Thou art my help and my deliverer. Our Lord’s manner toward the multitude of men in the Gospels assures us how He will look on us. Almighty as He is, He could display a tender interest in all who approached Him. So God beholds thee individually, whoever thou art. He calls thee by thy name. Thou wast one of those for whom Christ offered up His last prayer, and sealed it with His precious blood. What a thought is this!—a thought almost too great for our faith. What am I, that God the Holy Ghost should enter into me and draw up my thoughts and affections heavenward? Newman.

The inmost essence of the Christian life is union to Christ, and abiding in Him. If we are Christians we are in Him in yet profounder sense than creation lives and moves and has its being in God. We are in Him as the earth with all its living things is in the atmosphere, as the branch is in the vine, as the members are in the body. We are in Him as inhabitants in a house, as hearts that love in hearts that love, as parts in the whole. If we are Christians, He is in us, as life in every vein, as the fruit-producing sap and energy of the vine is in every branch, as the air in every lung, as the sunlight in every planet. This is the deepest mystery of the Christian life. To be “in Him” is to be complete. “In Him” we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings.” “In Him” we are “chosen.” “In Him” God “freely bestows His grace upon us.” “In Him” we “have redemption through His blood.” “In Him” “all things in heaven and earth are gathered.” “In Him we have obtained an inheritance.” In Him is the better life of all who live. In Him we have peace, though the world be seething with change and storm. In Him we conquer, though earth and our own evil be all in arms against us. If we live in Him, we live in purity and joy. If we die in Him, we die in tranquil trust. If our gravestones may truly carry the sweet old inscription carved on so many a nameless slab in the catacombs, “In Christo,” they will also bear the other, “In pace” (In peace) If we sleep in Him, our glory is assured, for them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. A. M

1. Is thee, O LORD, do I put my trust : Let me never be ashamed. 2 Deliver me in thy righteousness, and rescue me : Bow down thine ear unto me, and save me. 3 Be thou to me a rock of habitation, whereunto I may continually resort : Thou hast given commandment to save me ; For thou art my rock and my fortress. 4 Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. 5 For thou art my hope, O Lord God : Thou art my trust from my youth. 6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb :

Thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels : My praise shall be continually of thee. 7 I am as a wonder unto many ; But thou art my strong refuge. 8 My mouth shall be filled with thy praise, And with thy honour all the day. 9 Cast me not off in the time of old age ; Forsake me not when my strength faileth. 10 For mine enemies speak concerning me ; And they that watch for my soul take counsel together, 11 Saying, God hath forsaken him : Pursue and take him ; for there is none to deliver. 12 O God, be not far from me : O my God, make haste to help me.

13. Let them be ashamed and consumed that are adversaries to my soul ; Let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.14 But I will hope continually, And will praise thee yet more and more.15 My mouth shall tell of thy righteousness, And of thy salvation all the day ; For I know not the numbers thereof.16 I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord God : I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.17 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth ; And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.18 Yea, even when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not ; Until I have declared thy strength unto the next generation, Thy might to every one that is to come.

19. Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high ; Thou who hast done great things, O God, who is like unto thee ?20 Thou, who hast shewed us many and sore troubles, Shalt quicken us again, And shalt bring us up again from the depths of the earth.21 Increase thou my greatness, And turn again and comfort me.22 I will also praise thee with the psaltery, Even thy truth, O my God : Unto thee will I sing praises with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel.23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing praises unto thee ; And my soul, which thou hast redeemed.24 My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long : For they are ashamed, for they are confounded, that seek my hurt.

The Prayer of Old Age for Divine Aid to the End.

THE whole Psalm is an echo of expressions found in older Psalms, that have become a mental possession of the author and have been revived in him by similar experiences. We look upon it as having been written by Jeremiah. D.—It is evident that it was written by one already past the meridian of life, and verging upon old age. And it borrows so largely from other Psalms—the twenty-second, thirty-first, thirty-fifth, and fortieth, some of them, probably, Psalms written long after the time of David—that it must be regarded as one of the later specimens of Hebrew poetry. Other evidence of an internal kind renders it not improbable that the Psalm was written by Jeremiah. It would apply obviously to his circumstances. His life had been a life of extraordinary perils and extraordinary deliverances. He had been consecrated from his birth, and even before his birth, to his office (Jer. 1 : 5, compared with v. 6 of the Psalm). He had discharged that office for more than thirty years, and might, therefore, be verging on old age in the reign of Zedekiah. The prominent position which he occupied for so long a period before princes and people harmonizes well with the language of the Psalm in vs. 7 and 21. Finally, the style and general character of the poetry are not unlike those of Jeremiah. There is the same plaintive elegiac strain which we find in his writings, and the same disposition to borrow from earlier poets. P.

