presses. No pasture could be more attractive to sheep than that which abounded in the valleys and hill-sides around Bethlehem; no scenery more calculated to inspire the soul of the shepherd with the loftiest aspirations of devotion and love than the beautifully variegated landscape, the clear skies, and the balmy atmosphere of Judah.

In these eastern countries it was the practice to keep the sheep constantly in the open air, guarded by the sons and daughters of the owners, or by hired servants. It would be the duty of David, therefore, not merely to attend the sheep by day, but also frequently by night. Thus, in addition to the beauties of nature which were presented to his study during the day, there was also the, perhaps in many cases, not less attractive and solemnly impressive grandeur of the cloudless starlight night for his lonely meditation. The beauty of the starry heavens, heightened as it always is by the clear beams of the silver moon when she shines forth in silent majesty, is in those eastern regions an agreeable interchange to the sunny glades and fruitful slopes which enchant the senses during day; while the splendour of the moonlight and starlight is even much greater in those regions than what is witnessed in our northern latitude.

The life of the shepherd in an eastern land, in the country of Syria, and around Bethlehem, where the flocks of Jesse roamed under the care of David, his youngest son, was one calculated to bring constantly under his notice the beneficence, the wisdom, and the greatness of the Creator of all things. Such a life is indeed under any circumstances one in which, more than in any other, man is brought into what may be called daily and nightly communion with his God. He has leisure for reflection, he is removed from the harassing cares of the world and the active business of life, and all the objects presented to his contemplation are immediately and necessarily calculated to excite the most devotional feelings, and to kindle the most lofty and profound admiration. When the subject of these emotions is of an ardent and affectionate temperament, as was the case with David, the effects produced upon the mind are of a correspondingly deep and permanent character. They are never effaced by the altered scenes, the prosperity or the adversity of after life, but almost invariably acquire a more fixed hold of the imagination, and are called to remembrance upon every occasion of adversity, and sometimes also of joy. They are the green spots in a man's memory upon which he loves to look back as upon a beautiful and refreshing landscape.

The life of David was chequered with joys and sorrows, with prosperity and adversity; with the loss of friends, the deceit of allies, the ingratitude of those he had favoured, the implacable

resentment

own sons.

resentment of his enemies, and the opposition and rebellion of his At the same time it must not be denied that his own faults were many. He was of an ardent temper, of violent passions, gratifying his unlawful desires even by the sacrifice of innocent life, frequently revengeful, often cruel. But with all this it must be confessed he was brave. To his bravery indeed is to be ascribed his great success in life. Then again he was devoted to the fear of God. This is the grand redeeming feature in his character, and stamps with an extraordinary significance all the other events recorded in his history. In the presence of his God he was as a little child. His heart overflowed with tenderness. His soul was poured forth like the pure streams of a heavenly fountain. There can be no dispute about the depth, the sincerity, the ardour of his devotion. It is the fountain from which millions of human beings have since his day drunk the most refreshing draughts. The ardour of his love to God is the altar from which thousands upon thousands have taken a live coal to kindle and keep alive their own affection. When his piety and devotion to his God are taken into account, the exceptionable parts of his character are altogether lost and forgotten.

It were idle to speak of the genius of David. The testimony of ages has placed that in the very highest order of human talent. The beauty, the sublimity, and the sweetness of his compositions are beyond praise. They need only to be read to be admired. They, however, bear the same distinctive character which gives beauty, freshness, and vigour to all human compositions. They portray scenes, impressions, hopes, desires, and experiences which he had himself witnessed and felt; and their very individuality being eminently applicable to the various conditions of mankind in all ages, has secured for them the approbation and esteem of the whole Christian world. Wherever the Bible has been received there also have the Psalms of David been welcomed; and there are districts and countries, as in Scotland, where one can hardly enter a single dwelling the inmates of which have not some of these beautiful compositions by heart, while many is the happy fireside where they furnish the song of morning and evening praise.

David no doubt received his first and strongest impressions of the beauty, variety, and grandeur of natural scenery during the period of his youth, while he 'followed the sheep.' The ideas and emotions peculiar to the profession of a shepherd are expressed in a variety of ways throughout the Psalms; all the different objects of contemplation for which such a state afforded facilities are also frequently alluded to. After he entered upon the more active duties of life his experiences related chiefly to the camp, to war,

to

to spoil, to government, and to kingly power. Accordingly we find that all these subjects enter more or less into his compositions, but the fear and the love of God as the Supreme Ruler, his Guide, Comforter, and Protector in all his troubles, are eminently displayed throughout the Psalms, and some of those which relate chiefly to the love and the praise of God are exquisitely beautiful. The thought must not, however, for one moment be admitted that David was a natural genius merely in the sense in which the phrase is usually applied. No man is more distinctly and eminently entitled to or more universally enjoys the title of the inspired penman.' It is expressly stated (1 Sam. xvi. 13) that after the anointing of David by Samuel at Bethlehem 'the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.' His poetical compositions deriving much of their sweetness from his fine perception of the beautiful and of the grand in nature, and from their portraying the peculiar feelings of his own mind in relation to the varied and often perilous situations in which he was placed, yet derive their greatest excellence from the strong devotional feeling which pervades the greater part of them, written as they undoubtedly were under the influence of that very 'spirit of the Lord' which came upon him at the anointing of the Prophet. His susceptible temperament and the devotional cast of his mind must have made him at a very early age a favourite among the prophets, from whom he would receive not only much useful knowledge, but much serious counsel as to the love and worship of God.

