Psalms 25

Christ is gone to heaven as a victor, leading sin, Satan, death, hell, and all His enemies in triumph at His chariot wheels. He has not only overcome His enemies for Himself, but for all His people, whom He will make conquerors, yea, “more than conquerors.” As He has overcome, so shall they also overcome; and as He is gone to heaven a victor, they shall follow in triumph. He is in heaven as a Saviour. When He came from heaven it was in the character of a Saviour; when on earth He obtained eternal salvation; in heaven He lives as a Saviour; when He comes again from heaven He will come as a Saviour; and when He will return, He will return as a Saviour. He is also gone to heaven as the rightful heir. He is not gone to heaven as a sojourner, but as “the heir of all things.” He is the heir of heavenly glory and happiness, and believers are “heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” Pendlebury.

1. UNTO thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul. 2 O my God, in thee have I trusted, Let me not be ashamed; Let not mine enemies triumph over me. 3 Yea, none that wait on thee shall be ashamed: They shall be ashamed that deal treacherously without cause. 4 Shew me thy ways, O LORD; Teach me thy paths. 5 Guide me in thy truth, and teach me; For thou art the God of my salvation; On thee do I wait all the day. 6 Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses: For they have been ever of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: According to thy lovingkindness remember thou me, For thy goodness’ sake, O LORD. 8 Good and upright is the LORD: Therefore will he instruct sinners in the way. 9 The meek will he guide in judgment: And the meek will he teach his way. 10 All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

11. For thy name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. 12 What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he instruct in the way that he shall choose. 13 His soul shall dwell at ease; And his seed shall inherit the land. 14 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; And he will shew them his covenant. 15 Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; For he shall pluck my feet out of the net. 16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; For I am desolate and afflicted. 17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses. 18 Consider mine affliction and my travail; And forgive all my sins. 19 Consider mine enemies, for they are many; And they hate me with cruel hatred. 20 O keep my soul, and deliver me: Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in thee. 21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait on thee. 22 Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all his troubles.

This is an acrostic or alphabetical Psalm, the first verse beginning with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the other letters following in order at the beginning of each successive verse. The order is not perfectly observed. Other Psalms which are constructed on a similar principle are the thirty-seventh, the one hundred and eleventh, one hundred and twelfth, one hundred and nineteenth, and one hundred and forty-fifth. The general character of all these Psalms is didactic; and it is probable that this artificial arrangement was intended to be an assistance to the memory. P.

It is a calmly confident prayer for help against enemies, and for the instructing, pardoning, and guiding grace of God, without any distinct historical background indicative of its date, and without any clearly marked traits of individuality. It contains nothing which is not in harmony with the believing consciousness of the Church of all ages—nothing specifically distinctive of the Old Testament or of Israel. D.

1. The text illustrates the voluntary contact of a human soul with the Divine. “Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” Communion with God is sought. In a sense He is ever with us. But in a higher sense He is with us when we let the soul go out toward Him in loving trust and affection, receiving in return incomes of wisdom, power, courage, faith—in short, everything included in that significant word, grace S. E. Herrick.—Taking this verse as the key-note of the Psalm, and therefore expressing comprehensively its main ideas, we shall see that it covers essentially the whole field of prayer and communion with God—the soul lifted up to Him in prayerful trust for protection against enemies, in supplication for Divine guidance into all truth and duty, giving moreover a large place to prayer for the pardon of sin and for constant preservation from its approaches and temptations. No language could more perfectly express the constant experience of the Christian heart. O my God, I lift up my soul continually, imploringly, trustfully, unto Thee. In sorrow or in joy; in straitened or in large places; in sickness or in health; what time “all these things are against me,” or what time all goes well—alike always and everywhere, Thou art my friend, my hope, my joy; therefore my heart looks evermore unto Thee. C.—Unto Thee in the fulness of Thy merits, unto Thee in the riches of Thy grace; unto Thee in the comforts of Thy Spirit; unto Thee that Thy thorns may be my crown, Thy blood my balsam, Thy curse my blessing, Thy death my life, Thy cross my triumph. Thus is my “life hid with Christ in God;” and if so, then where should be my soul but where is my life? And therefore “unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” R. Mossom.

