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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/21872-8.txt b/21872-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..121a016 --- /dev/null +++ b/21872-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5532 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of David, by Alexander Maclaren + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life of David + As Reflected in His Psalms + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: June 19, 2007 [EBook #21872] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF DAVID *** + + + + +Produced by Colin Bell, Thomas Strong and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +{Transcriber's Note: Obvious typos, printing errors and mis-spellings + have been corrected, but spellings have not been modernized. Footnotes + follow immediately the paragraph in which they are noted. In Chapter + XV, eighth paragraph, second last line, "His" changed to "his" in the + sentence "Happy thoughts, not fears, hold his eyes waking" to agree + with the author's obvious reference to David rather than to God.} + + + =The Household Library of Exposition.= + + + THE LIFE OF DAVID + AS REFLECTED IN HIS PSALMS. + + + + + THE + LIFE OF DAVID + AS REFLECTED IN HIS PSALMS. + + + BY + + + ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D. + + + _NINTH EDITION._ + + + =London:= + HODDER AND STOUGHTON + 27, PATERNOSTER ROW + + + MCMIII + + +_Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I. INTRODUCTION, 1 + II. EARLY DAYS, 14 + III. EARLY DAYS--_continued_, 31 + IV. THE EXILE, 49 + V. THE EXILE--_continued_, 70 + VI. THE EXILE--_continued_, 86 + VII. THE EXILE--_continued_, 110 + VIII. THE EXILE--_continued_, 130 + IX. THE KING, 144 + X. THE KING--_continued_, 157 + XI. THE KING--_continued_, 174 + XII. THE KING--_continued_, 185 + XIII. THE TEARS OF THE PENITENT, 205 + XIV. CHASTISEMENTS, 232 + XV. THE SONGS OF THE FUGITIVE, 245 + INDEX, 262 + WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 263 + BIBLE CLASS EXPOSITIONS, 264 + THE HOUSEHOLD LIBRARY OF EXPOSITION, 265 + + + + +I.--INTRODUCTION. + + +Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the life of David is its +romantic variety of circumstances. What a many-coloured career that was +which began amidst the pastoral solitudes of Bethlehem, and ended in the +chamber where the dying ears heard the blare of the trumpets that +announced the accession of Bathsheba's son! He passes through the most +sharply contrasted conditions, and from each gathers some fresh fitness +for his great work of giving voice and form to all the phases of devout +feeling. The early shepherd life deeply influenced his character, and +has left its traces on many a line of his psalms. + + "Love had he found in huts where poor men lie; + His daily teachers had been woods and rills; + The silence that is in the starry sky, + The sleep that is among the lonely hills." + +And then, in strange contrast with the meditative quiet and lowly duties +of these first years, came the crowded vicissitudes of the tempestuous +course through which he reached his throne--court minstrel, companion +and friend of a king, idol of the people, champion of the armies of +God--and in his sudden elevation keeping the gracious sweetness of his +lowlier, and perhaps happier days. The scene changes with startling +suddenness to the desert. He is "hunted like a partridge upon the +mountains," a fugitive and half a freebooter, taking service at foreign +courts, and lurking on the frontiers with a band of outlaws recruited +from the "dangerous classes" of Israel. Like Dante and many more, he has +to learn the weariness of the exile's lot--how hard his fare, how +homeless his heart, how cold the courtesies of aliens, how unslumbering +the suspicions which watch the refugee who fights on the side of his +"natural enemies." One more swift transition and he is on the throne, +for long years victorious, prosperous, and beloved. + + "Nor did he change; but kept in lofty place + The wisdom which adversity had bred," + +till suddenly he is plunged into the mire, and falsifies all his past, +and ruins for ever, by the sin of his mature age, his peace of heart +and the prosperity of his kingdom. Thenceforward trouble is never far +away; and his later years are shaded with the saddening consciousness of +his great fault, as well as by hatred and rebellion and murder in his +family, and discontent and alienation in his kingdom. + +None of the great men of Scripture pass through a course of so many +changes; none of them touched human life at so many points; none of them +were so tempered and polished by swift alternation of heat and cold, by +such heavy blows and the friction of such rapid revolutions. Like his +great Son and Lord, though in a lower sense, he, too, must be "in all +points tempted like as we are," that his words may be fitted for the +solace and strength of the whole world. Poets "learn in suffering what +they teach in song." These quick transitions of fortune, and this wide +experience, are the many-coloured threads from which the rich web of his +psalms is woven. + +And while the life is singularly varied, the character is also +singularly full and versatile. In this respect, too, he is most unlike +the other leading figures of Old Testament history. Contrast him, for +example, with the stern majesty of Moses, austere and simple as the +tables of stone; or with the unvarying tone in the gaunt strength of +Elijah. These and the other mighty men in Israel are like the ruder +instruments of music--the trumpet of Sinai, with its one prolonged note. +David is like his own harp of many chords, through which the breath of +God murmured, drawing forth wailing and rejoicing, the clear ring of +triumphant trust, the low plaint of penitence, the blended harmonies of +all devout emotions. + +The man had his faults--grave enough. Let it be remembered that no one +has judged them more rigorously than himself. The critics who have +delighted to point at them have been anticipated by the penitent; and +their indictment has been little more than the quotation of his own +confession. His tremulously susceptible nature, especially assailable by +the delights of sense, led him astray. There are traces in his life of +occasional craft and untruthfulness which even the exigencies of exile +and war do not wholly palliate. Flashes of fierce vengeance at times +break from the clear sky of his generous nature. His strong affection +became, in at least one case, weak and foolish fondness for an unworthy +son. + +But when all this is admitted, there remains a wonderfully rich, lovable +character. He is the very ideal of a minstrel hero, such as the legends +of the East especially love to paint. The shepherd's staff or sling, the +sword, the sceptre, and the lyre are equally familiar to his hands. That +union of the soldier and the poet gives the life a peculiar charm, and +is very strikingly brought out in that chapter of the book of Samuel (2 +Sam. xxiii.) which begins, "These be the last words of David," and after +giving the swan-song of him whom it calls "the sweet psalmist of +Israel," passes immediately to the other side of the dual character, +with, "These be the names of the mighty men whom David had." + +Thus, on the one side, we see the true poetic temperament, with all its +capacities for keenest delight and sharpest agony, with its tremulous +mobility, its openness to every impression, its gaze of child-like +wonder, and eager welcome to whatsoever things are lovely, its +simplicity and self-forgetfulness, its yearnings "after worlds half +realized," its hunger for love, its pity, and its tears. He was made to +be the inspired poet of the religious affections. + +And, on the other side, we see the greatest qualities of a military +leader of the antique type, in which personal daring and a strong arm +count for more than strategic skill. He dashes at Goliath with an +enthusiasm of youthful courage and faith. While still in the earliest +bloom of his manhood, at the head of his wild band of outlaws, he shows +himself sagacious, full of resource, prudent in counsel, and swift as +lightning in act; frank and generous, bold and gentle, cheery in defeat, +calm in peril, patient in privations and ready to share them with his +men, modest and self-restrained in victory, chivalrous to his foes, ever +watchful, ever hopeful--a born leader and king of men. + +The basis of all was a profound, joyous trust in his Shepherd God, an +ardour of personal love to Him, such as had never before been expressed, +if it had ever found place, in Israel. That trust "opened his mouth to +show forth" God's praise, and strengthened his "fingers to fight." He +has told us himself what was his habitual temper, and how it was +sustained: "I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my +right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my +glory rejoiceth." (Psa. xvi. 8, 9.) + +Thus endowed, he moved among men with that irresistible fascination +which only the greatest exercise. From the day when he stole like a +sunbeam into the darkened chamber where Saul wrestled with the evil +spirit, he bows all hearts that come under his spell. The women of +Israel chant his name with song and timbrel, the daughter of Saul +confesses her love unasked, the noble soul of Jonathan cleaves to him, +the rude outlaws in his little army peril their lives to gratify his +longing for a draught from the well where he had watered his father's +flocks; the priests let him take the consecrated bread, and trust him +with Goliath's sword, from behind the altar; his lofty courtesy wins the +heart of Abigail; the very king of the Philistines tells him that he is +"good in his sight as an angel of God;" the unhappy Saul's last word to +him is a blessing; six hundred men of Gath forsake home and country to +follow his fortunes when he returns from exile; and even in the dark +close of his reign, though sin and self-indulgence, and neglect of his +kingly duties, had weakened his subjects' loyalty, his flight before +Absalom is brightened by instances of passionate devotion which no +common character could have evoked; and even then his people are ready +to die for him, and in their affectionate pride call him "the light of +Israel." It was a prophetic instinct which made Jesse call his youngest +boy by a name apparently before unused--David, "Beloved." + +The Spirit of God, acting through these great natural gifts, and using +this diversified experience of life, originated in him a new form of +inspiration. The Law was the revelation of the mind, and, in some +measure, of the heart, of God to man. The Psalm is the echo of the law, +the return current set in motion by the outflow of the Divine will, the +response of the heart of man to the manifested God. There had, indeed, +been traces of hymns before David. There were the burst of triumph which +the daughters of Israel sang, with timbrel and dance, over Pharaoh and +his host; the prayer of Moses the man of God (Psa. xc.), so archaic in +its tone, bearing in every line the impress of the weary wilderness and +the law of death; the song of the dying lawgiver (Deut. xxxii.); the +passionate pćan of Deborah; and some few briefer fragments. But, +practically, the Psalm began with David; and though many hands struck +the harp after him, even down at least to the return from exile, he +remains emphatically "the sweet psalmist of Israel." + +The psalms which are attributed to him have, on the whole, a marked +similarity of manner. Their characteristics have been well summed up as +"creative originality, predominantly elegiac tone, graceful form and +movement, antique but lucid style;"[A] to which may be added the +intensity of their devotion, the passion of Divine love that glows in +them all. They correspond, too, with the circumstances of his life as +given in the historical books. The early shepherd days, the manifold +sorrows, the hunted wanderings, the royal authority, the wars, the +triumphs, the sin, the remorse, which are woven together so strikingly +in the latter, all reappear in the psalms. The illusions, indeed, are +for the most part general rather than special, as is natural. His words +are thereby the better fitted for ready application to the trials of +other lives. But it has been perhaps too hastily assumed that the +allusions are so general as to make it impossible to connect them with +any precise events, or to make the psalms and the history mutually +illustrative. Much, no doubt, must be conjectured rather than affirmed, +and much must be left undetermined; but when all deductions on that +score have been made, it still appears possible to carry the process +sufficiently far to gain fresh insight into the force and definiteness +of many of David's words, and to use them with tolerable confidence as +throwing light upon the narrative of his career. The attempt is made in +some degree in this volume. + +[A] Delitzsch, Kommentar, u. d. Psalter II. 376. + +It will be necessary to prefix a few further remarks on the Davidic +psalms in general. Can we tell which are David's? The Psalter, as is +generally known, is divided into five books or parts, probably from some +idea that it corresponded with the Pentateuch. These five books are +marked by a doxology at the close of each, except the last. The first +portion consists of Psa. i.-xli.; the second of Psa. xlii.-lxxii; the +third of Psa. lxxiii.-lxxxix; the fourth of Psa. xc.-cvi.; and the fifth +of Psa. cvii.-cl. The psalms attributed to David are unequally +distributed through these five books. There are seventy-three in all, +and they run thus:--In the first book there are thirty-seven; so that +if we regard psalms i. and ii. as a kind of double introduction, a +frontispiece and vignette title-page to the whole collection, the first +book proper only two which are not regarded as David's. The second book +has a much smaller proportion, only eighteen out of thirty-one. The +third book has but one, the fourth two; while the fifth has fifteen, +eight of which (cxxxviii.-cxlv.) occur almost at the close. The +intention is obvious--to throw the Davidic psalms as much as possible +together in the first two books. And the inference is not unnatural that +these may have formed an earlier collection, to which were afterwards +added the remaining three, with a considerable body of alleged psalms of +David, which had subsequently come to light, placed side by side at the +end, so as to round off the whole. + +Be that as it may, one thing is clear from the arrangement of the +Psalter, namely, that the superscriptions which give the authors' names +are at least as old as the collection itself; for they have guided the +order of the collection in the grouping not only of Davidic psalms, but +also of those attributed to the sons of Korah (xlii.-xlix.) and to Asaph +(lxxiii.-lxxxiii.) + +The question of the reliableness of these superscriptions is hotly +debated. The balance of modern opinion is decidedly against their +genuineness. As in greater matters, so here "the higher criticism" comes +to the consideration of their claims with a prejudice against them, and +on very arbitrary grounds determines for itself, quite irrespective of +these ancient voices, the date and authorship of the psalms. The extreme +form of this tendency is to be found in the masterly work of Ewald, who +has devoted all his vast power of criticism (and eked it out with all +his equally great power of confident assertion) to the book, and has +come to the conclusion that we have but eleven of David's psalms,--which +is surely a result that may lead to questionings as to the method which +has attained it. + +These editorial notes are proved to be of extreme antiquity by such +considerations as these: The Septuagint translators found them, and did +not understand them; the synagogue preserves no traditions to explain +them; the Book of Chronicles throws no light upon them; they are very +rare in the two last books of the Psalter (Delitzsch, ii. 393). In some +cases they are obviously erroneous, but in the greater number there is +nothing inconsistent with their correctness in the psalms to which they +are appended; while very frequently they throw a flood of light upon +these, and all but prove their trustworthiness by their appropriateness. +They are not authoritative, but they merit respectful consideration, +and, as Dr. Perowne puts it in his valuable work on the Psalms, stand on +a par with the subscriptions to the Epistles in the New Testament. +Regarding them thus, and yet examining the psalms to which they are +prefixed, there seem to be about forty-five which we may attribute with +some confidence to David, and with these we shall be concerned in this +book. + + + + +II.--EARLY DAYS + + +The life of David is naturally divided into epochs, of which we may +avail ourselves for the more ready arrangement of our material. These +are--his early years up to his escape from the court of Saul, his exile, +the prosperous beginning of his reign, his sin and penitence, his flight +before Absalom's rebellion, and the darkened end. + +We have but faint incidental traces of his life up to his anointing by +Samuel, with which the narrative in the historical books opens. But +perhaps the fact that the story begins with that consecration to office, +is of more value than the missing biography of his childhood could have +been. It teaches us the point of view from which Scripture regards its +greatest names--as nothing, except in so far as they are God's +instruments. Hence its carelessness, notwithstanding that so much of it +is history, of all that merely illustrates the personal character of +its heroes. Hence, too, the clearness with which, notwithstanding that +indifference, the living men are set before us--the image cut with half +a dozen strokes of the chisel. + +We do not know the age of David when Samuel appeared in the little +village with the horn of sacred oil in his hand. The only approximation +to it is furnished by the fact, that he was thirty at the beginning of +his reign. (2 Sam. v. 4.) If we take into account that his exile must +have lasted for a very considerable period (one portion of it, his +second flight to the Philistines, was sixteen months, 1 Sam. xxvii. +7),--that the previous residence at the court of Saul must have been +long enough to give time for his gradual rise to popularity, and +thereafter for the gradual development of the king's insane +hatred,--that further back still there was an indefinite period, between +the fight with Goliath, and the first visit as a minstrel-physician to +the palace, which was spent at Bethlehem, and that that visit itself +cannot have been very brief, since in its course he became very dear and +familiar to Saul,--it will not seem that all these events could be +crowded into less than some twelve or fifteen years, or that he could +have been more than a lad of some sixteen years of age when Samuel's +hand smoothed the sacred oil on his clustering curls. + +How life had gone with him till then, we can easily gather from the +narrative of Scripture. His father's household seems to have been one in +which modest frugality ruled. There is no trace of Jesse having +servants; his youngest child does menial work; the present which he +sends to his king when David goes to court was simple, and such as a man +in humble life would give--an ass load of bread, one skin of wine, and +one kid--his flocks were small--"a few sheep." It would appear as if +prosperity had not smiled on the family since the days of Jesse's +grandfather, Boaz, that "mighty man of wealth." David's place in the +household does not seem to have been a happy one. His father scarcely +reckoned him amongst his sons, and answers Samuel's question, if the +seven burly husbandmen whom he has seen are all his children, with a +trace of contempt as he remembers that there is another, "and, behold, +he keepeth the sheep." Of his mother we hear but once, and that +incidentally, for a moment, long after. His brothers had no love for +him, and do not appear to have shared either his heart or his fortunes. +The boy evidently had the usual fate of souls like his, to grow up in +uncongenial circumstances, little understood and less sympathised with +by the common-place people round them, and thrown back therefore all the +more decisively upon themselves. The process sours and spoils some, but +it is the making of more--and where, as in this case, the nature is +thrown back upon God, and not on its own morbid operation, strength +comes from repression, and sweetness from endurance. He may have +received some instruction in one of Samuel's schools for the prophets, +but we are left in entire ignorance of what outward helps to unfold +itself were given to his budding life. + +Whatever others he had, no doubt those which are emphasized in the Bible +story were the chief, namely, his occupation and the many gifts which it +brought to him. The limbs, "like hinds' feet," the sinewy arms which +"broke a bow of steel," the precision with which he used the sling, the +agility which "leaped over a rampart," the health that glowed in his +"ruddy" face, were the least of his obligations to the breezy uplands, +where he kept his father's sheep. His early life taught him courage, +when he "smote the lion" and laid hold by his ugly muzzle of the bear +that "rose against him," rearing itself upright for the fatal hug. +Solitude and familiarity with nature helped to nurture the poetical side +of his character, and to strengthen that meditative habit which blends +so strangely with his impetuous activity, and which for the most part +kept tumults and toils from invading his central soul. They threw him +back on God who peopled the solitude and spoke in all nature. Besides +this, he acquired in the sheepcote lessons which he practised on the +throne, that rule means service, and that the shepherd of men holds his +office in order that he may protect and guide. And in the lowly +associations of his humble home, he learned the life of the people, +their simple joys, their unconspicuous toils, their unnoticed sorrows--a +priceless piece of knowledge both for the poet and for the king. + +A breach in all the tranquil habits of this modest life was made by +Samuel's astonishing errand. The story is told with wonderful +picturesqueness and dramatic force. The minute account of the successive +rejections of his brothers, Samuel's question and Jesse's answer, and +then the pause of idle waiting till the messenger goes and returns, +heighten the expectation with which we look for his appearance. And then +what a sweet young face is lovingly painted for us! "He was ruddy, and +withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to" (1 Sam. xvi. +12)--of fair complexion, with golden hair, which is rare among these +swarthy, black-locked easterns, with lovely eyes (for that is the +meaning of the words which the English Bible renders "of a beautiful +countenance"), large and liquid as become a poet. So he stood before the +old prophet, and with swelling heart and reverent awe received the holy +chrism. In silence, as it would seem, Samuel anointed him. Whether the +secret of his high destiny was imparted to him then, or left to be +disclosed in future years, is not told. But at all events, whether with +full understanding of what was before him or no, he must have been +conscious of a call that would carry him far away from the pastures and +olive yards of the little hamlet and of a new Spirit stirring in him +from that day forward. + +This sudden change in all the outlook of his life must have given new +materials for thought when he went back to his humble task. +Responsibility, or the prospect of it, makes lads into men very quickly. +Graver meditations, humbler consciousness of weakness, a firmer trust in +God who had laid the burden upon him, would do in days the work of +years. And the necessity for bidding back the visions of the future in +order to do faithfully the obscure duties of the present, would add +self-control and patience, not usually the graces of youth. How swiftly +he matured is singularly shown in the next recorded incident--his +summons to the court of Saul, by the character of him drawn by the +courtier who recommends him to the king. He speaks of David in words +more suitable to a man of established renown than to a stripling. He is +minstrel and warrior, "cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man," +and "skilled in speech (already eloquent), and fair in form, and the +Lord is with him." (1 Sam. xvi. 18.) So quickly had the new +circumstances and the energy of the Spirit of God, like tropical +sunshine, ripened his soul. + +That first visit to the court was but an episode in his life, however +helpful to his growth it may have been. It would give him the knowledge +of new scenes, widen his experience, and prepare him for the future. But +it cannot have been of very long duration. Possibly his harp lost its +power over Saul's gloomy spirit, when he had become familiar with its +notes. For whatever reason, he returned to his father's house, and +gladly exchanged the favour at court, which might have seemed to a +merely ambitious man the first step towards fulfilling the prophecy of +Samuel's anointing, for the freedom of the pastoral solitudes about +Bethlehem. There he remained, living to outward seeming as in the quiet +days before these two great earthquakes in his life, but with deeper +thoughts and new power, with broader experience, and a wider horizon, +until the hour when he was finally wrenched from his seclusion, and +flung into the whirlpool of his public career. + +There are none of David's psalms which can be with any certainty +referred to this first period of his life; but it has left deep traces +on many of them. The allusions to natural scenery and the frequent +references to varying aspects of the shepherd's life are specimens of +these. One characteristic of the poetic temperament is the faithful +remembrance and cherishing of early days. How fondly he recalled them is +shown in that most pathetic incident of his longing, as a weary exile, +for one draught of water from the well at Bethlehem--where in the dear +old times he had so often led his flocks. + +But though we cannot say confidently that we have any psalms prior to +his first exile, there are several which, whatever their date may be, +are echoes of his thoughts in these first days. This is especially the +case in regard to the group which describe varying aspects of +nature--viz., Psalms xix., viii., xxix. They are unlike his later psalms +in the almost entire absence of personal references, or of any trace of +pressing cares, or of signs of a varied experience of human life. In +their self-forgetful contemplation of nature, in their silence about +sorrow, in their tranquil beauty, they resemble the youthful works of +many a poet whose later verse throbs with quivering consciousness of +life's agonies, or wrestles strongly with life's problems. They may not +unnaturally be regarded as the outpouring of a young heart at leisure +from itself, and from pain, far from men and very near God. The fresh +mountain air of Bethlehem blows through them, and the dew of life's +quiet morning is on them. The early experience supplied their materials, +whatever was the date of their composition; and in them we can see what +his inward life was in these budding years. The gaze of child-like +wonder and awe upon the blazing brightness of the noonday, and on the +mighty heaven with all its stars, the deep voice with which all creation +spoke of God, the great thoughts of the dignity of man (thoughts ever +welcome to lofty youthful souls), the gleaming of an inward light +brighter than all suns, the consciousness of mysteries of weakness which +may become miracles of sin in one's own heart, the assurance of close +relation to God as His anointed and His servant, the cry for help and +guidance--all this is what we should expect David to have thought and +felt as he wandered among the hills, alone with God; and this is what +these psalms give us. + +Common to them all is the peculiar manner of looking upon nature, so +uniform in David's psalms, so unlike more modern descriptive poetry. He +can smite out a picture in a phrase, but he does not care to paint +landscapes. He feels the deep analogies between man and his +dwelling-place, but he does not care to lend to nature a shadowy life, +the reflection of our own. Creation is to him neither a subject for +poetical description, nor for scientific examination. It is nothing but +the garment of God, the apocalypse of the heavenly. And common to them +all is also the swift transition from the outward facts which reveal +God, to the spiritual world, where His presence is, if it were possible, +yet more needful, and His operations yet mightier. And common to them +all is a certain rush of full thought and joyous power, which is again a +characteristic of youthful work, and is unlike the elegiac tenderness +and pathos of David's later hymns. + +The nineteenth Psalm paints for us the glory of the heavens by day, as +the eighth by night. The former gathers up the impressions of many a +fresh morning when the solitary shepherd-boy watched the sun rising over +the mountains of Moab, which close the eastern view from the hills above +Bethlehem. The sacred silence of dawn, the deeper hush of night, have +voice for his ear. "No speech! and no words! unheard is their voice." +But yet, "in all the earth goeth forth their line,[B] and in the end of +the habitable world their sayings." The heavens and the firmament, the +linked chorus of day and night, are heralds of God's glory, with silent +speech, heard in all lands, an unremitting voice. And as he looks, there +leaps into the eastern heavens, not with the long twilight of northern +lands, the sudden splendour, the sun radiant as a bridegroom from the +bridal chamber, like some athlete impatient for the course. How the joy +of morning and its new vigour throb in the words! And then he watches +the strong runner climbing the heavens till the fierce heat beats down +into the deep cleft of the Jordan, and all the treeless southern hills, +as they slope towards the desert, lie bare and blazing beneath the +beams. + +[B] Their boundary, _i.e._, their territory, or the region through which +their witness extends. Others render "their chord," or sound (LXX. +Ewald, etc.) + +The sudden transition from the revelation of God in nature to His voice +in the law, has seemed to many critics unaccountable, except on the +supposition that this psalm is made up of two fragments, put together by +a later compiler; and some of them have even gone so far as to maintain +that "the feeling which saw God revealed in the law did not arise till +the time of Josiah."[C] But such a hypothesis is not required to explain +either the sudden transition or the difference in style and rhythm +between the two parts of the psalm, which unquestionably exists. The +turn from the outer world to the better light of God's word, is most +natural; the abruptness of it is artistic and impressive; the difference +of style and measure gives emphasis to the contrast. There is also an +obvious connection between the two parts, inasmuch as the law is +described by epithets, which in part hint at its being a brighter sun, +enlightening the eyes. + +[C] "Psalms chronologically arranged"--following Ewald. + +The Word which declares the will of the Lord is better than the heavens +which tell His glory. The abundance of synonyms for that word show how +familiar to his thoughts it was. To him it is "the law," "the +testimonies" by which God witnesses of Himself and of man: "the +statutes," the fixed settled ordinances; that which teaches "the fear of +God," the "judgments" or utterances of His mind on human conduct. They +are "perfect, firm, right, clean, pure,"--like that spotless +sun--"eternal, true." "They quicken, make wise, enlighten," even as the +light of the lower world. His heart prizes them "more than gold," of +which in his simple life he knew so little; more than "the honey," which +he had often seen dropping from "the comb" in the pastures of the +wilderness. + +And then the twofold contemplation rises into the loftier region of +prayer. He feels that there are dark depths in his soul, gloomier pits +than any into which the noontide sun shines. He speaks as one who is +conscious of dormant evils, which life has not yet evolved, and his +prayer is more directed towards the future than the past, and is thus +very unlike the tone of the later psalms, that wail out penitence and +plead for pardon. "Errors," or weaknesses,--"faults" unknown to +himself,--"high-handed sins,"[D]--such is the climax of the evils from +which he prays for deliverance. He knows himself "Thy servant" (2 Sam. +vii. 5, 8; Psa. lxxviii. 