July 17

1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD; the humble shall hear throesy, and be glad.

3 Oh magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.

4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

5 They looked unto him, and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed.

6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

8 Oh taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trumeth in him.

9 Oh fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.

10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.

11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

12 What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?

13 Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking quite.

14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

15 He eyes of the LORD are upon the rightcous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

16 The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

20 He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.

21 Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.

22 The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

This Psalm is assigned to the occasion when David, persecuted by Saul, fled to the Philistines, and being brought before Achish, was driven away by him as a madman. Of this transaction, which reflects no credit upon David's memory, we have a brief account in 1 Sam. xxi.

"Although the gratitude of the psalmist prompted him thankfully to record the goodness of the Lord in vouchsafing an undeserved deliverance, yet he weaves none of the incidents of the escape into the narrative, but dwells only on the grand fact of his being heard in the hour of peril. We may learn from his example not to parade our sins before others, as certain vainglorious professors are wont to do who seem as proud of their sins as old Greenwich pensioners of their battles and their wounds."—C. H. Spurgeon.

The Psalm is split into two great divisions at the close of verse 10. The first ten verses are a HYMN, and the last twelve a SERMON. In verses 1 to 3, David vows to bless the Lord, and invites the praise of others; from 4 to 7, he relates his experience; and in 8, 9, 10, exhorts the godly to constancy of faith. In verses 11-14, he gives direct exhortation, and follows it up by didactic teaching from verse 15 to the close.

Closet Promise.—Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.—Isa. xii. 2.

One thing the psalmist did, and this we all may do. We may say: "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee." Here is our rock in a weary land; here is the bosom upon which we may lean, and while resting here hope bids us look forward to the time when the Spirit's voice will recall our words and make them the instruments of awakening. There is no power equal to God's; no love, pity or patience like His own. Trusting in Him, we may say: "Lord, our failure and feebeness are counted as nothing when Thy Spirit is poured out to bless and save."