2. Trusted.** Faith is not, as appears to be very often understood, any belief in something about God which is not God; no belief in a proposition, or truth, or doctrine, or fact, even though it be an atonement made, or legal justification provided—these things have a certain relationship and preparative concern, but the faith is a wholly transactional matter toward God Himself. It is the man’s new, self-committing, trusting act, by which he puts himself out on trust, and begins to live suspensively on God, as every created spirit, whether under sin or clear of it, is made to live. It is a trusting of person to person, substantive being to substantive being, sinner to Saviour. Bushnell.

4. Thy ways, Jehovah, make me know; Thy paths teach me. As the ways of God throughout this Psalm are the same as in Deut. 32: 4, namely, His dispensations toward His people, the way in which He orders their condition and disposes of their lot, the teaching prayed for must be that of experience. “Let me know in my own case what it is to be guided and protected and provided for by God Himself.” A.—He pleads for instruction as to the way in which, according to God’s direction, he is to go. God’s will, no doubt, lies before us in His written Word, but for the right understanding of it God is Himself the needful interpreter. He asks for full knowledge; but that he may translate it into a full living actuality, he needs God again; he needs, in other words, both His enlightening and also His guiding grace. D.

5. Teach me.** There is a Divine teaching. When we have read and heard, spoken and written the soundest truth and strongest arguments, we still know as if we knew not, and believe as if we believed not, unless God powerfully impresses the same things on our minds, and awakens our souls to feel what we know. All men may easily know that there is an almighty, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, and perfectly holy and good God, the maker, preserver, and governor of all, who deserves our whole trust, love, and obedience; but how little of this knowledge is to be perceived in men’s hearts or lives? All men know that the world is vanity, that man must die, that riches then cannot profit, that time is precious, and that we have but little time to prepare for eternity; but how little do men seem to have of the real knowledge of these plain truths? Only when God comes in with His powerful awakening light and love, then those things appear as different as if we were beginning to know them. Baxter.

The longer one lives, provided his mental and moral habits are in any measure correct, the more will he feel the depth of his ignorance, the more will he see that he has as yet caught only a glimpse of the fragments of truth, the less confidently will he speak of the certainty of his knowledge, the profounder will be his consciousness that immeasurable tracts lie beyond his feeble ken, and the more earnestly will he ask for that illuminating spirit that searcheth the dark things of God, the more grateful will he be that there is an open door to One in whom dwelleth all the fulness of wisdom. B. B. E.

Experimental teaching is the burden of this prayer. Lead me according to Thy truth, and prove Thyself faithful; lead me into truth that I may know its preciousness, lead me by the way of truth that I may manifest its spirit. David knew much, but he felt his ignorance and desired to be still in the Lord’s school. It were well for many professors if, instead of cutting out new paths of thought for themselves, they would inquire for the good old ways of God’s own truth, and beseech the Holy Ghost to give them sanctified understandings and teachable spirits. S.

On thee do I wait all the day. The child of God breaks his own self-will, and desires to have no will of his own. God’s will is his will; and he inquires what God’s will is before undertaking anything, that he may fulfil it, and after finishing anything, that he may prove himself thereby. Caspars.—To wait on God is to live a life of desire toward God; to wait on Him with earnest desire to receive supplies from Him. It is to live a life of delight in God and dependence on God, as the child waits on his father, whom he has confidence in, and on whom he casts all his care. To wait on God is to expect all good to come to us from Him, as the worker of all good for us and in us, the giver of all good to us, and the protector of us from all evil. It is to live a life of devotedness to God, as the servant waits on his master, ready to observe his will and to do his work, and in everything to consult his honor and interest. To wait on God is entirely and unreservedly to refer ourselves to His wise and holy directions and disposals, cheerfully to acquiesce in them and comply with them. The servant that waits on his master chooseth not his own way, but follows his master step by step. Thus must we wait on God, as those that have no will of our own but what is wholly resolved into His, and must therefore study to accommodate ourselves to His. H.

Out of holy waiting upon God comes the resolute action for men; out of childlike looking upward into the spiritual world, the manliest pressing forward into enterprises for the world around you; out of the believing prayer, each duty of the day. Faith hallows the evening and the morning, and makes them a day of the Lord. The consecrated disciple rises to each new encounter with his lot in a reverent vigilance for every beckoning of God’s hand. He falls asleep each night with a sacred curiosity to hear that further revelation of the great secret and mystery of being which the daybreak is sure to tell from the Spirit. He finds a path through the intricacies of earthly duty by a simple reference to the benignity of the Lord, like the Psalmist, who fled from the onset of his enemies, and the strife of tongues, to the “pavilion of the Most High.” F. D. H.