All the best judges,-Lowth, Herder, De Wette, Ewald, Tholuck, and others,-pronounce the poetry of the Psalms to be of a lyric order, which is not only the most varied, but the most abundant order of ancient poetical composition, and eminently adapted to music. They are,' says De Wette, lyric in the proper sense; for among the Hebrews, as among the ancients generally, poetry, singing, and music were united; and the inscriptions to most of the Psalms determine their connection with music, though in a way not always intelligible to us. Also as works of taste these compositions deserve to be called lyric. The essence of lyric poetry is the immediate expression of feeling; and feeling is the sphere in which most of the Psalms move. Pain, grief, fear, hope, joy, trust, gratitude, submission to God, everything that moves and elevates the heart, is expressed in these songs. Most of them are the lively effusions of the excited susceptible heart, the fresh offspring of inspiration and elevation of thought; while only a few are spiritless imitations and compilations, or unpoetic forms of prayer, temple hymns, and collections of proverbs.'

Although the whole collection of Psalms is usually designated

the

the Psalms of David, yet it is well known that they are not all the production of his pen; that they are in fact a collection of psalms or lyrical songs by a variety of contributors, of whom David is the chief. In addition to David the following are the names of some of the other authors :-Asaph, the sons of Korah, Heman, Ethan, Solomon, Moses; and some of the plaintive psalms have been ascribed to Jeremiah. To David have been ascribed 73 psalms in the Hebrew text, and at least 11 others in the Septuagint.

The Hebrew psalter is the most ancient collection of poems in the world, and was composed long before those in which ancient Greece and Rome have gloried. It is a general opinion among the learned that the collection as it now stands was made long after the death of David; and that the prophet Ezra was the collector and compiler of them. All antiquity is nearly unanimous in giving Ezra the honour of collecting the different writings of Moses and of the prophets, and reducing them into that form in which they are now found in the Bible, and of course the psalms among the rest.a

The great peculiarity of the Psalms of David, as has been already remarked, is their individuality, and their religious and devotional character, to which, no doubt, is mainly to be attributed the fact that after the lapse of so many centuries, and the rise and fall of so many modes of thought, and forms of social life, they still enjoy the unbounded favour of the Christian world.

Josephus has stated, certainly without any apparent reason from the character of the compositions themselves, that the Psalms were composed by David in the latter part of his life :-' And now David being freed from wars and dangers, composed songs and hymns to God of several sorts of metre; some of those which he made were trimeters, and some were pentameters.'(Antiq. vii. 12, 3.)

The character and style of the Psalms themselves show, it is imagined, very clearly that they were composed at various periods of life, even from his youth upwards. Some of them relate to his pastoral life, to the beauties of nature with which he was surrounded, to the quiet stillness and loveliness of the cloudless night, to the care of his God over him in such scenes, to the peculiar features of the country where he was residing, and to those devotional feelings which they called forth. Others relate to his adventures in war, his sufferings under the treachery and cruelty of his enemies, his anxiety to be revenged upon his foes, his longings to be at peace and to enjoy the public worship of God. Others refer to the anguish of his mind for the many sins of which he was guilty, to the affliction of his soul under the chastisement

a Dr. Adam Clarke's notes on the Psalms.

of

of Jehovah, to the joy he experienced in the returning smiles of his reconciled God. Some are plaintive with grief, some exuberant with gratitude and delight; and all give unquestionable evidence of being written at different periods of his history, and often under widely different emotions of mind. It is true that we occasionally find in the same Psalm so many different states of mind and circumstances pointed out, as to impress us with the conviction that they could not be the experience of one and the same person at the same time. This difficulty appears to be solved satisfactorily by Dr. Adam Clarke, who supposes that such Psalms were composed from memoranda or a diary of his experiences some days or short period after their occurrence.

David was thoroughly imbued with all the peculiarities of a true poet, with this paramount distinction, that he was in an especial manner the man after God's own heart. He may not have lisped in numbers,' but he must have commenced to tune his lyre at a very early age. His first themes were essentially pastoral; they were in praise of Nature and of Nature's God. Pastoral poetry is usually the first employment of the imagination -the first literary amusement of the young poet. The occasions on which purely pastoral poetry can be produced are no doubt few. They are also generally circumscribed. A youth confined to the simple pleasures of the country has so little diversity of objects, is exposed to so few vicissitudes, terrors, surprises, and alarms, that he can seldom produce what will attract curiosity or excite the passions. In the words of Dr. Johnson, his ambition is without policy and his love without intrigue. He has no complaint to make of his rival but that he is richer than himself, nor any disasters to lament but a cruel mistress or a bad harvest. The poetry of David however is infinitely removed from such criticism by its exalted tone, its divine spirit, its pure abstraction from what is low, grovelling, and sensual, and its great elevation above the ordinary level even of the best pastorals. The Lord is my shepherd' are the very first words of one of the sweetest lyrics in any language, and the imagery and sacredness of the subsequent parts are sustained with a beauty and simplicity which have made their way to every heart. All his other pastoral pieces are written in the same divine spirit. The delineation of nature is happily blended with the idea of the superintending care and direction of the Supreme Being.

The best poets, like the best painters, are those who are the closest observers of nature; who study the simplicity and the beauty, and the majesty of the works of God; who have an eye to discern the beauty of the modest cowslip, as well as to notice the grandeur of the towering pine. The same faculty of close observation,