its arrows, and shrink from close contact with the fear of death, as something altogether intolerable. On the slightest approach of danger we are immoderately afraid, as if our emergencies precluded the hope of Divine deliverance. This is faith's true office, to see life in the midst of death, and to trust the mercy of God-not as that which will procure us universal exemption from evil, but as that which will quicken us in the midst of death every moment of our lives; for God humbles his children under various trials, that his defence of them may be the more remarkable, and that he may show himself to be their deliverer, as well as their preserver. In the world believers are constantly exposed to enemies, and David asserts, that he will be safe under God's protection from all their machinations. He declares his hope of life to lie in this, that the hand of God was stretched out for his help, that hand which he knew to be invincible, and victorious over every foe. And from all this we are taught, that it is God's method to exercise his children with a continual conflict, that, having one foot as it were in the grave, they may flee with alarm to hide themselves under his wings, where they may abide in peace. Some translate the particle, aph, also, instead of anger, reading-thou wilt also extend over mine enemies, &c. But I have followed the more commonly received sense, as both fuller and more natural.

8. Jehovah will recompense upon me, &c. The doubtfulness which attaches to the meaning of the verb, gamar, throws an uncertainty over the whole sentence. Sometimes it signifies to repay, and, in general, to bestow, for it is often applied to free favours. Yet the context would seem to require another sense, since, when it is added as a reason, that Jehovah's mercy is everlasting, and that he will not forsake the works of his hands, the better sense would seem to be -Jehovah will perform for me, that is, will continue to show that he cares for my safety, and will fully perfect what he has begun. Having once been delivered by an act of Divine

1 "Il signifie aucunefois Rendre, recompenser, et mesme generalement ottroyer," &c.-Fr.

mercy, he concludes that what had been done would be perfected, as God's nature is unchangeable, and he cannot divest himself of that goodness which belongs to him. There can be no doubt that the way to maintain good hope in danger is to fix our eyes upon the Divine goodness, on which our deliverance rests. God is under no obligation on his part, but when, of his mere good pleasure, he promises to interest himself in our behalf. David concludes with the best reason, from the eternity of the Divine goodness, that the salvation granted him would be of no limited and merely evanescent character. This he confirms still farther by what he adds, that it is impossible God should leave his work, as men may do, in an imperfect or unfinished state through lassitude or disgust. This David is to be understood as asserting in the same sense in which Paul declares, that "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." (Rom. xi. 29.) Men may leave off a work for very slight reasons which they foolishly undertook from the first, and from which they may have been diverted through their inconstancy, or they may be forced to give up through inability what they enterprised above their strength; but nothing of this kind can happen with God, and, therefore, we have no occasion to apprehend that our hopes will be disappointed in their course towards fulfilment. Nothing but sin and ingratitude on our part interrupts the continued and unvarying tenor of the Divine goodness. What we firmly apprehend by our faith God will. never take from us, or allow to pass out of our hands. When he declares that God perfects the salvation of his people, David would not encourage sloth, but strengthen his faith and quicken himself to the exercise of prayer. What is the cause of that anxiety and fear which are felt by the godly, but the consciousness of their own weakness and entire dependence upon God? At the same time they rely with full certainty upon the grace of God, "being confident," as Paul writes to the Philippians, "that he who has begun the good work will perform it till the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil. i. 6.) The use to be made of the doctrine is, to remember, when we fall or are disposed to waver in our minds, that since God has wrought the beginning of our salvation in us,

he will carry it forward to its termination. Accordingly, we should betake ourselves to prayer, that we may not, through our own indolence, bar our access to that continuous stream of the divine goodness which flows from a fountain that is inexhaustible.

PSALM CXXXIX.

In this Psalm David, that he may dismiss the deceptive coverings under which most men take refuge, and divest himself of hypocrisy, insists at large upon the truth that nothing can elude the divine observation—a truth which he illustrates from the original formation of man, since he who fashioned us in our mother's womb, and imparted to every member its particular office and function, cannot possibly be ignorant of our actions. Quickened by this meditation to a due reverential fear of God, he declares himself to have no sympathy with the ungodly and profane, and beseeches God, in the confidence of conscious integrity, not to forsake him in this life.1

To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David.

1. O Jehovah! thou hast searched me, and knowest me. 2. Thou hast known my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

1 This Psalm has often been admired for the grandeur of its sentiments, the elevation of its style, as well as the variety and beauty of its imagery. Bishop Lowth, in his 29th Prelection, classes it amongst the Hebrew idyls, as next to the 104th, in respect both to the conduct of the poem, and the beauty of the style. "If it be excelled," says he, "(as perhaps it is) by the former in the plan, disposition, and arrangement of the matter, it is not in the least inferior in the dignity and elegance of its sentiments, images, and figures." "Amongst its other excellencies," says Bishop Mant, "it is for nothing more admirable than for the exquisite skill with which it descants on the perfections of the Deity. The Psalmist's faith in the omnipresence and omniscience of Jehovah is in the commencement depicted with a singular and beautiful variety of the most lively expressions: nor can anything be more sublime than that accummulation of the noblest and loftiest images, in the 7th and following verses, commensurate with the limits of created nature, whereby the Psalmist labours to impress upon the mind some notion of the infinity of God." If we compare this sacred poem with any hymn of classical antiquity in honour of the heathen deities,

3. Thou besiegest my path, and my lying down, and art acquainted

with all my ways.

4. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo! O Lord! thou knowest it altogether.

5. Thou hast shut me up behind and before, and hast laid thine hand upon me.

6. Thy knowledge is wonderful above me:1 it is high, I cannot attain to it.

1. O Jehovah! thou hast searched me. David declares, in the outset of this Psalm, that he does not come before God with any idea of its being possible to succeed by dissimulation, as hypocrites will take advantage of secret refuges to prosecute sinful indulgences, but that he voluntarily lays bare his innermost heart for inspection, as one convinced of the impossibility of deceiving God. It is thine, he says, O God! to discover every secret thought, nor is there anything which can escape thy notice. He then insists upon particulars, to show that his whole life was known to God, who

the immense superiority of the sentiments it contains must convince any reasonable person that David and the Israelites, though inferior in other respects to some other nations, surpassed them in religious knowledge. No philosopher of ancient times ever attained to such sublime views of the perfections and moral government of God as the Hebrew Prophets. How are we to account for this difference but on the supposition of the divine origin of the religion of the Hebrews? On any other supposition these Psalms are a greater miracle than any of those recorded by Moses.

Bishop Horsley refers the composition of this Psalm to a later age than that of David. "The frequent Chaldaisms," says he, "of the diction, argue no very high antiquity." Dr. Adam Clarke, on the same ground, argues that it was not written by the sweet singer of Israel, but during or after the time of the captivity. Other critics, however, maintain that the several Chaldaisms to be found in it afford no foundation for such an opinion. "How any critic," says Jebb, "can assign this Psalm to other than David, I cannot understand. Every line, every thought, every turn of expression and transition is his, and his only. As for the arguments drawn from the two Chaldaisms which occur, ( for "y, and Ty for 77,) this is really nugatory. These Chaldaisms consist merely in the substitution of one letter for another very like it in shape, and easily to be mistaken by a transcriber, particularly by one who had been used to the Chaldee idiom: but the moral arguments for David's authorship are so strong as to overwhelm any such verbal or rather literal criticism, were even the objections more formidable than they actually are."-Jebb's Literal Translation of the Psalms, &c., vol. ii. p. 306.

1 C'est par dessus moy et ma capacité."-Fr. Marg. "That is, above me and my capacity."

watched him in all his motions-when he slept, when he arose, or when he walked abroad. The word , rea, which we have rendered thought, signifies also a friend or companion, on which account some read-thou knowest what is nearest me afar off, a meaning more to the point than any other, if it could be supported by example. The reference would then be very appropriately to the fact that the most distant objects are contemplated as near by God. Some for afar off read beforehand, in which signification the Hebrew word is elsewhere taken, as if he had said-O Lord, every thought which I conceive in my heart is already known to thee beforehand. But I prefer the other meaning, That God is not confined to heaven, indulging in a state of repose, and indifferent to human concerns, according to the Epicurean idea, and that however far off we may be from him, he is never far off from us.

The verb, zarah, means to winnow as well as to compass, so that we may very properly read the third versethou winnowest my ways;1 a figurative expression to denote the bringing of anything which is unknown to light. The reader is left to his own option, for the other rendering which I have adopted is also appropriate. There has been also a difference of opinion amongst interpreters as to the last clause of the verse. The verb D, sachan, in the Hiphil conjugation, as here, signifies to render successful, which has led some to think that David here thanks God for crowning his actions with success; but this is a sense which does not at all suit the scope of the Psalmist in the context, for he is not speaking of thanksgiving. Equally forced is the meaning given to the words by others-Thou hast made me to

1 Piscator, Campensis, Pagninus, Luther, and our English Version, read "thou compassest. This no doubt gives the meaning of the original, though not the precise idea, which is noticed on the margin of our English Bible to be "winnowest." The verb , zarah, employed, signifies to disperse, to fan, to ventilate, to winnow; and here it denotes that as men separate the corn from the chaff, so God separates between, or investigates, the good and the bad in the daily conduct of men. Hence the Septuagint reads ἐξιχνίασας, "thou hast investigated." Bishop Hare, who renders "thou dost compass," supposes it to be a metaphor taken from hunting. Winnowing," says Archbishop Secker, "would sound uncouth. But Mudge hath hit on the word siftest, which, though an idea somewhat different, suits very well."