Psalms 37

The moving pillar lights up the way for him who follows it. Life is a forced march through the desert, and has its hours of mingled necessity and fear, when natural light fails us at every step, when the gathering veils of uncertainty obscure the path more and more till it becomes impenetrable, yet when we know we must go on. We cannot encamp at twilight and wait till dawn. This is not our rest. Go on we must. Yet how to go, when all is dark before; when the experience is unique and the path is untrodden! It is then the pillar of light begins to shine, and slowly to move onward; it is then the opalescent glory begins to pour into the night, lighting the way. Onward moves the pillar, but only he who follows is saved from the darkness. There is a way out of every wilderness, and there is a pillar of light to show the way out. But the condition of guidance is to keep in the presence of Christ. And to keep in the light is to keep moving, for the light moves. “He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness.” To cease from following is to be left in the dark. “For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light.” C. C. Hall.

1. FRET not thyself because of evil-doers, Neither be thou envious against them that work unrighteousness. 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither as the green herb. 3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;

[So shalt thou] Dwell in the land, and follow after [or, feed on his] faithfulness.

4. Delight thyself also in the LORD: And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 5 Commit thy way unto the LORD [Hebrew, roll thy way upon the LORD];

Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.6 And he shall make thy righteousness to go forth as the light, And thy judgment as the noonday.7 Rest in the LORD [or, be silent to the LORD], and wait patiently for him : Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath : Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil-doing.9 For evil-doers shall be cut off : But those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the land.10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be : Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and he shall not be.11 But the meek shall inherit the land ; And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.12 The wicked plotteth against the just, And gnasheth upon him with his teeth.13 The LORD shall laugh at him : For he seeth that his day is coming.14 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow ; To cast down the poor and needy, To slay such as be upright in the way :15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart, And their bows shall be broken.16 Better is a little that the righteous hath Than the abundance of many wicked.17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken : But the LORD upholdeth the righteous.18 The LORD knoweth the days of the perfect : And their inheritance shall be for ever.19 They shall not be ashamed in the time of evil : And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.20 But the wicked shall perish, And the enemies of the LORD shall be as the excellency of the pastures : They shall consume ; in smoke shall they consume away.21 The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again : But the righteous dealeth graciously, and giveth.22 For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the land ; And they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.23 A man’s goings are established of [or, the steps of a good man are ordered by] the LORD ; And he delighteth in his way.24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down : For the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.25 I have been young, and now am old ; Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his seed begging their bread.26 All the day long he dealeth graciously, and lendeth ; And his seed is blessed.27 Depart from evil, and do good ; And dwell for evermore.28 For the LORD loveth judgment, And forsaketh not his saints ; They are preserved for ever : But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.29 The righteous shall inherit the land, And dwell therein for ever.30 The mouth of the righteous talketh of wisdom, And his tongue speaketh judgment.31 The law of his God is in his heart ; None of his steps shall slide.32 The wicked watcheth the righteous, And seeketh to slay him.33 The LORD will not leave him in his hand, Nor condemn him when he is judged.34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land : When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.35 I have seen the wicked in great power, And spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.36 But one passed by [or, yet he passed away], and, lo, he was not : Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright : For the latter end of that man is peace.38 As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together : The latter end of the wicked shall be cut off.39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD : He is their strong hold in the time of trouble.40 And the LORD helpeth them, and rescueth them : He rescueth them from the wicked, and saveth them, Because they have taken refuge in him.

A PSALM wherein the righteousness of God’s providence is vindicated in His administration of the world. The Psalmist’s own heart had no doubt at one time been shaken by the apparent successes and triumphs of the ungodly, for it is a common temptation to distrust God when we see “the ungodly in great prosperity.” The advice which the Psalmist gives is “to wait,” “to trust in the Lord,” to look at the end, and to observe how even in this life God manifests His righteousness, in rewarding the godly and punishing the wicked. This sentiment is repeated in various forms, and with much beauty of expression. The Psalm has something of a proverbial character about it, owing in some measure to the fact that this is one of the alphabetical Psalms, like Psalms 25 and 34. The structure of the Psalm is exceedingly regular. With few exceptions, the separate portions, as marked by the letters of the alphabet, consist of four members. P.

The fundamental thought which runs through the whole Psalm is expressed in the opening verses: take no offence at the prosperity of the godless, but wait on the Lord; for the prosperity of the godless comes suddenly to an end, and the final issue separates the righteous and the unrighteous. For this reason Tertullian calls this Psalm providentiæ speculum; Isidore, potio contra murmur; Luther, vestis piorum, cui adscriptum: Hic sanctorum patientia est. The poet develops that fundamental thought in short proverbial sayings, not without repetitions, in order to impress it more and more convincingly and deeply upon the mind of his readers. D.

1. Fret not thyself.** The exhortation proves the depth and extent of this natural feeling. The expression in the original is very forcible: do not work thyself into heat; look coolly upon the facts; the heat will otherwise take the form of envy, the most perilous of all temptations. Cook.—“Fret not” is the keynote of the Psalm, for with that exhortation he begins. And no less than three times within the compass of eight verses does he repeat that clause: “Fret not thyself, fret not thyself, fret not thyself.” The verb literally means to kindle a fire. You know that friction will produce a spark, which, falling upon combustible materials, will create a flame, and the flame may spread into a destructive conflagration. That is the figure; do not suffer a fire to be kindled in your spirit. How is it kindled? When we resist the pressure of our environment in such wise as that an excessive friction is the result, and as the outcome of that excessive friction against our environment, against the order under which we find ourselves living, by which we find ourselves checked, resentment takes possession of us. Irritation of spirit destroys the calm and quiet of our thought and of our hearts. Anger has just the same effect upon the soul that fire has upon a building. The tongues of flame when they have free course will melt the granite and cause the entire structure to tumble into a mass of ruins and of ashes. Now the pressure is something that you and I cannot eliminate from our lives. We feel the burden of the yoke. We cannot repress the tears; we cannot avoid the pain; we cannot condone the wrong. But we can check the rising spirit of resentment, and we are never to forget that the first grace into which we are deliberately and continuously to school ourselves is the possession and the retention of a quiet mind. “Fret not thyself.” Behrends.

While we fret and repine at God’s will, do we not say in effect that it is better for us to have our own?—that is, in other words, that we are wiser than God, and could contrive things much more to our own advantage, if we had the disposal of them. This indeed no man utters in words; but whosoever refuses to submit himself to the hand of God speaks them aloud by his behavior. God, perhaps, is pleased to visit us with some heavy affliction, and shall we now, out of a due reverence of His all governing wisdom, patiently endure it? or out of a blind presumption of our own, endeavor by some sinister way or other to rid ourselves from it? Passengers in a ship always submit to their pilot’s discretion, but especially in a storm; and shall we, whose passage lies through a greater and more dangerous deep, pay a less deference to that great pilot, who not only understands, but also commands the seas? South.

Never complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan, and He knows what you want a great deal better than you do. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God’s opportunities; and it is nothing new that the patient should dislike his medicines, or any certain proof that they are poisons. No! a truce to all such impatience! Choke that devilish envy which gnaws at your heart, because you are not in the same lot with others; bring down your soul, or, rather, bring it up to receive God’s will and do His work, in your lot, in your sphere, under your cloud of obscurity, against your temptations; and then you shall find that your condition is never opposed to your good, but really consistent with it. Hence it was that an apostle required his converts to abide each one in that calling wherein he was called; to fill his place till he opens a way, by filling it, to some other; the bondman to fill his house of bondage with love and duty, the laborer to labor, the woman to be a woman, the men to show themselves men—all to acknowledge God’s hand in their lot, and seek to co-operate with that good design which He most assuredly cherishes for them. H. B.

2. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass.** Though they seem to be in a very prosperous condition for the present—as grass, while it is standing, is very green—yet they are soon cut down by the scythe of Providence, then presently fade, and are carried away from the place where they grew. You think Providence does not deal righteously because the unworthy are exalted and the worthy depressed. Do but tarry awhile, and you will have no cause to complain, or to grow weary of godliness, or to cry up a confederacy with evil men; they are nearer their ruin when they come to the height of their exaltation. Manton.

3. Trust.** In the Greek word which we render by faith, the leading idea is that of confidence, of reliance, of trust. Only in a secondary sense does it come to be used for intellectual belief. The same is the case with the Hebrew word answering to that which in the New Testament we render by faith, and by the corresponding verb, to believe. This explains the absence of the word faith from the Old Testament. The idea is there and of perpetual occurrence, but is expressed by the word trust. J. C. Hare.

Test in the Lord. Faith cures fretting. Sight views things only as they seem, hence her envy; faith has clearer optics to behold things as they really are, hence her peace. “And do good.” True faith is actively obedient. Doing good is a fine remedy for fretting. There is a joy in holy activity which drives away discontent. S.

There is something very significant in the order of thought. It is, “Trust in the Lord, and do good,” not, Do good, and trust in the Lord. The Psalmist had his eye on the living root out of which all living goodness springs. Good deeds will have a living greenness and a boundless fertility when the root out of which they spring is planted by the river of the grace and the love of God. Let a man live out fearlessly the Divine rule, and daily his life will grow richer in love, in honor, and in the supply of all his needs. Baldwin Brown.

We must not think to trust God, and then live as we list. It is not trusting, but tempting Him, if we do not make conscience of our duty to Him. Nor must we think to do good and then trust to ourselves, and to our own righteousness and strength. We must trust in the Lord and do good. Anon.

Faith is a lively, busy, active thing! It is impossible for it not to be ceaselessly working good. Whoso doeth not such works is an unbelieving man. The assurance and knowledge of Divine grace render men glad, daring, merry before God and all creatures, which is the work of the Holy Ghost in faith. It is as impossible to separate works from faith as to separate burning and shining from fire. Luther.—Faith is the source; charity—that is, the whole Christian life, is the stream from it. It is quite childish to talk of faith being imperfect without charity; as wisely might you say that a fire, however bright and strong, was imperfect without heat; or that the sun, however cloudless, is imperfect without beams. The true answer would be, it is not faith, but utter reprobate faithlessness. Coleridge.

The only cure for indolence is work; the only cure for selfishness is sacrifice; the only cure for unbelief is to shake off the ague of doubt by doing Christ’s bidding; the only cure for timidity is to plunge into some dreaded duty before the chill comes on. Rutherford.—Assurance and comforts are desirable, but fruitfulness is absolutely necessary. If we do not diligently and faithfully mind our duty in the latitude of it, and apply not ourselves wholly to the work the Lord has set us to do, we shall be found unfruitful. And then what place, what ground will there be for comfort or assurance? What claim can we lay to the privileges we are so much taken with? The end why the Lord offers us comfort and assurance of His love is to make us cheerful in His service, and to encourage us in His work, and engage our hearts in it thoroughly. Clarkson.

There may be a clear enough intellectual faith in the Gospel—a faith liberated from all speculative doubts, and some experience of its preciousness hardly less than joyful—at least for a while, without any corresponding manifestations of these things in practical Christian work and visible life. If there be one point in human experience more dangerous than another, it is exactly the point between faith and practice, between inward love and outward work. Are there not many intelligent Christian people who do very little visibly and expressly for Christ? Is there not a great deal of hidden silent love in Christian hearts, burning like lamps in inner rooms and dark places, which, if brought out, would shed around some cherishing warmth, and some genial glow and brightness? We cannot hold life healthily thus. It is a question whether we can be sure of holding it at all for long. Raleigh.

Praying and working are, to the true servant of God, different manifestations of the same spirit-life. The Christian worker prays, not so much because he deems prayer necessary, as because the prayer is an essential part of his working. And he who truly prays works toward the end for which he prays, because his working is an essential element of his praying. In short, to the Christian that which is worth praying for is worth working for, and that which is worth working for is worth praying for. H. C. T.—No aim should be put higher in our life plans than that of personal helpfulness. The motto of the true Christian cannot be other than that of the Master’s helpfulness: “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Even in the ambition to gather and retain wealth, the spirit of the desire must be, if we are Christians at all, that thereby we may become more helpful to others; that through, or by means of, our wealth, we may be enabled to do larger and greater good. Whatever gift, power, or possession we have that we do not seek to use in this way, is not yet truly devoted to God. Fruit is the test of character; and the purpose of fruit is not to adorn the tree or vine, but to feed hunger. Whatever we are, whatever we have, is fruit, and must be held for the feeding of the hunger of others. Thus personal helpfulness is the aim of all truly consecrated life. J. R. M.

The right faith of man is not intended to give him repose, but to enable him to do his work. It is not intended that he should look away from the place he lives in now, and cheer himself with thoughts of the place he is to live in next; but that he should look stoutly into this world, in faith that if he does his work thoroughly here some good to others or himself (with which, however, he is not at present concerned) will come of it hereafter. And this kind of brave, if not very hopeful faith is always rewarded by clear practical success and splendid intellectual power; while the faith which dwells on the future fades away into rosy mist, and emptiness of musical air. Ruskin.

The Christian will pause from time to time to satisfy himself that he does, by God’s grace, work in the spirit and by the help of his faith. It is always easy to find excuses for good undone and evil done; but each excuse accepted removes our faith farther away from the sphere of life and weakens the motives by which it prompts us to action. Some men who have been and are most active in reforming our criminals, in elevating our poor, in purifying the methods of government, in ennobling the aims of national policy, are without the all-constraining belief in the Gospel which we hold. We ought to be stronger and more active than they. If we are not our Christianity must be passing into a form. We find in every record of self-sacrifice an imperious call to us as Christians to test the reality of our belief. In every golden deed by which God reveals the possible nobility of man we hear His clear command, Go and do thou likewise. Go and do thou likewise; faith in Christ furnishes thee with a motive of irresistible force; faith in Christ furnishes thee with an instrument of inexhaustible strength. Bishop Westcott.

Contemplate this Christian paradox: When most active, most dependent. When most sensible of weakness, then most abundant in labor. When stretching every power to honor Christ, then sinking most deeply into the lowliness of self-distrust, and rising most triumphantly in trust upon the Lord. Let us pray for large measures of this grace of dependence on Christ; let us seek it by laboring for Christ. J. W. A.