70)--an epithet which may refer to his +consecration to God's work by Samuel's anointing. He needs not only a +God who sets His glory in the heavens, nor even one whose will is made +known, but one who will touch his spirit,--not merely a Maker, but a +pardoning God; and his faith reaches its highest point as his song +closes with the sacred name of the covenant Jehovah, repeated for the +seventh time, and invoked in one final aspiration of a trustful heart, +as "my Rock, and my Redeemer." + +[D] The form of the word would make "reckless men" a more natural +translation; but probably the context requires a third, more aggravated +sort of sin. + +The eighth psalm is a companion picture, a night-piece, which, like the +former, speaks of many an hour of lonely brooding below the heavens, +whether its composition fall within this early period or no. The +prophetic and doctrinal value of the psalms is not our main subject in +the present volume, so that we have to touch but very lightly on this +grand hymn. What does it show us of the singer? We see him, like other +shepherds on the same hills, long after "keeping watch over his flocks +by night," and overwhelmed by all the magnificence of an eastern sky, +with its lambent lights. So bright, so changeless, so far,--how great +they are, how small the boy that gazes up so wistfully. Are they gods, +as all but his own nation believed? No,--"the work of Thy fingers," +"which Thou hast ordained." The consciousness of God as their Maker +delivers from the temptation of confounding bigness with greatness, and +wakes into new energy that awful sense of personality which towers above +all the stars. He is a babe and suckling--is that a trace of the early +composition of the psalm?--still he knows that out of his lips, already +beginning to break into song, and out of the lips of his fellows, God +perfects praise. There speaks the sweet singer of Israel, prizing as the +greatest of God's gifts his growing faculty, and counting his God-given +words as nobler than the voice of "night unto night." God's fingers made +these, but God's own breath is in him. God ordained them, but God visits +him. The description of man's dignity and dominion indicates how +familiar David was with the story in Genesis. It may perhaps also, +besides all the large prophetic truths which it contains, have some +special reference to his own earlier experience. It is at least worth +noting that he speaks of the dignity of man as kingly, like that which +was dawning on himself, and that the picture has no shadows either of +sorrow or of sin,--a fact which may point to his younger days, when +lofty thoughts of the greatness of the soul are ever natural and when in +his case the afflictions and crimes that make their presence felt in +all his later works had not fallen upon him. Perhaps, too, it may not be +altogether fanciful to suppose that we may see the shepherd-boy +surrounded by his flocks, and the wild creatures that prowled about the +fold, and the birds asleep in their coverts beneath the moonlight, in +his enumeration of the subjects of his first and happiest kingdom, where +he ruled far away from men and sorrow, seeing God everywhere, and +learning to perfect praise from his youthful lips. + + + + +III.--EARLY DAYS--_CONTINUED_. + + +In addition to the psalms already considered, which are devoted to the +devout contemplation of nature, and stand in close connection with +David's early days, there still remains one universally admitted to be +his. The twenty-ninth psalm, like both the preceding, has to do with the +glory of God as revealed in the heavens, and with earth only as the +recipient of skyey influences; but while these breathed the profoundest +tranquillity, as they watched the silent splendour of the sun, and the +peace of moonlight shed upon a sleeping world, this is all tumult and +noise. It is a highly elaborate and vivid picture of a thunderstorm, +such as must often have broken over the shepherd-psalmist as he crouched +under some shelf of limestone, and gathered his trembling charge about +him. Its very structure reproduces in sound an echo of the rolling peals +reverberating among the hills. + +There is first an invocation, in the highest strain of devout poetry, +calling upon the "sons of God," the angels who dwell above the lower +sky, and who see from above the slow gathering of the storm-clouds, to +ascribe to Jehovah the glory of His name--His character as set forth in +the tempest. They are to cast themselves before Him "in holy attire," as +priests of the heavenly sanctuary. Their silent and expectant worship is +like the brooding stillness before the storm. We feel the waiting hush +in heaven and earth. + +Then the tempest breaks. It crashes and leaps through the short +sentences, each like the clap of the near thunder. + + _a._ The voice of Jehovah (is) on the waters. + The God of glory thunders. + _Jehovah (is) on many waters._ + The voice of Jehovah in strength! + The voice of Jehovah in majesty! + + _b._ The voice of Jehovah rending the cedars! + _And Jehovah rends the cedars of Lebanon_, + And makes them leap like a calf; + Lebanon and Sirion like a young buffalo + The voice of Jehovah hewing flashes of fire! + + _c._ The voice of Jehovah shakes the desert, + _Jehovah shakes the Kadesh desert_. + + The voice of Jehovah makes the hinds writhe + And scathes the woods--and in His temple-- + --All in it (are) saying, "Glory." + +Seven times the roar shakes the world. The voice of the seven thunders +is the voice of Jehovah. In the short clauses, with their uniform +structure, the pause between, and the recurrence of the same initial +words, we hear the successive peals, the silence that parts them, and +the monotony of their unvaried sound. Thrice we have the reverberation +rolling through the sky or among the hills, imitated by clauses which +repeat previous ones, as indicated by the italics, and one forked flame +blazes out in the brief, lightning-like sentence, "The voice of Jehovah +(is) hewing flashes of fire," which wonderfully gives the impression of +their streaming fiercely forth, as if cloven from some solid block of +fire, their swift course, and their instantaneous extinction. + +The range and effects of the storm, too, are vividly painted. It is +first "on the waters," which may possibly mean the Mediterranean, but +more probably, "the waters that are above the firmament," and so depicts +the clouds as gathering high in air. Then it comes down with a crash on +the northern mountains, splintering the gnarled cedars, and making +Lebanon rock with all its woods--leaping across the deep valley of +Coelo-Syria, and smiting Hermon (for which Sirion is a Sidonian name), +the crest of the Anti Lebanon, till it reels. Onward it sweeps--or +rather, perhaps, it is all around the psalmist; and even while he hears +the voice rolling from the furthest north, the extreme south echoes the +roar. The awful voice shakes[E] the wilderness, as it booms across its +level surface. As far south as Kadesh (probably Petra) the tremor +spreads, and away in the forests of Edom the wild creatures in their +terror slip their calves, and the oaks are scathed and stripped of their +leafy honours. And all the while, like a mighty diapason sounding on +through the tumult, the voice of the sons of God in the heavenly temple +is heard proclaiming "Glory!" + +[E] Delitzsch would render "whirls in circles"--a picturesque allusion +to the sand pillars which accompany storms in the desert. + +The psalm closes with lofty words of confidence, built on the story of +the past, as well as on the contemplation of the present. "Jehovah sat +throned for (_i.e._, to send on earth) the flood" which once drowned +the world of old. "Jehovah will sit throned, a King for ever." That +ancient judgment spoke of His power over all the forces of nature, in +their most terrible form. So now and for ever, all are His servants, and +effect His purposes. Then, as the tempest rolls away, spent and +transient, the sunshine streams out anew from the softened blue over a +freshened world, and every raindrop on the leaves twinkles into diamond +light, and the end of the psalm is like the after brightness; and the +tranquil low voice of its last words is like the songs of the birds +again as the departing storm growls low and faint on the horizon. "The +Lord will bless His people with peace." + +Thus, then, nature spoke to this young heart. The silence was vocal; the +darkness, bright; the tumult, order--and all was the revelation of a +present God. It is told of one of our great writers that, when a child, +he was found lying on a hill-side during a thunderstorm, and at each +flash clapping his hands and shouting, unconscious of danger, and +stirred to ecstasy. David, too, felt all the poetic elevation, and +natural awe, in the presence of the crashing storm; but he felt +something more. To him the thunder was not a power to tremble before, +not a mere subject for poetic contemplation. Still less was it +something, the like of which could be rubbed out of glass and silk, and +which he had done with when he knew its laws. No increase of knowledge +touching the laws of physical phenomena in the least affects the point +of view which these Nature-psalms take. David said, "God makes and moves +all things." We may be able to complete the sentence by a clause which +tells something of the methods of His operation. But that is only a +parenthesis after all, and the old truth remains widened, not overthrown +by it. The psalmist knew that all being and action had their origin in +God. He saw the last links of the chain, and knew that it was rivetted +to the throne of God, though the intermediate links were unseen; and +even the fact that there were any was not present to his mind. We know +something of these; but the first and the last of the series to him, are +the first and the last to us also. To us as to him, the silent splendour +of noonday speaks of God, and the nightly heavens pour the soft radiance +of His "excellent name over all the earth." The tempest is His voice, +and the wildest commotions in nature and among men break in obedient +waves around His pillared throne. + + "Well roars the storm to those who hear + A deeper voice across the storm!" + +There still remains one other psalm which may be used as illustrating +the early life of David. The Twenty-third psalm is coloured throughout +by the remembrances of his youthful occupation, even if its actual +composition is of a later date. Some critics, indeed, think that the +mention in the last verse of "the house of the Lord" compels the +supposition of an origin subsequent to the building of the Temple; but +the phrase in question need not have anything to do with tabernacle or +temple, and is most naturally accounted for by the preceding image of +God as the Host who feasts His servants at His table. There are no other +notes of time in the psalm, unless, with some commentators, we see an +allusion in that image of the furnished table to the seasonable +hospitality of the Gileadite chieftains during David's flight before +Absalom (2 Sam. xvii. 27-29)--a reference which appears prosaic and +flat. The absence of traces of distress and sorrow--so constantly +present in the later songs--may be urged with some force in favour of +the early date; and if we follow one of the most valuable commentators +(Hupfeld) in translating all the verbs as futures, and so make the whole +a hymn of hope, we seem almost obliged to suppose that we have here the +utterance of a youthful spirit, which ventured to look forward, because +it first looked upward. In any case, the psalm is a transcript of +thoughts that had been born and cherished in many a meditative hour +among the lonely hills of Bethlehem. It is the echo of the shepherd +life. We see in it the incessant care, the love to his helpless charge, +which was expressed in and deepened by all his toil for them. He had to +think for their simplicity, to fight for their defencelessness, to find +their pasture, to guard them while they lay amid the fresh grass; +sometimes to use his staff in order to force their heedlessness with +loving violence past tempting perils; sometimes to guide them through +gloomy gorges, where they huddled close at his heels; sometimes to smite +the lion and the bear that prowled about the fold--but all was for their +good and meant their comfort. And thus he has learned, in preparation +for his own kingdom, the inmost meaning of pre-eminence among men--and, +more precious lesson still, thus he has learned the very heart of God. +Long before, Jacob had spoken of Him as the "Shepherd of Israel;" but it +was reserved for David to bring that sweet and wonderful name into +closer relations with the single soul; and, with that peculiar +enthusiasm of personal reliance, and recognition of God's love to the +individual which stamps all his psalms, to say "The Lord is my +Shepherd." These dumb companions of his, in their docility to his +guidance, and absolute trust in his care, had taught him the secret of +peace in helplessness, of patience in ignorance. The green strips of +meadow-land where the clear waters brought life, the wearied flocks +sheltered from the mid-day heat, the quiet course of the little stream, +the refreshment of the sheep by rest and pasture, the smooth paths which +he tried to choose for them, the rocky defiles through which they had to +pass, the rod in his hand that guided, and chastised, and defended, and +was never lifted in anger,--all these, the familiar sights of his youth, +pass before us as we read; and to us too, in our widely different social +state, have become the undying emblems of the highest care and the +wisest love. The psalm witnesses how close to the youthful heart the +consciousness of God must have been, which could thus transform and +glorify the little things which were so familiar. We can feel, in a kind +of lazy play of sentiment, the fitness of the shepherd's life to suggest +thoughts of God--because it is not our life. But it needs both a +meditative habit and a devout heart to feel that the trivialities of our +own daily tasks speak to us of Him. The heavens touch the earth on the +horizon of our vision, but it always seems furthest to the sky from the +spot where we stand. To the psalmist, however,--as in higher ways to his +Son and Lord,--all things around him were full of God; and as the +majesties of nature, so the trivialities of man's works--shepherds and +fishermen--were solemn with deep meanings and shadows of the heavenly. +With such lofty thoughts he fed his youth. + +The psalm, too, breathes the very spirit of sunny confidence and of +perfect rest in God. We have referred to the absence of traces of +sorrow, and to the predominant tone of hopefulness, as possibly +favouring the supposition of an early origin. But it matters little +whether they were young eyes which looked so courageously into the +unknown future, or whether we have here the more solemn and weighty +hopes of age, which can have few hopes at all, unless they be rooted in +God. The spirit expressed in the psalm is so thoroughly David's, that in +his younger days, before it was worn with responsibilities and sorrows, +it must have been especially strong. We may therefore fairly take the +tone of this song of the Shepherd God as expressing the characteristic +of his godliness in the happy early years. In his solitude he was glad. +One happy thought fills the spirit; one simple emotion thrills the +chords of his harp. No doubts, or griefs, or remorse throw their shadows +upon him. He is conscious of dependence, but he is above want and fear. +He does not ask, he has--he possesses God, and is at rest in Him. He is +satisfied with that fruition which blesseth all who hunger for God, and +is the highest form of communion with Him. As the present has no +longings, the future has no terrors. All the horizon is clear, all the +winds are still, the ocean at rest, "and birds of peace sit brooding on +the charmed wave." If there be foes, God holds them back. If there lie +far off among the hills any valley of darkness, its black portals cast +no gloom over him, and will not when he enters. God is his Shepherd, +and, by another image, God is his Host. The life which in one aspect, by +reason of its continual change, and occupation with outward things, may +be compared to the journeyings of a flock, is in another aspect, by +reason of its inward union with the stability of God, like sitting ever +at the table which His hand has spread as for a royal banquet, where the +oil of gladness glistens on every head, and the full cup of Divine +pleasure is in every hand. For all the outward and pilgrimage aspect, +the psalmist knows that only Goodness and Mercy--these two white-robed +messengers of God--will follow his steps, however long may be the term +of the days of his yet young life; for all the inward, he is sure that, +in calm, unbroken fellowship, he will dwell in the house of God, and +that when the twin angels who fed and guided him all his young life long +have finished their charge, and the days of his journeyings are ended, +there stretches beyond a still closer union with his heavenly Friend, +which will be perfected in His true house "for ever." We look in vain +for another example, even in David's psalms, of such perfect, restful +trust in God. These clear notes are perhaps the purest utterance ever +given of "the peace of God which passeth all understanding." + +Such were the thoughts and hopes of the lad who kept his father's sheep +at Bethlehem. He lived a life of lofty thoughts and lowly duties. He +heard the voice of God amidst the silence of the hills, and the earliest +notes of his harp echoed the deep tones. He learned courage as well as +tenderness from his daily tasks, and patience from the contrast between +them and the high vocation which Samuel's mysterious anointing had +opened before him. If we remember how disturbing an influence the +consciousness of it might have wrought in a soul less filled with God, +we may perhaps accept as probably correct the superscription which +refers one sweet, simple psalm to him, and may venture to suppose that +it expresses the contentment, undazzled by visions of coming greatness, +that calmed his heart. "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes +lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too +high for me. Surely I have smoothed and quieted my soul: like a weanling +on his mother's (breast), like a weanling is my soul within me." (Psa. +cxxxi.) So lying in God's arms, and content to be folded in His embrace, +without seeking anything beyond, he is tranquil in his lowly lot. + +It does not fall within our province to follow the course of the +familiar narrative through the picturesque events that led him to fame +and position at court. The double character of minstrel and warrior, to +which we have already referred, is remarkably brought out in his double +introduction to Saul, once as soothing the king's gloomy spirit with the +harmonies of his shepherd's harp, once as bringing down the boasting +giant of Gath with his shepherd's sling. On the first occasion his +residence in the palace seems to have been ended by Saul's temporary +recovery. He returns to Bethlehem for an indefinite time, and then +leaves it and all its peaceful tasks for ever. The dramatic story of the +duel with Goliath needs no second telling. His arrival at the very +crisis of the war, the eager courage with which he leaves his baggage in +the hands of the guard and runs down the valley to the ranks of the +army, the busy hum of talk among the Israelites, the rankling jealousy +of his brother that curdles into bitter jeers, the modest courage with +which he offers himself as champion, the youthful enthusiasm of brave +trust in "the Lord, that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and +out of the paw of the bear;" the wonderfully vivid picture of the young +hero with his shepherd staff in one hand, his sling in the other, and +the rude wallet by his side, which had carried his simple meal, and now +held the smooth stone from the brook that ran between the armies in the +bottom of the little valley--the blustering braggadocio of the big +champion, the boy's devout confidence in "the name of the Lord of +hosts;" the swift brevity of the narrative of the actual fight, which in +its hurrying clauses seems to reproduce the light-footed eagerness of +the young champion, or the rapid whizz of the stone ere it crashed into +the thick forehead; the prostrate bulk of the dead giant prone upon the +earth, and the conqueror, slight and agile, hewing off the huge head +with Goliath's own useless sword;--all these incidents, so full of +character, so antique in manner, so weighty with lessons of the +impotence of strength that is merely material, and the power of a living +enthusiasm of faith in God, may, for our present purposes, be passed +with a mere glance. One observation may, however, be allowed. After the +victory, Saul is represented as not knowing who David was, and as +sending Abner to find out where he comes from. Abner, too, professes +entire ignorance; and when David appears before the king, "with the head +of the Philistine in his hand," he is asked, "Whose son art thou, young +man?" It has been thought that here we have an irreconcilable +contradiction with previous narratives, according to which there was +close intimacy between him and the king, who "loved him greatly," and +gave him an office of trust about his person. Suppositions of +"dislocation of the narrative," the careless adoption by the compiler of +two separate legends, and the like, have been freely indulged in. But it +may at least be suggested as a possible explanation of the seeming +discrepancy, that when Saul had passed out of his moody madness it is +not wonderful that he should have forgotten all which had occurred in +his paroxysm. It is surely a common enough psychological phenomenon that +a man restored to sanity has no remembrance of the events during his +mental aberration. And as for Abner's profession of ignorance, an +incipient jealousy of this stripling hero may naturally have made the +"captain of the host" willing to keep the king as ignorant as he could +concerning a probable formidable rival. There is no need to suppose he +was really ignorant, but only that it suited him to say that he was. + +With this earliest deed of heroism the peaceful private days are closed, +and a new epoch of court favour and growing popularity begins. The +impression which the whole story leaves upon one is well summed up in a +psalm which the Septuagint adds to the Psalter. It is not found in the +Hebrew, and has no pretension to be David's work; but, as a _résumé_ of +the salient points of his early life, it may fitly end our +considerations of this first epoch. + +"This is the autograph psalm of David, and beyond the number (_i.e._, of +the psalms in the Psalter), when he fought the single fight with +Goliath:-- + +"(1.) I was little among my brethren, and the youngest in the house of +my father: I kept the flock of my father. (2.) My hands made a pipe, my +fingers tuned a psaltery. (3.) And who shall tell it to my Lord? He is +the Lord, He shall hear me. (4.) He sent His angel (messenger), and +took me from the flocks of my father, and anointed me with the oil of +His anointing. (5.) But my brethren were fair and large, and in them the +Lord took not pleasure. (6.) I went out to meet the Philistine, and he +cursed me by his idols. (7.) But I, drawing his sword, beheaded him, and +took away reproach from the children of Israel." + + + + +IV.--THE EXILE. + + +David's first years at the court of Saul in Gibeah do not appear to have +produced any psalms which still survive. + + "The sweetest songs are those + Which tell of saddest thought." + +It was natural, then, that a period full of novelty and of prosperous +activity, very unlike the quiet days at Bethlehem, should rather +accumulate materials for future use than be fruitful in actual +production. The old life shut to behind him for ever, like some +enchanted door in a hill-side, and an unexplored land lay beckoning +before. The new was widening his experience, but it had to be mastered, +to be assimilated by meditation before it became vocal. + +The bare facts of this section are familiar and soon told. There is +first a period in which he is trusted by Saul, who sets him in high +command, with the approbation not only of the people, but even of the +official classes. But a new dynasty resting on military pre-eminence +cannot afford to let a successful soldier stand on the steps of the +throne; and the shrill chant of the women out of all the cities of +Israel, which even in Saul's hearing answered the praises of his prowess +with a louder acclaim for David's victories, startled the king for the +first time with a revelation of the national feeling. His unslumbering +suspicion "eyed David from that day." Rage and terror threw him again +into the gripe of his evil spirit, and in his paroxysm he flings his +heavy spear, the symbol of his royalty, at the lithe harper, with fierce +vows of murder. The failure of his attempt to kill David seems to have +aggravated his dread of him as bearing a charm which won all hearts and +averted all dangers. A second stage is marked not only by Saul's growing +fear, but by David's new position. He is removed from court, and put in +a subordinate command, which only extends his popularity, and brings him +into more immediate contact with the mass of the people. "All Israel and +Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them." Then +follows the offer of Saul's elder daughter in marriage, in the hope that +by playing upon his gratitude and his religious feeling, he might be +urged to some piece of rash bravery that would end him without scandal. +Some new caprice of Saul's, however, leads him to insult David by +breaking his pledge at the last moment, and giving the promised bride to +another. Jonathan's heart was not the only one in Saul's household that +yielded to his spell. The younger Michal had been cherishing his image +in secret, and now tells her love. Her father returns to his original +purpose, with the strange mixture of tenacity and capricious +changefulness that marks his character, and again attempts, by demanding +a grotesquely savage dowry, to secure David's destruction. But that +scheme, too, fails; and he becomes a member of the royal house. + +This third stage is marked by Saul's deepening panic hatred, which has +now become a fixed idea. All his attempts have only strengthened David's +position, and he looks on his irresistible advance with a nameless awe. +He calls, with a madman's folly, on Jonathan and on all his servants to +kill him; and then, when his son appeals to him, his old better nature +comes over him, and with a great oath he vows that David shall not be +slain. For a short time David returns to Gibeah, and resumes his former +relations with Saul, but a new victory over the Philistines rouses the +slumbering jealousy. Again the "evil spirit" is upon him, and the great +javelin is flung with blind fury, and sticks quivering in the wall. It +is night, and David flies to his house. A stealthy band of assassins +from the palace surround the house with orders to prevent all egress, +and, by what may be either the strange whim of a madman, or the cynical +shamelessness of a tyrant, to slay him in the open daylight. Michal, +who, though in after time she showed a strain of her father's proud +godlessness, and an utter incapacity of understanding the noblest parts +of her husband's character, seems to have been a true wife in these +early days, discovers, perhaps with a woman's quick eye sharpened by +love, the crouching murderers, and with rapid promptitude urges +immediate flight. Her hands let him down from the window--the house +being probably on the wall. Her ready wit dresses up one of those +mysterious teraphim (which appear to have had some connection with +idolatry or magic, and which are strange pieces of furniture for +David's house), and lays it in the bed to deceive the messengers, and so +gain a little more time before pursuit began. "So David fled and +escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah," and thus ended his life at court. + +Glancing over this narrative, one or two points come prominently forth. +The worth of these events to David must have lain chiefly in the +abundant additions made to his experience of life, which ripened his +nature, and developed new powers. The meditative life of the sheepfold +is followed by the crowded court and camp. Strenuous work, familiarity +with men, constant vicissitude, take the place of placid thought, of +calm seclusion, of tranquil days that knew no changes but the +alternation of sun and stars, storm and brightness, green pastures and +dusty paths. He learned the real world, with its hate and effort, its +hollow fame and its whispering calumnies. Many illusions no doubt faded, +but the light that had shone in his solitude still burned before him for +his guide, and a deeper trust in his Shepherd God was rooted in his soul +by all the shocks of varying fortune. The passage from the visions of +youth and the solitary resolves of early and uninterrupted piety to the +naked realities of a wicked world, and the stern self-control of manly +godliness, is ever painful and perilous. Thank God! it may be made clear +gain, as it was by this young hero psalmist. + +David's calm indifference to outward circumstances affecting himself, is +very strikingly expressed in his conduct. Partly from his poetic +temperament, partly from his sweet natural unselfishness, and chiefly +from his living trust in God, he accepts whatever happens with +equanimity, and makes no effort to alter it. He originates nothing. +Prosperity comes unsought, and dangers unfeared. He does not ask for +Jonathan's love, or the people's favour, or the women's songs, or Saul's +daughter. If Saul gives him command he takes it, and does his work. If +Saul flings his javelin at him, he simply springs aside and lets it +whizz past. If his high position is taken from him, he is quite content +with a lower. If a royal alliance is offered, he accepts it; if it is +withdrawn, he is not ruffled; if renewed, he is still willing. If a busy +web of intrigue is woven round him, he takes no notice. If +reconciliation is proposed, he cheerfully goes back to the palace. If +his life is threatened he goes home. He will not stir to escape but for +the urgency of his wife. So well had he already begun to learn the +worthlessness of life's trifles. So thoroughly does he practice his own +precept, "Fret not thyself because of evil-doers;" "rest in the Lord, +and wait patiently for Him." (Psa. xxxvii. 1, 7.) + +This section gives also a remarkable impression of the irresistible +growth of his popularity and influence. The silent energy of the Divine +purpose presses his fortunes onward with a motion slow and inevitable as +that of a glacier. The steadfast flow circles unchecked round, or rises +victorious over all hindrances. Efforts to ruin, to degrade, to +kill--one and all fail. Terror and hate, suspicion and jealousy, only +bring him nearer the goal. A clause which comes in thrice in the course +of one chapter, expresses this fated advance. In the first stage of his +court life, we read, "David prospered" (1 Sam. xviii. 5, margin), and +again with increased emphasis it is told as the result of the efforts to +crush him, that, "He prospered in all his ways, and the Lord was with +him" (verse 14), and yet again, in spite of Saul's having "become his +enemy continually," he "prospered more than all the servants of Saul" +(verse 30). He moves onward as stars in their courses move, obeying the +equable impulse of the calm and conquering will of God. + +The familiar Scripture antithesis, which naturally finds its clearest +utterance in the words of the last inspired writer--namely, the eternal +opposition of Light and Darkness, Love and Hate, Life and Death, is +brought into sharpest relief by the juxtaposition and contrast of David +and Saul. This is the key to the story. The two men are not more unlike +in person than in spirit. We think of the one with his ruddy beauty and +changeful eyes, and lithe slight form, and of the other gaunt and black, +his giant strength weakened, and his "goodly" face scarred with the +lightnings of his passions--and as they look so they are. The one full +of joyous energy, the other devoured by gloom; the one going in and out +among the people and winning universal love, the other sitting moody and +self-absorbed behind his palace walls; the one bringing sweet clear +tones of trustful praise from his harp, the other shaking his huge spear +in his madness; the one ready for action and prosperous in it all, the +other paralyzed, shrinking from all work, and leaving the conduct of +the war to the servant whom he feared; the one conscious of the Divine +presence making him strong and calm, the other writhing in the gripe of +his evil spirit, and either foaming in fury, or stiffened into torpor; +the one steadily growing in power and favour with God and man, the other +sinking in deeper mire, and wrapped about with thickening mists as he +moves to his doom. The tragic pathos of these two lives in their fateful +antagonism is the embodiment of that awful alternative of life and +death, blessing and cursing, which it was the very aim of Judaism to +stamp ineffaceably on the conscience. + +David's flight begins a period to which a large number of his psalms are +referred. We may call them "The Songs of the Outlaw." The titles in the +psalter connect several with specific events during his persecution by +Saul, and besides these, there are others which have marked +characteristics in common, and may therefore be regarded as belonging to +the same time. The bulk of the former class are found in the second book +of the psalter (Ps. xlii.