July 2

1 Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion; and unto thee shall the vow be performed.

2 O thou that heaviest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.

3 Inquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.

4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causes to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

5 By terrible things in righteousness with thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:

6 Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power:

7 Which stiletth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.

8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgrings of the morning and evening to rejoice.

9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.

10 Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof.

11 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fanness.

12 They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness; and the little hills rejoice on every side.

13 The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.

This is one of the most delightful hymns in any language.

"David sings of the glory of God in his church, and in the fields of nature; here is the song both of grace and providence. It may be that he intended hereby to commemorate a remarkably plentiful harvest, or to compose a harvest hymn for all ages."—C. H. Spurgeon.

"Coming after the previous sad Psalms, it seems like the morning after the darkness of night. There is a dewy freshness about it, and from the ninth verse to the end there is a sweet succession of landscape pictures that reminds one of the loveliness of spring; and truly it is a description, in natural figures, of that happy state of men's minds which will be the result of the 'Day-Spring's visiting us from on high.'"—O. Prescott Hiller.

It is to be feared that we do not enough recognize God as the great Master-cultivator. "Our harvest-homes are times of rejoicing too, but I would that our tillers and reapers of the soil would as piously refer all to God as the Psalmist did. 'Thou waterest the earth, Thou greatly enrichest it, Thou preparest the corn, Thou waterest the ridges, Thou settlest the furrows, Thou makest it soft with showers, Thou blessest the springing thereof, Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness.' Not one word of man, of man's skill, or of man's labor, not one thought of self. How different from him whose grounds brought forth abundantly, and whose only thought was, 'I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.'"—Barton Bouchier.

Closet Promise.—I am the Lord, I change not.—Mal. iii. 6.

Be still, my soul, be still! Unquiet is the world without. All strife and fickleness and doubt Seek thou the steadfast will!

One home, one haven, alone There is; one sacred resting-place, The everlasting truth and grace Of the unchanging One

Here is the blessed balm, Each pain to soothe, each wound to heal, And to the ruffled spirit seal The everlasting calm.

To the one stormless clime My waysote feet still hourly bend This brief unrest of earth to end, This fever dream of time!

Give rest, my God, within, 'Mid strifes and dark uncertainties, The tumults and the vanities, The passion and the sin.

Speak Thou, and winds shall cease; The life long storm is o'er, I rest upon the shore, Where breathes the balm of peace. —Selected.