1. Not only on God must we rest, as a man stands on a rock, but in Him must we trust, as a man hides in a cave. The more intimate we are with the Lord, the firmer will our trust be. God knows our faith, and yet He loves to hear us avow it ; hence the Psalmist not only trusts in the Lord, but tells Him that he is so trusting.

3-5. God is my rock, my fortress, my God, my hope, my trust. All mine shall be His, all His shall be mine. This was the reason why the Psalmist was persuaded that God had commanded his salvation—namely, because He had enabled him to exercise a calm and appropriating faith. S.

Faith is not the passive assent to a list of propositions, but the active devotion to an unrealized ideal. It is that which in the hour of weakness and weariness, in moments of discouragement and depression, enables the Christian to fix his eyes upon Christ, and to do the things that his devotion to Christ calls for, whether he feels like it or not ; whether it is easy or hard ; whether others appreciate and approve, or criticise and condemn. Faith is the grace of conflict as love is the grace of victory. It is the crowning athletic virtue. W. D. Hyde

3. Be Thou to me for a rock of habitation, a rock where I may safely dwell and make my home, (whither I may be able) to come always, i.e., whenever it is necessary; Thou hast commanded to save me, my deliverance is decreed already; for my rock, my hiding-place, and my fortress art Thou. The images presented and the terms used are similar to those in Psalm 18: 2. A.—Be Thou to me a rock of repose, where to I may continually resort. They that are at home in God, that live a life of communion with Him and confidence in Him, that continually resort unto Him by faith and prayer, having their eyes ever toward Him, may promise themselves a strong habitation in Him, such as will never fall of itself nor can ever be broken through by any invading power; and they shall be welcome to resort to Him continually upon all occasions, and not be upbraided as coming too often. H.

5. For Thou (art) my hope, O Lord, Jehovah, my confidence, the object of my trust, from my youth. A.—Not only is our hope in Him, but He Himself is our hope. “God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ,” saith Paul, “our hope.” Yea, there is a deeper, nearer depth: “The glory of the mystery of the Gospel,” says Paul, “is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ Himself is our hope, as the only Author of it; Christ is our hope, as the End of it; and Christ, who is the Beginning and the End, is our hope also by the way; for He saith, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Each yearning of our hearts, each ray of hope which gleams upon us, each touch which thrills us, each voice which whispers in our inmost hearts of the good things laid up in store for us, if we will love God, are the light of Christ enlightening us, the touch of Christ raising us to new life, drawing us up by His Spirit, who dwelleth in us, unto Himself, our hope. For our hope is not the glory of heaven, not joy, not peace, not rest from labor, not fulness of our wishes, nor sweet contentment of the whole soul, nor understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge, not only a torrent of delight; it is “Christ our God,” “the hope of glory.” Nothing which God could create is what we hope for; nothing which God could give us out of Himself, no created glory, or bliss, or beauty, or majesty, or riches. What we hope for is our Redeeming God Himself, His love, His bliss, the joy of our Lord Himself, who hath so loved us, to be our joy and our portion forever. Pusey.

6. Upon Thee I leaned, or by Thee was held up, sustained, from the womb; from the bowels of my mother, a synonymous expression, Thou (art) my bringing out, the one that brought me out. A.

Have I been holden up. An expression wonderfully descriptive of what faith is, and of what God is to those who trust in Him. He is a Father who bears them in His arms and carries them in His bosom; they are as children who lean all their weight upon Him, and find their sweetest rest in His supporting hand. This is the very idea of faith, according to its Hebrew signification. When it is said in Gen. 15: 6 that “Abraham believed God,” it means literally, “he leaned upon God.” But the Psalmist speaks here not mainly of his own trust in God, but rather of his experience of God’s loving care and protection.

From the womb. Calvin sees here a reference to God’s goodness even before his birth, and has some admirable remarks on our forgetfulness of God’s wonders to us both before and at our birth. In the mouth of Jeremiah, if, as we have conjectured, the Psalm was written by him, such words have a peculiar interest, for they refer, no doubt, to that Word of Jehovah which came unto him saying, “Before thou camest forth from the womb I sanctified thee” (Jer. 1: 5). P.

The consideration of the gracious care which the Divine providence took of us in our birth and infancy should engage us to an early piety and constant devotedness to His honor. He that was our Help from our birth, ought to be our Hope from our youth. If we received so much mercy from God before we are capable of doing Him any service, we should lose no time when we are capable. H.

