by reason of man’s transgression, it standeth in need. Barder.

9. His goodness embraces all; His compassion is over all His works, it hovers over and encompasses all His creatures. Therefore all His works also praise Him; they are all together eloquent witnesses of that sympathetic love of His, which excludes no one that does not exclude himself. D.

10. “All Thy works shall praise Thee” is a poetic conception, yet exquisitely beautiful and just. All nature, all the beneficent arrangements by which God clothes the earth with beauty and makes it minister to the sustenance and joy of all sentient beings—all have a voice to witness for God and proclaim His praise. How much more should Thy saints to whom Thou hast given intelligence to see and appreciate Thy love pour forth their praises in honor of Thy name! C.—“All” God’s “works” do “praise” Him, as the beautiful building praiseth the builder, or the well-drawn picture praiseth the painter; but His “saints bless” Him, as the children of prudent and tender parents rise up and call them blessed. Of all God’s works, His saints, the workmanship of His grace, the first-fruits of His creatures have most reason to bless Him. H.

It is a poor philosophy and a narrow religion which does not recognize God as all in all. Every moment of our lives we breathe, stand, or move in the temple of the Most High; for the whole universe is that temple. Wherever we go, the testimony to His power, the impress of His hand are there. The bright worlds around us, as they roll in the everlasting harmony of their circles, tell of Him whose power launched them on their courses; the mountains that lift their heads among and above the clouds proclaim their testimony to the agency which has laid their deep foundations. The boundless waves of oceans chant from shore to shore a hymn of ascription to that Being who hath said, “Hitherto shall ye come and no further.” The rivers, as they roll onward to the sea, bear along their ceaseless tribute to the ever-working energy, which struck open their fountains and poured them down through the valleys. The countless tribes of plants and animals testify to the action of the great Source of life. From every portion, from every department of nature, comes the same voice; everywhere we hear Thy name, O God! everywhere we see Thy love! Creation, in all its length and breadth, in all its depth and height, is the manifestation of Thy Spirit, and without Thee the world were dark and dead. The universe is to us as the burning bush which the Hebrew leader saw; God is ever present in it, for it burns with His glory, and the ground on which we stand is always holy. Dillon.

11. This kingdom is indeed a kingdom of grace. The throne is a throne of grace, and the sceptre is a sceptre of grace. He revealeth His grace, which is His glory; and thus He captivates the hearts of His people. The subjects of this kingdom have in them a preparation for perfect blessedness. They have that which meetens them “to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” They are not entirely cured, it is true, of all the infection of sin, but they are under a restorative process; they are taking the medicine which is of sovereign efficacy. All the love and joy that glow with celestial fervor before the throne of the heavenly majesty is only the consummation of seeds like those which are sown in the hearts of believers, “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.” They are sown in their hearts; and when that which is sown, or is to be sown, shall be matured, Jesus Christ will present unto Himself “a glorious Church.” And what a spectacle will this be! how will the saints themselves be astonished at their attainments! It will require an eternity to know ourselves, much more to know the Fountain whence all these beauties and glories have been derived. Then, indeed, shall we “speak of the glory of His kingdom, and talk of His power.” R. Hall.

If Christ be not in our hearts, we are godless; if He be there without our joy, we are senseless; if we rejoice in Him and speak not of Him, we are shamefully unthankful. As I will think of Thee always, O Lord, so it shall be my joy to speak of Thee often; and if I find not opportunity, I will make it. Bishop H.

God wants every Christian to be a Gospel messenger, preaching the Word of life; a godly philanthropist doing good deeds. The supremest thing for us in this world is to tell the good news. Not to be rich or famous or given to luxury, but to live for Christ and for those whom He came to save. To make Christ better known. There is not a single exception to this; no one is exempt. For this end God gives us time, and opportunity, and money, and health, and a city full of people. For this end He educates us spiritually and disciplines us. For this end He puts us even in the furnace of affliction. God wants us to have such an appreciation of the Gospel and such a love and burden for souls that we cannot remain silent. His whole aim and purpose in His dealings with us is to make us Gospel responsive. Gregg.

12. The saints are the religious instructors of the race; they ought to be not only the historians of the past, but the bards of the present, whose duty it is to keep the sons of men in memory of the great deeds which the Lord did in the days of their fathers and in the old time before them. S.