-lxxii.), which has been arranged with some +care. There are first eight Korahite psalms, and one of Asaph's; then a +group of fifteen Davidic (li.-lxv.), followed by two anonymous; then +three more of David's (lxviii.-lxx.), followed by one anonymous and the +well-known prayer "for Solomon." Now it is worth notice that the group +of fifteen psalms ascribed to David is as nearly as possible divided in +halves, eight having inscriptions which give a specific date of +composition, and seven having no such detail. There has also been some +attempt at arranging the psalms of these two classes alternately, but +that has not been accurately carried out. These facts show that the +titles are at all events as old as the compilation of the second book of +the psalter, and were regarded as accurate then. Several points about +the complete book of psalms as we have it, seem to indicate that these +two first books were an older nucleus, which was in existence long prior +to the present collection--and if so, the date of the titles must be +carried back a very long way indeed, and with a proportionate increase +of authority. + +Of the eight psalms in the second book having titles with specific +dates, five (Ps. lii., liv., lvi., lvii., lix.) are assigned to the +period of the Sauline persecution, and, as it would appear, with +accuracy. There is a general similarity of tone in them all, as well as +considerable parallelisms of expression, favourite phrases and +metaphors, which are favourable to the hypothesis of a nearly +cotemporaneous date. They are all in what, to use a phrase from another +art, we may call David's earlier manner. For instance, in all the +psalmist is surrounded by enemies. They would "swallow him up" (lvi. 1, +2; lvii. 3). They "oppress" him (liv. 3; lvi. 1). One of their weapons +is calumny, which seems from the frequent references to have much moved +the psalmist. Their tongues are razors (lii. 2), or swords (lvii. 4; +lix. 7; lxiv. 3). They seem to him like crouching beasts ready to spring +upon harmless prey (lvi. 6; lvii. 6; lix. 3); they are "lions" (lvii. +4), dogs (lix. 6, 14). He is conscious of nothing which he has done to +provoke this storm of hatred (lix. 3; lxiv. 4.) The "strength" of God is +his hope (liv. 1; lix. 9, 17). He is sure that retribution will fall +upon the enemies (lii. 5; liv. 5; lvi. 7; lvii. 6; lix. 8-15; lxiv. 7, +8). He vows and knows that psalms of deliverance will yet succeed these +plaintive cries (lii. 9; liv. 7; lvi. 12; lvii. 7-11; lix. 16, 17). + +We also find a considerable number of psalms in the first book of the +psalter which present the same features, and may therefore probably be +classed with these as belonging to the time of his exile. Such for +instance are the seventh and thirty-fourth, which have both inscriptions +referring them to this period, with others which we shall have to +consider presently. The imagery of the preceding group reappears in +them. His enemies are lions (vii. 2; xvii. 12; xxii. 13; xxxv. 17); dogs +(xxii. 16); bulls (xxii. 12). Pitfalls and snares are in his path (vii. +15; xxxi. 4; xxxv. 7). He passionately protests his innocence, and the +kindliness of his heart to his wanton foes (vii. 3-5; xvii. 3, 4); whom +he has helped and sorrowed over in their sickness (xxxv. 13, 14)--a +reference, perhaps, to his solacing Saul in his paroxysms with the music +of his harp. He dwells on retribution with vehemence (vii. 11-16; xi. +5-7; xxxi. 23; xxxv. 8), and on his own deliverance with confidence. + +These general characteristics accurately correspond with the +circumstances of David during the years of his wanderings. The scenery +and life of the desert colours the metaphors which describe his enemies +as wild beasts; himself as a poor hunted creature amongst pits and +snares; or as a timid bird flying to the safe crags, and God as his +Rock. Their strong assertions of innocence accord with the historical +indications of Saul's gratuitous hatred, and appear to distinguish the +psalms of this period from those of Absalom's revolt, in which the +remembrance of his great sin was too deep to permit of any such claims. +In like manner the prophecies of the enemies' destruction are too +triumphant to suit that later time of exile, when the father's heart +yearned with misplaced tenderness over his worthless son, and nearly +broke with unkingly sorrow for the rebel's death. Their confidence in +God, too, has in it a ring of joyousness in peril which corresponds with +the buoyant faith that went with him through all the desperate +adventures and hairbreadth escapes of the Sauline persecution. If then +we may, with some confidence, read these psalms in connection with that +period, what a noble portraiture of a brave, devout soul looks out upon +us from them. We see him in the first flush of his manhood--somewhere +about five-and-twenty years old--fronting perils of which he is fully +conscious, with calm strength and an enthusiasm of trust that lifts his +spirit above them all, into a region of fellowship with God which no +tumult can invade, and which no remembrance of black transgression +troubled and stained. His harp is his solace in his wanderings; and +while plaintive notes are flung from its strings, as is needful for the +deepest harmonies of praise here, every wailing tone melts into clear +ringing notes of glad affiance in the "God of his mercy." + +Distinct references to the specific events of his wanderings are, +undoubtedly, rare in them, though even these are more obvious than has +been sometimes carelessly assumed. Their infrequency and comparative +vagueness has been alleged against the accuracy of the inscriptions +which allocate certain psalms to particular occasions. But in so far as +it is true that these allusions are rare and inexact, the fact is surely +rather in favour of than against the correctness of the titles. For if +these are not suggested by obvious references in the psalms to which +they are affixed, by what can they have been suggested but by a +tradition considerably older than the compilation of the psalter? +Besides, the analogy of all other poetry would lead us to expect +precisely what we find in these psalms--general and not detailed +allusions to the writer's circumstances. The poetic imagination does not +reproduce the bald prosaic facts which have set it in motion, but the +echo of them broken up and etherealised. It broods over them till life +stirs, and the winged creature bursts from them to sing and soar. + +If we accept the title as accurate, the fifty-ninth psalm is the first +of these Songs of the Outlaw. It refers to the time "when Saul sent, and +they watched the house to kill him." Those critics who reject this date, +which they do on very weak grounds, lose themselves in a chaos of +assumptions as to the occasion of the psalm. The Chaldean invasion, the +assaults in the time of Nehemiah, and the era of the Maccabees, are +alleged with equal confidence and equal groundlessness. "We believe that +it is most advisable to adhere to the title, and most scientific to +ignore these hypotheses built on nothing." (Delitzsch.) + +It is a devotional and poetic commentary on the story in Samuel. There +we get the bare facts of the assassins prowling by night round David's +house; of Michal's warning; of her ready-witted trick to gain time, and +of his hasty flight to Samuel at Ramah. In the narrative David is, as +usual at this period, passive and silent; but when we turn to the psalm, +we learn the tone of his mind as the peril bursts upon him, and all the +vulgar craft and fear fades from before his lofty enthusiasm of faith. + +The psalm begins abruptly with a passionate cry for help, which is +repeated four times, thus bringing most vividly before us the extremity +of the danger and the persistency of the suppliant's trust. The peculiar +tenderness and closeness of his relation to his heavenly Friend, which +is so characteristic of David's psalms, and which they were almost the +first to express, breathes through the name by which he invokes help, +"my God." The enemies are painted in words which accurately correspond +with the history, and which by their variety reveal how formidable they +were to the psalmist. They "lie in wait (literally weave plots) for my +life." They are "workers of iniquity," "men of blood," insolent or +violent ("mighty" in English version). He asserts his innocence, as ever +in these Sauline psalms, and appeals to God in confirmation, "not for my +transgressions, nor for my sins, O Lord." He sees these eager tools of +royal malice hurrying to their congenial work: "they run and prepare +themselves." And then, rising high above all encompassing evils, he +grasps at the throne of God in a cry, which gains additional force when +we remember that the would-be murderers compassed his house in the +night. "Awake to meet me, and behold;" as if he had said, "In the +darkness do Thou see; at midnight sleep not Thou." The prayer is +continued in words which heap together with unwonted abundance the +Divine names, in each of which lie an appeal to God and a pillar of +faith. As Jehovah, the self-existent Fountain of timeless Being; as the +God of Hosts, the Commander of all the embattled powers of the universe, +whether they be spiritual or material; as the GOD of Israel, who calls +that people His, and has become theirs--he stirs up the strength of God +to "awake to visit all the heathen,"--a prayer which has been supposed +to compel the reference of the whole psalm to the assaults of Gentile +nations, but which may be taken as an anticipation on David's lips of +the truth that, "They are not all Israel which are of Israel." After a +terrible petition--"Be not merciful to any secret plotters of +evil"--there is a pause (Selah) to be filled, as it would appear, by +some chords on the harp, or the blare of the trumpets, thus giving time +to dwell on the previous petitions. + +But still the thought of the foe haunts him, and he falls again to the +lower level of painting their assembling round his house, and their +whispers as they take their stand. It would appear that the watch had +been kept up for more than one night. How he flings his growing scorn of +them into the sarcastic words, "They return at evening; they growl like +a dog, and compass the city" (or "go their rounds in the city"). One +sees them stealing through the darkness, like the troops of vicious curs +that infest Eastern cities, and hears their smothered threatenings as +they crouch in the shadow of the unlighted streets. Then growing bolder, +as the night deepens and sleep falls on the silent houses: "Behold they +pour out with their mouth, swords (are) in their lips, for 'who hears'?" +In magnificent contrast with these skulking murderers fancying +themselves unseen and unheard, David's faith rends the heaven, and, with +a daring image which is copied in a much later psalm (ii. 4), shows God +gazing on them with Divine scorn which breaks in laughter and mockery. A +brief verse, which recurs at the end of the psalm, closes the first +portion of the psalm with a calm expression of untroubled trust, in +beautiful contrast with the peril and tumult of soul, out of which it +rises steadfast and ethereal, like a rainbow spanning a cataract. A +slight error appears to have crept into the Hebrew text, which can be +easily corrected from the parallel verse at the end, and then the quiet +confident words are-- + + "My strength! upon Thee will I wait, + For God is my fortress!" + +The second portion is an intensification of the first; pouring out a +terrible prayer for exemplary retribution on his enemies; asking that no +speedy destruction may befall them, but that God would first of all +"make them reel" by the blow of His might; would then fling them +prostrate; would make their pride and fierce words a net to snare them; +and then, at last, would bring them to nothing in the hot flames of His +wrath--that the world may know that He is king. The picture of the +prowling dogs recurs with deepened scorn and firmer confidence that +they will hunt for their prey in vain. + + "And they return at evening; they growl like a dog, + And compass the city. + They--they prowl about for food + If (or, since) they are not satisfied, they spend the night (in the + search.)" + +There is almost a smile on his face as he thinks of their hunting about +for him, like hungry hounds snuffing for their meal in the kennels, and +growling now in disappointment--while he is safe beyond their reach. And +the psalm ends with a glad burst of confidence, and a vow of praise very +characteristic on his lips-- + + "But I--I will sing Thy power, + And shout aloud, in the morning, Thy mercy, + For Thou hast been a fortress for me. + And a refuge in the day of my trouble. + My strength! unto Thee will I harp, + For God is my fortress--the God of my mercy." + +Thrice he repeats the vow of praise. His harp was his companion in his +flight, and even in the midst of peril the poet's nature appears which +regards all life as materials for song, and the devout spirit appears +which regards all trial as occasions for praise. He has calmed his own +spirit, as he had done Saul's, by his song, and by prayer has swung +himself clear above fightings and fears. The refrain, which occurs twice +in the psalm, witnesses to the growth of his faith even while he sings. +At first he could only say in patient expectance, "My strength! I will +wait upon thee, for God is my fortress." But at the end his mood is +higher, his soul has caught fire as it revolves, and his last words are +a triumphant amplification of his earlier trust: "My strength! unto thee +will I sing with the harp--for God is my fortress--the God of my +mercy." + + + + +V.--THE EXILE--_CONTINUED_. + + +"So David fled, and escaped and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him +all that Saul had done unto him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in +Naioth" (1 Sam. xix. 18)--or, as the word probably means, in the +collection of students' dwellings, inhabited by the sons of the +prophets, where possibly there may have been some kind of right of +sanctuary. Driven thence by Saul's following him, and having had one +last sorrowful hour of Jonathan's companionship--the last but one on +earth--he fled to Nob, whither the ark had been carried after the +destruction of Shiloh. The story of his flight had not reached the +solitary little town among the hills, and he is received with the honour +due to the king's son-in-law. He pleads urgent secret business for Saul +as a reason for his appearance with a slender retinue, and unarmed; and +the priest, after some feeble scruples, supplies the handful of hungry +fugitives with the shewbread. But David's quick eye caught a swarthy +face peering at him from some enclosure of the simple forest sanctuary, +and as he recognised Doeg the Edomite, Saul's savage herdsman, a cold +foreboding of evil crept over his heart, and made him demand arms from +the peaceful priest. The lonely tabernacle was guarded by its own +sanctity, and no weapons were there, except one trophy which was of good +omen to David--Goliath's sword. He eagerly accepts the matchless weapon +which his hand had clutched on that day of danger and deliverance, and +thus armed, lest Doeg should try to bar his flight, he hurries from the +pursuit which he knew that the Edomite's malignant tongue would soon +bring after him. The tragical end of the unsuspecting priest's kindness +brings out the furious irrational suspicion and cruelty of Saul. He +rages at his servants as leagued with David in words which have a most +dreary sound of utter loneliness sighing through all their fierce folly: +"All of you have conspired against me; there is none of you that is +sorry for me" (1 Sam. xxii. 8.) Doeg is forward to curry favour by +telling his tale, and so tells it as to suppress the priest's ignorance +of David's flight, and to represent him as aiding and comforting the +rebel knowingly. Then fierce wrath flames out from the darkened spirit, +and the whole priestly population of Nob are summoned before him, loaded +with bitter reproaches, their professions of innocence disregarded, and +his guard ordered to murder them all then and there. The very soldiers +shrink from the sacrilege, but a willing tool is at hand. The wild blood +of Edom, fired by ancestral hatred, desires no better work, and Doeg +crowns his baseness by slaying--with the help of his herdsmen, no +doubt--"on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear an ephod," +and utterly extirpating every living thing from the defenceless little +city. + +One psalm, the fifty-second, is referred by its inscription to this +period, but the correspondence between the history and the tone of the +psalm is doubtful. It is a vehement rebuke and a prophecy of destruction +directed against an enemy, whose hostility was expressed in "devouring +words." The portrait does not apply very accurately to the Doeg of the +historical books, inasmuch as it describes the psalmist's enemy as "a +mighty man,"--or rather as "a hero," and as trusting "in the abundance +of his riches,"--and makes the point of the reproach against him that +he is a confirmed liar. But the dastardly deed of blood may be covertly +alluded to in the bitterly sarcastic "hero"--as if he had said, "O brave +warrior, who dost display thy prowess in murdering unarmed priests and +women?" And Doeg's story to Saul was a lie in so far as it gave the +impression of the priests' complicity with David, and thereby caused +their deaths on a false charge. The other features of the description +are not contrary to the narrative, and most of them are in obvious +harmony with it. The psalm, then, may be taken as showing how deeply +David's soul was stirred by the tragedy. He pours out broken words of +hot and righteous indignation: + + "Destructions doth thy tongue devise, + Like a razor whetted--O thou worker of deceit." + + * * * * * + + "Thou lovest all words that devour:[F] O thou deceitful tongue!" + +[F] Literally, "words of swallowing up." + +He prophesies the destruction of the cruel liar, and the exultation of +the righteous when he falls, in words which do indeed belong to the old +covenant of retribution, and yet convey an eternal truth which modern +sentimentalism finds very shocking, but which is witnessed over and +over again in the relief that fills the heart of nations and of +individuals when evil men fade: "When the wicked perish, there is +shouting"-- + + "Also God shall smite thee down for ever, + Will draw thee out,[G] and carry thee away from the tent, + And root thee out of the land of the living; + And the righteous shall see and fear, + And over him shall they laugh." + +In confident security he opposes his own happy fellowship with God to +this dark tragedy of retribution: + + "But I--(I am) like a green olive tree in the house of God." + +[G] The full force of the word is, "will pluck out as a glowing ember +from a hearth" (Delitzsch). + +The enemy was to be "rooted out;" the psalmist is to flourish by +derivation of life and vigour from God. If Robinson's conjecture that +Nob was on the Mount of Olives were correct (which is very doubtful), +the allusion here would gain appropriateness. As the olives grew all +round the humble forest sanctuary, and were in some sort hallowed by the +shrine which they encompassed, so the soul grows and is safe in loving +fellowship with God. Be that as it may, the words express the outlaw's +serene confidence that he is safe beneath the sheltering mercy of God, +and re-echo the hopes of his earlier psalm, "I will dwell in the house +of the Lord for ever." The stormy indignation of the earlier verses +passes away into calm peace and patient waiting in praise and trust: + + "I will praise Thee for ever, for Thou hast done (it), + And wait on Thy name in the presence of Thy beloved, for it is good." + +Hunted from Nob, David with a small company struck across the country in +a southwesterly direction, keeping to the safety of the tangled +mountains, till, from the western side of the hills of Judah, he looked +down upon the broad green plain of Philistia. Behind him was a mad +tyrant, in front the uncircumcised enemies of his country and his God. +His condition was desperate, and he had recourse to desperate measures. +That nearest Philistine city, some ten miles off, on which he looked +down from his height, was Gath; the glen where he had killed its +champion was close beside him,--every foot of ground was familiar by +many a foray and many a fight. It was a dangerous resource to trust +himself in Gath, with Goliath's sword dangling in his belt. But he may +have hoped that he was not known by person, or may have thought that +Saul's famous commander would be a welcome guest, as a banished man, at +the Philistine court. So he made the plunge, and took refuge in +Goliath's city. Discovery soon came, and in the most ominous form. It +was an ugly sign that the servants of Achish should be quoting the words +of the chant of victory which extolled him as the slayer of their +countryman. Vengeance for his death was but too likely to come next. The +doubts of his identity seem to have lasted for some little time, and to +have been at first privately communicated to the king. They somehow +reached David, and awoke his watchful attention, as well as his fear. +The depth of his alarm and his ready resource are shown by his degrading +trick of assumed madness--certainly the least heroic action of his life. +What a picture of a furious madman is the description of his conduct +when Achish's servants came to arrest him. He "twisted himself about in +their hands" in the feigned contortions of possession; he drummed on the +leaves of the gate,[H] and "let his spittle run down into his beard." +(1 Sam. xxi. 13.) Israelitish quickness gets the better of Philistine +stupidity, as it had been used to do from Sampson's time onwards, and +the dull-witted king falls into the trap, and laughs away the suspicions +with a clumsy joke at his servants' expense about more madmen being the +last thing he was short of. A hasty flight from Philistine territory +ended this episode. + +[H] The Septuagint appears to have followed a different reading here +from that of our present Hebrew text, and the change adds a very +picturesque clause to the description. A madman would be more likely to +hammer than to "scrabble" on the great double-leaved gate. + +The fifty-sixth psalm, which is referred by its title to this period, +seems at first sight to be in strange contrast with the impressions +drawn from the narrative, but on a closer examination is found to +confirm the correctness of the reference by its contents. The terrified +fugitive, owing his safety to a trick, and slavering like an idiot in +the hands of his rude captors, had an inner life of trust strong enough +to hold his mortal terror in check, though not to annihilate it. The +psalm is far in advance of the conduct--is it so unusual a circumstance +as to occasion surprise, that lofty and sincere utterances of faith and +submission should co-exist with the opposite feelings? Instead of taking +the contrast between the words and the acts as a proof that this psalm +is wrongly ascribed to the period in question, let us rather be thankful +for another instance that imperfect faith may be genuine, and that if we +cannot rise to the height of unwavering fortitude, God accepts a +tremulous trust fighting against mortal terror, and grasping with a +feeble hand the word of God, and the memory of all his past +deliverances. It is precisely this conflict of faith and fear which the +psalm sets before us. It falls into three portions, the first and second +of which are closed by a kind of refrain (vers. 4, 10, 11)--a structure +which is characteristic of several of these Sauline persecution psalms +(_e.g._, lvii. 5, 11; lix. 9, 17). The first part of each of these two +portions is a vivid description of his danger, from which he rises to +the faith expressed in the closing words. The repetition of the same +thoughts in both is not to be regarded as a cold artifice of +composition, but as the true expression of the current of his thoughts. +He sees his enemies about him, ready to swallow him up--"there be many +fighting against me disdainfully"[I] (ver. 2). Whilst the terror creeps +round his heart ("he was sore afraid," 1 Sam. xxi. 12), he rouses +himself to trust, as he says, in words which express most emphatically +the co-existence of the two, and carry a precious lesson of the reality +of even an interrupted faith, streaked with many a black line of doubt +and dread. + +[I] Literally, "loftily." Can there be any allusion to the giant stature +of Goliath's relations in Gath? We hear of four men "born to the giant +in Gath," who were killed in David's wars. (2 Sam. xxi. 22.) + + "(In) the day (that) I am afraid--I trust on Thee." + +And then he breaks into the utterance of praise and confidence--to which +he has climbed by the ladder of prayer. + + "In God I praise His word, + In God I trust, I do not fear:-- + What shall flesh do to me?" + +How profoundly these words set forth the object of his trust, as being +not merely the promise of God--which in David's case may be the specific +promise conveyed by his designation to the throne--but the God who +promises, the inmost nature of that confidence as being a living union +with God, the power of it as grappling with his dread, and enabling him +now to say, "I do _not_ fear." + +But again he falls from this height; another surge of fear breaks over +him, and almost washes him from his rock. His foes, with ceaseless +malice, arrest his words; they skulk in ambush, they dog his heels, they +long for his life. The crowded clauses portray the extremity of the +peril and the singer's agitation. His soul is still heaving with the +ground swell of the storm, though the blasts come more fitfully, and are +dying into calm. He is not so afraid but that he can turn to God; he +turns to Him because he is afraid, like the disciples in later days, who +had so much of terror that they must awake their Master, but so much of +trust that His awaking was enough. He pleads with God, as in former +psalms, against his enemies, in words which go far beyond the occasion, +and connect his own deliverance with the judgments of God over the whole +earth. He plaintively recalls his homelessness and his sorrows in words +which exhibit the characteristic blending of hope and pain, and which +are beautifully in accordance with the date assigned to the psalm. "My +wanderings dost Thou, even Thou, number." He is not alone in these +weary flights from Gibeah to Ramah, from Ramah to Nob, from Nob to Gath, +from Gath he knows not whither. One friend goes with him through them +all. And as the water-skin was a necessary part of a traveller's +equipment, the mention of his wanderings suggests the bold and tender +metaphor of the next clause, "Put my tears in Thy bottle,"--a prayer for +that very remembrance of his sorrows, in the existence of which he +immediately declares his confidence--"Are they not in Thy book?" The +true office of faithful communion with God is to ask for, and to +appropriate, the blessings which in the very act become ours. He knows +that his cry will scatter his foes, for God is for him. And thus once +again he has risen to the height of confidence where for a moment his +feet have been already planted, and again--but this time with even +fuller emphasis, expressed by an amplification which introduces for the +only time in the psalm the mighty covenant name--he breaks into his +triumphant strain-- + + "In God I praise the Word; + In JEHOVAH I praise the Word: + In God I trust, I do not fear:-- + What shall man do to me?" + +And from this mood of trustful expectation he does not again decline. +Prayer has brought its chiefest blessing--the peace that passeth +understanding. The foe is lost to sight, the fear conquered conclusively +by faith; the psalm which begins with a plaintive cry, ends in praise +for deliverance, as if it had been already achieved-- + + "Thou hast delivered my life from death, + (Hast Thou) not (delivered) my feet from falling, + That I may walk before God in the light of the living?" + +He already reckons himself safe; his question is not an expression of +doubt, but of assurance; and he sees the purpose of all God's dealings +with him to be that the activities of life may all be conducted in the +happy consciousness of _His_ eye who is at once Guardian and Judge of +His children. How far above his fears and lies has this hero and saint +risen by the power of supplication and the music of his psalm! + +David naturally fled into Israelitish territory from Gath. The exact +locality of the cave Adullam, where we next find him, is doubtful; but +several strong reasons occur for rejecting the monkish tradition which +places it away to the east, in one of the wild wadies which run down +from Bethlehem to the Dead Sea. We should expect it to be much more +accessible by a hasty march from Gath. Obviously it would be convenient +for him to hang about the frontier of Philistia and Israel, that he +might quickly cross the line from one to the other, as dangers appeared. +Further, the city of Adullam is frequently mentioned, and always in +connections which fix its site as on the margin of the great plain of +Philistia, and not far from Gath. (2 Chron. xi. 7, etc.) There is no +reason to suppose that the cave of Adullam was in a totally different +district from the city. The hills of Dan and Judah, which break sharply +down into the plain within a few miles of Gath, are full of "extensive +excavations," and there, no doubt, we are to look for the rocky hold, +where he felt himself safer from pursuit, and whence he could look down +over the vast sweep of the rich Philistine country. Gath lay at his +feet, close by was the valley where he had killed Goliath, the scenes of +Samson's exploits were all about him. Thither fled to him his whole +family, from fear, no doubt, of Saul's revenge falling on them; and +there he gathers his band of four hundred desperate men, whom poverty +and misery, and probably the king's growing tyranny, drove to flight. +They were wild, rough soldiers, according to the picturesque +description, "whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as +swift as the roes upon the mountains." They were not freebooters, but +seem to have acted as a kind of frontier-guard against southern Bedouins +and western Philistines for the sheep-farmers of the border whom Saul's +government was too weak to protect. In this desultory warfare, and in +eluding the pursuit of Saul, against whom it is to be observed David +never employed any weapon but flight, several years were passed. The +effect of such life on his spiritual nature was to deepen his +unconditional dependence on God; by the alternations of heat and cold, +fear and hope, danger and safety, to temper his soul and make it +flexible, tough and bright as steel. It evolved the qualities of a +leader of men; teaching him command and forbearance, promptitude and +patience, valour and gentleness. It won for him a name as the defender +of the nation, as Nabal's servant said of him and his men, "They were a +wall unto us, both by night and by day" (1 Sam. xxv. 16). And it +gathered round him a force of men devoted to him by the enthusiastic +attachment bred from long years of common dangers, and the hearty +friendships of many a march by day, and nightly encampment round the +glimmering watchfires, beneath the lucid stars. + + + + +VI.