Work for God, work for man, work that is twice blessed, which blesseth Him that gives and him that takes, is the correspondent condition of a vigorous, glowing health in the spiritual sphere. Let loose the wings of your loving ministry; stir your soul to some work which shall scatter blessings. If you would taste joy, fresh and pure from its fountain, do good, be ready to communicate. It is this which makes the soul instinct with vigor, aglow with health, and radiant with joy. Man is a crippled, half-developed being until his unselfish ministry is drawn forth. When he has tasted the joy of doing good, he is like the lame after Peter’s touch, he goes out into the great temple of life, walking and leaping, and praising God. Try it. If life is sad, make it glad by service, service that strains your power, that a higher power only can make you strong enough to render. But here we touch the deep perennial fountain of gladness—the joy of the Holy Ghost. These men believed that they were imitating the Highest, that God’s blessing was lying warm and cherishing on their lives. No wonder they were glad. The joy of a man who believes that God is with him is exuberant, irrepressible. The delight of doing the will of God, to those who have tasted it, masters all other joy. “My meat and my drink is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” London Congregationalist.

Come out of your secret chambers; you may go there, and shut your door, only to pray and commune with Him, for refreshment, after and before your busy work in the world. Frames of feeling are no tests of your progress. An honest, healthy, robust, out-of-door faith is what you want. Plain duties, homely piety, cheerful submission, regular worship—Christ is waiting for you in all of these. In the morning, take up the morning’s cross. Walk with Christ all day. Working under Him is watching for Him. And then, whether He shall come at the first watch, or in the second, or at noon-day, or at evening, blessed is the servant whom He shall find so watching! F. D. H.

4. And delight thyself in Jehovah, and He will give thee the requests of thy heart. Here, too, the command implies a promise, which is afterward expressed. Delight thyself, seek and find thy happiness in Jehovah, literally, upon Him, the form of expression suggesting the idea of dependence and reliance, as well as that of union and communion. Requests, not mere desires, but askings, prayers. A.

Delight thyself. A very forcible word, which, however, inadequately expresses the feeling of blessedness and rapture in the original. The true counterpoise to envy of the temporal prosperity of the wicked is the inward intensity of joy in communion with God. Cook.—This living sense of God’s presence with us is a leading feature of the character of all His saints under every dispensation. This is the purpose of all God’s dealings with every child of Adam—to reveal Himself to them and in them. He kindles desires after Himself; He helps and strengthens the wayward will; He broods with a loving energy over the soul; He will save us if we will be saved. All God’s saints learn how near He is to them, and they rejoice to learn it. They learn to delight themselves in the Lord—He gives them their hearts’ desire. S. Wilberforce.

Here is the secret of tranquillity in freedom from eager, earthly desires—“Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” The great reason why life is troubled and restless lies not without, but within. It is not our changing circumstances, but our unregulated desires, that rob us of peace. By our eager desires we give perishable things supreme power over us. Therefore we are ever disturbed by apprehensions and shaken by fears. And he who desires fleeting joys is sure to be restless always, and to be disappointed at the last. Disappointment is the law for all earthly desires; for appetite increases with indulgence, and as it increases, satisfaction decreases. If, then, our desires are, in their very exercise, a disturbance, and in their very fruition prophesy disappointment, what shall we do for rest? There is but one answer—“Delight thyself in the Lord.” These eager desires, transfer them to Him; and the soul, freed from the distraction of various desires by one masterful attraction, will be at rest. Such a soul is still, as the great river above the falls, where all the side currents and dimpling eddies and backwaters are effaced by the attraction that draws every drop in one direction. And then again, desire and fruition go together, and so there will be peace. “He will give thee the desires of thine heart;” not perhaps at all times the identical blessings we wish, but something larger, deeper, for God Himself is the heart’s desire of those who delight in Him, and to delight in Him is to possess our delight, and further desire after God will bring peace by putting all other desires in their right place. The more we have our affections set on God, the more we enjoy, because we subordinate His gifts. The less, too, shall we dread this loss, the less be at the mercy of their fluctuations. If you have God for your “enduring substance,” you can face all varieties of condition, and be calm, saying,

“Give what Thou canst, without Thee I am poor,

A. M.

5. Roll upon Jehovah thy way, and trust upon Him, and He will do (it). This last expression shows that the way is something to be done, and accordingly we find in Prov. 16: 3 the explanatory variation, roll to (or on) the Lord thy works, i.e., what thou hast to do but canst not do it, metaphorically represented as a burden too heavy for the person bearing it, and therefore rolled upon the shoulders of another. A.—Roll the sorrowful burden of thy way in life upon Jehovah, commit the guiding of thy life entirely to Him, and He shall nobly carry out everything that concerns thee. D.

The same word occurs in the same sense in

Psalm 22: 8, said there of the Messiah: He rolled Himself upon the Lord to be delivered, Also, Prov. 16: 3: “Roll thy work upon the Lord”—for the help you need to do it both easily and well. A different verb with the same sense appears in Psalm 55: 22: “Cast thy burden on the Lord;” literally, cast upon the Lord what He gives thee to bear, etc. Peter (1 Pet. 5: 17) has the same precious thought: “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” C.

When thou art either to do or suffer anything, when thou art about any purpose or business, go tell God of it; yea, burden Him with it, and thou hast done for matter of caring. No more care, but quiet, sweet diligence in thy duty, and dependence on Him for the carriage of thy matters. And in this prayer faith acts; it is a believing requesting; ask in faith, not doubting; so thou rollest over all on Him, that is the very proper working of faith. The carrying the soul and all its desires out of itself unto God is here so expressed, Roll over on God; make one bundle of all; roll thy cares and thyself with them as one burden, all on thy God. L.

There is but one way to serenity of mind and happiness; let this, therefore, be always ready at hand with thee, both when thou wakest early in the morning, and all the day long, and when thou goest late to sleep, to account no external things thine own, but to commit all these to God. Epictetus.—Bless God for what you have, and trust God for what you want. Commit your souls to God’s keeping, and submit yourselves to God’s disposing. Obey His revealed will, and then be resigned to His providential will. J. Mason.—Cast all thy care on God, and commit all to His good pleasure; laud and praise and applaud Him in all things, small and great; forsake thy own will, and deliver up thyself freely and cheerfully to the will of God, without reserve or exception, in prosperity and adversity, to have or to want, to live or to die. The sum is: remember always the presence of God; rejoice always in the will of God; and direct all to the glory of God. L.

He shall bring it to pass. Committing and trusting is our work—to bring to pass is the Lord’s. Committing our way to God unburden the mind; trusting our all to Him makes the heart easy; relying on Him to bring our concerns to pass makes the spirit joyful. W. Mason.—While we are ready, perhaps, to recognize God’s providence in the greater afflictions of life, we fail to include in that guiding providence the petty annoyances of our common days; the languor which unfits for duty; the cloud that passes over the spirits; the domestic cross, the chafing of temper in trade; the slight, the unkindness, the forgetfulness which we endure from thoughtless or selfish fellow-creatures. Yet the law is universal. Not merely the journey, but every step of the journey, is ordered. No part of our way is left to ourselves. Resignation and faith behold God in the smallest occurrences; and the happiest life is that of him who has bound together all the affairs of life, great and small, and intrusted them to God. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass. J. W. A.

Waiting upon God continually will abate your unnecessary cares, and sweeten your necessary ones. The same spirit of faith which teaches a man to cry earnestly, teaches him to wait patiently; for, as it assures him the mercy is in the Lord’s hand, so it assures him it will be given forth in the Lord’s time. J. Mason.—He shall bring that to pass, whatever it is, which thou hast committed to Him, if not to thy contrivance, yet to thy content. He will find means to extricate thee out of thy straits, to prevent thy fears, and bring about thy purposes, to thy satisfaction. H.