6,7. When we consider how utterly impossible it is that the infinite mind of God should ever forget, or ever recall to mind things for a time out of his thought, we may get some sense of that condescending accommodation to our limited capacities under which God allows us to speak to Him according to our human ideas, or after the manner of men with men. In these verses the Psalmist prays God to remember one class of things, and not to remember certain other things. Very appropriately, too, for it is simply calling the Divine attention to these points and beseeching Him to think of His tender mercies which He has constantly manifested through all the ages past; and next that He would not remember against him the sins of his youth, but blot them from His book of remembrance and fully forgive. What is prayer in any possible case but calling the attention of our Great Father to our wants, reminding Him as the case may be of His promises, and resting our plea on His revealed mercy and goodness—“For Thy goodness’ sake, O Lord!” C.

6. “Faith,” saith Dickson, “must make use of experiences and read them over unto God out of the register of a sanctified memory, as a recorder to Him who cannot forget.” With an unchangeable God it is a most effectual argument to remind Him of His ancient mercies and His eternal love. By tracing all that we enjoy to the fountain-head of everlasting love we shall greatly cheer our hearts. S.

7. Remember not the sins of my youth.** The true significance of the present is not revealed in the present. Only the lapse of years makes us dispassionate judges of our earlier selves. The text is the utterance of a man who is letting a sorrowful and faithful past come home to his matured judgment to be tried by its higher standards and its clearer discrimination. “Remember not the sins of my youth.” The truth assumed in these words is one which concerns the character of God—the truth, namely, that God cannot be passive in any moral relation. For God to remember sin is to assume an active and hostile relation to sin. In answer to such an appeal as this, we are not to expect either that God will shut sin out of His remembrance, or change His attitude toward sin. But His remembrance of the sinner involves all the infinite activity of His love toward the sinner. It is on this relation of God to the sinner that David throws himself. V

The prayer, “Remember not against me the sins of my youth,” holds out hope to such as have let slip this precious time. Thank God, they are not to despair. Still, though almighty grace may work a saving change at a later and even in the latest period of life, not only does the probability of that grow less with every year’s practice of sin, persevered in and prolonged over a period of guilty years, so blunts the conscience that it never recovers the fineness of its edge; nor is the heart capable of receiving the most delicate and beautiful impressions of Christ’s image unless they are stamped on it while, like metals or melted wax, it is soft and tender, ere it has grown hard and cold. It is well to give Jesus even blighted affections and a broken heart; it is well when the world cannot fill our hearts to turn our trembling steps from its broken cisterns to the fountain of living water; it is well when men turn from shattered fortunes and mothers from their sweet, lifeless coffined idols, to throw themselves at the feet or into the arms of Jesus. But it is better still, seeking Him early, to give our youth to Christ; with its glistening dews to bathe the Rose of Sharon; to honor God with our first-fruits. Guthrie.

7. According to Thy mercy, not mine; for Thy goodness’ sake, not mine, for in me dwelleth no manner of thing that is good. Let Thy goodness, then, be the motive, Thy mercy the rule of all that grace and of all those blessings Thou vouchsafest unto my soul. Mosson.

8. Here are two most opposite characters: a good and upright Lord, and perverse sinners. Good and upright as the Lord is, He might justly give sinners up to perdition; but no, He will not leave them to perish in their ignorance and obstinacy; He will teach them. This implies that sinners are so ignorant of Divine truth that no teaching besides that of the Lord the Spirit can instruct and make them wise unto salvation. By repentance unto life in His way of peace, in the walk of faith, in the path of love, truth and holiness, the Spirit will teach redeemed sinners on earth till He brings them to glory; His teaching shall be as effectual to their glorification as the death of Christ for their salvation. W. Mason.

9. He will guide the humble in justice, and teach the humble His way. The common version of meek is too restricted and descriptive of mere temper. The Hebrew word is the nearest equivalent to humble in its strong religious sense. The omission of the article may be explained as a poetic license, and the word translated the humble, so as to include the whole class. A.