--THE EXILE--_CONTINUED_. + + +We have one psalm which the title connects with the beginning of David's +stay at Adullam,--the thirty-fourth. The supposition that it dates from +that period throws great force into many parts of it, and gives a unity +to what is else apparently fragmentary and disconnected. Unlike those +already considered, which were pure soliloquies, this is full of +exhortation and counsel, as would naturally be the case if it were +written when friends and followers began to gather to his standard. It +reads like a long sigh of relief at escape from a danger just past; its +burden is to tell of God's deliverance, and to urge to trust in Him. How +perfectly this tone corresponds to the circumstances immediately after +his escape from Gath to Adullam need not be more than pointed out. The +dangers which he had dreaded and the cry to God which he had sent forth +are still present to his mind, and echo through his song, like a +subtly-touched chord of sadness, which appears for a moment, and is +drowned in the waves of some triumphant music. + + "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, + And from all my alarms He delivered me. + + * * * * * + + This afflicted (man) cried, and Jehovah heard, + And from all his troubles He saved him." + +And the "local colouring" of the psalm corresponds too with the +circumstances of Adullam. How appropriate, for instance, does the form +in which the Divine protection is proclaimed become, when we think of +the little band bivouacking among the cliffs, "The angel of the Lord +encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Like his +great ancestor, he is met in his desert flight by heavenly guards, "and +he calls the name of that place Mahanaim" (that is, "two camps"), as +discerning gathered round his own feeble company the ethereal weapons of +an encircling host of the warriors of God, through whose impenetrable +ranks his foes must pierce before they can reach him. From Samson's time +we read of lions in this district (Judges xiv. 8, 9), and we may +recognise another image as suggested by their growls heard among the +ravines, and their gaunt forms prowling near the cave. "The young lions +do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want +any good" (ver. 10). + +And then he passes to earnest instructions and exhortations, which +derive appositeness from regarding them as a proclamation to his men of +the principles on which his camp is to be governed. "Come, ye children, +hearken unto me." He regards himself as charged with guiding them to +godliness: "I will teach you the fear of the Lord." With some +remembrance, perhaps, of his deception at Gath, he warns them to "keep" +their "tongues from evil" and their "lips from speaking guile." They are +not to be in love with warfare, but, even with their swords in their +hands, are to "seek peace, and pursue it." On these exhortations follow +joyous assurances of God's watchful eye fixed upon the righteous, and +His ear open to their cry; of deliverance for his suppliants, whatsoever +hardship and trouble they may have to wade through; of a guardianship +which "keepeth all the bones" of the righteous, so that neither the +blows of the foe nor the perils of the crags should break them,--all +crowned with the contrast ever present to David's mind, and having a +personal reference to his enemies and to himself: + + "Evil shall slay the wicked, + And the haters of the righteous shall suffer penalty. + Jehovah redeems the life of His servants, + And no penalty shall any suffer who trust in Him." + +Such were the counsels and teachings of the young leader to his little +band,--noble "general orders" from a commander at the beginning of a +campaign! + +We venture to refer the twenty-seventh psalm also to this period. It is +generally supposed, indeed, by those commentators who admit its Davidic +authorship, to belong to the time of Absalom's rebellion. The main +reason for throwing it so late is the reference in ver. 4 to dwelling in +the house of the Lord and inquiring in His temple.[J] This is supposed +to require a date subsequent to David's bringing up of the ark to +Jerusalem, and placing it in a temporary sanctuary. But whilst longing +for the sanctuary is no doubt characteristic of the psalms of the later +wanderings, it is by no means necessary to suppose that in the present +case that desire, which David represents as the longing of his life, was +a desire for mere bodily presence in a material temple. Indeed, the very +language seems to forbid such an interpretation. Surely the desire for +an abode in the house of the Lord--which was his one wish, which he +longed to have continuous throughout all the days of his life, which was +to surround him with a privacy of protection in trouble, and to be as +the munitions of rocks about him--was something else than a morbid +desire for an impossible seclusion in the tabernacle,--a desire fitter +for some sickly medićval monarch who buried his foolish head and faint +heart in a monastery than for God's Anointed. We have seen an earlier +germ of the same desire in the twenty-third psalm, the words of which +are referred to here; and the interpretation of the one is the +interpretation of the other. The psalmist breathes his longing for the +Divine fellowship, which shall be at once vision, and guidance, and +hidden life in distress, and stability, and victory, and shall break +into music of perpetual praise. + +[J] "The fourth verse in its present form _must_ have been written after +the temple was built."--"The Psalms chronologically arranged," p. +68--following Ewald, in whose imperious criticism that same naked "must +have been," works wonders. + +If, then, we are not obliged by the words in question to adopt the +later date, there is much in the psalm which strikingly corresponds with +the earlier, and throws beautiful illustration on the psalmist's mood at +this period. One such allusion we venture to suppose in the words (ver. +2), + + "When the wicked came against me to devour my flesh, + My enemies and my foes,--they stumbled and fell;" + +which have been usually taken as a mere general expression, without any +allusion to a specific event. But there was one incident in David's life +which had been forced upon his remembrance by his recent peril at +Gath--his duel with Goliath, which exactly meets the very peculiar +language here. The psalm employs the same word as the narrative, which +tells how the Philistine "arose, and came, and drew near to David." The +braggart boast, "I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and the +beasts of the fields," is echoed in the singular phrase of the psalm; +and the emphatic, rapid picture, "they stumbled and fell," is at once a +reminiscence of the hour when the stone crashed through the thick +forehead, "and he fell upon his face to the earth;" and also a reference +to an earlier triumph in Israel's history, celebrated with fierce +exultation in the wild chant whom rolls the words like a sweet morsel +under the tongue, as it tells of Sisera-- + + "Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay; + Between her feet he bowed, he fell; + Where he bowed, there he fell down dead." + +Another autobiographical reference in the psalm has been disputed on +insufficient grounds: + + "For my father and my mother forsake me, + And Jehovah takes me up." (Ver. 10.) + +It is, at all events, a remarkable coincidence that the only mention of +his parents after the earliest chapters of his life falls in precisely +with this period of the history, and is such as might have suggested +these words. We read (1 Sam. xxii. 3, 4) that he once ventured all the +way from Adullam to Moab to beg an asylum from Saul's indiscriminate +fury for his father and mother, who were no doubt too old to share his +perils, as the rest of his family did. Having prepared a kindly welcome +for them, perhaps on the strength of the blood of Ruth the Moabitess in +Jesse's veins, he returned to Bethlehem, brought the old couple away, +and guarded them safely to their refuge. It is surely most natural to +suppose that the psalm is the lyrical echo of that event, and most +pathetic to conceive of the psalmist as thinking of the happy home at +Bethlehem now deserted, his brothers lurking with him among the rocks, +and his parents exiles in heathen lands. Tears fill his eyes, but he +lifts them to a Father that is never parted from him, and feels that he +is no more orphaned nor homeless. + +The psalm is remarkable for the abrupt transition of feeling which +cleaves it into two parts; one (vers. 1-6) full of jubilant hope and +enthusiastic faith, the other (vers. 7-14) a lowly cry for help. There +is no need to suppose, with some critics, that we have here two +independent hymns bound together in error. He must have little knowledge +of the fluctuations of the devout life who is surprised to find so swift +a passage from confidence to conscious weakness. Whilst the usual order +in the psalms, as the usual order in good men's experience, is that +prayer for deliverance precedes praise and triumph, true communion with +God is bound to no mechanical order, and may begin with gazing on God, +and realizing the mysteries of beauty in His secret place, ere it drops +to earth. The lark sings as it descends from the "privacy of glorious +light" to its nest in the stony furrows as sweetly, though more +plaintively, than whilst it circles upwards to the sky. It is perhaps a +nobler effect of faith to begin with God and hymn the victory as if +already won, than to begin with trouble and to call for deliverance. But +with whichever we commence, the prayer of earth must include both; and +so long as we are weak, and God our strength, its elements must be +"supplication and thanksgiving." The prayer of our psalm bends round +again to its beginning, and after the plaintive cry for help breaks once +more into confidence (vers. 13, 14). The psalmist shudders as he thinks +what ruin would have befallen him if he had not trusted in God, and +leaves the unfinished sentence,--as a man looking down into some fearful +gulf starts back and covers his eyes, before he has well seen the bottom +of the abyss. + + "If I had not believed to see the goodness of the Lord + in the land of the living!" + +Then rejoicing to remember how even by his feeble trust he has been +saved, he stirs up himself to a firmer faith, in words which are +themselves an exercise of faith, as well as an incitement to it: + + "Wait on Jehovah! + Courage! and let thy heart be strong! + Yea! wait on Jehovah!" + +Here is the true highest type of a troubled soul's fellowship with God, +when the black fear and consciousness of weakness is inclosed in a +golden ring of happy trust. Let the name of our God be first upon our +lips, and the call to our wayward hearts to wait on Him be last, and +then we may between think of our loneliness, and feebleness, and foes, +and fears, without losing our hold of our Father's hand. + +David in his rocky eyrie was joyful, because he began with God. It was a +man in real peril who said, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom +shall I fear?" It was at a critical pause in his fortunes, when he knew +not yet whether Saul's malice was implacable, that he said, "Though war +should rise against me, in this will I be confident." It was in +thankfulness for the safe hiding-place among the dark caverns of the +hills that he celebrated the dwelling of the soul in God with words +coloured by his circumstances, "In the secret of His tabernacle shall +He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock." It was with Philistia at +his feet before and Saul's kingdom in arms behind that his triumphant +confidence was sure that "Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine +enemies round about me." It was in weakness, not expelled even by such +joyous faith, that he plaintively besought God's mercy, and laid before +His mercy-seat as the mightiest plea His own inviting words, "Seek ye My +face," and His servant's humble response, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek." +Together, these made it impossible that that Face, the beams of which +are light and salvation, should be averted. God's past comes to his lips +as a plea for a present consistent with it and with His own mighty name. +"Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my +salvation." His loneliness, his ignorance of his road, and the enemies +who watch him, and, like a later Saul, "breathe out cruelty" (see Acts +ix. 1), become to him in his believing petitions, not grounds of fear, +but arguments with God; and having thus mastered all that was +distressful in his lot, by making it all the basis of his cry for help, +he rises again to hope, and stirs up himself to lay hold on God, to be +strong and bold, because his expectation is from Him. A noble picture of +a steadfast soul; steadfast not because of absence of fears and reasons +for fear, but because of presence of God and faith in Him. + +Having abandoned Adullam, by the advice of the prophet Gad, who from +this time appears to have been a companion till the end of his reign (2 +Sam. xxiv. 11), and who subsequently became his biographer (1 Chron. +xxix. 29), he took refuge, as outlaws have ever been wont to do, in the +woods. In his forest retreat, somewhere among the now treeless hills of +Judah, he heard of a plundering raid made by the Philistines on one of +the unhappy border towns. The marauders had broken in upon the mirth of +the threshing-floors with the shout of battle, and swept away the year's +harvest. The banished man resolved to strike a blow at the ancestral +foes. Perhaps one reason may have been the wish to show that, outlaw as +he was, he, and not the morbid laggard at Gibeah, who was only stirred +to action by mad jealousy, was the sword of Israel. The little band +bursts from the hills on the spoil-encumbered Philistines, recaptures +the cattle which like moss troopers they were driving homewards from +the ruined farmsteads, and routs them with great slaughter. But the +cowardly townspeople of Keilah had less gratitude than fear; and the +king's banished son-in-law was too dangerous a guest, even though he was +of their own tribe, and had delivered them from the enemy. Saul, who had +not stirred from his moody seclusion to beat back invasion, summoned a +hasty muster, in the hope of catching David in the little city, like a +fox in his earth: and the cowardly citizens meditated saving their homes +by surrendering their champion. David and his six hundred saved +themselves by a rapid flight, and, as it would appear, by breaking up +into detachments. "They went whithersoever they could go" (1 Sam. xxiii. +13); whilst David, with some handful, made his way to the inhospitable +wilderness which stretches from the hills of Judah to the shores of the +Dead Sea, and skulked there in "lurking places" among the crags and +tangled underwood. With fierce perseverance "Saul sought him every day, +but God delivered him not into his hand." One breath of love, fragrant +and strength-giving, was wafted to his fainting heart, when Jonathan +found his way where Saul could not come, and the two friends met once +more. In the woodland solitudes they plighted their faith again, and the +beautiful unselfishness of Jonathan is wonderfully set forth in his +words, "Thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee;" +while an awful glimpse is given into that mystery of a godless will +consciously resisting the inevitable, when there is added, "and that +also Saul, my father, knoweth." In such resistance the king's son has no +part, for it is pointedly noticed that he returned to his house. +Treachery, and that from the men of his own tribe, again dogs David's +steps. The people of Ziph, a small place on the edge of the southern +desert, betray his haunt to Saul. The king receives the intelligence +with a burst of thanks, in which furious jealousy and perverted +religion, and a sense of utter loneliness and misery, and a strange +self-pity, are mingled most pathetically and terribly: "Blessed be ye of +the Lord, for ye have compassion on me!" He sends them away to mark down +his prey; and when they have tracked him to his lair, he follows with +his force and posts them round the hill where David and his handful +lurk. The little band try to escape, but they are surrounded and +apparently lost. At the very moment when the trap is just going to +close, a sudden messenger, "fiery red with haste," rushes into Saul's +army with news of a formidable invasion: "Haste thee and come; for the +Philistines have spread themselves upon the land!" So the eager hand, +ready to smite and crush, is plucked back; and the hour of deepest +distress is the hour of deliverance. + +At some period in this lowest ebb of David's fortunes, we have one short +psalm, very simple and sad (liv.) It bears the title, "When the Ziphims +came and said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us?" and may +probably be referred to the former of the two betrayals by the men of +Ziph. The very extremity of peril has made the psalmist still and quiet. +The sore need has shortened his prayer. He is too sure that God hears to +use many words; for it is distrust, not faith, which makes us besiege +His throne with much speaking. He is confident as ever; but one feels +that there is a certain self-restraint and air of depression over the +brief petitions, which indicate the depth of his distress and the +uneasiness of protracted anxiety. Two notes only sound from his harp: +one a plaintive cry for help; the other, thanksgiving for deliverance as +already achieved. The two are bound together by the recurrence in each +of "the name" of GOD, which is at once the source of his salvation and +the theme of his praise. We have only to read the lowly petitions to +feel that they speak of a spirit somewhat weighed down by danger, and +relaxed from the loftier mood of triumphant trust. + + (1) O God, by Thy name save me, + And in Thy strength do judgment for me + + (2) O God, hear my prayer, + Give ear to the words of my mouth. + + (3) For strangers are risen against me, + And tyrants seek my life. + They set not God before them. + +The enemies are called "strangers;" but, as we have seen in the first of +these songs of the exile, it is not necessary, therefore, to suppose +that they were not Israelites. The Ziphites were men of Judah like +himself; and there is bitter emphasis as well as a gleam of insight into +the spiritual character of the true Israel in calling them foreigners. +The other name, oppressors, or violent men, or, as we have rendered it, +tyrants, corresponds too accurately with the character of Saul in his +later years, to leave much doubt that it is pointed at him. If so, the +softening of the harsh description by the use of the plural is in +beautiful accordance with the forgiving leniency which runs through all +David's conduct to him. Hard words about Saul himself do not occur in +the psalms. His counsellors, his spies, the liars who calumniated David +to him, and for their own ends played upon his suspicious nature,--the +tools who took care that the cruel designs suggested by themselves +should be carried out, kindle David's wrath, but it scarcely ever lights +on the unhappy monarch whom he loved with all-enduring charity while he +lived, and mourned with magnificent eulogy when he died. The allusion is +made all the more probable, because of the verbal correspondence with +the narrative which records that "Saul was come out to seek his life" (1 +Sam. xxiii. 15.) + +A chord or two from the harp permits the mind to dwell on the thought of +the foes, and prepares for the second part of this psalm. In it +thanksgiving and confidence flow from the petitions of the former +portion. But the praise is not so jubilant, nor the trust so +victorious, as we have seen them. "The peace of God" has come in answer +to prayer, but it is somewhat subdued: + + "Behold, God is my helper; + The Lord is the supporter of my life." + +The foes sought his life, but, as the historical book gives the +antithesis, "Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into +his hand." The rendering of the English version, "The Lord is with them +that uphold my soul," is literally accurate, but does not convey the +meaning of the Hebrew idiom. God is not regarded as one among many +helpers, but as alone the supporter or upholder of his life. Believing +that, the psalmist, of course, believes as a consequence that his +enemies will be smitten with evil for their evil. The prophetic lip of +faith calls things that are not as though they were. In the midst of his +dangers he looks forward to songs of deliverance and glad sacrifices of +praise; and the psalm closes with words that approach the more fervid +utterances we have already heard, as if his song had raised his own +spirit above its fears: + + (6) With willinghood will I sacrifice unto Thee. + I will praise Thy name for it is good. + + + (7) For from all distress it has delivered me. + And on my enemies will mine eye see (my desire) + +The name--the revealed character of God--was the storehouse of all the +saving energies to which he appealed in verse 1. It is the theme of his +praise when the deliverance shall have come. It is almost regarded here +as equivalent to the Divine personality--it is good, _it_ has delivered +him. Thus, we may say that this brief psalm gives us as the single +thought of a devout soul in trouble, the name of the Lord, and teaches +by its simple pathos how the contemplation of God as He has made Himself +known, should underlie every cry for help and crown every thanksgiving; +whilst it may assure us that whosoever seeks for the salvation of that +mighty name may, even in the midst of trouble, rejoice as in an +accomplished deliverance. And all such thoughts should be held with a +faith at least as firm as the ancient psalmist's, by us to whom the +"name" of the Lord is "declared" by Him who is the full revelation of +God, and the storehouse of all blessings and help to his "brethren." +(Heb. ii. 12.) + +A little plain of some mile or so in breadth slopes gently down towards +the Dead Sea about the centre of its western shore. It is girdled round +by savage cliffs, which, on the northern side, jut out in a bold +headland to the water's edge. At either extremity is a stream flowing +down a deep glen choked with luxurious vegetation; great fig-trees, +canes, and maiden-hair ferns covering the rocks. High up on the hills +forming its western boundary a fountain sparkles into light, and falls +to the flat below in long slender threads. Some grey weathered stones +mark the site of a city that was old when Abraham wandered in the land. +Traces of the palm forests which, as its name indicates, were cleared +for its site (Hazezon Tamar, The palm-tree clearing) have been found, +encrusted with limestone, in the warm, damp gullies, and ruined terraces +for vineyards can be traced on the bare hill-sides. But the fertility of +David's time is gone, and the precious streams nourish only a jungle +haunted by leopard and ibex. This is the fountain and plain of Engedi +(the fount of the wild goat), a spot which wants but industry and care +to make it a little paradise. Here David fled from the neighbouring +wilderness, attracted no doubt by the safety of the deep gorges and +rugged hills, as well as by the abundance of water in the fountain and +the streams. The picturesque and touching episode of his meeting with +Saul has made the place for ever memorable. There are many excavations +in the rocks about the fountain, which may have been the cave--black as +night to one looking inward with eyes fresh from the blinding glare of +sunlight upon limestone, but holding a glimmering twilight to one +looking outwards with eyes accustomed to the gloom--in the innermost +recesses of which David lay hid while Saul tarried in its mouth. The +narrative gives a graphic picture of the hurried colloquy among the +little band, when summary revenge was thus unexpectedly put within their +grasp. The fierce retainers whispered their suggestion that it would be +"tempting providence" to let such an opportunity escape; but the nobler +nature of David knows no personal animosity, and in these earliest days +is flecked by no cruelty nor lust of blood. He cannot, however, resist +the temptation of showing his power and almost parading his forbearance +by stealing through the darkness and cutting away the end of Saul's long +robe. It was little compared with what he could as easily have +done--smite him to the heart as he crouched there defenceless. But it +was a coarse practical jest, conveying a rude insult, and the quickly +returning nobleness of his nature made him ashamed of it, as soon as he +had clambered back with his trophy. He felt that the sanctity of Saul's +office as the anointed of the Lord should have saved him from the gibe. +The king goes his way all unawares, and, as it would seem, had not +regained his men, when David, leaving his band (very much out of temper +no doubt at his foolish nicety), yields to a gush of ancient friendship +and calls loudly after him, risking discovery and capture in his +generous emotion. The pathetic conversation which ensued is eminently +characteristic of both men, so tragically connected and born to work woe +to one another. David's remonstrance (1 Sam. xxiv. 9-15) is full of +nobleness, of wounded affection surviving still, of conscious rectitude, +of solemn devout appeal to the judgment of God. He has no words of +reproach for Saul, no weak upbraidings, no sullen anger, no repaying +hate with hate. He almost pleads with the unhappy king, and yet there is +nothing undignified or feeble in his tone. The whole is full of +correspondences, often of verbal identity, with the psalms which we +assign to this period. The calumnies which he so often complains of in +these are the subject of his first words to Saul, whom he regards as +having had his heart poisoned by lies: "Wherefore hearest thou men's +words, saying, Behold! David seeketh thy hurt." He asserts absolute +innocence of anything that warranted the king's hostility, just as he +does so decisively in the psalms. "There is neither evil nor +transgression in my hand, and I have not sinned against thee." As in +them he so often compares himself to some wild creature pursued like the +goats in the cliffs of Engedi, so he tells Saul, "Thou huntest my life +to take it." And his appeal from earth's slanders, and misconceptions, +and cruelties, to the perfect tribunal of God, is couched in language, +every clause of which may be found in his psalms. "The Lord, therefore, +be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, +and deliver me out of thy hand." + +The unhappy Saul again breaks into a passion of tears. With that sudden +flashing out into vehement emotion so characteristic of him, and so +significant of his enfeebled self-control, he recognises David's +generous forbearance and its contrast to his own conduct. For a moment, +at all events, he sees, as by a lightning flash, the mad hopelessness of +the black road he is treading in resisting the decree that has made his +rival king--and he binds him by an oath to spare his house when he sits +on the throne. The picture moves awful thoughts and gentle pity for the +poor scathed soul writhing in its hopelessness and dwelling in a great +solitude of fear, but out of which stray gleams of ancient nobleness +still break;--and so the doomed man goes back to his gloomy seclusion at +Gibeah, and David to the free life of the mountains and the wilderness. + + + + +VII.--THE EXILE--_CONTINUED_. + + +There are many echoes of this period of Engedi in the Psalms. Perhaps +the most distinctly audible of these are to be found in the seventh +psalm, which is all but universally recognised as David's, even Ewald +concurring in the general consent. It is an irregular ode--for such is +the meaning of Shiggaion in the title, and by its broken rhythms and +abrupt transitions testifies to the emotion of its author. The occasion +of it is said to be "the words of Cush the Benjamite." As this is a +peculiar name for an Israelite, it has been supposed to be an +allegorical designation for some historical person, expressive of his +character. We might render it "the negro." The Jewish commentators have +taken it to refer to Saul himself, but the bitter tone of the psalm, so +unlike David's lingering forbearance to the man whom he never ceased to +love, is against that supposition. Shimei the Benjamite, whose foul +tongue cursed him in rabid rage, as he fled before Absalom, has also +been thought of, but the points of correspondence with the earlier date +are too numerous to make that reference tenable. It seems better to +suppose that Cush "the black" was one of Saul's tribe, who had been +conspicuous among the calumniators of whom we have seen David +complaining to the king. And if so, there is no period in the Sauline +persecution into which the psalm will fit so naturally as the present. +Its main thoughts are precisely those which he poured out so +passionately in his eager appeal when he and Saul stood face to face on +the solitary hill side. They are couched in the higher strain of poetry +indeed, but that is the only difference; whilst there are several verbal +coincidences, and at least one reference to the story, which seem to fix +the date with considerable certainty. + +In it we see the psalmist's soul surging with the ground swell of strong +emotion, which breaks into successive waves of varied feeling--first +(vers. 1, 2) terror blended with trust, the enemy pictured, as so +frequently in these early psalms, as a lion who tears the flesh and +breaks the bones of his prey--and the refuge in God described by a +graphic word very frequent also in the cotemporaneous psalms (xi. 1; +lvii. 1, etc.). Then with a quick turn comes the passionate protestation +of his innocence, in hurried words, broken by feeling, and indignantly +turning away from the slanders which he will not speak of more +definitely than calling them "this." + + (3) Jehovah, my God! if I have done this-- + If there be iniquity in my hands-- + + (4) If I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me-- + Yea, I delivered him that without cause is mine enemy-- + + (5) May the enemy pursue my soul and capture it, + And trample down to the earth my life, + And my glory in the dust may he lay! + +How remarkably all this agrees with his words to Saul, "There is neither +evil nor transgression in my hand, ... yet thou huntest my soul to take +it" (1 Sam. xxiv. 11); and how forcible becomes the singular reiteration +in the narrative, of the phrase "my hand," which occurs six times in +four verses. The peculiarly abrupt introduction in ver. 4 of the clause, +"I delivered him that without cause is mine enemy," which completely +dislocates the grammatical structure, is best accounted for by +supposing that David's mind is still full of the temptation to stain +his hands with Saul's blood, and is vividly conscious of the effort +which he had had to make to overcome it. And the solemn invocation of +destruction which he dares to address to Jehovah his God includes the +familiar figure of himself as a fugitive before the hunters, which is +found in the words already quoted, and which here as there stands in +immediate connection with his assertion of clean hands. + +Then follows, with another abrupt turn, a vehement cry to God to judge +his cause; his own individual case melts into the thought of a +world-wide judgment, which is painted with grand power with three or +four broad rapid strokes. + + (6) Awake for me--Thou hast commanded judgment. + + (7) Let the assembly of the nations stand round Thee, + And above it return Thou up on high. + + (8) Jehovah will judge the nations. + Judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness and mine + integrity in me! + +Each smaller act of God's judgment is connected with the final +world-judgment, is a prophecy of it, is one in principle therewith; and +He, who at the last will be known as the universal Judge of all, +certainly cannot leave His servants' cause unredressed nor their cry +unheard till then. The psalmist is led by his own history to realize +more intensely that truth of a Divine manifestation for judicial +purposes to the whole world, and his prophetic lip paints its +solemnities as the surest pledge of his own deliverance. He sees the +gathered nations standing hushed before the Judge, and the Victor God at +the close of the solemn act ascending up on high where He was before, +above the heads of the mighty crowd (Psalm lxviii. 