The glory of the majesty of His kingdom. This government is a perfect kingdom. He hath majesty for His crown, mercy for His seat, and justice for His sceptre. He hath wisdom for His counsellor, almightiness for His guard, and eternity for His date. He hath heaven for His palace, the earth for His foot-stool, and hell for His prison. He hath laws to which nature assents and reason subscribes, that do not fetter us but free us, for by them nature gets the wings of grace and transcends the earth. Reason gets the eyes of faith, and ascends up to heaven. He hath a yoke, indeed, but it is easy; a burthen, but it is light. His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. He is established in His sovereignty, not by His subjects’ election of Him, but by His election of His subjects; not as raising Himself to a higher title, but as humbling Himself to a lower calling; and as not receiving it from a predecessor who is before all, so never leaving it to a successor, who is after all. R. Baker.

13. Thy reign is a reign of all eternities, and Thy dominion in generation and generation. These words are also found in Dan. 3:33; 4:31. The meaning of the last clause is, Thy dominion still exists and shall exist in every successive generation. A.—The point upon which the Psalmist’s mind rests is the eternity of the Divine throne, “Thy reign is a reign of all eternities.” The Lord’s kingdom is without beginning, without break, without bound, and without end. None can overthrow His power, or break away from His rule. Neither this age, nor the age to come, nor ages of ages shall cause His sovereignty to fail. Herein is rest for faith. “The Lord sitteth King forever.” “And Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.” S.

On the door of the old mosque in Damascus, which was once a Christian church, but for twelve centuries has ranked among the holiest of the Mohammedan sanctuaries, are inscribed these memorable words: “Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.” Though the name of Christ has been regularly blasphemed, and the disciples of Christ regularly cursed for twelve hundred years within it, the inscription has, nevertheless, remained unimpaired by time, and undisturbed by man. It was unknown during the long reign of Mohammedan intolerance and oppression; but when religious liberty was partially restored, and the missionaries were enabled to establish a Christian church in that city, it was again brought to light, encouraging them in their work of faith and labor of love. Anon.

13,14. These verses combine the magnificence of unlimited power with the assiduity of unlimited tenderness. It is this combination which men are apt to regard as well-nigh incredible, supposing that a Being so great as God can never concern Himself with beings so inconsiderable as themselves. Tell them that God lifteth up those that be bowed down, and they cannot imagine that His kingdom and dominion are unbounded; or tell them, on the other hand, of the greatness of His empire, and they think it impossible that He should uphold all that fall. Melvill.

14. The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all that be bowed down.** Think of the Infinite bowing to lift up the bowed, and stooping to be leaned upon by those who are ready to fall. The two “alls” should not be overlooked; the Lord has a kindly heart toward the whole company of the afflicted. S.—The words do not apply to those who are indifferent to God and who wilfully defy His law. The Psalmist settles that in a single verse. “The Lord preserveth all them that love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy.” They apply to those who honor God; who are trying to keep their lives pure and to make them useful. He lifts them up, upholds them, and helps them to walk in His way. It is the steps of a good man that are ordered. The Word throws less light upon reward than upon duty. Enough, indeed, to stimulate duty, but the Word is a lamp unto the feet and a light unto the path. Paul says, summing up the result of the life-battle, “Having done all to stand.” Oh merciful, wise, tender love, which, even while it denies what we long for, bends over us while we lie prone and weeping over our disappointment, and sets us on our feet again and bids us follow God and not the devices and desires of our own hearts. . . . God sometimes upholds and raises by a disappointment. Sometimes it seems as if God’s policy toward a man is to keep him down, and yet keep him walking and working. That develops the highest type of moral heroism. It is a higher and greater thing for an unsuccessful and disappointed man to keep rising from his failures and to struggle on his way leaning on God’s hand to the very end, than for him to succeed before the world. God has a testimony to bear to the world through His sons and daughters no less than to them; and He bears that testimony most emphatically in showing the world that His hand can keep a man a man, with an honest soul and a persistent purpose in him, amid all his falls and disappointments. . . . The difference between a Christian and a man of the world does not lie in stumbling or not stumbling, but in the whole attitude of the man toward his stumbles and falls. It would be strange, indeed, if the man who sets himself to fight his way to heaven in the face of such a world as this and of the whole spiritual power of darkness, should not now and then fall into a snare or receive a blow that brings him to the ground. God nowhere promises that a believer shall walk straight on with upright carriage and serene front, compassed with the calm of holiness all the way to heaven. He tells him rather that Christian life is a wrestle. What He is specially concerned about, the point where He brings His own Divine forces into the field, is the way in which the man shall bear himself in this struggle. He does promise that sin shall not have dominion over him; that though he struggles all the way to heaven, and marks his progress with a series of falls, he shall mark it also with a series of risings, and shall fall and rise and struggle through to victory. “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” God will bring him at last, a saved man, out of the soil and the bruises. He will uphold him, not in sinning, but in the fight with sin. But this promise is to the honest-hearted, to the man who goes bravely and trustfully into the fight with all its certainties of blow and downfall.