The meek will He guide, the meek will He teach, those that are humble and low in their own eyes, that are distrustful of themselves, desirous to be taught, and honestly resolved to follow the Divine guidance. These He will guide in judgment—that is, by the rule of the written Word; He will guide them in that which is practical, which relates to sin and duty, so that they may keep conscience void of offence; and He will do it judiciously—that is, He will suit His conduct to their case; He will teach sinners with wisdom, tenderness, and compassion, and as they are able to bear. He will teach them His way. All good people make God’s way their way, and desire to be taught that; and those who do so shall be taught and led in that way. H.—These words bind earth to heaven. There is here below therefore a way which leads to God, a way where we can walk with God; in the midst of all these roads which cross each other, and which nearly all lead to vanity, there is a way which ends in no abyss, and which crosses victoriously the valley of the shadow of death. Would you know the way that leads to God? Be humble. Pride wants to see God face to face, and His splendor blinds it. Humility bends itself before Him, and sees its path all flooded by His light. The Lord teaches His way to the humble. E. Bersier.

In some trying condition, where the Christian has not been able by the understanding to settle any wise course of proceeding, how very clear has everything been made to him, step by step, by the simple and consciously single-eyed impulse of love to his Master! And when all is over, and his crisis is past, how plain is it to him that he has been guided by a wisdom in his loving affinities which he had not in the reasons of his understanding! Bushnell.—The Lord presents Himself to us when treading faith’s dark path, and greets us now with kindly word, now with some great, astounding deed. Bonds that must needs be broken through, He will Himself both quietly and easily unloose. Mists that might rise before us He dispels, ere they can hide the sun from us. There falls not to the ground a single word of all the good which He has promised to bestow on us when entering upon the narrow path; and actual experience soon shows that we are strengthened for accomplishing all that He promises we shall be able to effect, using our staff of faith. Van O.

Our difficulty in ascertaining His will is not at all where God works independently of us; it is where He works with us and we with Him; where events are apparently as much our own bringing about as His, and where in the use of means, at the best imperfect and unreliable, we seem to take all pains sometimes only to go wrong. What rules are there, in such a case, beyond diligence, and patience, and obedience, and prayer? Surely none. Diligence in consulting friends and in procuring information, and in weighing our case on all sides. Patience, for half our mistakes in life come from being in a hurry, and we are just as likely to go wrong if we rush on in advance of God’s providence as if we lag idly behind it. Obedience, for to be willing to do God’s will is the real crux of the matter. Then prayer, honest, humble, simple, persevering prayer; and we can do no more. Anything is more possible than that God should not guide the meek in judgment. Bishop Thorold.

10. We may be very sure that God will teach His erring but penitent people all the ways of life that please Him, for His own ways of dealing with them are wholly merciful and truthful, i.e., are infinitely kind and faithful to His covenant. The “paths of the Lord” are here His own ways of dealing with His covenant people. C.—The paths are those in which, in conformity with His revelation, will and purpose, He walks with men. These paths are “grace,” for the salvation of men is their goal, and “truth,” for at every step they confirm the trustworthiness of His promises. Grace is their Alpha and truth is their Omega. But only those who faithfully and obediently keep His covenant and His testimonies are made partakers in His grace. To the Psalmist the name of Jehovah, which unfolds itself in grace and truth, is dear. On it he bases the prayer which follows. D.

Mercy and truth are the paths in which God constantly walks in reference to the children of men; and so frequently does He show them mercy, and so frequently does He fulfil His truth, that His paths are easily discerned. How frequent, how deeply indented, and how multiplied are those tracks to every family and individual! But He is more abundantly merciful to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies; i.e., those who are conformed not only to the letter, but to the spirit of His pure religion. A. Clarke.—As His nature is love and truth, so all His ways are mercy and truth. They are “mercy” in respect of aiming at our good, and “truth” in respect of fulfilling His promises and faithful carriage to us; therefore, whatsoever befalls thee, though it be clean contrary to thy expectation, interpret it in love. T. Goodwin.

11. For Thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.** The Psalmist useh two arguments, God’s name and the greatness of his sin. And both are as good arguments as they were then. Charnock.—In the phrase, “For Thy name’s sake,” the nature of God, His attributes of character, are really expressed under the word “name.” The force of the plea therefore as used in prayer is that on the ground of His infinite love, pity, compassion, He would show mercy in this particular case. C.—The greater the weight of misery under which you lie, the more need you have of mercy, and the more will be the glory of it in you. It is strange kind of argument used by the Psalmist, and yet a sure one; it concludes well and strongly. Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. The soul pressed with the greatness of its sin lying heavy upon it may make that very pressure an argument to press the forgiveness of it at the hands of free mercy; it is for Thy name’s sake, that makes it strong. Leighton.

