man.

The seventy-third psalm expresses the troubled questionings of the righteous heart, and offers this trusting, fervent answer:

Surely God is good to Israel,

[Even] to such as are of a pure heart. But as for me my feet were almost gone, My steps had well-nigh slipt.

For I was envious at the arrogant,

When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no bands in their death,
And their strength continueth firm.
They are not in trouble as other men,
Neither are they plagued like [other] folk.

Therefore pride is as a chain about their neck;
Violence covereth them as a garment.

Their eye goeth forth from fatness;
The imaginations of [their] heart overflow.
They scoff and speak wickedly,

Of oppression loftily do they speak.

They have set their mouth in the heavens,
And their tongue walketh through the earth.
Therefore his people are turned after them,

And at the full stream would slake their thirst;
And they say: 'How doth God know?

And is there knowledge in the most high?'

Lo, these are the wicked,

And [these men] ever prosperous have increased wealth.

Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart,

And washed my hands in innocency,

And have been plagued all the day long,

And chastened every morning.

If I had said, 'I will utter [words] like these,'

Lo, I should have been faithless to the generation of thy children.

And when I pondered it that I might know this,

It was a trouble in mine eyes;

Until I went into the sanctuary of God,

[Until] I considered their latter end.

Surely in slippery places dost thou set them,

Thou hast cast them down to ruin.

How are they brought to desolation in a moment!

They are come to an end, they are cut off because of terrors. As a dream when one awaketh,

[So] O Lord, when thou arousest thyself dost thou despise

their image.

For my heart grew bitter,

And I was pricked in my reins;

So brutish was I myself, and ignorant,

I became a very beast before thee.

And yet as for me,-I am always with thee,

Thou hast holden my right hand;

Thou wilt guide me in thy council,

And afterward thou wilt take me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven [but thee]?

And there is none upon earth in whom I delight beside thee. [Though] my flesh and my heart fail,

[Yet] God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, they that are far from thee must perish;
Thou hast destroyed everyone that goeth a-whoring from thee.
But as for me, it is good to draw near unto God;
I have made in the Lord Jehovah my refuge,
That I may tell of all thy works.

The prosperity of the wicked troubled me sore; near was I to uttering foolishness, till I considered their latter end, that they are set in slippery places till they be cut off. Ah! my heart was bitter; such a brutish beast I was not to know-I am always with thee.

Jehovah was power, Jehovah was righteousness; he was creator of all, and in his hand lay the ordering of nature's ways and the control of human events. The upright man, he who humbly strove to make his words and acts pleasing to Jehovah, was in deep accord with the power which controlled the world; and that power being a just and loving God, there could be no deeper certitude in life than that it would sustain the ways of the righteous. Life's untoward phases never drove this

conviction from the heart of Israel. God was holy, exalted above the praises of Israel, and human understanding reached not to a comprehension of his ways. But his ways were righteous, loving, tender; and he was himself infinitude of power and love towards his people, a father to the fatherless in Zion. It was the sense of this that flooded the passionate hearts of the psalmists; this infinite maker and controller of the world was their own loving God, the rock of their heart, they dwelt beneath the shadow of his wings; he was the necessary foil of evilwhat can the wicked do? Jehovah will not forsake his people:

In the multitude of my anxious thoughts within me,
Thy comforts refreshed my soul.'

Amidst his enemies sings the psalmist :

I laid me down and slept;

I awaked, for Jehovah sustaineth me.'

and in the evening sings the same steadfast faith:

In peace at once will I lay me down and sleep.'

He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep.*

Cast thy burden upon Jehovah,

And he shall sustain thee."

Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want."

In Jehovah have I found refuge;

How say ye to my soul,

Flee ye to your mountain, as a bird.'

Jehovah is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart,

And saveth such as are of a contrite spirit.

Many are the sufferings of the righteous,

But out of them all doth Jehovah deliver him."

O God, in the greatness of thy loving-kindness, answer me with the truth of thy salvation.'

But Jehovah is more than a very present help in time of trouble, more than a rock and deliverance. The righteous may dwell with him.' He, his holiness and righteous ways, the presence and the thought of him, is their portion, their life:

With thee is the fountain of life;

In thy light do we see light.'

I am Always

with Thee.

This dwelling in the sufficiency of God, enraptured with the thought of Him, is the life of the righteous, his crowning blessing, in which the wicked cannot share; they have their lot in fleeting prosperity, and God fills their bellies; but the righteous shall behold his face; and this-God's being, God's life, God's presence—is enough; "Jehovah is my portion forever."

Keep me, O God, for I have found refuge in thee.
I have said to Jehovah, thou art my Lord,

I have no good beyond thee.*

And this is the yearning and the rapture of prayer and worship, and the felt presence of the living, loving God:

Like as a hart which panteth after the water-brooks,

So panteth my soul after thee, O God.

My soul is athirst for God, for the living God.'

How lovely are thy dwellings, O Jehovah of Hosts!

My soul longeth, yea even fainteth, for the courts of Jehovah ;

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand [elsewhere];
I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God,
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.'

Next to the rapture of Jehovah's presence there is the delight in his will, in doing it, in fulfilling the law; love of the law is part of the love of the law-giver:

How I Love
Thy Law.

Then said I Lo, I come;

In the roll of the Book it is prescribed to me,—
To do thy pleasure, O my God, I delight,

Yea, thy law is in my inmost heart.'

And wherever in the psalms mention is made of the law, it is with love and a rush of zeal to fulfil it in its spiritual essence; not by burnt offering and sacrifice,' but by a broken and contrite heart accordant with Jehovah's spirit:

The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul;

The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes; '

O how I love thy law;

It is my meditation all the day.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,

And a light unto my path.

Make me to understand the way of thy precepts,

So shall I meditate of thy wondrous works.*

Knowledge of Jehovah's law is knowledge of his way; it opens the soul's eyes to his infinite glory.

In many of the psalms so perfect is the communion of the soul with the eternal God that the Dead Praise sense of mortality passes; the relationship of Thee? the soul to God is taken out of time:

Can the

Jehovah is the rock of my heart and my portion forever.