19). In the faith of +this vision, and because God will judge the nations, he invokes for +himself the anticipation of that final triumph of good over evil, and +asks to be dealt with according to his righteousness. Nothing but the +most hopeless determination to find difficulties could make a difficulty +of such words. David is not speaking of his whole character or life, but +of his conduct in one specific matter, namely, in his relation to Saul. +The righteous integrity which he calls God to vindicate is not general +sinlessness nor inward conformity with the law of God, but his +blamelessness in all his conduct to his gratuitous foe. His prayer that +God would judge him is distinctly equivalent to his often repeated cry +for deliverance, which should, as by a Divine arbitration, decide the +debate between Saul and him. The whole passage in the psalm, with all +its lyrical abruptness and lofty imagery, is the expression of the very +same thought which we find so prominent in his words to Saul, already +quoted, concerning God's judging between them and delivering David out +of Saul's hand. The parallel is instructive, not only as the prose +rendering of the poetry in the psalm, explaining it beyond the +possibility of misunderstanding, but also as strongly confirmatory of +the date which we have assigned to the latter. It is so improbable as to +be almost inconceivable that the abrupt disconnected themes of the psalm +should echo so precisely the _whole_ of the arguments used in the +remonstrance of the historical books, and should besides present verbal +resemblances and historical allusions to these, unless it be of the same +period, and therefore an inlet into the mind of the fugitive as he +lurked among the rugged cliffs by "the fountain of the wild goat." + +In that aspect the remainder of the psalm is very striking and +significant. We have two main thoughts in it--that of God as punishing +evil in this life, and that of the self-destruction inherent in all sin; +and these are expressed with such extraordinary energy as to attest at +once the profound emotion of the psalmist, and his familiarity with such +ideas during his days of persecution. It is noticeable, too, that the +language is carefully divested of all personal reference; he has risen +to the contemplation of a great law of the Divine government, and at +that elevation the enemies whose calumnies and cruelties had driven him +to God fade into insignificance. + +With what magnificent boldness he paints God the Judge arraying Himself +in His armour of destruction! + + (11) God is a righteous Judge, + And a God (who is) angry every day. + + (12) If he (_i.e._, the evil-doer) turn not, He whets His sword, + His bow He has bent, and made it ready. + + (13) And for him He has prepared weapons of death, + His arrows He has made blazing darts. + +Surely there is nothing grander in any poetry than this tremendous +image, smitten out with so few strokes of the chisel, and as true as it +is grand. The representation applies to the facts of life, of which as +directed by a present Providence, and not of any future retribution, +David is here thinking. Among these facts is chastisement falling upon +obstinate antagonism to God. Modern ways of thinking shrink from such +representations; but the whole history of the world teems with +confirmation of their truth--only what David calls the flaming arrows of +God, men call "the natural consequences of evil." The later revelation +of God in Christ brings into greater prominence the disciplinary +character of all punishment here, but bates no jot of the intensity with +which the earlier revelation grasped the truth of God as a righteous +Judge in eternal opposition to, and aversion from, evil. + +With that solemn picture flaming before his inward eye, the +prophet-psalmist turns to gaze on the evil-doer who has to bear the +brunt of these weapons of light. Summoning us to look with him by a +"Behold!" he tells his fate in an image of frequent occurrence in the +psalms of this period, and very natural in the lips of a man wandering +in the desert among wild creatures, and stumbling sometimes into the +traps dug for them: "He has dug a hole and hollowed it out, and he falls +into the pitfall he is making." The crumbling soil in which he digs +makes his footing on the edge more precarious with every spadeful that +he throws out, and at last, while he is hard at work, in he tumbles. It +is the conviction spoken in the proverbs of all nations, expressed here +by David in a figure drawn from life--the conviction that all sin digs +its own grave and is self-destructive. The psalm does not proclaim the +yet deeper truth that this automatic action, by which sin sets in motion +its own punishment, has a disciplinary purpose, so that the arrows of +God wound for healing, and His armour is really girded on for, even +while it seems to be against, the sufferer. But it would not be +difficult to show that that truth underlies the whole Old Testament +doctrine of retribution, and is obvious in many of David's psalms. In +the present one the deliverance of the hunted prey is contemplated as +the end of the baffled trapper's fall into his own snare, and beyond +that the psalmist's thoughts do not travel. His own safety, the +certainty that his appeal to God's judgment will not be in vain, fill +his mind; and without following the fate of his enemy further, he closes +this song of tumultuous and varied emotion with calm confidence and a +vow of thanksgiving for a deliverance which is already as good as +accomplished: + + (17) I will give thanks to Jehovah according to His righteousness, + And I will sing the name of Jehovah, Most High. + +We have still another psalm (lvii.) which is perhaps best referred to +this period. According to the title, it belongs to the time when David +"fled from Saul in the cave." This may, of course, apply to either +Adullam or Engedi, and there is nothing decisive to be alleged for +either; yet one or two resemblances to psalm vii. incline the balance to +the latter period. + +These resemblances are the designation of his enemies as lions (vii. 2; +lvii. 4); the image of their falling into their own trap (vii. 15; lvii. +6); the use of the phrase "my honour" or "glory" for "my soul" (vii. 5; +lvii. 8--the same word in the original); the name of God as "Most High" +(vii. 17; lvii. 2), an expression which only occurs twice besides in the +Davidic psalms (ix. 2; xxi. 7); the parallelism in sense between the +petition which forms the centre and the close of the one, "Be Thou +exalted, O God, above the heavens" (lvii. 5, 11), and that which is the +most emphatic desire of the other, "Arise, O Lord, awake, ... lift up +Thyself for me" (vii. 6). Another correspondence, not preserved in our +English version, is the employment in both of a rare poetical word, +which originally means "to complete," and so comes naturally to have the +secondary significations of "to perfect" and "to put an end to." The +word in question only occurs five times in the Old Testament, and always +in psalms. Four of these are in hymns ascribed to David, of which two +are (lvii. 2), "The God that _performeth_ all things for me," and (vii. +9), "Let the wickedness of the wicked _come to an end_." The use of the +same peculiar word in two such dissimilar connections seems to show that +it was, as we say, "running in his head" at the time, and is, perhaps, a +stronger presumption of the cotemporaneousness of both psalms than its +employment in both with the same application would have been. + +Characteristic of these early psalms is the occurrence of a refrain +(compare lvi. and lix.) which in the present instance closes both of +the portions of which the hymn consists. The former of these (1-5) +breathes prayerful trust, from which it passes to describe the +encompassing dangers; the second reverses this order, and beginning with +the dangers and distress, rises to ringing gladness and triumph, as +though the victory were already won. The psalmist's confident cleaving +of soul to God is expressed (ver. 1) by an image that may be connected +with his circumstances at Engedi: "In Thee has my soul taken refuge." +The English version is correct as regards the sense, though it +obliterates the beautiful metaphor by its rendering "trusteth." The +literal meaning of the verb is "to flee to a refuge," and its employment +here may be due to the poetical play of the imagination, which likens +his secure retreat among the everlasting hills to the safe hiding-place +which his spirit found in God his habitation. A similar analogy appears +in the earliest use of the expression, which may have been floating in +the psalmist's memory, and which occurs in the ancient song of Moses +(Deut. xxxii.). The scenery of the forty years' wanderings remarkably +colours that ode, and explains the frequent recurrence in it of the name +of God as "the Rock." We have false gods, too, spoken of in it, as, +"Their rock in whom they took refuge," where the metaphor appears in its +completeness (ver. 37). Our psalm goes on with words which contain a +further allusion to another part of the same venerable hymn, "And in the +shadow of Thy wings will I take refuge," which remind us of the grand +image in it of God's care over Israel, as of the eagle bearing her +eaglets on her mighty pinions (ver. 11), and point onwards to the still +more wonderful saying in which all that was terrible and stern in the +older figure is softened into tenderness, and instead of the fierce +affection of the mother eagle, the hen gathering her chickens under her +wings becomes the type of the brooding love and more than maternal +solicitude of God in Christ. Nor can we forget that the only other +instance of the figure before David's psalms is in the exquisite idyl +which tells of the sweet heroism of David's ancestress, Ruth, on whose +gentle and homeless head was pronounced the benediction, "A full reward +be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come +to trust" (Ruth ii. 12). We may perhaps also see in this clause an +extension of the simile which unquestionably lies in the verb, and may +think of the strong "sides of the cave," arching above the fugitive like +a gigantic pair of wings beneath which he nestles warm and dry, while +the short-lived storm roars among the rocks--a type of that broad pinion +which is his true defence till threatening evils be overpast. In the +past he has sheltered his soul in God, but no past act of faith can +avail for present distresses. It must be perpetually renewed. The past +deliverances should make the present confidence more easy; and the true +use of all earlier exercises of trust is to prepare for the resolve that +we will still rely on the help we have so often proved. "I have trusted +in Thee" should ever be followed by "And in the shadow of Thy wings will +I trust." + +The psalmist goes on to fulfil his resolve. He takes refuge by prayer in +God, whose absolute elevation above all creatures and circumstances is +the ground of his hope, whose faithful might will accomplish its design, +and complete His servant's lot. "I will call to God Most High; to God +who perfects (His purpose) for me." And then assured hope gleams upon +his soul, and though the storm-clouds hang low and black as ever, they +are touched with light. "He will send from heaven and save me." But even +while this happy certainty dawns upon him, the contending fears, which +ever lurk hard by faith, reassert their power, and burst in, breaking +the flow of the sentence, which by its harsh construction indicates the +sudden irruption of disturbing thoughts. "He that would swallow me up +reproaches (me)." With this two-worded cry of pain--prolonged by the +very unusual occurrence, in the middle of a verse, of the "Selah," which +is probably a musical direction for the accompaniment--a billow of +terror breaks over his soul; but its force is soon spent, and the hope, +above which for a moment it had rolled, rises from the broken spray like +some pillared light round which the surges dash in vain. "God shall send +forth His mercy and His truth"--those two white-robed messengers who +draw nigh to all who call on Him. Then follows in broken words, the true +rendering of which is matter of considerable doubt, a renewed picture of +his danger: + + (4) (With) my soul--among lions will I lie down. + Devourers are the sons of men; + Their teeth a spear and arrows, + And their tongue a sharp sword + +The psalmist seems to have broken off the construction, and instead of +finishing the sentence as he began it, to have substituted the first +person for the third, which ought to have followed "my soul." This +fragmentary construction expresses agitation of spirit. It may be a +question whether the "lions" in the first clause are to be regarded as a +description of his enemies, who are next spoken of without metaphor as +sons of men who devour (or who "breathe out fire"), and whose words are +cutting and wounding as spear and sword. The analogy of the other psalms +of this period favours such an understanding of the words. But, on the +other hand, the reference preferred by Delitzsch and others gives great +beauty. According to that interpretation, the fugitive among the savage +cliffs prepares himself for his nightly slumbers in calm confidence, and +lays himself down there in the cave, while the wild beasts, whose haunt +it may have been, prowl without, feeling himself safer among them than +among the more ferocious "sons of men," whose hatred has a sharper tooth +than even theirs. And then this portion of the psalm closes with the +refrain, "Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let Thy glory be +above all the earth." A prayer that God would show forth His power, and +exalt His name by delivering His servant. What lofty conviction that his +cause was God's cause, that the Divine honour was concerned in his +safety, that he was a chosen instrument to make known God's praise over +all the world!--and what self-forgetfulness in that, even whilst he +prays for his own deliverance, he thinks of it rather as the magnifying +of God, than as it affects himself personally! + +The second part continues the closing strain of the former, and +describes the plots of his foes in the familiar metaphor of the pit, +into which they fall themselves. The contemplation of this divine +Nemesis on evil-doers leads up to the grand burst of thanksgiving with +which the psalm closes-- + + (7) Fixed is my heart, O God! fixed my heart! + I will sing and strike the harp.[K] + + (8) Awake, my glory! awake psaltery and harp![L] + I will awake the dawn. + +[K] Properly, "sing with a musical accompaniment." + +[L] Two kinds of stringed instrument, the difference between which is +very obscure. + +If the former part may be regarded as the evening song of confidence, +this is the morning hymn of thankfulness. He lay down in peace among +lions; he awakes to praise. He calls upon his soul to shake off slumber; +he invokes the chords of his harp to arouse from its chamber the +sleeping dawn. Like a mightier than himself, he will rise a great while +before day, and the clear notes of the rude lyre, his companion in all +his wanderings, will summon the morning to add its silent speech to His +praise. But a still loftier thought inspires him. This hunted solitary +not only knows that his deliverance is certain, but he has already the +consciousness of a world-wide vocation, and anticipates that the story +of his sorrow and his trust, with the music of his psalms, belong to the +world, and will flow over the barriers of his own generation and of his +own land into the whole earth-- + + (9) I will praise Thee among the peoples, O Lord, + I will strike the harp to Thee among the nations. + + (10) For great unto the heavens is Thy mercy, + And to the clouds Thy truth. + +These two mighty messengers of God, whose coming he was sure of (ver. +3), will show themselves in his deliverance, boundless and filling all +the creation. They shall be the theme of his world-wide praise. And +then with the repetition of the refrain the psalm comes round again to +supplication, and dies into silent waiting before God till He shall be +pleased to answer. Thus triumphant were the hopes of the lonely fugitive +skulking in the wilderness; such bright visions peopled the waste +places, and made the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. + +The cxlii. is also, according to the title, one of the cave-psalms. But +considerable doubt attaches to the whole group of so-called Davidic +compositions in the last book of the psalter (p. 138-144), from their +place, and from the fact that there are just seven of them, as well as +in some cases from their style and character. They are more probably +later hymns in David's manner. The one in question corresponds in tone +with the psalms which we have been considering. It breathes the same +profound consciousness of desolation and loneliness: "My spirit is +darkened within me;" "Refuge fails me, no man cares for my soul." It +glows with the same ardour of personal trust in and love to God which +spring from his very loneliness and helplessness: "I cry unto Thee, O +Jehovah! I say Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the +living." It triumphs with the same confidence, and with the same +conviction that his deliverance concerns all the righteous: "They shall +_crown themselves in me_, for Thou hast dealt bountifully with me;" for +such would appear to be the true meaning of the word rendered in our +version "compass me about;" the idea being that the mercy of God to the +psalmist would become a source of festal gladness to all His servants, +who would bind the story of God's bounty to him upon their brows like a +coronal for a banquet. + + + + +VIII.--THE EXILE--_CONTINUED_. + + +As our purpose in this volume is not a complete biography, it will not +be necessary to dwell on the subsequent portions of the exile, inasmuch +as there is little reference to these in the psalms. We must pass over +even that exquisite episode of Abigail, whose graceful presence and +"most subtle flow of silver-paced counsel" soothed David's ruffled +spirit, and led him captive at once as in a silken leash. The glimpse of +old-world ways in the story, the rough mirth of the shearers, the hint +of the kind of black mail by which David's little force was provided, +the snarling humour and garrulous crustiness of Nabal, David's fierce +blaze of hot wrath, the tribute of the shepherds to the kindliness and +honour of the outlaws, the rustic procession, with the gracious lady +last of all, the stately courtesy of the meeting, her calm wise +words--not flattery, yet full of predictions of prosperity most pleasant +to hear from such lips; not rebuke, yet setting in the strongest light +how unworthy of God's anointed personal vengeance was; not servile, but +yet recognising in delicate touches his absolute power over her; not +abject, and yet full of supplication,--the quick response of David's +frank nature and susceptible heart, which sweeps away all his wrath; the +budding germ of love, which makes him break into benedictions on her and +her wisdom, and thankfulness that he had been kept back from "hurting +_thee_," and the dramatic close in their happy union,--all make up one +of the most charming of the many wonderful idyls of Scripture, all +fragrant with the breath of love, and fresh with undying youth. The +story lives--alas! how much longer do words endure than the poor earthly +affections which they record! + +After a second betrayal by the men of Ziph, and a second meeting with +Saul--their last--in which the doomed man parts from him with blessing +and predictions of victory on his unwilling lips, David seems to have +been driven to desperation by his endless skulking in dens and caves, +and to have seen no hope of continuing much longer to maintain himself +on the frontier and to elude Saul's vigilance. Possibly others than +Nabal grudged to pay him for the volunteer police which he kept up on +behalf of the pastoral districts exposed to the wild desert tribes. At +all events he once more made a plunge into Philistine territory, and +offers himself and his men to the service of the King of Gath. On the +offer being accepted, the little town of Ziklag was allotted to them, +and became their home for a year and four months. + +To this period of comparative security one psalm has been supposed to +belong--the xxxi., which, in tone and in certain expressions, +corresponds very well with the circumstances. There are many +similarities in it with the others of the same period which we have +already considered--such, for instance, as the figure of God his rock +(ver. 3), the net which his enemies have laid for him (ver. 4), the +allusions to their calumnies and slanders (vers. 13, 18), his safe +concealment in God (ver. 20: compare xxvii. 5; lvii. 1; xvii. 8, etc.), +and the close verbal resemblance of ver. 24 with the closing words of +psalm xxvii. The reference, however, which has been taken as pointing to +David's position in Ziklag is that contained in the somewhat remarkable +words (ver. 21): "Blessed be the Lord, for He hath showed me His +marvellous loving-kindness in a strong city." Of course, the expression +may be purely a graphic figure for the walls and defences of the Divine +protection, as, indeed, it is usually understood to be. But the general +idea of the encompassing shelter of God has just been set forth in the +magnificent imagery of the previous verse as the tabernacle, the secret +of His presence in which He hides and guards His servants. And the +further language of the phrase in question, introduced as it is by a +rapturous burst of blessing and praise, seems so emphatic and peculiar +as to make not unnatural the supposition of a historical basis in some +event which had recently happened to the psalmist. + +No period of the life will so well correspond to such a requirement as +the sixteen months of his stay in Ziklag, during which he was completely +free from fear of Saul, and stood high in favour with the King of Gath, +in whose territory he had found a refuge. We may well believe that to +the hunted exile, so long accustomed to a life of constant alarms and +hurried flight, the quiet of a settled home was very sweet, and that +behind the rude fortifications of the little town in the southern +wilderness there seemed security, which made a wonderful contrast to +their defenceless lairs and lurking-places among the rocks. Their eyes +would lose their watchful restlessness, and it would be possible to lay +aside their weapons, to gather their households about them, and, though +they were in a foreign land, still to feel something of the bliss of +peaceful habitudes and tranquil use and wont healing their broken lives. +No wonder, then, that such thankful praise should break from the +leader's lips! No wonder that he should regard this abode in a fortified +city as the result of a miracle of Divine mercy! He describes the +tremulous despondency which had preceded this marvel of loving-kindness +in language which at once recalls the wave of hopelessness which swept +across his soul after his final interview with Saul, and which led to +his flight into Philistine territory, "And David said in his heart, I +shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul" (1 Sam. xxvii. 1). How +completely this corresponds with the psalm, allowance being made for the +difference between poetry and prose, when he describes the thoughts +which had shaded his soul just before the happy peace of the strong +city--"I said in my haste,[M] I am cut off from before Thine eyes; +nevertheless Thou heardest the voice of my supplication" (ver. 22). And +rising, as was ever his manner, from his own individual experience to +the great truths concerning God's care of His children, the discovery of +which was to him even more precious than his personal safety, he breaks +forth in jubilant invocation, which, as always, is full of his +consciousness that his life and his story belong to the whole household +of God-- + + (23) O love Jehovah, all ye beloved of Him! + The faithful doth Jehovah preserve, + And plentifully repayeth the proud-doer. + + (24) Courage! and let your heart be strong, + All ye that wait for Jehovah! + +[M] Confusion (Perowne), distrust (Delitzsch), anguish (Ewald), +trepidation (Calvin). The word literally means to sway backwards and +forwards, and hence to be agitated by any emotion, principally by fear; +and then, perhaps, to flee in terror. + +The glow of personal attachment to Jehovah which kindles in the trustful +words is eminently characteristic. It anticipates the final teaching of +the New Testament in bringing all the relations between God and the +devout soul down to the one bond of love. "We love Him because He first +loved us," says John. And David has the same discernment that the basis +of all must be the outgoing of love from the heart of God, and that the +only response which that seeking love requires is the awaking of the +echo of its own Divine voice in our hearts. Love begets love; love seeks +love; love rests in love. Our faith _corresponds_ to His faithfulness, +our obedience to His command, our reverence to His majesty; but our love +_resembles_ His, from which it draws its life. So the one exhortation is +"love the Lord," and the ground of it lies in that name--"His +beloved"--those to whom He shows His loving-kindness (ver. 21). + +The closing words remind us of the last verse of psalm xxvii. They are +distinctly quoted from it, with the variation that there the heartening +to courage was addressed to his own soul, and here to "all who wait on +the Lord." The resemblance confirms the reference of both psalms to the +same epoch, while the difference suits the change in his circumstances +from a period of comparative danger, such as his stay at Adullam, to one +of greater security, like his residence in Ziklag. The same persons who +were called to love the Lord because they were participant of His +loving-kindness, are now called to courage and manly firmness of soul +because their hope is fixed on Jehovah. The progress of thought is +significant and obvious. Love to God, resting on consciousness of His +love to us, is the true armour. "There is no fear in love." The heart +filled with it is strong to resist the pressure of outward disasters, +while the empty heart is crushed like a deserted hulk by the grinding +collision of the icebergs that drift rudderless on the wild wintry sea +of life. Love, too, is the condition of hope. The patience and +expectation of the latter must come from the present fruition of the +sweetness of the former. Of these fair sisters, Love is the elder as the +greater; it is she who bears in her hands the rich metal from which Hope +forges her anchor, and the strong cords that hold it; her experience +supplies all the colours with which her sister paints the dim distance; +and she it is who makes the other bold to be sure of the future, and +clear-sighted to see the things that are not as though they were. To +love the Lord is the path, and the only path, to hoping in the Lord. So +had the psalmist found it for himself. In his changeful, perilous years +of exile he had learned that the brightness with which hope glowed on +his lonely path depended not on the accident of greater or less external +security, but on the energy of the clear flame of love in his heart. Not +in vain had his trials been to him, which cast that rich treasure to his +feet from their stormy waves. Not in vain will ours be to us, if we +learn the lesson which he here would divide with all those "that wait on +the Lord." + +Our limits prevent the further examination of the remaining psalms of +this period. It is the less necessary, inasmuch as those which have been +already considered fairly represent the whole. The xi., xiii., xvii., +xxii., xxv., and lxiv. may, with varying probability, be considered as +belonging to the Sauline persecution. To this list some critics would +add the xl. and lxix., but on very uncertain grounds. But if we exclude +them, the others have a strong family likeness, not only with each +other, but with those which have been presented to the reader. The +imagery of the wilderness, which has become so familiar to us, +continually reappears; the prowling wild beasts, the nets and snares, +the hunted psalmist like a timid bird among the hills; the protestation +of innocence, the passionate invocation of retribution on the wicked, +the confidence that their own devices will come down on their heads, the +intense yearning of soul after God--are all repeated in these psalms. +Single metaphors and peculiar phrases which we have already met with +recur--as, for instance, "the shadow of Thy wings" (xvii. 8, lvii. 1), +and the singular phrase rendered in our version, "show Thy marvellous +loving-kindness" (xvii. 7, xxxi. 21), which is found only here. In one +of these psalms (xxxv. 13) there seems to be a reference to his earliest +days at the court, and to the depth of loving sympathy with Saul's +darkened spirit, which he learned to cherish, as he stood before him to +soothe him with the ordered harmonies of harp and voice. The words are +so definite that they appear to refer to some historic occasion: + + And as for me--in their sickness my clothing was sackcloth, + With fasting I humbled my soul, + And my prayer into my own bosom returned. + +So truly did he feel for him who is now his foe. The outward marks of +mourning became the natural expression of his feelings. Such is plainly +the meaning of the two former clauses, as well as of the following +verse. As the whole is a description of the outward signs of grief, it +seems better to understand the last of these three clauses as a picture +of the bent head sunk on the bosom even while he prayed,[N] than to +break the connection by referring it either to the requital of hate for +his sympathy,[O] or to the purity of his prayer, which was such that he +could desire nothing more for himself.[P] He goes on with the +enumeration of the signs of sorrow: "As if (he had been) a friend, a +brother to me, I went,"--walking slowly, like a man absorbed in sorrow: +"as one who laments a mother, in mourning garments I bowed +down,"--walking with a weary, heavy stoop, like one crushed by a +mother's death, with the garb of woe. Thus faithfully had he loved, and +truly wept for the noble ruined soul which, blinded by passion and +poisoned by lies, had turned to be his enemy. And that same love clung +by him to the last, as it ever does with great and good men, who learn +of God to suffer long and be kind, to bear all things, and hope all +things. + +[N] So Ewald and Delitzsch. + +[O] Hupfeld. + +[P] Perowne. + +Of these psalms the xxii. is remarkable. In it David's personal +experience seems to afford only the starting-point for a purely +Messianic prophecy, which embraces many particulars that far transcend +anything recorded of his sorrows. The impossibility of finding +occurrences in his life corresponding to such traits as tortured limbs +and burning thirst, pierced hands and parted garments, has driven some +critics to the hypothesis that we have here a psalm of the exile +describing either actual sufferings inflicted on some unknown confessor +in Babylon, or in figurative language the calamities of Israel there. +But the Davidic origin is confirmed by many obvious points of +resemblance with the psalms which are indisputably his, and especially +with those of the Sauline period, while the difficulty of finding +historical facts answering to the emphatic language is evaded, not met, +by either assuming that such facts existed in some life which has left +no trace, or by forcing a metaphorical sense on words which sound +wonderfully like the sad language of a real sufferer. Of course, if we +believe that prediction is an absurdity, any difficulty will be lighter +than the acknowledgment that we have prediction here. But, unless we +have a foregone conclusion of that sort to blind us, we shall see in +this psalm a clear example of the prophecy of a suffering Messiah. In +most of the other psalms where David speaks of his sorrows we have only +a typical foreshadowing of Christ. But in this, and in such others as +lxix. and cix. (if these are David's), we have type changing into +prophecy, and the person of the psalmist fading away before the image +which, by occasion of his own griefs, rose vast, and solemn, and distant +before his prophet gaze,--the image of One who should be perfectly all +which he was in partial measure, the anointed of God, the utterer of His +name to His brethren, the King of Israel,--and whose path to His +dominion should be thickly strewn with solitary sorrow, and reproach, +and agony, to whose far more exceeding weight of woe all his affliction +was light as a feather, and transitory as a moment. And when the +psalmist had learned that lesson, besides all the others of trust and +patience which his wanderings taught him, his schooling was nearly over, +he was almost ready for a new discipline; and the slowly-evolving +revelation of God's purposes, which by his sorrows had unfolded more +distinctly than before "the sufferings of the Messiah," was ripening for +the unveiling, in his Kinghood, of "the glory that should follow." + + + + +IX.