Leave to Him the guidance of thy life, and thou shalt be at peace on the road. This is a word for all life; not only for its great occasions, but for the small decisions of every hour. Our histories are made up of a series of trifles, in each of which a separate act of will and choice is involved. Looking to the mysterious way in which the greatest events in our lives have the knack of growing out of the smallest; looking to the power of habit to make any action of the mind almost instinctive, it is of far more importance that we should become accustomed to apply this precept of seeking guidance from God to the million trifles than to the two or three decisions which, at the time of making them, we know to be weighty. But committing our way unto the Lord does not mean shifting the trouble of patient thought about our duty off our own shoulders. Just because we are to commit our way to Him, we are bound to the careful exercise of the best power of our own brains, that we may discover what the will of God is. I suppose the precursor of all visions of Him, which have calmed His servants’ souls with the peace of a clearly recognized duty, has been their cry. “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” God counsels men who use their own wits to find out His counsel. He speaks to us through our judgments when they take all the ordinary means of ascertaining our course. The law is: you do your best to find out your duty; you suppress inclination, and desire to do God’s will, and He will certainly tell you what it is. This law prescribes the subordination—not the extinction—of our own inclinations. It prescribes the submission of our judgment to God, in the confidence that His wisdom will guide us. These two keys—joy in God and trust in His guidance—open for us the double doors of the secret place of the Most High. A. M.

6. A Christian whom circumstances have misrepresented, but whose conscience is clear, always has this assurance, that he can afford to wait for his vindication. Rarely if ever does integrity fail to be recognized at last. The words of the Psalmist, “He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light,” are certain of fulfilment. Matters never have been settled finally unless they have been settled rightly. It is in accord with both the nature of things and the Divine will that goodness shall triumph over evil, and that its supremacy shall be evident to all; and any beliefs, plans, efforts, or even any apparently established institutions, which are based upon the disregard of this fact are certain to fall. Congregationalist.

7. Rest in the Lord.** Let your intellect, your judgment, your reason, rest in God; in God personal, and possessed of every perfection—almighty and all-knowing, kind, righteous, and holy; that is, in a God truly Divine. And we add, Rest in the Lord merciful and gracious. Rest in the Lord as He reveals Himself in the Gospel, propitious to the penitent, ready to receive all who accept His overtures of reconciliation, ready to pardon and to protect from the consequences of their own misdeeds all who in the name of the Saviour come to Him. Hamilton.—Spiritual quiet of soul is founded on knowledge of God, faith in Christ, a tranquilized conscience, a weakening of the sinful principle, submission to God, trust in His promises, and holy contemplation of the supreme excellence, as offered for the communion of our spirits. J. W. A.

This rest, this power of being at rest belongs to the heart alone, to the seat of his affections. And why? Because love satisfies the heart, and the heart can love Him who, being Himself infinite, is at once and forever all that love can crave. By the sense of utter blankness which the heart experiences when it loves not, by the absolute incapacity of all earthly things to fill it, by its own strong cravings and yearnings, we learn that it is God’s will that its real and best affections should be concentrated on Him alone. Even as the needle rests from its strange, uneasy trembling then only when it points true to the pole, so the heart can then only be at rest when it is filled with the love of God. And this is the reward of God’s faithful people. This loving God, all-wise, all-tender, all-sympathetic, all-great, all-sufficing, revealing Himself as man to man, is He who gives Himself to the human heart to satisfy its longing for love. He who made the heart such that it yearns after Him and can find no peace but in Him, Himself becomes its portion. God is the reward of His people in life, in death, in eternity. W. J. Butler.

“Rest in the Lord;” or, literally, “Be silent,” not “in the Lord,” but “to the Lord;” be silent in His presence, be silent before Him, be silent for Him. It would have been almost as well if the original word had been transferred, instead of making the attempt at translating; for the Hebrew word translated “rest” is “dum.” We should have understood the meaning of the Psalmist, and his thought would have been literally expressed, if the rendering had been, “Be dumb before the Lord”—dumb in His presence and dumb for Him. That is to say, do not make even so much as an attempt to justify the ways of God with yourself and with others whose hearts are crushed. Recognize at the very outset that you are not competent to deal with the problem, and refuse to take the first step into the mazes of this labyrinth. Be dumb before your God, be dumb in His presence. If we, then, were to translate this old advice into Christian terms of speech, we should say this: “Fret not. Be silent in the presence of thy God, who gave His Son to die for you. Let the compassion and the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ quiet all the tumult of your heart, and provoke you to a silence that is full of confidence and joy.” Yes, for us the cross is the conclusion of the painful controversy. It lies like a bright rift upon the dark thunder-cloud, through which the light celestial streams upon us, so that it reveals unto us the gates of pearl and the walls of jasper and the golden domes of the City of God. Wait patiently for God. That word is very forcible, too. The verb means, to fling one’s self with impetuosity upon an object, to rush with speed into an open refuge, and then, having gained it, to stand there and patiently to abide the issue. All that we mean by waiting for God is implied here, but a great deal more. It means not only waiting for God, but waiting upon Him and waiting by His side. It means an active, ardent, living identification of ourselves with God. Stand by Him, beneath the shadow of His wings, and be active in thy waiting—that is to say, obey His will, do His work, and for the rest, commit thy way unto the Lord. Behrends.

One of our hardest lessons is to find out the wisdom of our hindrances; how we are to be put forward and upward by being put back and put down; encouraged by being rebuked; prospered by being baffled. Gradually, to believing eyes, the fact comes out. Standing still at the right time, in the right way, for the right purpose, is the surest advance. Waiting on God brings us to our journey’s end faster than our feet. The failure of our favorite plans is often the richest success of the soul. F. D. H.

What else is there for a man fronting the vague future? Is it not better, happier, nobler, every way truer, to look into that perilous, uncertain future, or rather to look past it to the loving Father who is its Lord and ours, and to wait patiently for Him? Confidence that the future will but evolve God’s purposes, and that all these are enlisted on our side, will give you peace and power. We are sure that in the future are losses, and sorrows, and death. Thank God, we are sure, too, that He is in it. That certainty alone and what comes of it makes it possible for a thoughtful man to face to-morrow without fear or tumult. A. M.

Patient waiting clearly recognizes the government of heaven as superintending all, directing and controlling things most intricate, and out of seeming evil deducing real good. It knows that in His hands, whom seraphim and cherubim adore, all must be righteous, pure, and good. Patience listens to the promises and gracious declarations of the oracles of truth. And can one word of promise fall? Will God forget, or lose His power or willingness to save those who have trusted in His love? Rather will heaven itself forever pass away than one engagement of His mouth shall not be to the very utmost verified. Jabez Burns.

Courage is the mission of a few; patience is the duty of all. Courage is most beautiful before men; but the patience that sits quiet at Christ’s feet, and bears meekly Christ’s rebuke, is far more beautiful. And when we experience trials, unable to explain their meaning or to unravel their mystery, knowing nothing of their purpose, object, aim, or issue, we learn to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. And our faith, too, is strengthened; that faith which believes God is there, though we see Him not. And obedience is strengthened; for the command is, “Do not ask the reason, but do it.” And hope is strengthened; for we learn to hope to the end. And ultimately thankfulness is invigorated; for we learn to praise Him who has wrought all things so well. Cumming.