Take courage, then. The great thing for you is that God is on your side. Try your best to walk without falling. Lean heavily on His hand. Keep your eye on Him; keep your purpose steadfast to overcome the world. When the falls do come, think only of that hand and grasp it. When conscience tells you you are not what you should be, and reproaches you for what you are, say, “With God’s help I will get farther from what I am, and nearer to what I ought to be. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me; and as for life’s failures and disappointments, if He see fit to disappoint me, it is still His hand in the disappointment, His hand that raiseth up them that are bowed down.” V.

15-17. The doubts and difficulties which consideration of God’s dealings will necessarily excite will best be dealt with by pondering the every-day mercies which are showered upon the world. “The eyes of all wait upon Thee,” etc. There is not in this creation a single living thing which is not perpetually drawing upon God, and so literally dependent on His care and bounty that a moment’s suspension of His operations would suffice to extinguish its vital principle. Who can fear that, because God’s ways are unsearchable, they may not be all tending to the final good of His creatures, when he knows that, with the tenderness of a most affectionate parent, this Creator and Governor ministers to the meanest living thing? Who can distrust God, because clouds and darkness are round about him, when there is light enough to show that He is the vigilant guardian of every tenant of this earth, that His hand upholds, and His breath animates, and His bounty nourishes the teeming hordes of the city, and the desert, and the ocean? Is this a God of whom to be suspicious? Is this a God to mistrust? Oh! surely if you will fortify yourselves by such facts as these, “Thou, O Lord, satisfiest the desire of every living thing,” “The eyes of all wait upon Thee; and Thou givest them their meat in due season,” you will be able at all times and in all circumstances to join heartily in the acknowledgment of the Psalmist, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works.” Melvill.

16. Science demonstrates two things: First, that the organization of every sentient being is contrived for happiness—that every faculty, sense, limb, vessel, and fibre are so adjusted as to conduce to the well-being of the whole, so that the movement of each yields gratification. Its keen eye has never yet detected, in the case of any creature, one single constituent of his existence which he could regard as intended to give pain. Not one of the countless myriads of sentient vessels can he find “fitted for destruction.” And, secondly, science demonstrates that the external sphere of each sentient being has suitable provisions for its happiness. Through all the realms of animal nature into which philosophy has gone, from the tiniest insect up to man, there is found in the ordained sphere of each creature a supply for every want, an object for every desire, a pleasure to penetrate every sense. Anon.

Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. Thou alone providest, O Jehovah! Thou doest it liberally, with open hand; thou doest it easily, as if it were only to open Thine hand. These verses refer to natural providence; but they may equally well apply to the stores of grace, since the same God is king in both spheres. If we will but wait upon the Lord for pardon, renewing, or whatever else we need, we shall not wait in vain. The hand of grace is never closed while the sinner lives. S.

If there be any desires in us which are not satisfied, it is through their being self-created ones, which is our own fault; or through artificial scarcity from men’s luxury, which is the fault of our species. God raises no desires as our Creator, but He gives enough to satisfy them; and none as our Redeemer and Sanctifier but what shall be actually satisfied. Oh, the wonderful munificence of God! “How great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty!” A. Fuller.

It may be good that we should have to trust Him even when the storehouse is empty; it may be good for us to know something of want; but that discipline comes seldom, and is never carried very far. God’s machinery for distribution is perfect, and its very perfection, with the constancy of the resulting blessings, robs Him of His praise and hinders our gratitude. And we may apply the same thought of the unbroken continuity of God’s gifts to the higher region of our spiritual experience. His supplies of wisdom, love, joy, peace, power, to our souls are always enough and more than enough for our wants. He means that there should be no parentheses of famine in our Christian life. The source is full to overflowing, and there are no limits to the supply. The only limit is our capacity, which, again, is largely determined by our desire. A. M.

18. The God of the Scriptures transcends any limiting conception. “He inhabiteth eternity;” “He filletth all things.” Philosophy may talk ever so proudly, she can never go beyond this. His unchangeable abode is the infinity of time and space, and yet He thinks the finite truly, as finite, and as it is thought by the finite intelligence. This is the transcending mystery of the Bible; it presents both these wondrous aspects of Deity, and that, too, without betraying, on the part of the Divine messengers, any feeling of dissonance, any misgiving sense of contradiction. God is so far off that all differences of space and rank vanish before Him, and yet is He “nigh, very nigh to every soul that calleth upon Him.” T. Lewis.