8. It not the reason of our finding so little to praise to be sought in our having no eyes for His daily miracles? The Psalmist has eyes for the daily miracles of the Lord; and, therefore, his mouth is daily full of the praise of the Lord. Tholuck.—Many favors which God giveth us ravel out for want of hemming, through our own unthankfulness; for though prayer purchaseth blessing, giving praise doth keep quiet possession of them. T. Fuller.

9. He prays for grace both now and for the time to come: now that my vital power is vanishing away, forsake me not! So he prays because he, who has already been frequently wondrously delivered, is even now threatened by enemies. D.—The Psalmist says, “Thou madest me hope in my earliest years; and now, when gray hairs are on me, Thou wilt not forsake me.” As if he said, Wilt Thou lose me at last, when Thou hast had so much care of me hitherto? Learn, then, from God’s care of thee in creation to expect His care in providence; and seeing He has had a care to bring thee up from a child, from that expect yet more good. The more thou can prove God has been good to thee, thou may prove by that that He shall yet do more good. Therefore father kindness upon Him from bygones, that thou may find kindness for time to come. It is a very evil argument to prevail with man, because He has given much to crave yet more; but a good argument to prevail with God. For thou may say to Him, Thou hast been gracious to me, and must be gracious to me. To tell Him what good He has done is a band to urge Him to do more; yea, it is a point of wisdom in thee and a point of thankfulness to Him. Dickson.

Cast me not off. Though a prayer, it is also a promise. For when God dictates a petition, it assures us that what He thus prompts us to ask, He is ready to bestow. These words may therefore be considered as revealing the basis of comfort and support offered to an aged Christian. It is as though he said, Man may cast me off; society may cast me off; friends, helpers, even children may abandon me; but, O my God, cast not Thou me off, in the time of old age! It is a lawful, an urgent, a comprehensive prayer. The old disciple is not forbidden to ask, under submission to God’s holy will, that he may be exempted from wasting languors and decrepitude. But submission has here a large part to perform. As we resign to the decision of our faithful Creator the time and manner of our death, so must we leave ourselves implicitly in His hands, as to the whole color of our latter days. And if any may appropriate the cheering words, the aged may surely so do: “Be content with such things as ye have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;” words which seem written to be a heavenly answer to this very petition of the Psalmist. J. W. A.

There is a peculiar simplicity of heart and a touching singleness of purpose in Christian old age, which has ripened gradually and not fitfully. It is then that to the firmness of manhood is joined almost the gentleness of womanhood; it is then that the somewhat austere character of growing strength, moral and intellectual, mellows into the rich ripeness of an old age made sweet and tolerant by experience; it is then that man returns to first principles. There comes a love more pure and deep than the boy could ever feel; there comes a conviction, with a strength beyond that which the boy could never know, that the earliest lesson of life is infinite, Christ is all. F. W. R.

14,15. I will never cease to hope, and I will even heighten my praises of Thee; more and more will I praise Thee for Thine ever-growing mercies. “I know not the numbers thereof;” I cannot express all Thou has done that is worthy of praise; there is more than I can tell. The word for “numbers” has the sense of recounting, enumerating. I know not how to count them up. C.

15. My mouth shall recount Thy righteousness, all the day (long) Thy salvation, for I know not numbers (to express them), I cannot number them, they are innumerable. The righteousness or rectitude of God, including His veracity or faithfulness, is here referred to as the cause of his salvation, the salvation of which He is the source and author. A.

Thy righteousness. The attribute on which all hope of salvation depends. God’s righteousness is the pledge not only of His accepting the righteous, but of His adherence to His promises of mercy and forgiveness to penitents. Cook.—God’s salvation stands to His righteousness in the relation of effect to cause. God has pledged Himself to save those who put their trust in Him, and as a righteous God He cannot deny Himself. This seems to be the connection between the two words in this Psalm. No numbers (the Hebrew word occurs only here). God’s righteousness and God’s salvation are infinitely beyond all man’s power to calculate or to repeat. P.

We are to bear testimony as experience enables us, and not withhold from others that which we have tasted and handled. The faithfulness of God in saving us, in delivering us out of the hand of our enemies, and in fulfilling His promises, is to be everywhere proclaimed by those who have proved it in their own history. How gloriously conspicuous is righteousness in the Divine plan of redemption! It should be the theme of constant discourse. S.