Trust, rest, wait patiently; for there will be need of trust and rest and patient waiting. God’s way will often be a mystery; it is in the sea, in the deep waters, past finding out. We must learn to be content to suffer, to fail, to lose all that makes earthly life worth living, if it so be that God’s way leads through these. And we must learn also that the most fatal earthly disaster may be but the outward texture of circumstance for the highest heavenly success. S. S. T.—Study to follow God’s will in all, to have no will but His. This is thy duty and thy wisdom. Nothing is gained by spurning and struggling, but to hurt and vex thyself; but by complying, all is gained, sweet peace; it is the very secret, the mystery of solid peace within, to resign to His will, to be disposed at His pleasure, without the least contrary thought. It is the sum of Christianity to have thy will crucified, and the will of thy Lord thy only desire; joy or sorrow, sickness or health, life or death, in all, in all, Thy will be done. L.

But loosen no nerve of resistance; slacken no effort to press on; suspend no prayer for the Spirit. Otherwise you do not rest in the Lord, but rest from Him, and instead of waiting, like the blind man, for the Saviour’s coming, you wait for Him to pass by. But inasmuch as the struggle is long, and you are mortal, and life without your Father is orphanage, keep very near to your Lord; rest in Him, wait patiently for Him. “With Him is plenteous redemption.” Leave all issues and results with Him, saying reverently, as Luther did of his greater work, “Let the Lord God look to that.” F. D. H.

The Saviour still leaves us, as He left His first disciples in the garden, with the words, “Tarry ye here and watch,” and promises to come again. If hope can lay hold of this promise, and keep it fast, patience will maintain its post like a sentinel who is sure of relief at the appointed hour, and if the hour seems long, will beguile it with those words, which have passed like a “song in the night” through many a weary heart, “For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Then, as hope strengthens patience, patience in return will strengthen hope. Such allies are all the Christian graces, children in one family, who, if there be love among them, supplement each other by their opposites. If a man is enabled to “rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him,” it is a reason to him for hoping that there is a Divine work going on in his life, which the God of patience and consolation will complete. Ker.

No man is free from care till he cast his care upon the Lord. And hence it is that, throughout Scripture, we are taught to commit our way unto God, to rest in Him, and to wait patiently for Him. He that sitteth in the pure, calm heavens looks down with pity on the world of care and turmoil and excitement we have created for ourselves, and virtually says to us: “Why load yourselves with so many burdens hard to be borne? Do your duty, live your life, enjoy your life, and leave all else with Me. I care for you; I will provide.” What a changed world, what a changed life it would be, could we but trust Him, could we but listen and respond when, fatherly and compassionate, He thus pleads with us! All the hurry, all the fret, all the chafe would be gone out of it—all that is wearing us out and destroying us before our time. We should be raised above the reach of change, into the life eternal, the life that does not consist in meat or drink, in gain or mirth, but in doing and enjoying the will of God. Cox.

Be quiet, and you will hear Him speak—delight in Him, that you may be quiet. Let the affections feed on Him, the will wait mute before Him, till His command inclines it to decision, and quickens it into action; let the desires fix upon His all-sufficiency; and then the wilderness will be no more trackless, but the ruddy blaze of the guiding pillar will brighten on the sand a path which men’s hands have never made, nor human feet trodden into a road. He will guide us if our eyes be fixed on Him, and be swift to discern and eager to obey the lightest glance that love can interpret. . . . How blessed then to leave all the possible to-morrow with very quiet heart in His hands! How easy then to bear the ignorance, how possible then to face the certainties, of that solemn future! Change and death can only thin away and finally remove the film that separates us from our delight. Whatever comes here or yonder can but bring us blessing; for we must be glad if we have God, and our wills are parallel with His, whose will all things serve. Our way is traced by Him, and runs alongside of His. It leads to Himself. Then rest in the Lord, and judge nothing before the time. We cannot criticise the Great Artist when we stand before His unfinished masterpiece, and see dim outlines here, a patch of crude color there; but wait patiently for Him. And so, in calm expectation of a blessed future and a finished work, which will explain the past, in honest submission of our way to God, in supreme delight in Him who is the gladness of our joy, the secret of tranquillity will be ours. A. M.

8. Those who indulge fretful feelings, either of anxiety or irritation, know not what an opening they thereby give to the devil in their hearts. “Fret not thyself,” says the Psalmist; “it tendeth only to evil.” And in entire harmony with this warning of the elder Scriptures is the precept of Paul against undue indulgence of anger: “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil.” E. M. G.—Evil will be the result of thy fretting. An angry state of the heart is a bad thing for the spiritual life; it throws it off its balance; it impairs its power of seeing and estimating truly; it indisposes the soul to communion with God; it tends to make men unjust and uncharitable and despondent and listless. A man cannot carry round with him such a raging fire in his bosom, and at the same time trust in the Lord and do good, and delight himself in the Lord. From being angry at men and things, the transition is easy to suspecting the wisdom of God. V.

Worrying destroys our power to discharge well to-day’s duties. It divides our power and doubles our burden. It spoils our work and spoils us. To-day’s failures brought about by to-day’s worry go far toward breaking us down by to-morrow’s burdens when they come. The days all fit into each other. To-day’s success is half-parent to to-morrow’s success; and failure, too, genders after its kind. And so life becomes after all a matter of to-day, “Give us to-day our daily bread.” That life is blessed that is made up of days whose moments are severally filled with the strength of God. C. H. P.

There is a bound where dissatisfaction and unrest ought to end. Beyond that limit it becomes a hindrance to Christian growth, a fetter upon Christian liberty, a chill upon Christian zeal. Instead of inspiring, it debilitates. By an easy and dangerous transition it passes into a morbid self-occupation, which shuts off charity for men and service to Christ. It becomes a practical denial of the supporting strength and the pledged grace of God. There can be little freedom, or heartiness, or efficiency, in the worship or the living, under this overshadowing anxiety. Better far always than indifference or unconcern, it is not the natural, healthy state of a disciple. If it is an inevitable stage on the way to that state, yet it should always be treated as just that and no more—temporary, instrumental, immature: tending ever to peace; looking for the joy of believing; waiting for the promise of the Comforter; pressing on, with confident expectation, from the transient “spirit of bondage to fear,” which asks, “Who shall deliver me?” into the abiding “spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” where “there is no condemnation,” and into the blessed “spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father;” “if God be for us, who can be against us?” If it be possible, every Christian heart will feel it to be a part of its Christian endeavor and prayer to lay off the weight which burdens the race, exchanging it for this undoubting, full assurance of faith. F. D. H.

9. “Those that wait upon the Lord”—those who in patient faith expect their portion in another life—“they shall inherit the earth.” Even in this life they have the most of real enjoyment, and in the ages to come theirs shall be the glory and the triumph. Passion, according to Bunyan’s parable, has his good things first, and they are soon over; Patience has his good things last, and they last forever. S.

10. And yet a little, i.e., erelong, soon—bear and forbear a little longer—and the wicked is not—or there is no such person as the wicked man who seemed so prosperous—and thou shalt gaze, or look attentively, upon his place, the place which he now occupies, and it is not, his very place has disappeared—or he is not, he is no more. Why, then, be discomposed, and even tempted into sin, by the sight of what is so soon to vanish? A.

11. The meek shall inherit the earth.** The violent, the unjust, the greedy, may grasp the earth for a time, but it is the meek, the gentle, never irritating, yet never withdrawing, persistent, generation after generation, in the practice and application of spiritual truth, it is they who truly inherit the earth. Young.