Mercy with relation to an offender is a disposition to forgive. Mercy in reference to a sufferer is a disposition to relieve. In the case of man and the Divine conduct toward him these two are inseparably united. Under the government of a holy and benevolent Deity misery uniformly presupposes guilt, and guilt as necessarily infers misery as an inevitable sequence. When the guilty are pardoned, the miserable are made happy. And when the miserable are made happy, it is by the taking away of the sin from which their misery originated. R. Wardlaw.

In order to obtain remission of his sins, the sinner alleges to God that they are many and great. Verily so; and that not for love of the sinner nor for the love of sin, but for the love of the honor and glory of God; which glory, by how much the sins He forgives are greater and more numerous, by so much the more ennobles and exalts itself. And as the greatness of the Divine mercy is immense, and the multitude of His lovingkindnesses infinite, in order that the one and the other may in a certain manner have a proportionate material of glory, it is necessary to the very greatness of mercy that the sins to be pardoned should be great, and necessary to the very multitude of lovingkindnesses that they should be many. Viegra.

The more miserable men are in their own sense, the fitter objects they are for God to show mercy unto. Thus it was with the publican, and so with the prodigal; therefore never doubt, though thy iniquities be never so great, there is a sea of mercy in God. Bernard well observes the difference between justice and mercy : justice requires that there should be desert, but mercy looks upon them that are miserable ; and, saith the father, true mercy doth affect misery : mercy doth not stand upon inquisition, but it is glad to find occasion of exercising itself. Stock.

He confesses his great iniquity ; he pleads pardon for it. On what does he found his plea ? For Thy name’s sake, O Lord ; Thou hast taken upon Thee that precious name, Jesus ; Thou wilt be salvation to the ends of the earth. Thy blood cleanseth from all sin ; wash me in it and I shall be whiter than snow ; all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. While these glorious truths stand upon record, I cannot doubt, I dare not despair ; the belief of them causes me to pray, and plead, and hope ; great as mine iniquity is, great as my distress is, yet Thou art a great God and Saviour, to pardon my sin and give peace to my soul. “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” Therefore heaven rings with acclamations of joy from such pardoned, glorified sinners, giving glory “unto Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” W. Mason.

Good people sometimes wonder, and sometimes are made doubtful and sad about themselves by this abiding and even increased consciousness of sin. There is no need to be so. The more our lives are brought into fellowship with the perfect life, the more shall we feel our own shortcomings. Let us be thankful if our consciences speak to us more loudly than they used to do. It is a sign of growing holiness, as the tingling in a frost-bitten limb is of returning life. Let us seek to cultivate and increase the sense of our own imperfection, and be sure that the diminution of a consciousness of sin means not diminished power of sin, but lessened horror of it, lessened perception of right, lessened love of goodness, and is an omen of death, not a symptom of life. A. M.

12. He guides him and will guide him. There is not only an affirmation, but a promise. The way, as in the foregoing context, is the providential way in which God directs the course of a man’s life. His choosing it implies not only sovereign authority, but a gracious regard to the interests of His servant.

13. The land. The land of Canaan ; and as this was the standing promise of the law, uttered even in the decalogue (Ex. 20 : 12), it became a formula for all the blessings implicitly embraced in the promise of Canaan to the ancient Israel, and is so used even by our Lord Himself (Matt. 5 : 5).

14. The friendship of Jehovah is to (those) fearing Him, and His covenant to make them know. The word translated friendship means originally a company of persons sitting together (Psalm 111 : 1) ; then familiar conversation (Psalm 55 : 14) ; then confidential intercourse, intimacy, friendship (Prov. 3 : 32) ; then a confidence or secret (Prov. 11 : 13). The meaning of the whole verse seems to be that Jehovah condescends to hold familiar intercourse with those who fear Him, and enters into covenant relation with them for the purpose of making them know all that they need know for His service or their own advantage. A.

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. There is a vital sense in which “the natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God,” and in which all the realities of Christian experience are utterly hid from his perceptions. To speak to him of communion with God, of the sense of pardon, of the lively expectation of heaven, of the witness of the Holy Ghost, of the struggles of the spiritual life, would be like reasoning with a blind man about colors, or with one deaf about musical harmony. J. Morison.—There are conditions by compliance with which God’s Spirit comes into the soul with all its revelations—such conditions as these : “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” “With this man will I dwell, even with him that is of a meek and contrite spirit.” “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine”—reverence, love, meekness, contrition, obedience ; these conditions having taken place, God enters into the soul, whispers His secret, becomes visible, imparts knowledge and conviction. F. W. R. —Seek earnestly the faith of full assurance ; and as a means to it, practise daily the faith of steady adherence. Love and obey God as faithfully as if you were absolutely certain of acceptance at last, and you will soon be certain of it here. “If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine ;” and “Whosoever shall do the will of God,” says our Saviour, “the same is My brother and sister and mother.” F. D. H.