16. Will come.** The ellipsis here may be supplied from Psalms 5:7 and 66:13, in both which places the same verb denotes the act of coming to God’s house for the purpose of solemn praise, and in the second passage cited is followed by the same preposition, I will come into Thy house with burnt-offerings, i.e., I will bring them thither. This sense agrees well with the vow to praise God in the two preceding verses, and with the promise of commemoration in the other clause of this verse. A.

17. Taught me.** Be assured, you that are under the Lord’s teaching, there is nothing in your lives but He can teach you by it; by comforts and crosses, by what He gives and by what He takes away. He unteaches His child that He may teach him; shows him his folly that he may make him wise; strips him of his vain confidence that He may give him strength; makes him know that he is nothing that He may show him that he has all in the Lord—in Jesus his Beloved One. J. H. Evans.

18. Now that he is old, frail, physically almost powerless, he needs the upholding hand of his God more than ever, and he longs to fill out the same course of testimony for God to the very end of life. “Forsake me not;” uphold me still, until I have testified in behalf of Thy sustaining arm to all future generations. C.—Those that have been taught of God from their youth, and have made it the business of their lives to honor Him, may be sure that He will not leave them when they are old and gray-headed, will not leave them helpless and comfortless, but will make the evil days of old age their best days, and such as they shall have occasion to say they have pleasure in. H.

One of the greatest consolations of old age is to spend what remains of life in honoring God. Ecclesiastical history relates of the Apostle John, that when for very age he was unable any longer to preach the Word, he used to be carried into the Christian assembly, where the most he could utter was, “Little children, love one another!” The modern Church affords numerous instances of ancient believers, who “still bring forth fruit in old age.” Younger disciples may look up to them as advisers, and endeavor to profit by their long experience. Their very patience and tranquillity, while they wait for their Lord, is edifying to the Church. For these reasons, aged Christians are not lightly to suppose that their work is done because they are shut out from public service. It may be that God is more glorified by the quiet graces of their eventide than by their most strenuous exertions while bearing the burden and heat of the day. J. W. A.

19-24. The thought of this proclamation carries away the poet so completely that he even now passes over into the strain of it; and seeing that to his faith the deliverance already lies behind him, the uncomplaining, supplicating, tender song dies away in a loud song of praise, in which he brings all God’s gracious dealings in the future before his mind. D.

19. O God, who is like unto Thee?** Either for greatness or goodness, for power or for mercy, for justice, truth, and faithfulness; for the perfections of His nature, or the works of His hands; and to be praised, reverenced, and adored, as He is. Gill.—God is alone; who can resemble Him? He is eternal; He can have none before, and there can be none after; for, in the infinite unity of trinity, He is that eternal, unlimited, impartible, incomprehensible, and uncompounded, ineffable Being, whose essence is hidden from all created intelligences, and whose counsels cannot be fathomed by any creature that even His own hand can form. “Who is like unto Thee!” will excite the wonder, amazement, praise, and adoration of angels and men to all eternity. A. Clarke.

20. “Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again.” Here is faith’s inference from the infinite greatness of the Lord. He has been strong to smite; He will be also strong to save. He has shown me many heavy and severe trials, and He will also show me many and precious mercies. S.—Quarrel not rashly with adversities not yet understood, and overlook not the mercies often bound up in them; for we consider not sufficiently the good of evils, nor fairly compute the mercies of Providence in things afflictive at first hand. Sir Thomas Browne.

There is no easy way to glory. There is so much evil in us, even after we are born again, that nothing less than a discipline of pain can cleanse our nature. Tribulation is God’s threshing, not to harm us or to destroy us, but to separate what is heavenly and spiritual in us from what is earthly and fleshly. Nothing less than blows of pain will do this. The evil clings so to the holy, the golden wheat of goodness is so wrapped up in the strong chaff of the old life, that only the heavy flail of suffering can produce the separation. Perfection of character never can be attained save through suffering. It is God’s design, in all the pain He sends, to make us better. His fires mean purification until His own image shines reflected in the gold. His prunings mean greater fruitfulness. In whatever form the suffering comes—whether as bereavement, as sin or shame in a friend, or as penitence over one’s own faults and stumblings and grieving of the Spirit—the purpose of the pain is merciful. In all our life in this world, God is saving us; and suffering is one of the chief agents He employs. Said our Lord, as one of His beatitudes, “Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.” The blessing is not in the mourning, but in the comfort—that is, in the strengthening of the heart to endure the pain victoriously, and get help and better life out of it. Said Paul: “Let us also rejoice in our tribulations; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, probation; and probation, hope; and hope putteth not to shame.” Suffering

works out in us qualities of Christian character which cannot be developed in human gladness. “All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous, but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.” A. M.