The meek man has nought to do with the motives of others; all that concerns him is the manner in which he himself may be trained and disciplined by those disquietudes, and discomforts, and disheartenings of life, which the conduct of others may bring. The result of this is that he goes through the world hurting, vexing, irritating no one. He is taking the poison from every sting. He is receiving upon his shield of faith every fiery dart of the wicked one. He is neutralizing every bitter—he is enjoying every sweet; and thus he inherits the earth. Monsell.—The meek, and they only, possess the present earth, as they go toward the kingdom of heaven, by being humble, and cheerful, and content with what their good God has allotted them. They have no turbulent, repining, vexatious thoughts, that they deserve better; nor are vexed when they see others possessed of more honor or more riches than their wise God has allotted for their share. But they possess what they have with a meek and contentful quietness; such a quietness as makes their very dreams pleasing both to God and themselves. Walton.

And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Peace they love and peace they shall have. If they find not abundance of gold, abundance of peace will serve their turn far better. Peace leads on to peace, and the more a man loves it the more shall it come to him. In the halcyon period of the latter days, when universal peace shall make glad the earth, the full prophetic meaning of words like these will be made plain. S.

16. A little blessed is better than a great deal cursed, better than a world enjoyed. Therefore never let a Christian murmur because he hath but little, but rather let him be still a blessing of that God that hath blessed his little, and doth bless his little, and that will bless his little to him. T. Brooks.—A godly man’s estate, though ever so little, is better than a wicked man’s estate, though ever so much, for it comes from a better hand, from a hand of special love, and not merely from a hand of common providence; it is enjoyed by a better title, God gives it to them by promise (Gal. 3: 18), it is theirs by virtue of their relation to Christ, who is the Heir of all things; and it is put to a better use, it is sanctified to them by the blessing of God. H.

Strangers to Christ have the use of outward mercies, but cannot be properly said to have the enjoyment; they seem to be masters of them, but indeed they are servants to them. Nor is their use truly comfortable; they may fancy comfort, but their comfort is but a fancy. True, solid comfort is theirs only who have Christ for their portion. These may look upon every temporal enjoyment as a token of everlasting love. When we can say, “Christ loved me and gave Himself for me, that I might enjoy these blessings,” how will this raise the value of every common mercy! Upon this account is that of the Psalmist true, “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.” D. Clarkson.

18. Knoweth the days.** He watcheth over, careth for, lovingly orders all that befalls them. P.—God takes particular notice of them, of all they do, and of all that happens to them. He keeps account of the days of their service, and not one day’s work shall go unrewarded; and of the days of their suffering, that for those also they may receive a recompense. He knows their fair days, and has pleasure in their prosperity; he knows their cloudy and dark days, the days of their affliction, and, as the day is, so shall the strength be. H.

20. This verse shows how the truth of the foregoing promises can be consistent with the actual prosperity of wicked men. Do not doubt the truth of these assurances because the wicked now seem happy, or because they now prevent your being so, by their oppressions and hostilities. For all this is soon to cease. The wicked shall perish, are to perish, and the enemies of Jehovah, another description of the same class, showing that these judgments awaited them, not merely as the foes of the Psalmist, or of righteous men in general, but of God Himself. A.—Their prosperity doth but hasten their ruin, not their reward. The ox that is the laboring ox is the longer lived than the ox that is put into the pasture; the very putting of him there doth but hasten his slaughter; and when God puts wicked men into fat pastures, into places of honor and power, it is but to hasten their ruin. Let no man, therefore, fret himself because of evil-doers, nor be envious at the prosperity of the wicked. Carbonensis.

21. This verse expresses a deep and true moral aspect both of poverty and prosperity; the one, as a punishment for sin, involves an incapacity of discharging obligations; the other, as a reward of virtue, enables a man to confer benefits, and to be a blessing to his fellows. This explanation of the text is given by Calvin, and well defended by Hupfeld. The antithesis between “borroweth” and “showeth mercy” stands out more distinctly in the original, where each is expressed by a single word: the former implying cleaving, a helpless dependence on the lender; the latter a free, generous, and gracious distribution of benefits. Cook.

22. For His blessed ones, those blessed by God, shall inherit the land, in the same sense as before, and so be able not only to lend but to give away; but His cursed ones, those cursed by Him, shall not only be unable to do either, and dependent on the charity of others, but shall be cut off, destroyed, exterminated, with allusion no doubt to the use of the same Hebrew verb in reference to excision from the communion and the privileges of the chosen people. A.

23. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” This was not only true in fact, but in David’s experience. It was just what he felt and what he said in talking about his various escapes and all the incidents of his life. It was the Lord who delivered him from the lion and the bear, who gave him the victory over Goliath, who sent Samuel to anoint him king, who gave him the love of Jonathan, who saved him in the battle with the Philistines, who made his arm strong and his heart courageous in the day of battle. Yes, it was the Lord in him and around him and over him, “a sun and a shield,” who made him what he was and gave him what he had, and through him carried forward that great work for which David had been chosen. T. W. Hooper.

Walking is a matter of steps; and in God’s training of men He directs their attention to the single steps rather than to the course of their lives as a whole, to the details of the life rather than to the life at large. “The steps of a good man” are established; not ordered each day as emergencies arise, but prearranged. The “good man” of the Psalmist’s thought is the man who recognizes the excellence and the rightful claim of the Divine law, and who gives himself up to it. The Bible alternative is very sharp and plain. Either we are to be ordered by God, or we are to be self-ordered. If we undertake to order our own steps, we must take the consequences, and relinquish all claim upon God’s ordering. V.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; by His grace and holy Spirit He directs the thoughts, affections, and designs of good men; He has all hearts in His hand, but theirs by their own consent; by His providence He overrules the events that concern them so as to make their way plain before them, both what they should do, and what they may expect. Observe, God orders the steps of a good man; not only his way in general by His written Word, but his particular steps. He does not always show him his way at a distance, but leads him step by step, as children are led, and so keeps him in a continual dependence upon His guidance; and this because He delights in His way, and is well pleased with the paths of righteousness wherein he walks. H.

He delighteth in his way. I have seen young parents laughing with joy when they have observed the first steps which the little ones take—they delighted in their way. And so God is represented as bending from above over us, and ordering the steps of a good man, watching his pathway, holding him by the hand, leading him in the way he should go, and delighting in his way. And never was a tender and loving parent so delighted in marking the footsteps of a child, as God in watching the ways of a good man—delighted at all his efforts in the paths of piety and peace. M. Simpson.—Christ is the God of Providence. All your steps, if you are His, are ordered by Him, ordered with all the care and tenderness with which He sought you out and brought you to the faith and love of Him. He has left words of sympathy and comfort for you in every trial. He is the good Shepherd, who calls you to walk only in the paths He has trod first. H. H.

24. Though he fall. In this life fluctuations and reverses are to be expected, and it forms no part of the Divine plan to prevent them. (But) he shall not be thrown down, prostrated wholly or forever. The contrast of a mere fall and a permanent prostration is intended to express that between occasional misfortunes and utter ruin. A.—Even in our falls the Lord gives a measure of sustaining. Where grace does not keep from going down, it shall save from keeping down. It is not that the saints are strong, or wise, or meritorious, that therefore they rise after every fall but because God is their helper, and therefore none can prevail against them. S.