Call upon Him in truth. The holiness of a prayer is not at all concerned in the manner of its expression, but in the spirit of it—that is, in the earnestness of its desires, the innocence of its ends, and the continuance of its employment. This is the verification of that great prophecy which Christ made, that in “all the world the true worshippers should worship in spirit and in truth”—that is, with a pure mind, with holy desires for spiritual things, according to the mind of the Spirit, in the imitation of Christ’s intercession, with perseverance, with charity, or love. Bishop Taylor.

To call upon God in truth is, first, to repose an implicit confidence in the faithfulness of His promise, and to look for unlimited answers to prayer from the riches of His grace in Christ Jesus. But it is also, in the next place, to feel our own urgent need of the things for which we supplicate, and to realize an earnest and unfeigned concern to obtain them. “What things ye desire when ye pray,” said the Lord, “believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them;” and hence we gather that the hearty desire, arising out of the consciousness of need, is an integral and inseparable part of genuine and effectual prayer. T. Dale.

18,19. God’s people are a praying people, a generation of seekers, and such commonly are speeders. God never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye My face in vain. They seek His face, righteousness and strength, and He is found of them. The saints alone betake themselves to God and His help, run to Him as their sanctuary. They only sensibly need, and so alone crave and implore, Divine succor; and God will not suffer His people to lose the precious treasure of their prayers. “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him; He will fulfil their desire, He will hear their cry.” That God who prepares His people’s heart to pray, prepares also His own ear to hear; and He that promiseth to hear before we call, will never deny to hearken when we cry unto Him. As Calvin saith, “Oppressions and afflictions make man cry, and cries and supplications make God hear.” Anon.

18-20. “Nigh to those who call upon Him in truth,” makes “in truth” emphatic, and suggests that sometimes men nominally, apparently, call upon God with no real sincerity, no sense of dependence, no feeling of want, no humble uplifting of the heart for His gracious help. To such callers God is by no means nigh. The real call that rises from a full and earnest soul, a broken and humble spirit, He can never despise. The Psalmist defines their character as those that “fear Him” and “love Him.” C.—To genuine suppliants Jehovah is present—viz., in grace (for in His might He is everywhere); He fulfils the desire of them that fear Him, inasmuch as their will is also His, and grants them the salvation for which they pray. Those who in v. 19 were called those that fear Him, are called those that love Him in v. 20, after the example of the Decalogue. Fear and love of God belong inseparably together, for fear without love is an unfree, servile state of mind, and love without fear is audacious familiarity; the one dishonors the all-gracious One, the other the all-exalted One. All those, however, that love and fear Him, He preserves, while, on the other hand, He exterminates all wanton sinners. D.

When God is slow in giving He only sets off His own gifts to advantage, He does not withhold them. Blessings long desired are sweeter when they come; if soon given, they lose much of their value. God reserves for you that which He is slow to give you, that you may learn to entertain a supreme desire and longing after it. Augustine.—Thou desirest to be rid of thy present trouble; the Lord shall rid thee out of trouble. Thou desirest to be delivered from temptation; the Lord shall deliver thee out of temptation. Thou desirest to be delivered from thy body of death; and the Lord shall change this thy vile body, that it may be like to His glorious body. Thou desirest to be in the presence of God, and among the angels in heaven; this thy desire also shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt be made equal to the angels. “Oh, but it is long first.” Well, learn first to live upon thy portion in the promise of it, and that will make thy expectation of it sweet. God will fulfil thy desires; God will do it, though it tarry long: “Wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Banyan.