If we are humble in our ignorance and confiding in our devotion ; if we submit ourselves to His discipline as not knowing what is best, and as not wishing to choose for ourselves ; as satisfied that He who has all power and knows all things will order all wisely, He will give us proofs of the wisdom of our trust ; the secret of the Lord will become ours ; we shall feel He “sees all as if that all were one ; loves one as if that one were all.” H. Hooker.—Albeit the Lord’s covenant with the visible Church be open, and plain in itself to all men in all the articles thereof, yet it is a mystery to know the inward sweet fellowship which a soul may have with God by virtue of this covenant; and a man fearing God shall know this mystery, when such as are covenanters only in the letter do remain ignorant thereof; for to the fearers of God only is this promise made—that to them the Lord will show His covenant. Dickson.

It is neither learning nor labor that can give insight into God’s secrets, those “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” These things come by revelation, and must therefore be obtained by prayer. Those that diligently seek Him shall be of His Cabinet Council, shall know His soul secrets, and be admitted into a gracious familiarity and friendship. “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.” Trapp.—Walking with God is the best way to know the mind of God; friends who walk together impart their secrets one to another: “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” Noah walked with God, and the Lord revealed a great secret to him, of destroying the old world, and having him in the ark. Abraham walked with God, and God made him one of His privy council: “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” T. Watson.

Fellowship with God! the real communion of our minds with His!—what tongue can express it? what heart adequately conceive it? And yet this honor have all the saints. It is not a figure, not a flourish of rhetoric, no dream of the mystic. It is a great fact; and in reflecting upon it I have often been impressed with the words of a dying saint: “Preach it at my funeral, publish it at my burial, that the Lord converses familiarly with man.” His secret is indeed with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. How coarse and degrading by the side of this doctrine do those views of happiness appear which make it consist in pleasure; which, instead of setting man upon the improvement of himself, the perfection of his nature and the expansion of his energies in communion with God, send him in quest of the beggarly elements of earth, which all are to perish in the using! Thornwell.

15. He who has his eyes directed steadily toward God is ever in the praying mood, which cannot remain unanswered. This constant looking at God aims here at deliverance from hostile nets. It is He alone who can pull him out of the net of entangled circumstances of life into which he has come to be ensnared, not without guilt on his own part. D.—The writer claims to be fixed in his trust and constant in his expectation; he looks in confidence, and waits in hope. We may add to this look of faith and hope the obedient look of service, the humble look of reverence, the admiring look of wonder, the studious look of meditation, and the tender look of affection. Happy are those whose eyes are never removed from their God. S.

18. It is doubly painful that a sense of sin toward God should blend itself with countless other sorrows and trials, so that with every prayer for help must be mingled a cry for pardon of sin. But such is Christian experience, the purest joy of which is evermore that our Father above is plenteous in mercy and loves to blot out the sins of His penitent, believing people. C.

20. “O keep my soul” out of evil, “and deliver me” when I fall into it. This is another version of the prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” S.

22. Redeem, O God, Israel out of all his troubles! As the Psalm was designed, from the first, to be a vehicle of devout feeling and desire for the whole Church, it is here wound up with a petition showing this extent of purpose. The Psalmist prays no longer for himself, but for all Israel. A.

The tendency of Christian mystics to divert the attention from Christ to the soul in which God and Christ dwell, so that self becomes the object of contemplation, is subtle, attractive, and dangerous. To contemplate what Christ effects in us, instead of what Christ is—to dwell on what He has given us, instead of the unsearchable riches and fulness of the Lord—will produce self-deception instead of self-judgment, and can only lower the standard of perfectness, which is none other but Christ Himself. Our great and constant desire ought to be to know Christ, and, having no confidence in the flesh, to rejoice in Him, waiting for His coming, when, delivered from the body of sin, we shall be like Him. The constant watching of the growth of the inner man leads us also “to mistake passing emotions for real and abiding love of good,” and to exalt any peculiar intuition into a source of self-glorification. The minds that feel most attracted by the mystic writers need most to be on their guard in reading them. Let everything lead us to the spiritual and diligent study of the perfect, healthful, and precious Word of God. A. Saphir.