--THE KING. + + +We have now to turn and see the sudden change of fortune which lifted +the exile to a throne. The heavy cloud which had brooded so long over +the doomed king broke in lightning crash on the disastrous field of +Gilboa. Where is there a sadder and more solemn story of the fate of a +soul which makes shipwreck "of faith and of a good conscience," than +that awful page which tells how, godless, wretched, mad with despair and +measureless pride, he flung himself on his bloody sword, and died a +suicide's death, with sons and armour-bearer and all his men, a ghastly +court of corpses, laid round him? He had once been brave, modest, and +kind, full of noble purposes and generous affections--and he ended so. +Into what doleful regions of hate and darkness may self-will drag a +soul, when once the reins fall loose from a slackened hand! And what a +pathetic beam of struggling light gleams through heavy clouds, in the +grateful exploit of the men of Jabesh, who remembered how he had once +saved them, while yet he could care and dare for his kingdom, and +perilled their lives to bear the poor headless corpse to its rude +resting-place! + +The news is received by the fugitive at Ziklag in striking and +characteristic fashion. He first flames out in fierce wrath upon the +lying Amalekite, who had hurried with the tidings and sought favour by +falsely representing that he had killed the king on the field. A short +shrift and a bloody end were his. And then the wrath melts into +mourning. Forgetting the mad hatred and wild struggles of that poor +soul, and his own wrongs, remembering only the friendship and nobleness +of his earlier days, he casts over the mangled corpses of Saul and +Jonathan the mantle of his sweet elegy, and bathes them with the healing +waters of his unstinted praise and undying love. Not till these two +offices of justice and affection had been performed, does he remember +himself and the change in his own position which had been effected. He +had never thought of Saul as standing between him and the kingdom; the +first feeling on his death was not, as it would have been with a less +devout and less generous heart, a flush of gladness at the thought of +the empty throne, but a sharp pang of pain from the sense of an empty +heart. And even when he begins to look forward to his own new course, +there is that same remarkable passiveness which we have observed +already. His first step is to "inquire of the Lord, saying, Shall I go +up to any of the cities of Judah?" (2 Sam. ii. 1). He will do nothing in +this crisis of his fortunes, when all which had been so long a hope +seemed to be rapidly becoming a fact, until his Shepherd shall lead him. +Rapid and impetuous as he was by nature, schooled to swift decisions, +followed by still swifter action, knowing that a blow struck at once, +while all was chaos and despair at home, might set him on the throne, he +holds nature and policy and the impatience of his people in check to +hear what God will say. So fully did he fulfil the vow of his early +psalm, "My strength! upon thee will I wait" (lix. 9). + +We can fancy the glad march to the ancient Hebron, where the great +fathers of the nation lay in their rock-hewn tombs. Even before the +death of Saul, David's strength had been rapidly increasing, by a +constant stream of fugitives from the confusion and misery into which +the kingdom had fallen. Even Benjamin, Saul's own tribe, sent him some +of its famous archers--a sinister omen of the king's waning fortunes; +the hardy half-independent men of Manasseh and Gad, from the pastoral +uplands on the east of Jordan, "whose faces," according to the vivid +description of the chronicler (1 Chron. xii. 8), "were like the faces of +lions, and were as swift as roes upon the mountains," sought his +standard; and from his own kinsmen of Judah recruits "day by day came to +David to help him, until it was a great host like the host of God." With +such forces, it would have been child's play to have subdued any +scattered troops of the former dynasty which might still have been in a +condition to keep the field. But he made no attempt of the sort; and +even when he came to Hebron he took no measures to advance any claims to +the crown. The language of the history seems rather to imply a +disbanding of his army, or at least their settling down to domestic life +in the villages round Hebron, without a thought of winning the kingdom +by arms. And his elevation to the partial monarchy which he at first +possessed was the spontaneous act of "the men of Judah," who come to him +and anoint him king over Judah. + +The limits of his territory are substantially those of the kingdom over +which his descendants ruled after Jeroboam's revolt, thus indicating the +existence of a natural "line of cleavage" between north and south. The +geographical position of Benjamin finally attached it to the latter +monarchy; but for the present, the wish to retain the supremacy which it +had had while the king was one of the tribe, made it the nucleus of a +feeble and lingering opposition to David, headed by Saul's cousin Abner, +and rallying round his incompetent son Ishbosheth.[Q] The chronology of +this period is obscure. David reigned in Hebron seven years and a half, +and as Ishbosheth's phantom sovereignty only occupied two of these +years, and those evidently the last, it would appear almost as if the +Philistines had held the country, with the exception of Judah, in such +force that no rival cared to claim the dangerous dignity, and that five +years passed before the invaders were so far cleared out as to leave +leisure for civil war. + +[Q] The Canaanitish worship of Baal seems to have lingered in Saul's +family. One of his grand-uncles was named Baal (1 Chron. ix. 36); his +son was really called Eshbaal (Fire of Baal), which was contemptuously +converted into Ishbosheth (Man of Shame). So also Mephibosheth was +properly Meribbaal (Fighter for Baal). + +The summary narrative of these seven years presents the still youthful +king in a very lovable light. The same temper which had marked his first +acts after Saul's death is strikingly brought out (2 Sam. ii.-iv.) He +seems to have left the conduct of the war altogether to Joab, as if he +shrank from striking a single blow for his own advancement. When he does +interfere, it is on the side of peace, to curb and chastise ferocious +vengeance and dastardly assassination. The incidents recorded all go to +make up a picture of rare generosity, of patient waiting for God to +fulfil His purposes, of longing that the miserable strife between the +tribes of God's inheritance should end. He sends grateful messages to +Jabesh-Gilead; he will not begin the conflict with the insurgents. The +only actual fight recorded is provoked by Abner, and managed with +unwonted mildness by Joab. The list of his children born in Hebron is +inserted in the very heart of the story of the insurrection, a token of +the quiet domestic life of peaceful joys and cares which he lived while +the storm was raging without. Eagerly, and without suspicion, he +welcomes Abner's advances towards reconciliation. He falls for a moment +to the level of his times, and yields to a strong temptation, in making +the restoration of his long-lost wife Michal the condition of further +negotiations--a demand which was strictly just, no doubt, but for which +little more can be said. The generosity of his nature and the ideal +purity of his love, which that incident shadows, shine out again in his +indignation at Joab's murder of Abner, though he was too meek to avenge +it. There is no more beautiful picture in his life than that of his +following the bier where lay the bloody corpse of the man who had been +his enemy ever since he had known him, and sealing the reconciliation +which Death ever makes in noble souls, by the pathetic dirge he chanted +over Abner's grave. We have a glimpse of his people's unbounded +confidence in him, given incidentally when we are told that his sorrow +pleased them, "as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people." We +have a glimpse of the feebleness of his new monarchy as against the +fierce soldier who had done so much to make it, in his acknowledgment +that he was yet weak, being but recently anointed king, and that these +vehement sons of Zeruiah were too strong for him; and we have a +remarkable trace of connection with the psalms, in the closing words +with which he invokes on Joab the vengeance which he as yet felt himself +unable to execute: "The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to +his wickedness." + +The only other incident recorded of his reign in Hebron is his execution +of summary justice upon the murderers of the poor puppet-king +Ishbosheth, upon whose death, following so closely that of Abner, the +whole resistance to David's power collapses. There had never been any +real popular opposition. His enemies are emphatically named as "the +house of Saul," and we find Abner himself admitting that "the elders of +Israel" wanted David as king (2 Sam. iii. 17), so that when he was gone, +it is two Benjamites who give the _coup-de-grâce_ to Ishbosheth, and end +the whole shadowy rival power. Immediately the rulers of all the tribes +come up to Hebron, with the tender of the crown. They offer it on the +triple grounds of kinship, of his military service even in Saul's reign, +and of the Divine promise of the throne. A solemn pact was made, and +David was anointed in Hebron, a king by Divine right, but also a +constitutional monarch chosen by popular election, and limited in his +powers. + +The first result of his new strength is the capture of the old +hill-fortress of the Jebusites, the city of Melchizedek, which had +frowned down upon Israel unsubdued till now, and whose inhabitants +trusted so absolutely in its natural strength that their answer to the +demand for surrender was the jeer, "Thou wilt not come hither, but the +blind and lame will drive thee away." This time David does not leave the +war to others. For the first time for seven years we read, "_The king_ +and his men went to Jerusalem." Established there as his capital, he +reigns for some ten years with unbroken prosperity over a loyal and +loving people, with this for the summary of the whole period, "David +went on and grew great, and the Lord God of Hosts was with him" (2 Sam. +v. 10). These years are marked by three principal events--the bringing +up of the ark to the city of David, the promise by Nathan of the +perpetual dominion of his house, and the unbroken flow of victories over +the surrounding nations. These are the salient points of the narrative +in the Book of Samuel (2 Sam. v.-viii.), and are all abundantly +illustrated by the psalms. We shall have next then to consider "The +Songs of the King." + +How did the fugitive bear his sudden change of fortune? What were his +thoughts when at last the dignity which he had ever expected and never +sought was his? The answer is ready to our hand in that grand psalm (Ps. +xviii.) which he "spake in the day that the Lord delivered him from all +his enemies, and from the hand of Saul." The language of this +superscription seems to connect the psalm with the period of internal +and external repose which preceded and prompted David's "purpose to +build an house for the Lord" (2 Sam. vii.) The same thankfulness which +glows so brightly in the psalm stimulated that desire, and the emphatic +reference to the mercy promised by God to "his seed for evermore," which +closes the hymn, points perhaps to the definite promise of the +perpetuity of the kingdom to his descendants, which was God's answer to +the same desire. But whether the psalm belongs to the years of the +partial sovereignty at Hebron, or to those of the complete dominion at +Jerusalem, it cannot be later than the second of these two dates; and +whatever may have been the time of its composition, the feelings which +it expresses are those of the first freshness of thankful praise when he +was firmly settled in the kingdom. Some critics would throw it onwards +to the very close of his life. But this has little in its favour beyond +the fact that the author of the Book of Samuel has placed his version of +the psalm among the records of David's last days. There is, however, +nothing to show that that position is due to chronological +considerations. The victories over heathen nations which are supposed to +be referred to in the psalm, and are relied on by the advocates of later +date, really point to the earlier, which was the time of his most +brilliant conquests. And the marked assertions of his own purity, as +well as the triumphant tone of the whole, neither of which +characteristics corresponds to the sad and shaded years after his great +fall, point in the same direction. On the whole, then, we may fairly +take this psalm as belonging to the bright beginning of the monarchy, +and as showing us how well the king remembered the vows which the exile +had mingled with his tears. + +It is one long outpouring of rapturous thankfulness and triumphant +adoration, which streams from a full heart in buoyant waves of song. +Nowhere else, even in the psalms--and if not there, certainly nowhere +else--is there such a continuous tide of unmingled praise, such +magnificence of imagery, such passion of love to the delivering God, +such joyous energy of conquering trust. It throbs throughout with the +life blood of devotion. The strong flame, white with its very ardour, +quivers with its own intensity as it steadily rises heavenward. All the +terrors, and pains, and dangers of the weary years--the black fuel for +the ruddy glow--melt into warmth too great for smoke, too equable to +blaze. The plaintive notes that had so often wailed from his harp, sad +as if the night wind had been wandering among its chords, have all led +up to this rushing burst of full-toned gladness. The very blessedness of +heaven is anticipated, when sorrows gone by are understood and seen in +their connection with the joy to which they have led, and are felt to +be the theme for deepest thankfulness. Thank God that, for the +consolation of the whole world, we have this hymn of praise from the +same lips which said, "My life is spent with grief, and my years with +sighing." "We have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very +pitiful and of tender mercy." The tremulous minors of trustful sorrow +shall swell into rapturous praise; and he who, compassed with foes, +cries upon God, will, here or yonder, sing this song "unto the Lord, in +the day that the Lord delivers him from the hand of all his enemies." + + + + +X.--THE KING--_CONTINUED_. + + +In our last chapter we have seen that the key-note of "The Songs of the +King" may be said to be struck in Psalm xviii. Its complete analysis +would carry us far beyond our limits. We can but glance at some of the +more prominent points of the psalm. + +The first clause strikes the key-note. "I love Thee, O Jehovah, my +strength." That personal attachment to God, which is so characteristic +of David's religion, can no longer be pent up in silence, but gushes +forth like some imprisoned stream, broad and full even from its +well-head. The common word for "love" is too weak for him, and he bends +to his use another, never elsewhere employed to express man's emotions +towards God, the intensity of which is but feebly expressed by some such +periphrasis as, "From my heart do I love Thee." The same exalted feeling +is wonderfully set forth by the loving accumulation of Divine names +which follow, as if he would heap together in one great pile all the +rich experiences of that God, unnamed after all names, which he had +garnered up in his distresses and deliverances. They tell so much as the +poor vehicle of words can tell, what his Shepherd in the heavens had +been to him. They are the treasures which he has brought back from his +exile; and they most pathetically point to the songs of that time. He +had called on God by these names when it was hard to believe in their +reality, and now he repeats them all in his glad hour of fruition, for +token that they who in their extremity trust in the name of the Lord +will one day have the truth of faith transformed into truth of +experience. "Jehovah, my rock and my fortress," reminds us of his cry in +Ziklag, "Thou art my rock and my fortress" (xxxi. 3), and of the "hold" +(the same word) of Adullam in which he had lain secure. "My deliverer" +echoes many a sigh in the past, now changed into music of praise. "My +rock" (a different word from that in a preceding clause), "in whom I +take refuge," recalls the prayer, "Be Thou my rock of strength" (xxxi. +2), and his former effort of confidence, when, in the midst of +calamities, he said, "My soul takes refuge in Thee" (lvii. 1.) "My +shield" carries us back to the ancient promise, fresh after so many +centuries, and fulfilled anew in every age, "Fear not, Abram, I am thy +shield," and to his own trustful words at a time when trust was +difficult, "My shield is upon God" (vii. 10). "My high tower," the last +of this glowing series, links on to the hope breathed in the first song +of his exile, "God is my defence" (the same expression); "Thou hast been +my defence in the day of trouble" (lix. 9, 16). And then he sums up his +whole past in one general sentence, which tells his habitual resource in +his troubles, and the blessed help which he has ever found, "I call on +Jehovah, who is worthy to be praised;[R] and from my enemies am I saved" +(verse 3). + +[R] The old English word "the worshipful" comes near the form and +meaning of the phrase. + +No comment can heighten, and no translation can adequately represent, +while none can altogether destroy the unapproachable magnificence of the +description which follows, of the majestic coming forth of God in answer +to his cry. It stands at the very highest point, even when compared with +the other sublime passages of a like kind in Scripture. How +pathetically he paints his sore need in metaphors which again bring to +mind the songs of the outlaw:-- + + The snares of death compassed me, + And floods of destruction made me afraid; + The snares of Sheol surrounded me, + The toils of death surprised me. + +As he so often likened himself to some wild creature in the nets, so +here Death, the hunter, has cast his fatal cords about him, and they are +ready suddenly to close on the unsuspecting prey. Or, varying the image, +he is sinking in black waters, which are designated by a difficult +phrase (literally, "streams of Belial," or worthlessness), which is most +probably rendered as above (so Ewald, Hupfeld). In this dire extremity +one thing alone is left him. He is snared, but he has his voice free to +cry with, and a God to cry to. He is all but sinking, but he can still +shriek (so one of the words might be rendered) "like some strong swimmer +in his agony." And it is enough. That one loud call for help rises, like +some slender pillar of incense-smoke, straight into the palace temple of +God--and, as he says, with a meaning which our version obscures, "My cry +before Him came into His ears." The prayer that springs from a living +consciousness of being in God's presence, even when nearest to +perishing, is the prayer that He hears. The cry is a poor, thin, +solitary voice, unheard on earth, though shrill enough to rise to +heaven; the answer shakes creation. One man in his extremity can put in +motion all the magnificence of God. Overwhelming is the contrast between +the cause and the effect. And marvellous as the greatness, so also is +the swiftness of the answer. A moment suffices--and then! Even whilst he +cries, the rocking earth and the quivering foundations of the hills are +conscious that the Lord comes from afar for his help. The majestic +self-revelation of God as the deliverer has for its occasion the +psalmist's cry of distress, and for its issue, "He drew me out of many +waters." All the splendour flames out because a poor man prays, and all +the upheaval of earth and the artillery of heaven has simply this for +its end, that a poor man may be delivered. The paradox of prayer never +found a more bold expression than in this triumphant utterance, of the +insignificant occasion for, and the equally insignificant result sought +by, the exercise of the energy of Omnipotence. + +The Divine deliverance is set forth under the familiar image of the +coming of God in a tempest. Before it bursts, and simultaneous with the +prayer, the "earth rocks and quivers," the sunless "pillars of the hills +reel and rock to and fro," as if conscious of the gathering wrath which +begins to flame far off in the highest heavens. There has been no +forth-putting yet of the Divine power. It is but accumulating its fiery +energy, and already the solid framework of the world trembles, +anticipating the coming crash. The firmest things shake, the loftiest +bow before His wrath. "There went up smoke out of his nostrils, and fire +out of his mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it." This kindling +anger, expressed by these tremendous metaphors, is conceived of as the +preparation in "His temple" for the earthly manifestation of delivering +vengeance. It is like some distant thunder-cloud which grows on the +horizon into ominous blackness, and seems to be filling its +ashen-coloured depths with store of lightnings. Then the piled-up terror +begins to move, and, drawing nearer, pours out an avalanche of gloom +seamed with fire. First the storm-cloud descends, hanging lower and +lower in the sky. And whose foot is that which is planted upon its heavy +mass, thick and frowning enough to be the veil of God? + + "He bowed the heavens, and came down, + And blackness of cloud was under His feet." + +Then the sudden rush of wind which heralds the lightning breaks the +awful silence:-- + + And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly, + Yea, He swept along upon the wings of the wind. + +The cherubs bear, as in a chariot, the throned God, and the swift +pinions of the storm bear the cherubs. But He that sits upon the throne, +above material forces and the highest creatures, is unseen. The +psalmist's imagination stops at its base, nor dares to gaze into that +light above; and the silence is more impressive than all words. Instead +of pagan attempts at a likeness of God, we have next painted, with equal +descriptive accuracy, poetic force, and theological truth, the pitchy +blackness which hides Him. In the gloom of its depths He makes His +"secret place" His "tent." It is "darkness of waters," that is, darkness +from which streams out the thunder-rain; it is "thick clouds of the +skies;" or perhaps the expression should be rendered, "heavy masses of +clouds." Then comes the crash of the tempest. The brightness that lies +closer around Him, and lives in the heart of the blackness, flames +forth, parting the thick clouds--and through the awful rent hail and +coals of fire are flung down on the trembling earth. The grand +description may be rendered in two ways: either that adopted in our +version, "At the brightness that was before Him His thick clouds +passed--hailstones and coals of fire;" or, "Through His thick clouds +there passed hailstones and coals of fire." The former of these is the +more dramatic; the broken construction expresses more vividly the fierce +suddenness of the lightning blaze and of the down-rush of the hail, and +is confirmed by the repetition of the same words in the same +construction in the next verse. That verse describes another burst of +the tempest--the deep roll of the thunder along the skies is the voice +of Jehovah, and again the lightning tears through the clouds, and the +hail streams down. With what profound truth all this destructive power +is represented as coming from the brightness of God--that "glory" which +in its own nature is light, but in its contact with finite and sinful +creatures must needs become darkness, rent asunder by lightning! What +lessons as to the root and the essential nature of all punitive acts of +God cluster round such words! and how calm and blessed the faith which +can pierce even the thickest mass "that veileth Love!"--to see the light +at the centre, even though the circumference be brooding thunder-clouds +torn by sudden fires. Then comes the purpose of all this apocalypse of +Divine magnificence. The fiery arrows scatter the psalmist's enemies. +The waters in which he had well nigh drowned are dried up before the hot +breath of His anger. "That dread voice" speaks "which shrinks their +streams." And amid the blaze of tempest, the rocking earth, and the +failing floods, His arm is thrust forth from above, and draws His +servant from many waters. As one in later times, "he was afraid, and +beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me; and immediately He +stretched forth His hand and caught him." + +A calmer tone follows, as the psalmist recounts without metaphor his +deliverance, and reiterates the same assertion of his innocence which +we have already found so frequently in the previous psalms (vers. +17-24). Rising from his personal experience to the broad and lofty +thoughts of God which that experience had taught him, as it does all who +prize life chiefly as a means of knowing Him, he proclaims the solemn +truth, that in the exercise of a righteous retribution, and by the very +necessity of our moral nature, God appears to man what man is to God: +loving to the loving, upright to the upright, pure to the pure, and +froward to the froward. Our thoughts of God are shaped by our moral +character; the capacity of perceiving depends on sympathy. "Unless the +eye were light, how could it see the sun?" The self-revelation of God in +His providence, of which only the psalm speaks, is modified according to +our moral character, being full of love to those who love, being harsh +and antagonistic to those who set themselves in opposition to it. There +is a higher law of grace, whereby the sinfulness of man but draws forth +the tenderness of a father's pardoning pity; and the brightest +revelation of His love is made to froward prodigals. But that is not in +the psalmist's view here, nor does it interfere with the law of +retribution in its own sphere. + +The purely personal tone is again resumed, and continued unbroken to the +close. In the former portion David was passive, except for the voice of +prayer, and God's arm alone was his deliverance. In the latter half he +is active, the conquering king, whose arm is strengthened for victory by +God. This difference may possibly suggest the reference of the former +half to the Sauline persecution, when, as we have seen, the exile ever +shrunk from avenging himself; and of the latter to the early years of +his monarchy, which, as we shall see, were characterized by much +successful military activity; and if so, the date of the psalm would +most naturally be taken to be the close of his victorious campaigns, +when "the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies round about" (2 +Sam. vii. 1). Be that as it may, the latter portion of the psalm shows +us the soldier king tracing all his past victories to God alone, and +building upon them the confidence of a world-wide dominion. The point at +which memory passes into hope is difficult to determine, and great +variety of opinion prevails on the matter among commentators. It is +perhaps best to follow many of the older versions, and the valuable +exposition of Hupfeld, in regarding the whole section from ver. 37 of +our translation as the expression of the trust which past experience had +wrought. We shall then have two periods in the second half of the +psalm--the past victories won by God's help (vers. 31-36), the coming +triumphs of which these are the pledge (vers. 37-end). + +In the former there shine out not only David's habitual consciousness of +dependence on and aid from God, but also a very striking picture of his +physical qualifications for a military leader. He is girded with bodily +strength, swift and sure of foot like a deer, able to scale the crags +where his foes fortified themselves like the wild antelopes he had so +often seen bounding among the dizzy ledges of the cliffs in the +wilderness; his hands are trained for war, and his sinewy arms can bend +the great bow of brass. But these capacities are gifts, and not they, +but their Giver, have made him victorious. Looking back upon all his +past, this is its summing up:-- + + "Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation, + And Thy right hand hath holden me up, + And Thy lowliness hath made me great." + +God's strength, God's buckler, God's supporting hand, God's +condescension, by which He bows down to look upon and help the feeble, +with the humble showing Himself humble--these have been his weapons, and +from these has come his victory. + +And because of these, he looks forward to a future like the past, but +more glorious still, thereby teaching us how the unchanging faithfulness +of our God should encourage us to take all the blessings which we have +received as but the earnest of what is yet to come. He sees himself +pursuing his enemies, and smiting them to the ground. The fierce light +of battle blazes through the rapid sentences which paint the panic +flight, and the swift pursuit, the vain shrieks to man and God for +succour, and the utter annihilation of the foe:-- + + (42) "And I will pound them like dust before the wind, + Like street-filth will I empty them out." + +Then he gives utterance to the consciousness that his kingdom is +destined to extend far beyond the limits of Israel, in words which, like +so many of the prophecies, may be translated in the present tense, but +are obviously future in signification--the prophet placing himself in +imagination in the midst of the time of which he speaks:-- + + (43) "Thou deliverest me from the strivings of the people (_i.e._, + Israel), + Thou makest me head of the heathen; + People whom I knew not serve me. + + (44) At the hearing of the ear they obey me. + The sons of the stranger feign obedience to me. + + (45) The sons of the stranger fade away, + They come trembling from their hiding-places." + +The rebellion which weakened his early reign is subdued, and beyond the +bounds of his own people his dominion spreads. Strange tribes submit to +the very sound of his name, and crouch before him in extorted and +pretended submission. The words are literally "lie unto me," descriptive +of the profuse professions of loyalty characteristic of conquered +orientals. Their power withers before him like a gathered flower before +a hot wind, and the fugitives creep trembling out of their holes where +they have hid themselves. + +Again he recurs to the one thought which flows like a river of light +through all the psalm--that all his help is in God. The names which he +lovingly heaped together at the beginning are in part echoed in the +close. "The Lord liveth, and blessed is my rock, and the God of my +salvation is exalted." His deliverances have taught him to know a living +God, swift to hear, active to help, in whom he lives, who has magnified +His own name in that He has saved His servant. And as that blessed +conviction is the sum of all his experience, so one glad vow expresses +all his resolves, and thrills with the expectation which he had +cherished even in his lonely exile, that the music of his psalm would +one day echo through all the world. With lofty consciousness of his new +dignity, and with lowly sense that it is God's gift, he emphatically +names himself _His_ king, _His_ anointed, taking, as it were, his crown +from his brows and laying it on the altar. With prophetic eye he looks +onward, and sees the throne to which he had been led by a series of +miracles enduring for ever, and the mercy of God sustaining the dominion +of his house through all generations:-- + + (49) "Therefore will I give thanks to Thee among the nations, O + Jehovah, + And to Thy name will I strike the harp: + + (50) Who maketh great the deliverances of His king + And executeth mercy for His anointed, + For David and his seed for evermore." + +And what were his purposes for the future? Here is his answer, in a +psalm which has been with considerable appropriateness regarded as a +kind of manifesto of the principles which he intended should +characterize his reign (Psa. ci.): "I will walk within my house with a +perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes." For +himself, he begins his reign with noble self-restraint, not meaning to +make it a region of indulgence, but feeling that there is a law above +his will, of which he is only the servant, and knowing that if his +people and his public life are to be what they should be, his own +personal and domestic life must be pure. As for his court and his +ministers, he will make a clean sweep of the vermin who swarm and sting +and buzz about a throne. The froward, the wicked, privy slanderers, +proud hearts, crafty plotters, liars, and evil-doers he will not +suffer--but "mine eyes shall be upon the faithful in the land; he that +walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me." He is fired with ambition, +such as has brightened the beginning of many a reign which has darkened +to cruelty and crime, to make his kingdom some faint image of God's, and +to bring the actual Israel into conformity with its ancient Magna +Charta, "Ye shall be to me a holy nation." And so, not knowing perhaps +how hard a task he planned, and little dreaming of his own sore fall, he +grasps the sword, resolved to use it for the terror of evil-doers, and +vows, "I will early destroy all the wicked in the land, that I may cut +off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord." Such was his +"proclamation against vice and immorality" on his accession to his +throne. + + + + +XI.