If the apparently ruthless march of events in the world’s history seems sometimes to thrust us and our concerns all out of sight, here is the answer. God is not a man, to whom there is a difference between great and small. He can, and He alone can, reconcile the happiness, the holiness, the true interest of every soul with the real good of the whole; and though He is ruling the world, He is still the Father, and the loving Father, of every one of us. That yearning prayer which brings us nearer to Him, because it expresses our dependence on Him, shall assuredly be satisfied, even if it appear to be refused. A day will come when we shall look back on all the prayers which have gone up from our inmost hearts, and shall see that even those which have been most plainly denied have yet been, wonderful to say, most plainly granted. We shall see that, had we known what we then shall have learned, precisely that very thing has been done which our consciences would have bid us pray for; and that our prayer, so far from being unheard, has been treasured up in the counsels of God. It is this tender regard for each man’s own longings, own wants; this watching over the movements and the needs of every separate soul; this fatherly care; this never-sleeping love; which Christ promises in His Father’s name. We know not precisely what is best for us. We know not what will make us truly happy. We know not what will help us best in our struggle against temptations. And if we were to try to make a distinction between our mere passing wishes and that which our souls really needed, we should utterly fail. But we need not try. Let us take all our wishes, all our longings, all the promptings of our consciences, to the feet of our Father. He will hear and He will do. He will hear all we say. He will know what parts of our prayer are best for us to have, and what are not. And He will give us what His Fatherly love will choose. And therefore to all our prayers we will add, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” For this is the corresponding feeling on our parts. The answer to absolute care and infinite love is absolute resignation and absolute trust. The resignation and the trust are bound together. We must be resigned because we trust. Bishop Temple.

It was one of the infrequent expressions of his inner life by the late Professor Stuart: “I have learned that the value of prayer depends not so much on its intensity in moods, or its regularity in times, as on its constancy as a continuous way of living. We need to live in a state of prayer.” Suffering had taught him that. Few men reach that discovery, except through some sort of disciplinary trial. In spiritual experience, necessity is the mother of discovery, as it is of invention in the material world. Prayer as a state of holy living is abundantly recognized in Scripture. “Pray without ceasing.” “Continuing instant in prayer.” “In everything by prayer . . . let your requests be made known.” “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same.” “Praying always, with all prayer and supplication.” And far back in the elder dispensation David said, “At evening and morning and noon will I pray.” Constancy of devotional desire is inborn in the spirit of holy living. Augustine, Madame Guion, John Tauler, President Edwards, Edward Payson, and a host of others, were often overheard in fragmentary colloquy with God. Luther indulged with such freedom of speech in this sort of converse with God that in almost any other man it would have been irreverent. Zinzendorf used to write notes to “the Lord Christ.” So strong was his faith in Christ’s personal friendship, and his own need of that friendship as a daily solace, that once on a journey he sent back his companion that he might converse more freely with the Lord, with whom he talked audibly. Thomas à Kempis says: “He alone is a thousand companions; He alone is a world of friends. That man never knew what it was to be familiar with God, who complains of the want of friends while God is with him.” Phelps.

The key to the real life of godliness, intellectual, devotional, and practical, lies in “devotion.” The man of God must be the man of prayer, and he who prays best will live best. What we all want is a more complete and perfect system and habit of both private and public devotion. That will, of course, include meditation, or the devout study of God’s Holy

Word, and no other study than a devout study is worth mentioning. Above all, it must begin and end in a contemplation of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Saviour of us all. It is He whom we must set before us at the beginning of our prayers; it is through Him we must pray, and it is to Him we must look for the answer to our prayers. And because devotion brings us nearer to Christ, because it puts Christ and Christ crucified before us as the very object of worship, meditation, contemplation, and action, therefore it is that the key to a life of godliness lies in a life of devotion. Bishop of Chichester.

20. That love Him.** Every man must go out of himself for enjoyment. Something in this universe besides himself there must be to bind the affections of every man. There is that within us which compels us to attach ourselves to something outward. There is a pent-up energy of love, gigantic for good or evil. Its right way is in the direction of our eternal Father, and then, let it boil and pant as it will, the course of the man is smooth. Expel the love of God from the heart, and then we have the riot of worldliness—a man of strong affections thrown off the line, tearing himself to pieces, and carrying desolation along with him. F. W. R.—If Christ ever wins the fort of the soul, the conquest must begin in the affections; for the understanding and will seem to be like a castle or fortified place; there is strength indeed in them, but the affections are the soldiers who manage those holds. The opposition is from these; and if the soldiers surrender, the place itself, though never so strong, cannot resist. South.

The Lord prescreeth all them that love Him. They keep Him in their love, and He keeps them by His love. See how these favored ones have advanced from fearing the Lord and crying to Him, even to loving Him, and in that love they are secure from all danger. Mark the number of “alls” in these later verses of the Psalm. In each of these God is all in all. S.

Sublimely the Psalmist closes with declaring his own personal purpose: “My mouth shall speak the praise of Jehovah”—now and evermore, with this mortal tongue and this human pen, now; and with my immortal song through the ages of the eternal future. And “let all flesh, all of human kind, men of every nation, bless His holy name forever, all along down the lapse of years till time shall be no more; and then begin their truly everlasting song! C.