January 15

1 How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts? 2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD my heart and my flesh cinch out for the living God. 3 Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine a tars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. 4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still pressing thee. Selah. 5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. 6 Who passing through the valley of Bica make it a well, the rain also filleth the pools.

7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. 8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. 9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. 10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will be withheld from them that walk uprightly. 12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

"This sacred ode is one of the choicest of the collection; it has a mild radiance about it, entitling it to be called THE PEARL OF PSALMS. If the twenty-third be the most popular, the one-hundred-and-third the most joyful, the one-hundred-and-nineteenth the most deeply experimental, the fifty-first the most plaintive, this is one of the most sweet of the Psalms of Peace." —C. H. Spurgeon.

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"Some need to be whipped to church, while here is David crying for it. He needed no clatter of bells from a belfry to ring him in, he carried his bell in his own bosom; holy appetite is a better call to worship than a full chime."—C. H. Spurgeon.

"Another sign of God's children is, delight to be much in God's presence. . . . In the use of ordinances we draw near to God, we come into our Father's presence; in prayer we have secret conference with God; the soul while it is praying is as it were parleying with God. In the word we hear God speaking from heaven to us; and how doth every child of God delight to hear his Father's voice! In the sacrament God kisseth His children with the kisses of His lips; he gives them a smile of His face, and a privy-seal of His love, oh, it is good to draw near to God. It is sweet being in His presence; every true child of God saith, 'A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand!'"—Thomas Watson.

"I had rather be a doorkeeper," etc. "Some read it, 'I would rather be fixed to a post in the house of my God, than live at liberty in the tents of the wicked;'" alluding to the law concerning servants, who, if they would not go out free, were to have their ear bored to the door-post, Exod. xxi. 5, 6. David loved his Master, and loved his work so well, that he desired to be tied to this service forever, to be more free to it, but never to go out free from it, preferring bonds to duty far before the greatest liberty to sin. Such a superlative delight have holy hearts in holy duties; no satisfaction in their account comparable to that in communion with God."—Matthew Henry.

Closet Promise.—Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thy heart.—Psalm xxvii. 14.

After the darkness, to, the light:

Shall all the past repair;

The perfect bliss, the spurless sight,

It is not here but there.

So still I sing in every state,

Always, where'er I be;

Be still my heart, be still and wait—

He loveth thee.

—The Rev. E. Paxton Hood.