The steps of a good man are established in spite of his fall. Walking in the way of God’s order brings with it that strong, immortal, unconquerable principle which reasserts itself after every fall, and keeps the man’s face set toward God, and his feet pressing on along the heavenward road. It is a Divine principle, the very hand of God stretched forth each time in fulfilment of this promise: “He shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand.” . . . From these truths we conclude: If God has ordained a way for men to walk in, it is the height of folly to walk in any other way. If God orders our ways, step by step, it becomes us to take heed to the details of our lives. If God orders each detail of our lives, ought we not to get great and solid comfort from the fact? It becomes us to fall in with God’s order, and to attach to the separate steps the same importance that He does. V.

25. Literally, “I have been young; also, have been old,” and therefore have had long years of observation; but I have never seen the righteous forsaken of God. He makes all things work together for good to those who love and trust Him. His posterity also are blessed and never brought to beg their bread. In those ages pre-eminently, God manifested His favor to His people by means of earthly and present good. C.—I believe this to be literally true in all cases. I am now gray-headed myself; I have travelled in different countries, and have had many opportunities of seeing and conversing with religious people in all situations in life; and I have not seen one instance to the contrary. I have seen no righteous man forsaken, nor any children of the righteous begging their bread. God puts honor upon all that fear Him; and thus careful is He of them and of their posterity. A. Clarke.—The blessed habits of piety early formed and vigorously maintained, the habits of faith, of prayer, of industry, of temperance, of knowledge and of love, are, in the very nature and order of things, a security against evil. They have the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. I have been young and now am old, said the Psalmist, yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Cheever.

26. The good man “is merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.” What the worldling thinks shall make his posterity poor, God saith shall make the good man’s rich. The precept gives a promise of mercy to obedience, not confined to the obedient man’s self, but extended to his seed. Trust, then, Christ with thy children. T. Adams.—The righteous are constantly under generous impulses; they do not prosper through parsimony, but through bounty. How stingy covetous professors can hope for salvation is a marvel to those who read such verses as this in the Bible. “And his seed is blessed.” God pays back with interest in the next generation. The friend of the father is the friend of the family. The God of Abraham is the God of Isaac and of Jacob. S.

So far is charity from impoverishing, that what is given away, like vapors emitted by the earth, returns in showers of blessings into the bosom of the person that gave it, and his offspring is not the worse, but infinitely better for it. Horne.—“Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands,” says an old writer. Gifts and alms are the expression, not the essence, of this virtue. A man may bestow great sums on the poor without being charitable, and may be charitable when he is not able to bestow anything. Addison.

Charity diffuses itself over the soul, and causes us to love all men. We are charitable to the poor, not by what we give, but by the spirit in which we give. Book of Symbols.—The constraint of law can never produce the highest goodness. The only constraint should be that of love. If the clouds be “full of rain” they must burst in showers of blessing upon the earth. They are the natural image of a heart that can hold out no more, that blesses by a sweet constraint, and in doing good to others relieves itself. The highest natures are not ashamed to own the gracious necessity under which they are laid by love. Hamilton.

27. No good.** Negative goodness is not sufficient to entitle us to heaven. There are some in the world whose religion runs all upon negatives; they are not drunkards, they are not swearers, and for this they do bless themselves. We are bid not only to cease from evil, but to do good. It is not enough for the servant of the vineyard that he doth no hurt there, he doth not break the trees or destroy the hedges; if he doth not work in the vineyard he loseth his pay. It is not enough for us to say at the last day, we have done no hurt, we have lived in no gross sin; but what good have we done in the vineyard? T. Adams.—It is not enough not to do hurt in the world, but we must study to be useful, and live to some purpose. We must not only depart from evil, but we must do good; good for ourselves, especially for our own souls, employing them well, furnishing them with a good treasure, and fitting them for another world; and, as we have ability and opportunity, we must do good to others also. H.

Engage in some direct effort to do good. Seek to leave the world the better for your sojourn in it. Whatever you attempt, endeavor to do it so thoroughly, and follow it up so resolutely, that the result shall be ascertained and evident. And in your attempts at usefulness, be not only conscientious but enthusiastic. Love the work. Redeem the time. Remember that the Lord is at hand. Hamilton.

We are to carry such a sense of indebtedness to our dear Lord and Master, that we shall be always trying to find opportunities and outlets to bless others. We are to live, finding in all the daily intercourse with men a hundred fresh channels by which the Father’s love may flow into their midst. For His sake, for the sake of others, for our own sakes, let us strive after this as the fairest and only satisfying token of a holy life—this unfailing brotherliness. Pearse.—Remember, at home, in the shop, and in the counting-house, that you are epistles of Christ; and that in your spirit, habits, and character His very thoughts are to be translated into forms which common men can read and understand. Through you it is meant that the Holy Ghost should speak, not in mere words, but in acts, which are more intelligible and emphatic than words. The very life of the Spirit of God is intended to be manifested in your conduct, as the life of a plant is manifested in the flower, and the life of a tree in the fruit. Your religious emotions irreligious men can know nothing of, but your virtues and vices are a language plain and familiar to them as their mother tongue. They can read these without note or comment. R. W. Dale.

30,31. From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, so that you may know the good man who fears and loves God by the free utterance of his most cherished thoughts. God will uphold such a man so that none of his steps shall slide as if on an unstable foundation. C.—The law of his God is in his heart. He hath a Bible in his head, and another in his heart; he hath a good treasure within, and there hence bringeth good things. Trapp.—It is but a jest and a mockery to speak wisdom, and to talk of judgment, unless we have the law in our hearts, and we think as we speak. The law of God must be a commanding, ruling principle in the heart; it must be a light there, a spring there, and then the conversation will be regular and uniform, none of his steps will slide; it will effectually prevent backsliding into sin, and the uneasiness that follows from it. H.

33. In due season just men will be justified. Temporary injustices are tolerated, in the order of Providence, for purposes most wise; but the bitter shall not always be called sweet, nor light forever be traduced as darkness; the right shall appear in due season; the fictitious and pretentious shall be unmasked, and the real and true shall be revealed. S.

34. To all who are perplexed in any way soever, who wish for light but cannot find it, one precept must be given—obey. It is obedience which brings a man into the right path; it is obedience keeps him there and strengthens him in it. Under all circumstances, whatever the cause of distress, obey. “Wait on the Lord, and keep His way.” Go about your duty; mind little things as well as great. And such obedient waiting upon Him will surely obtain His blessing. Newman.—“And He shall exalt thee to inherit the land.” Thou shalt have all of earthly good which is really good, and of heavenly good there shall be no stint. Exaltation shall be the lot of the excellent. “When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.” A sight how terrible and how instructive! What a rebuke for fretfulness! what an incentive to gratitude! S.

35. I saw a wicked (man). The issue just predicted is now made the subject of a picture, as if present to the senses. The Hebrew word which follows means terrible, especially from one’s extraordinary strength or power, with an implication sometimes of its violent exertion. I saw (such) a wicked man, a terrible one, and spreading himself like a native (tree), one which has never been transplanted, green and flourishing. The word translated native is always elsewhere used of human subjects, but is here applied, by a bold personification, to a vigorous tree, rooted in its native soil, and seemingly immovable.

36. And he passed (away), and lo! an expression always implying something unexpected, he was not, he was no more, there was no longer such a person. And I sought him. I looked round as if to see what was become of him, and he was not found, or, as we might say, to be found.

37. Mark the perfect (man), observe him closely, and behold the upright, or straightforward. He appeals to general experience, and calls upon his hearers or readers to judge for themselves. A.—The latter end is peace. Here is the saint’s character and the saint’s crown; he is characterized by uprightness or sincerity, and crowned with peace. Here is the Christian’s way and his end, his motion and his rest. His way is holiness, his end happiness; his motion is toward perfection and in uprightness; his rest is peace at his journey’s end. J. Whitlock.—Observe, it is not said that the end is to be joy or transport, but peace; for joy is not promised to any, but that their end shall be peace. A calm sense of the Divine favor, a peace in believing, which passeth all understanding. Peace is the bread of God’s children; it is the fruit of His pardoning love—the effect of justification: it is that which the Christian lives upon; it is the bread of life, and therefore God will not deny it to him in a dying hour. R. Hall.

If you would die well, you must have a care to live well: qualis vita, finis ita, if you would die quietly, you must live strictly; if you would die comfortably, you must live conformably; if you would die happily, you must live holily. “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.” J. Kitchin.—For he knows whom he has believed, and is persuaded that He is able to keep that which he has committed unto Him until that day. He knows to what he is passing—to a world which is brighter, a bliss which is deeper, than even his most vivid dreams. The rest—and a man has other cares at such hours—he leaves with God. To be able to cast his care upon Him who he knows will care—care with a tenderness of which earth has no measures—is peace, the peace of God in the contemplation of the future of our beloved. Baldwin Brown.

Of the great number to whom it has been my professional duty to have administered in the last hour of their lives, I have seen those who have arrived at a fearless contemplation of the future, from faith in the doctrine which our religion teaches. Such men were not only calm and supported, but cheerful, in the hour of death; and I never quitted such a sick-chamber without a hope that my last end might be like theirs. Sir Henry Halford.

38. The end of the wicked shall be cut off. The wicked in this world do easily run up without interruption, many times with acclamations and applause, all the golden steps of honors and preferments; but upon the highest stair they find the most slippery standing, and the top of their earthly felicity is the most immediate and certain descent unto the greatest downfall. They fairly glide over the sea of this world with full sail, with much calmness and serenity, and richly laden; but in the brightest sunshine, and when they least suspect it, they suddenly and without recovery sink into the gulf of darkness and desolation. R. Bolton.—“Condemned already,” not because you have sinned, but because you believe not. Not because you are a sinner, but because you are an unbeliever. Not because you have lived in darkness, but because you come not to the light. An.—The wiser, the juster, the stronger-minded any man is, so much the more can he control and use his indignation, “possessing it, but not possessed by it,” and punish the offender according to law, calmly though sternly, pitifully though ruthlessly. Even so, our highest reason bids us believe, does God Himself, who does all things by law. C. Kingsley.

40. He delivereth them; because they trust in Him. The whole lesson of the Psalm lies in these words. P.—There is no way under heaven to be interested in Christ, but by believing. He that believeth shall be saved, let his sins be ever so great; and he that believeth not shall be damned, let his sins be ever so little. T. Brooks.

Most appropriately this Psalm closes by ascribing this wonderful salvation of the righteous, not to his personal merit or to his efficiency in saving himself, but to the Lord alone, his strength in all trouble, his helper and deliverer against all evils and perils, whether of body or soul, whether material or spiritual. In this, David speaks in harmony with the feelings and convictions of every truly righteous man. It is their perpetual joy to ascribe their help here and their salvation both here and hereafter to the glorious Lord alone. C.—Oh, shame on our faithlessness, mistrust, and unbelief, that we do not believe such rich, powerful, consolatory declarations of God! Luther.

Summary of the Psalm. This Psalm is addressed to a soul which is confused and alarmed by this aspect of the world. It clearly recognizes the facts which make it uneasy and tempt it to fretfulness. Hints of them are scattered from one end of it to the other. The very first verse recognizes the presence and work of evildoers. They plot against the just; they watch the righteous: they lie in wait to slay him. Not only so, they succeed. They bring wicked devices to pass. They are in great power, and spread themselves like green bay-trees. Good men are slandered, pure reputations are blackened, the helpless and the innocent fall under the harrow of the wicked and the designing. From such facts the thought runs naturally to the whole great mystery of God’s administration in the world. God’s administration! So dire is the confusion at times, so sharp the contradiction, so baffling the mystery of providence, so imperceptible the progress of truth and of virtue, that the hold of the strongest faith trembles, and the spectral doubt thrusts its leering lineaments into the face of God’s child—"Do all things indeed work together for good?" It is not only that wickedness is rampant, but that goodness is tainted; that good men are weak, and bigoted, and most positive and aggressive where they should be most humble and docile; that the very men and women who seem most necessary are stricken down; that in religion, no less than in worldly things, men are carried away by the shallow, the plausible, and the transient, rather than anchored to the deep, abiding, eternal truth. While the Psalm opens to us this picture—and it is as old as human society, and has tortured the minds of good and true men from the beginning of time—it also puts us in the right attitude toward this mystery and confusion. Over against it all it sets the great truth—“God reigns,” and the consequent precept—“trust in Him.”

To the man who is thus troubled, and anxious, and tempted to fret, it says, “Fret not thyself. Society, lawless, aimless as it appears, is held in God’s hand. Leave it there; labor to improve your corner of it; do good in your own day and generation; instead of despairing, trust in the Lord; instead of fretting, delight yourself in God; instead of being restless, rest in the Lord; hold thou still in Jehovah, He shall bring it to pass.” “Yes,” is the reply, “but He is so long in bringing it to pass; He makes me wait so long.” So He does, and probably will; and it is this side of the lesson of faith in God which is strongly emphasized in this Psalm—the lesson of waiting. And that is the side of faith which develops most slowly. Working is not always a sign of faith. There are certain natures to which work is an instinct and a necessity; and such usually turn to work in times of sorrow or trouble, to “work it off,” as they say. But if a man merely diverts his mind from trouble, or forgets trouble in work, his relief is work, not God." Diversion and oblivion are not faith. Successful work involves no faith; it is only joy. Faith’s harder lesson is given in making a man lie still, and not work at all, but simply bear and wait; it is given in God’s both smiting him and tying his hands; in his being forced to stand still and see wrong consummated, and villainy successful, and the wicked in great power; it is given in his being compelled to work without success, as men style it; to labor for consummations which God indefinitely postpones; it is under such discipline that he wants God, no one less, to say to him, Hold thou still in Jehovah, and wait patiently for Him.

Our lives are what their details are. The goal is reached by God’s ordering of their separate steps. The only thing we are to be careful about is that we step each time in God’s track. We see only a little of the way in front; we have got to make our way by single steps, if we make it at all; and though God checks our steps, and turns our steps in strange directions, makes us step now and then off what seems to us solid ground, upon what seems like treacherous soil, makes us wait, and wait, and wait in our slow stepping for the appearance of the promised goal—all is well if we only hold fast the truth that each step is in the line of a Divine order, and that the way by which God leads us, though it seem like threading a hopeless labyrinth, is the way in which He delights, because it leads up to Him. Rest in the Lord then. Hold thou still in Jehovah and wait patiently for Him. Whether He bid

thee stand still, or wait in working for the long-delayed end—wait thou unscaveringly, keeping His way, and not turning aside to thine own;

wait thou cheerfully, not fretting thyself in any wise to do evil; wait thou confidently, trusting in Him to bring His perfect will to pass. V.