--THE KING--_CONTINUED_. + + +The years thus well begun are, in the historical books, characterized +mainly by three events, namely, the bringing up of the ark to the newly +won city of David, Nathan's prophecy of the perpetual dominion of his +house, and his victories over the surrounding nations. These three +hinges of the narrative are all abundantly illustrated in the psalms. + +As to the first, we have relics of the joyful ceremonial connected with +it in two psalms, the fifteenth and twenty-fourth, which are singularly +alike not only in substance but in manner, both being thrown into a +highly dramatic form by question and answer. This peculiarity, as we +shall see, is one of the links of connection which unite them with the +history as given in the Book of Samuel (2 Sam. vi.). From that record we +learn that David's first thought after he was firmly seated as king over +all Israel, was the enthronement in his recently-captured city of the +long-forgotten ark. That venerable symbol of the presence of the true +King had passed through many vicissitudes since the days when it had +been carried round the walls of Jericho. Superstitiously borne into +battle, as if it were a mere magic palladium, by men whose hearts were +not right with God, the presence which they had invoked became their +ruin, and Israel was shattered, and "the ark of God taken," on the fatal +field of Aphek. It had been carried in triumph through Philistine +cities, and sent back in dismay. It had been welcomed with gladness by +the villagers of Bethshemesh, who lifted their eyes from their harvest +work, and saw it borne up the glen from the Philistine plain. Their rude +curiosity was signally punished, "and the men of Bethshemesh said, Who +is able to stand before this holy Lord God, and to whom shall He go up +from us?" It had been removed to the forest seclusion of Kirjath-jearim +(the city of the woods), and there bestowed in the house of Abinadab +"upon the hill," where it lay neglected and forgotten for about seventy +years. During Saul's reign they "inquired not at it," and, indeed, the +whole worship of Jehovah seems to have been decaying. David set himself +to reorganize the public service of God, arranged a staff of priests and +Levites, with disciplined choir and orchestra (1 Chron. xv.), and then +proceeded with representatives of the whole nation to bring up the ark +from its woodland hiding-place. But again death turned gladness into +dread, and Uzzah's fate silenced the joyous songs, "and David was afraid +of the Lord that day, and said, How shall the ark of God come unto me?" +The dangerous honour fell on the house of Obed-edom; and only after the +blessing which followed its three months' stay there, did he venture to +carry out his purpose. The story of the actual removal of the ark to the +city of David with glad ceremonial need not be repeated here; nor the +mocking gibes of Michal who had once loved him so fondly. Probably she +bitterly resented her violent separation from the household joys that +had grown up about her in her second home; probably the woman who had +had teraphim among her furniture cared nothing for the ark of God; +probably, as she grew older, her character had hardened in its lines, +and become like her father's in its measureless pride, and in its +half-dread, half-hatred of David--and all these motives together pour +their venom into her sarcasm. Taunts provoke taunts; the husband feels +that the wife is in heart a partisan of the fallen house of her father, +and a despiser of the Lord and of His worship; her words hiss with +scorn, his flame with anger and rebuke--and so these two that had been +so tender in the old days part for ever. The one doubtful act that +stained his accession was quickly avenged. Better for both that she had +never been rent from that feeble, loving husband that followed her +weeping, and was driven back by a single word, flung at him by Abner as +if he had been a dog at their heels! (2 Sam. iii. 16). + +The gladness and triumph, the awe, and the memories of victory which +clustered round the dread symbol of the presence of the Lord of Hosts, +are wonderfully expressed in the choral twenty-fourth psalm. It is +divided into two portions, which Ewald regards as being originally two +independent compositions. They are, however, obviously connected both in +form and substance. In each we have question and answer, as in psalm +xv., which belongs to the same period. The first half replies to the +question, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand +in His holy place?"--an echo of the terror-struck exclamation of the +people of Bethshemesh, already quoted. The answer is a description of +the _men who dwell with God_. The second half deals with the correlative +inquiry, "Who is the King of Glory?" and describes the _God who comes to +dwell with men_. It corresponds in substance, though not in form, with +David's thought when Uzzah died, in so far as it regards God as drawing +near to the worshippers, rather than the worshippers drawing near to +Him. Both portions are united by a real internal connection, in that +they set forth the mutual approach of God and man which leads to +communion, and thus constitute the two halves of an inseparable whole. + +Most expositors recognise a choral structure in the psalm, as in several +others of this date, as would be natural at the time of the +reorganization of the public musical service. Probably we may gain the +key to its form by supposing it to be a processional hymn, of which the +first half was to be sung during the ascent to the city of David, and +the second while standing before the gates. We have then to fancy the +long line of worshippers climbing the rocky steep hill-side to the +ancient fortress so recently won, the Levites bearing the ark, and the +glad multitude streaming along behind them. + +First there swells forth from all the singers the triumphant +proclamation of God's universal sovereignty, "The earth is the Lord's +and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. For He +hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods." It is +very noteworthy that such a thought should precede the declaration of +His special dwelling in Zion. It guards that belief from the abuses to +which it was of course liable--the superstitions, the narrowness, the +contempt of all the rest of the world as God-deserted, which are its +perversion in sensuous natures. If Israel came to fancy that God +belonged to them, and that there was only one sacred place in all the +world, it was not for want of clear utterances to the contrary, which +became more emphatic with each fresh step in the development of the +specializing system under which they lived. The very ground of their +peculiar relation to God had been declared, in the hour of constituting +it to be--"all the earth is Mine" (Exod. xix. 5). So now, when the +symbol of His presence is to have a local habitation in the centre of +the national life, the psalmist lays for the foundation of his song the +great truth, that the Divine presence is concentrated in Israel, but not +confined there, and concentrated in order that it may be diffused. The +glory that lights the bare top of Zion lies on all the hills; and He who +dwells between the cherubim dwells in all the world, which His continual +presence fills with its fulness, and upholds above the floods. + +Then, as they climb, a single voice perhaps chants the solemn question, +"Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in the place +of His holiness?" + +And the full-toned answer portrays the men who shall dwell with God, in +words which begin indeed with stringent demands for absolute purity, but +wonderfully change in tone as they advance, into gracious assurances, +and the clearest vision that the moral nature which fits for God's +presence is God's gift. "The clean-handed, and pure-hearted, who has not +lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully;" there is the +eternal law which nothing can ever alter, that to abide with God a man +must be like God--the law of the new covenant as of the old, "Blessed +are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." But this requirement, +impossible of fulfilment, is not all. If it were, the climbing +procession might stop. But up and up they rise, and once again the song +bursts forth in deeper and more hopeful words, "He shall _receive_ the +blessing from Jehovah, and righteousness from the God of his salvation." +Then that righteousness, which he who honestly attempts to comply with +such requirements will soon find that he does not possess, is to be +received from above, not elaborated from within; is a gift from God, not +a product of man's toils. God will make us pure, that we may dwell with +Him. Nor is this all. The condition of receiving such a gift has been +already partially set forth in the preceding clause, which seems to +require righteousness to be possessed as the preliminary to receiving +it. The paradox which thus results is inseparable from the stage of +religious knowledge attained under the Mosaic Law. But the last words of +the answer go far beyond it, and proclaim the special truth of the +gospel, that the righteousness which fits for dwelling with God is given +on the simple condition of _seeking_ Him. To this designation of the +true worshippers is appended somewhat abruptly the one word "Jacob," +which need neither be rendered as in the English version as an +invocation, nor as in the margin, with an unnecessary and improbable +supplement, "O God of Jacob;" but is best regarded as in apposition with +the other descriptive clauses, and declaring, as we have found David +doing already in previous psalms, that the characters portrayed in them, +and these only, constituted the true Israel. + + This is the generation of them that seek Him, + That seek Thy face--(this is) Jacob. + +And so the first question is answered, "Who are the men who dwell with +God?"--The pure, who receive righteousness, who seek Him, the true +Israel. + +And now the procession has reached the front of the ancient city on the +hill, and stands before the very walls and weather-beaten gates which +Melchizedek may have passed through, and which had been barred against +Israel till David's might had burst them. National triumph and glad +worship are wonderfully blended in the summons which rings from the lips +of the Levites without: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates! and be ye lift +up, ye doors (that have been from) of old!" as if even their towering +portals were too low, "and the King of glory shall come in." What force +in that name here, in this early song of the King! How clearly he +recognises his own derived power, and the real Monarch of whom he is but +the shadowy representative! The newly-conquered city is summoned to +admit its true conqueror and sovereign, whose throne is the ark, which +was emphatically named "the glory,"[S] and in whose train the earthly +king follows as a subject and a worshipper. Then, with wonderful +dramatic force, a single voice from within the barred gates asks, like +some suspicious warder, "Who then is the King of glory?" With what a +shout of proud confidence and triumphant memories of a hundred fields +comes, ready and full, the crash of many voices in the answer, "Jehovah +strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle!" How vividly the reluctance +of an antagonistic world to yield to Israel and Israel's King, is +represented in the repetition of the question in a form slightly more +expressive of ignorance and doubt, in answer to the reiterated summons, +"Who is He, then, the King of glory?" With what deepened intensity of +triumph there peals, hoarse and deep, the choral shout, "The Lord of +Hosts, He is the King of glory." That name which sets Him forth as +Sovereign of the personal and impersonal forces of the universe--angels, +and stars, and terrene creatures, all gathered in ordered ranks, +embattled for His service--was a comparatively new name in Israel,[T] +and brought with it thoughts of irresistible might in earth and heaven. +It crashes like a catapult against the ancient gates; and at that +proclamation of the omnipotent name of the God who dwells with men, they +grate back on their brazen hinges, and the ark of the Lord enters into +its rest. + +[S] "And she named the child I-chabod (Where is the glory?) saying, The +glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken."--1 +_Sam._ iv. 21. + +[T] It has been asserted that this is the first introduction of the +name. ("Psalms Chronologically Arranged by Four Friends," p. 14). But it +occurs in Hannah's vow (1 Sam. i. 11); in Samuel's words to Saul (xv. +2); in David's reply to Goliath (xvii. 45). We have it also in Psalm +lix. 5, which we regard as his earliest during his exile. Do the authors +referred to consider these speeches in 1 Sam. as not authentic? + + + + +XII.--THE KING--_CONTINUED_. + + +The second event recorded as important in the bright early years is the +great promise of the perpetuity of the kingdom in David's house. As soon +as the king was firmly established and free from war, he remembered the +ancient word which said, "When He giveth you rest from all your enemies +round about, so that ye dwell in safety, then there shall be a place +which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there" +(Deut. xii. 10, 11). His own ease rebukes him; he regards his +tranquillity not as a season for selfish indolence, but as a call to new +forms of service. He might well have found in the many troubles and +vicissitudes of his past life an excuse for luxurious repose now. But +devout souls will consecrate their leisure as their toil to God, and +will serve Him with thankful offerings in peace whom they invoked with +earnest cries in battle. Prosperity is harmless only when it is +accepted as an opportunity for fresh forms of devotion, not as an +occasion for idle self-indulgence. So we read, with distinct verbal +reference to the words already quoted, that "when the Lord had given him +rest round about from all his enemies, the king said unto Nathan the +prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God +dwelleth in curtains." The impulse of generous devotion, which cannot +bear to lavish more upon self than it gives to God, at first commended +itself to the prophet; but in the solitude of his nightly thoughts the +higher wisdom speaks in his spirit, and the word of God gives him a +message for the king. The narrative in 2 Sam. makes no mention of +David's warlike life as unfitting him for the task, which we find from 2 +Chron. was one reason why his purpose was set aside, but brings into +prominence the thought that David's generous impulse was outrunning +God's commandment, and that his ardour to serve was in some danger of +forgetting his entire dependence on God, and of fancying that God would +be the better for him. So the prophetic message reminds him that the +Lord had never, through all the centuries, asked for a house of cedar, +and recalls the past life of David as having been wholly shaped and +blessed by Him, while it pointedly inverts the king's proposal in its +own grand promise, "The Lord telleth thee that He will make thee an +house." Then follows the prediction of a son of David who should build +the house, whose kingdom should be perpetual, whose transgressions +should be corrected indeed, but never punished as those of the unhappy +Saul; and then, in emphatic and unmistakable words, the perpetuity of +David's house, his kingdom, and his throne, is reiterated as the close +of the whole. + +The wonderful burst of praise which sprang from David's heart in answer +cannot be dealt with here; but clearly from that time onwards a new +element had been added to his hopes, and a new object presented to his +faith. The prophecy of the Messiah enters upon a new stage, bearing a +relation, as its successive stages, always unmistakably did, to the +history which supplies a framework for it. Now for the first time can he +be set forth as the king of Israel; now the width of the promise which +at first had embraced the seed of the woman, and then had been narrowed +to the seed of Abraham, and thereafter probably to the tribe of Judah, +is still further defined as to be fulfilled in the line of the house of +David; now the personal Messiah Himself begins to be discerned through +the words which are to have a preparatory fulfilment, in itself +prophetic, in the collective Davidic monarchs whose very office is +itself also a prophecy. + +Many echoes of this new message ring through the later psalms of the +king. His own dominion, his conquests, and his office, gradually became +to himself a solemn prophecy of a mysterious descendant who should be +really and fully all that he was in shadow and in part. As the +experience of the exile, so that of the victorious monarch supplied the +colours with which the spirit of prophecy in him painted "beforehand the +sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." In both classes +of psalms we have two forms of the Messianic reference, the typical and +the purely prophetic. In the former the events of David's own biography +and the feelings of his own soul are so portrayed and expressed as to +suggest his greater Son. In the latter, the personality of the psalmist +retreats into the background, and is at most only the starting-point for +wails of sorrow or gleams of glory which far transcend anything in the +life of the singer. There are portions, for instance, of the xxii. and +lxix. psalms which no torturing can force into correspondence with any +of David's trials; and in like manner there are pćans of victory and +predictions of dominion which demand a grander interpretation than his +own royalty or his hopes for his house can yield. Of course, if prophecy +is impossible, there is no more to be said, but that in that case a +considerable part of the Old Testament, including many of David's +psalms, is unintelligible. + +Perhaps the clearest instance of distinct prophecy of the victorious +dominion of the personal Messiah is the 110th psalm. In it we do see, no +doubt, the influence of the psalmist's own history, shaping the image +which rises before his soul. But the attributes of that king whom he +beholds are not his attributes, nor those of any son of his who wore the +crown in Israel. And whilst his own history gives the form, it is "the +Spirit of Christ that was in" him which gives the substance, and +transfigures the earthly monarchy into a heavenly dominion. We do not +enter upon the question of the Davidic authorship of this psalm. Here we +have not to depend upon Jewish superscriptions, but on the words of Him +whose bare assertion should be "an end of all strife." Christ says that +David wrote it. Some of us are far enough behind the age to believe that +what He said He meant, and that what He meant is truth. + +This psalm, then, being David's, can hardly be earlier than the time of +Nathan's prophecy. There are traces in it of the influence of the +history of the psalmist, giving, as we have said, form to the +predictions. Perhaps we may see these in Zion being named as the seat of +Messiah's sovereignty and in the reference to Melchizedek, both of which +points assume new force if we suppose that the ancient city over which +that half-forgotten name once ruled had recently become his own. +Possibly, too, his joy in exchanging his armour and kingly robe for the +priest's ephod, when he brought up the ark to its rest, and his +consciousness that in himself the regal and the sacerdotal offices did +not blend, may have led him to meditations on the meaning of both, on +the miseries that seemed to flow equally from their separation and from +their union, which were the precursors of his hearing the Divine oath +that, in the far-off future, they would be fused together in that mighty +figure who was to repeat in higher fashion the union of functions which +invested that dim King of Righteousness and Priest of God in the far-off +past. He discerns that _his_ support from the right hand of God, _his_ +sceptre which he swayed in Zion, _his_ loyal people fused together into +a unity at last, _his_ triumphant warfare on the nations around, are all +but faint shadows of One who is to come. That solemn form on the horizon +of hope is his Lord, the true King whose viceroy he was, the "bright +consummate flower" for the sake of which the root has its being. And, as +he sees the majestic lineaments shimmering through the facts of his own +history, like some hidden fire toiling in a narrow space ere it leaps +into ruddy spires that burst their bonds and flame heaven high, he is +borne onwards by the prophetic impulse, and the Spirit of God speaks +through his tongue words which have no meaning unless their theme be a +Divine ruler and priest for all the world. + +He begins with the solemn words with which a prophetic message is wont +to be announced, thus at the outset stamping on the psalm its true +character. The "oracle" or "word of Jehovah unto my Lord," which he +heard, is a new revelation made to him from the heavens. He is taken up +and listens to the Divine voice calling to His right hand, to the most +intimate communion with Himself, and to wielding the energies of +omnipotence--Him whom David knew to be his lord. And when that Divine +voice ceases, its mandate having been fulfilled, the prophetic spirit in +the seer hymns the coronation anthem of the monarch enthroned by the +side of the majesty in the heavens. "The sceptre of Thy strength will +Jehovah send out of Zion. Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies." In +singular juxtaposition are the throne at God's right hand and the +sceptre--the emblem of sovereignty--issuing from Zion, a dominion +realised on earth by a monarch in the heavens, a dominion the centre of +which is Zion, and the undefined extent universal. It is a monarchy, +too, established in the midst of enemies, sustained in spite of +antagonism not only by the power of Jehovah, but by the activity of the +sovereign's own "rule." It is a dominion for the maintenance of which +devout souls will burst into prayer, and the most powerful can bring +but their aspirations. But the vision includes more than the warrior +king and his foes. Imbedded, as it were, in the very heart of the +description of the former comes the portraiture of his subjects, for a +witness how close is the union between Him and them, and how inseparable +from His glories are those who serve Him. They are characterised in a +threefold manner. "Thy people (shall be) willing in the day of Thine +array." The army is being mustered.[U] They are not mercenaries, nor +pressed men. They flock gladly to the standard, like the warriors +celebrated of old in Deborah's chant of victory, who "willingly offered +themselves." The word of our psalm might be translated "freewill +offerings," and the whole clause carries us into the very heart of that +great truth, that glad consecration and grateful self-surrender is the +one bond which knits us to the Captain of our salvation who gave +Himself for us, to the meek Monarch whose crown is of thorns and His +sceptre a reed, for tokens that His dominion rests on suffering and is +wielded in gentleness. The next words should be punctuated as a separate +clause, co-ordinate with the former, and adding another feature to the +description of the army. "In the beauties of holiness" is a common name +for the dress of the priests: the idea conveyed is that the army is an +army of priests, as the king himself is a priest. They are clothed, not +in mail and warlike attire, but in "fine linen clean and white," like +the armies which a later prophet saw following the Lord of lords. Their +warfare is not to be by force and cruelty, nor their conquests bloody; +but while soldiers they are to be priests, their weapons purity and +devotion, their merciful struggle to bring men to God, and to mirror God +to men. Round the one image gather all ideas of discipline, courage, +consecration to a cause, loyalty to a leader; round the other, all +thoughts of gentleness, of an atmosphere of devotion calm and still as +the holy place, of stainless character. Christ's servants must be both +soldiers and priests, like some of those knightly orders who bore the +cross on helmet and shield, and shaped the very hilts of their swords +into its likeness. And these soldier-priests are described by yet +another image, "From the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy +youth," where we are to regard the last word as used in a collective +sense, and equivalent to "Thy young warriors." They are like the dew +sparkling in infinite globelets on every blade of grass, hanging gems on +every bit of dead wood, formed in secret silence, reflecting the +sunlight, and, though the single drops be small and feeble, yet together +freshening the thirsty world. So, formed by an unseen and mysterious +power, one by one insignificant, but in the whole mighty, mirroring God +and quickening and beautifying the worn world, the servants of the +priest-king are to be "in the midst of many people like the dew from the +Lord." + +[U] The word translated "power" in our version, has the same double +meaning as that has in old English, or as "force" has now, sometimes +signifying "strength" and sometimes an "army." The latter is the more +appropriate here. "The day of Thine army" will then be equivalent to the +day of mustering the troops. + +Another solemn word from the lips of God begins the second half of the +psalm. "Jehovah swears," gives the sanction and guarantee of His own +nature, puts in pledge His own being for the fulfilment of the promise. +And that which He swears is a new thing in the earth. The blending of +the royal and priestly offices in the Messiah, and the eternal duration +in Him of both, is a distinct advancement in the development of +Messianic prophecy. The historical occasion for it may indeed be +connected with David's kingship and conquest of Melchizedek's city; but +the real source of it is a direct predictive inspiration. We have here +not merely the devout psalmist meditating on the truths revealed before +his day, but the prophet receiving a new word from God unheard by mortal +ears, and far transcending even the promises made to him by Nathan. +There is but one person to whom it can apply, who sits as a priest upon +his throne, who builds the temple of the Lord (Zech. vi. 12, 13). + +As the former Divine word, so this is followed by the prophet's +rapturous answer, which carries on the portraiture of the priest-king. +There is some doubt as to the person addressed in these later verses. +"The Lord at thy right hand crushes kings in the day of His wrath." +Whose right hand? The answer generally given is, "The Messiah's." Who is +the Lord that smites the petty kinglets of earth? The answer generally +given is, "God." But it is far more dramatic, avoids an awkward +abruptness in the change of persons in the last verse, and brings out a +striking contrast with the previous half, if we take the opposite view, +and suppose Jehovah addressed and the Messiah spoken of throughout. Then +the first Divine word is followed by the prophetic invocation of the +exalted Messiah throned at the right hand and expecting till His enemies +be made His footstool. The second is followed by the prophetic +invocation of Jehovah, and describes the Lord Messiah at God's right +hand as before, but instead of longer waiting He now flames forth in all +the resistless energy of a conqueror. The day of His array is succeeded +by the day of His wrath. He crushes earth's monarchies. The psalmist's +eye sees the whole earth one great battle-field. "(It is) full of +corpses. He wounds the head over wide lands," where there may possibly +be a reference to the first vague dawning of a hope which God's mercy +had let lighten on man's horizon--"He shall bruise thy head," or the +word may be used as a collective expression for rulers, as the +parallelism with the previous verse requires. Thus striding on to +victory across the prostrate foe, and pursuing the flying relics of +their power, "He drinks of the brook in the way, therefore shall He lift +up the head," words which are somewhat difficult, however interpreted. +If, with the majority of modern commentators, we take them as a +picturesque embodiment of eager haste in the pursuit, the conqueror +"faint, yet pursuing," and stooping for a moment to drink, then hurrying +on with renewed strength after the fugitives, one can scarcely help +feeling that such a close to such a psalm is trivial and liker the +artificial play of fancy than the work of the prophetic spirit, to say +nothing of the fact that there is nothing about pursuit in the psalm. If +we fall back on the older interpretation, which sees in the words a +prophecy of the sufferings of the Messiah who tastes death and drinks of +the cup of sorrows, and therefore is highly exalted, we get a meaning +which worthily crowns the psalm, but seems to break somewhat abruptly +the sequence of thought, and to force the metaphor of drinking of the +brook into somewhat strained parallelism with the very different New +Testament images just named. But the doubt we must leave over these +final words does not diminish the preciousness of this psalm as a clear, +articulate prophecy from David's lips of David's Son, whom he had +learned to know through the experiences and facts of his own life. He +had climbed through sufferings to his throne. God had exalted him and +given him victory, and surrounded him with a loyal people. But he was +only a shadow; limitations and imperfections surrounded his office and +weakened himself; half of the Divine counsel of peace could not be +mirrored in his functions at all, and death lay ahead of him. So his +glory and his feebleness alike taught him that "one mightier than" he +must be coming behind him, "the latchet of whose shoes he was not worthy +to unloose"--the true King of Israel, to bear witness to whom was his +highest honour. + +The third characteristic of the first seventeen years of David's reign +is his successful wars with surrounding nations. The gloomy days of +defeat and subjugation which had darkened the closing years of Saul are +over now, and blow after blow falls with stunning rapidity on the amazed +enemies. The narrative almost pants for breath as it tells with hurry +and pride how, south, and east, and north, the "lion of the tribe of +Judah" sprang from his fastness, and smote Philistia, Edom, Moab, Ammon, +Amalek, Damascus, and the Syrians beyond, even to the Euphrates; and +the bounding courage of king and people, and the unity of heart and hand +with which they stood shoulder to shoulder in many a bloody field, ring +through the psalms of this period. Whatever higher meaning may be +attached to them, their roots are firm in the soil of actual history, +and they are first of all the war-songs of a nation. That being so, that +they should also be inspired hymns for the church in all ages will +present no difficulty nor afford any consecration to modern warfare, if +the progressive character of revelation be duly kept in mind. There is a +whole series of such psalms, such as xx., xxi., lx., and probably +lxviii. We cannot venture in our limited space on any analysis of the +last of these. It is a splendid burst of national triumph and devout +praise, full of martial ardour, throbbing with lofty consciousness of +God's dwelling in Israel, abounding with allusions to the ancient +victories of the people, and world-wide in its anticipations of future +triumph. How strange the history of its opening words has been! Through +the battle smoke of how many a field they have rung! On the plains of +the Palatinate, from the lips of Cromwell's Ironsides, and from the poor +peasants that went to death on many a bleak moor for Christ's crown and +covenant, to the Doric music of their rude chant-- + + "Let God arise, and scattered + Let all His enemies be; + And let all those that do Him hate, + Before His presence flee." + +The sixtieth psalm is assigned to David after Joab's signal victory over +the Edomites (2 Sam. viii.). It agrees very well with that date, though +the earlier verses have a wailing tone so deep over recent disasters, so +great that one is almost inclined to suppose that they come from a later +hand than his. But after the first verses all is warlike energy and +triumph. How the glad thought of ruling over a united people dances in +the swift words, "I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out +the valley of Succoth;" he has, as it were, repeated Joshua's conquest +and division of the land, and the ancient historical sites that fill a +conspicuous place in the history of his great ancestor are in his power. +"Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine, Ephraim also is the defence of my +head, Judah my staff of command." He looks eastward to the woods and +pastoral uplands across the Jordan, whose inhabitants had been but +loosely attached to the western portion of the nation, and triumphs in +knowing that Gilead and Manasseh own his sway. The foremost tribes on +this side the river are to him like the armour and equipments of a +conqueror; he wears the might of Ephraim, the natural head of the +northern region, as his helmet, and he grasps the power of Judah as his +baton of command or sceptre of kingly rule (Gen. xlix. 10). + +Thus, strong in the possession of a united kingdom, his flashing eye +turns to his enemies, and a stern joy, mingled with contempt, blazes up +as he sees them reduced to menial offices and trembling before him. +"Moab (is) my washing-basin; to Edom will I fling my shoe; because of +me, Philistia, cry out" (in fear). The three ancestral foes that hung on +Israel's southern border from east to west are subdued. He will make of +one "a vessel of dishonour" to wash his feet, soiled with battle; he +will throw his shoes to another the while, as one would to a slave to +take care of; and the third, expecting a like fate, shrieks out in fear +of the impending vengeance. He pants for new victories, "Who will bring +me into (the) strong city?" probably the yet unsubdued Petra, hidden +away in its tortuous ravine, with but one perilous path through the +gorge. And at last all the triumph of victory rises to a higher region +of thought in the closing words, which lay bare the secret of his +strength, and breathe the true spirit of the soldier of Jehovah. "In God +we shall do valiantly; and He, even He, shall tread down our enemies." + +The twentieth psalm, another of these stirring war-songs, is in that +choral manner which we have already seen in psalm xxiv., and the +adoption of which was probably connected with David's careful +organization of "the service of song." It is all ablaze with the light +of battle and the glow of loyal love. + +The army, ready drawn up for action, as we may fancy, prays for the +king, who, according to custom, brings sacrifices and offerings before +the fight. "Jehovah hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God +of Jacob defend thee, send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen +thee out of Zion, remember all thine offerings, and accept thy burnt +sacrifice." Then, as they wave their standards in the sunshine, or plant +before the ranks of each tribe its cognizance, to be defended to the +death, the hoarse shout rises from the files, "In the name of our God we +will set up (or wave) our banners." Then the single voice of the king +speaks, rejoicing in his soldiers' devotion, which he accepts as an omen +that his sacrifice has not been in vain: "Now know I that Jehovah saveth +His anointed. He will hear him from the heaven of His holiness with the +strength of the salvation of His right hand;" not merely from a God +dwelling in Zion, according to language of the previous prayer, but from +the Lord in the heavens, will the strength come. Then again the chorus +of the host exclaims, as they look across the field to the chariots and +cavalry of the foe--forces which Israel seldom used--"These (boast[V]) +of chariots, and those of horses, and we, of the name of Jehovah, our +God, do we boast." Ere a sword has been drawn, they see the enemy +scattered. "They are brought down and fallen; and we, we are risen and +stand upright." Then one earnest cry to God, one more thought of the +true monarch of Israel, whom David would teach them to feel he only +shadowed; and with the prayer, "Jehovah! save! Let the King hear us in +the day when we cry," ringing like the long trumpet blast that sounds +for the charge, they dash forth to victory! + +[V] Lit. "make mention of" or "commemorate." + + + + +XIII.--THE TEARS OF THE PENITENT. + + +Adversity had taught David self-restraint, had braced his soul, had +driven him to grasp firmly the hand of God. And prosperity had seemed +for nearly twenty years but to perfect the lessons. Gratitude had +followed deliverance, and the sunshine after the rain had brought out +the fragrance of devotion and the blossoms of glad songs. A good man, +and still more a man of David's age at the date of his great crime, +seldom falls so low, unless there has been previous, perhaps +unconscious, relaxation of the girded loins, and negligence of the +untrimmed lamp. The sensitive nature of the psalmist was indeed not +unlikely to yield to the sudden force of such a temptation as conquered +him, but we can scarcely conceive of its having done so without a +previous decay of his religious life, hidden most likely from himself. +And the source of that decay may probably be found in self-indulgence, +fostered by ease, and by long years of command. The actual fall into +sin seems to have been begun by slothful abdication of his functions as +captain of Israel. It is perhaps not without bitter emphasis that the +narrative introduces it by telling us that, "at the time when kings go +forth to battle," David contented himself with sending his troops +against Ammon, and "tarried still at Jerusalem." At all events, the +story brings into sharp contrast the levy _en masse_, encamped round +Rabbath, and their natural head, who had once been so ready to take his +share of blows and privations, loitering behind, taking his quiet siesta +in the hot hours after noon, as if there had been no soldiers of his +sweltering in their armour, and rising from his bed to stroll on his +palace roof, and peer into the household privacies below, as if his +heart had no interest in the grim tussle going on behind the hills that +he could almost see from his height, as they grew purple in the evening +twilight. He has fallen to the level of an Eastern despot, and has lost +his sense of the responsibilities of his office. Such loosening of the +tension of his moral nature as is indicated in his absence from the +field, during what was evidently a very severe as well as a long +struggle, prepared the way for the dismal headlong plunge into sin. + +The story is told in all its hideousness, without palliation or reserve, +without comment or heightening, in that stern judicial fashion so +characteristic of the Bible records of its greatest characters. Every +step is narrated without a trace of softening, and without a word of +emotion. Not a single ugly detail is spared. The portraiture is as vivid +as ever. Bathsheba's willing complicity, her punctilious observance of +ceremonial propriety while she is trampling under foot her holiest +obligations; the fatal necessity which drags sin after sin, and summons +up murder to hide, if it be possible, the foul form of adultery; the +stinging rebuke in the conduct of Uriah, who, Hittite as he was, has a +more chivalrous, not to say devout, shrinking from personal ease while +his comrades and the ark are in the field, than the king has; the mean +treason, the degradation implied in getting into Joab's power; the +cynical plainness of the murderous letter, in which a hardened +conscience names his purposed evil by its true name; the contemptuous +measure of his master which Joab takes in his message, the king's +indifference to the loss of his men so long as Uriah is out of the way; +the solemn platitudes with which he pretends to console his tool for the +check of his troops; and the hideous haste with which, after her +scrupulous "mourning" for one week, Bathsheba threw herself again into +David's arms;--all these particulars, and every particular an +aggravation, stand out for ever, as men's most hidden evil will one day +do, in the clear, unpitying, unmistakable light of the Divine record. +What a story it is! + +This saint of nearly fifty years of age, bound to God by ties which he +rapturously felt and acknowledged, whose words have been the very breath +of devotion for every devout heart, forgets his longings after +righteousness, flings away the joys of Divine communion, darkens his +soul, ends his prosperity, brings down upon his head for all his +remaining years a cataract of calamities, and makes his name and his +religion a target for the barbed sarcasms of each succeeding generation +of scoffers. "All the fences and their whole array," which God's mercies +and his own past had reared, "one cunning sin sweeps quite away." Every +obligation of his office, as every grace of his character, is trodden +under foot by the wild beast roused in his breast. As man, as king, as +soldier, he is found wanting. Lust and treason, and craft and murder, +are goodly companions for him who had said, "I will walk within my house +with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes." Why +should we dwell on the wretched story? Because it teaches us, as no +other page in the history of God's church does, how the alchemy of +Divine love can extract sweet perfumes of penitence and praise out of +the filth of sin; and therefore, though we turn with loathing from +David's sin, we have to bless God for the record of it, and for the +lessons of hope that come from David's pardon. + +To many a sin-tortured soul since then, the two psalms (li., xxxii.), +all blotted with tears, in which he has sobbed out his penitence, have +been as footsteps in a great and terrible wilderness. They are too +familiar to need, and too sacred to bear, many words here, but we may +briefly note some points connected with them--especially those which +assist us in forming some image of the psalmist's state of mind after +his transgression. It may be observed that of these two psalms, the +fifty-first is evidently earlier than the thirty-second. In the former +we see the fallen man struggling up out of the "horrible pit and miry +clay;" in the latter he stands upon the rock, with a new song in his +mouth, even the blessedness of him "whose sin is covered." It appears +also that both must be dated after the sharp thrust of God's lancet +which Nathan drove into his conscience, and the healing balsam of God's +assurance of forgiveness which Nathan laid upon his heart. The +passionate cries of the psalm are the echo of the Divine promise--the +effort of his faith to grasp and keep the merciful gift of pardon. The +consciousness of forgiveness is the basis of the prayer for forgiveness. + +Somewhere about a year passed between the crime and the message of +Nathan. And what sort of a year it was the psalms tell us. The coarse +satisfactions of his sin could not long content him, as they might have +done a lower type of man. Nobody buys a little passing pleasure in evil +at so dear a rate, or keeps it for so short a time as a good man. He +cannot make himself as others. "That which cometh into your mind shall +not be at all, in that ye say, We will be as the families of the +nations, which serve wood and stone." Old habits quickly reassert their +force, conscience soon lifts again its solemn voice; and while worse men +are enjoying the strong-flavoured meats on sin's table, the servant of +God, who has been seduced to prefer them for a moment to the "light +bread" from heaven, tastes them already bitter in his mouth. He may be +far from true repentance, but he will very soon know remorse. Months may +pass before he can feel again the calm joys of God, but disgust with +himself and with his sin will quickly fill his soul. No more vivid +picture of such a state has ever been drawn, than is found in the psalms +of this period. They tell of sullen "silence;" dust had settled on the +strings of his harp, as on helmet and sword. He will not speak to God of +his sin, and there is nothing else that he can speak of. They tell of +his "roaring all the day long"--the groan of anguish forced from his yet +unsoftened spirit. Day and night God's heavy hand weighed him down; the +consciousness of that power, whose gentleness had once holden him up, +crushed, but did not melt him. Like some heated iron, its heaviness +scorched as well as bruised, and his moisture--all the dew and +freshness of his life--was dried up at its touch and turned into dusty, +cracking drought, that chaps the hard earth, and shrinks the streamlets, +and burns to brown powder the tender herbage (Ps. xxxii.). Body and mind +seem both to be included in this wonderful description, in which +obstinate dumbness, constant torture, dread of God, and not one +softening drop of penitence fill the dry and dusty heart, while "bones +waxing old," or, as the word might be rendered, "rotting," sleepless +nights, and perhaps the burning heat of disease, are hinted at as the +accompaniments of the soul-agony. It is possible that similar allusions +to actual bodily illness are to be found in another psalm, probably +referring to the same period, and presenting striking parallelisms of +expression (Ps. vi.), "Have mercy upon me, Jehovah, for I languish (fade +away); heal me, for my bones are affrighted. My soul is also sore vexed. +I am weary with my groaning; every night make I my bed to swim. I water +my couch with my tears." The similar phrase, too, in psalm fifty-one, +"The bones which Thou hast broken," may have a similar application. +Thus, sick in body and soul, he dragged through a weary year--ashamed +of his guilty dalliance, wretched in his self-accusations, afraid of +God, and skulking in the recesses of his palace from the sight of his +people. A goodly price he had sold integrity for. The bread had been +sweet for a moment, but how quickly his "mouth is filled with gravel" +(Proverbs xx. 17). David learned, what we all learn (and the holier a +man is, the more speedily and sharply does the lesson follow on the +heels of his sin), that every transgression is a blunder, that we never +get the satisfaction which we expect from any sin, or if we do, we get +something with it which spoils it all. A nauseous drug is added to the +exciting, intoxicating drink which temptation offers, and though its +flavour is at first disguised by the pleasanter taste of the sin, its +bitterness is persistent though slow, and clings to the palate long +after that has faded utterly. + +Into this dreary life Nathan's message comes with merciful rebuke. The +prompt severity of David's judgment against the selfish sinner of the +inimitable apologue may be a subtle indication of his troubled +conscience, which fancies some atonement for his own sin in stern +repression of that of others; for consciousness of evil may sometimes +sting into harshness as well as soften to lenity, and sinful man is a +sterner judge than the righteous God. The answer of Nathan is a perfect +example of the Divine way of convincing of sin. There is first the plain +charge pressed home on the individual conscience, "Thou art the man." +Then follows, not reproach nor further deepening of the blackness of the +deed, but a tender enumeration of God's great benefits, whereon is built +the solemn question, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of +the Lord, to do evil in His sight?" The contemplation of God's faithful +love, and of the all-sufficient gifts which it bestows, makes every +transgression irrational as well as ungrateful, and turns remorse, which +consumes like the hot wind of the wilderness, into tearful repentance +which refreshes the soul. When God has been seen loving and bestowing +ere He commands and requires, it is profitable to hold the image of the +man's evil in all its ugliness close up to his eyes; and so the bald +facts are repeated next in the fewest, strongest words. Nor can the +message close until a rigid law of retribution has been proclaimed, the +slow operation of which will filter bitterness and shame through all +his life. "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord." +Two words (in the Hebrew) make the transition from sullen misery to real +though shaded peace. No lengthened outpouring, no accumulation of +self-reproach; he is too deeply moved for many words, which he knows God +does not need. More would have been less. All is contained in that one +sob, in which the whole frostwork of these weary months breaks up and +rolls away, swept before the strong flood. And as brief and simple as +the confession, is the response, "And Nathan said unto David, The Lord +also hath put away thy sin." How full and unconditional the blessing +bestowed in these few words; how swift and sufficient the answer! So the +long estrangement is ended. Thus simple and Divine is the manner of +pardon. In such short compass may the turning point of a life lie! But +while confession and forgiveness heal the breach between God and David, +pardon is not impunity, and the same sentence which bestows the +remission of sin announces the exaction of a penalty. The judgments +threatened a moment before--a moment so far removed now to David's +consciousness that it would look as if an age had passed--are not +withdrawn, and another is added, the death of Bathsheba's infant. God +loves His servants too well to "suffer sin upon them," and the freest +forgiveness and the happiest consciousness of it may consist with the +loving infliction and the submissive bearing of pains, which are no +longer the strokes of an avenging judge, but the chastisements of a +gracious father. + +The fifty-first psalm must, we think, be conceived of as following soon +after Nathan's mission. There may be echoes of the prophet's stern +question, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to +do evil in His sight?" and of the confession, "I have sinned against the +Lord," in the words, "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done +evil in Thy sight" (ver. 4), though perhaps the expressions are not so +peculiar as to make the allusion certain. But, at all events, the +penitence and prayers of the psalm can scarcely be supposed to have +preceded the date of the historical narrative, which clearly implies +that the rebuke of the seer was the first thing that broke up the dumb +misery of unrepented sin. + +Although the psalm is one long cry for pardon and restoration, one can +discern an order and progress in its petitions--the order, not of an +artificial reproduction of a past mood of mind, but the instinctive +order in which the emotion of contrite desire will ever pour itself +forth. In the psalm all begins, as all begins in fact, with the +grounding of the cry for favour on "Thy loving-kindness," "the multitude +of Thy tender mercies;" the one plea that avails with God, whose love is +its own motive and its own measure, whose past acts are the standard for +all His future, whose compassions, in their innumerable numbers, are +more than the sum of our transgressions, though these be "more than the +hairs of our head." Beginning with God's mercy, the penitent soul can +learn to look next upon its own sin in all its aspects of evil. The +depth and intensity of the psalmist's loathing of self is wonderfully +expressed in his words for his crime. He speaks of his "transgressions" +and of his "sin." Looked at in one way, he sees the separate acts of +which he had been guilty--lust, fraud, treachery, murder: looked at in +another, he sees them all knotted together, in one inextricable tangle +of forked, hissing tongues, like the serpent locks that coil and twist +round a Gorgon head. No sin dwells alone; the separate acts have a +common root, and the whole is matted together like the green growth on a +stagnant pond, so that, by whatever filament it is grasped, the whole +mass is drawn towards you. And a profound insight into the essence and +character of sin lies in the accumulated synonyms. It is +"transgression," or, as the word might be rendered, "rebellion"--not the +mere breach of an impersonal law, not merely an infraction of "the +constitution of our nature"--but the rising of a subject will against +its true king, disobedience to a person as well as contravention of a +standard. It is "iniquity"--perversion or distortion--a word which +expresses the same metaphor as is found in many languages, namely, +crookedness as descriptive of deeds which depart from the perfect line +of right. It is "sin," _i.e._, "missing one's aim;" in which profound +word is contained the truth that all sin is a blunder, shooting wide of +the true goal, if regard be had to the end of our being, and not less +wide if regard be had to our happiness. It ever misses the mark; and the +epitaph might be written over every sinner who seeks pleasure at the +price of righteousness, "Thou fool." + +Nor less pregnant with meaning is the psalmist's emphatic +acknowledgment, "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned." He is not +content with looking upon his evil in itself, or in relation only to the +people who had suffered by it; he thinks of it in relation to God. He +had been guilty of crimes against Bathsheba and Uriah, and even the +rough soldier whom he made his tool, as well as against his whole +subjects; but, dark as these were, they assumed their true character +only when they were discerned as done against God. "Sin," in its full +sense, implies "God" as its correlative. We transgress against each +other, but we sin against Him. + +Nor does the psalmist stop here. He has acknowledged the tangled +multiplicity and dreadful unity of his evil, he has seen its inmost +character, he has learned to bring his deed into connection with God; +what remains still to be confessed? He laments, and that not as +extenuation (though it be explanation), but as aggravation, the sinful +nature in which he had been born. The deeds had come from a source--a +bitter fountain had welled out this blackness. He himself is evil, +therefore he has done evil. The sin is his; he will not contest his full +responsibility; and its foul characteristics declare the inward foulness +from which it has flowed--and that foulness is himself. Does he +therefore think that he is less to blame? By no means. His +acknowledgment of an evil nature is the very deepest of his confessions, +and leads not to a palliation of his guilt, but to a cry to Him who +alone can heal the inward wound; and as He can purge away the +transgressions, can likewise stanch their source, and give him to feel +within "that he is healed from that plague." + +The same intensity of feeling expressed by the use of so many words for +sin is revealed also in the reiterated synonyms for pardon. The prayer +comes from his lips over and over again, not because he thinks that he +shall be heard for his much speaking, but because of the earnestness of +his longing. Such repetitions are signs of the persistence of faith, +while others, though they last like the prayers of Baal's priests, "from +morning till the time of the evening sacrifice," indicate only the +suppliant's doubt. David prays that his sins may be "blotted out," in +which petition they are conceived as recorded against him in the +archives of the heavens; that he may be "washed" from them, in which +they are conceived as foul stains upon himself, needing for their +removal hard rubbing and beating (for such is, according to some +commentators, the force of the word); that he may be "cleansed"--the +technical word for the priestly cleansing of the leper, and declaring +him clear of the taint. He also, with similar recurrence to the Mosaic +symbols, prays that he may be "purged with hyssop." There is a pathetic +appropriateness in the petition, for not only lepers, but those who had +become defiled by contact with a dead body, were thus purified; and on +whom did the taint of corruption cleave as on the murderer of Uriah? The +prayer, too, is even more remarkable in the original, which employs a +verb formed from the word for "sin;" "and if in our language that were a +word in use, it might be translated, 'Thou shalt un-sin me.'"[W] + +[W] Donne's Sermons, quoted in Perowne, _in. loc._ + +In the midst of these abased confessions and cries for pardon there +comes with wonderful force and beauty the bold prayer for restoration +to "joy and gladness"--an indication surely of more than ordinary +confidence in the full mercy of God, which would efface all the +consequences of his sin. + +And following upon them are petitions for sanctifying, reiterated and +many-sided, like those that have preceded. Three pairs of clauses +contain these, in each of which the second member of the clause asks for +the infusion into his spirit of some grace from God--that he may possess +a "steadfast spirit," "Thy Holy Spirit," "a willing spirit." It is +perhaps not an accident that the central petition of the three is the +one which most clearly expresses the thought which all imply--that the +human spirit can only be renewed and hallowed by the entrance into it of +the Divine. We are not to commit the theological anachronism which has +been applied with such evil effect to the whole Old Testament, and +suppose that David meant by that central clause in his prayer for +renewal all that we mean by it; but he meant, at least, that his +spiritual nature could be made to love righteousness and hate iniquity +by none other power than God's breathing on it. If we may venture to +regard this as the heart of the series, the other two on either side of +it may be conceived as its consequences. It will then be "a right +spirit," or, as the word means, a steadfast spirit, strong to resist, +not swept away by surges of passion, nor shaken by terrors of remorse, +but calm, tenacious, and resolved, pressing on in the path of holiness, +and immovable with the immobility of those who are rooted in God and +goodness. It will be a free, or "a willing spirit," ready for all joyful +service of thankfulness, and so penetrated with the love of his God that +he will delight to do His will, and carry the law charactered in the +spontaneous impulses of his renewed nature. Not without profound meaning +does the psalmist seem to recur in his hour of penitence to the tragic +fate of his predecessor in the monarchy, to whom, as to himself, had +been given by the same anointing, the same gift of "the Spirit of God." +Remembering how the holy chrism had faded from the raven locks of Saul +long before his bloody head had been sent round Philistine cities to +glut their revenge, and knowing that if God were "strict to mark +iniquity," the gift which had been withdrawn from Saul would not be +continued to himself, he prays, not as anointed monarch only, but as +sinful man, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." As before he had +ventured to ask for the joy of forgiveness, so now he pleads once more +for "the joy of Thy salvation," which comes from cleansing, from +conscious fellowship--which he had so long and deeply felt, which for so +many months had been hid from him by the mists of his own sin. The +psalmist's natural buoyancy, the gladness which was an inseparable part +of his religion, and had rung from his harp in many an hour of peril, +the bold width of his desires, grounded on the clear breadth of his +faith in God's perfect forgiveness, are all expressed in such a prayer +from such lips at such a time, and may well be pondered and imitated by +us. + +The lowly prayer which we have been tracing rises ere its close to a vow +of renewed praise. It is very beautiful to note how the poet nature, as +well as the consciousness of a Divine function, unite in the resolve +that crowns the psalm. To David no tribute that he could bring to God +seemed so little unworthy--none to himself so joyous--as the music of +his harp, and the melody of his songs; nor was any part of his kingly +office so lofty in his estimation as his calling to proclaim in glowing +words the name of the Lord, that men might learn to love. His earliest +song in exile had closed with a like vow. It had been well fulfilled for +many a year; but these last doleful months had silenced all his praise. +Now, as hope begins to shine upon him once more, the frost which had +stilled the stream of his devotion is melting, and as he remembers his +glad songs of old, and this miserable dumbness, his final prayer is, "O +Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise." + +The same consciousness of sin, which we have found in a previous verse +discerning the true significance of ceremonial purification, leads also +to the recognition of the insufficiency of outward sacrifices--a thought +which is not, as some modern critics would fain make it, the product of +the latest age of Judaism, but appears occasionally through the whole of +the history, and indicates not the date, but the spiritual elevation of +its utterer. David sets it on the very summit of his psalm, to sparkle +there like some stone of price. The rich jewel which he has brought up +from the abyss of degradation is that truth which has shone out from its +setting here over three millenniums: "The sacrifices of God are a +broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not +despise." + +The words which follow, containing a prayer for the building up of Zion, +and a prediction of the continuous offering of sacrifice, present some +difficulty. They do not necessarily presuppose that Jerusalem is in +ruins; for "build Thou the walls" would be no less appropriate a +petition if the fortifications were unfinished (as we know they were in +David's time) than if they had been broken down. Nor do the words +contradict the view of sacrifice just given, for the use of the symbol +and the conviction of its insufficiency co-existed, in fact, in every +devout life, and may well be expressed side by side. But the transition +from so intensely personal emotions to intercession for Zion seems +almost too sudden even for a nature as wide and warm as David's. If the +closing verses are his, we may, indeed, see in them the king re-awaking +to a sense of his responsibilities, which he had so long neglected, +first, in the selfishness of his heart, and then in the morbid +self-absorption of his remorse; and the lesson may be a precious one +that the first thought of a pardoned man should be for others. But +there is much to be said, on the other hand, in favour of the conjecture +that these verses are a later addition, probably after the return from +captivity, when the walls of Zion were in ruins, and the altar of the +temple had been long cold. If so, then our psalm, as it came from +David's full heart, would be all of a piece--one great gush of penitence +and faith, beginning with, "Have mercy upon me, O God," ending with the +assurance of acceptance, and so remaining for all ages the chart of the +thorny and yet blessed path that leads "from death unto life." In that +aspect, what it does not contain is as noteworthy as what it does. Not +one word asks for exemption from such penalties of his great fall as can +be inflicted by a loving Father on a soul that lives in His love. He +cries for pardon, but he gives his back to the smiters whom God may +please to send. + +The other psalm of the penitent (xxxii.) has been already referred to in +connection with the autobiographical materials which it contains. It is +evidently of a later period than the fifty-first. There is no struggle +in it; the prayer has been heard, and this is the beginning of the +fulfilment of the vow to show forth God's praise. In the earlier he had +said, "Then will I teach transgressors the way;" here he says, "I will +instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go." There he +began with the plaintive cry for mercy; here with a burst of praise +celebrating the happiness of the pardoned penitent. There we heard the +sobs of a man in the very agony of abasement; here we have the story of +their blessed issue. There we had multiplied synonyms for sin, and for +the forgiveness which was desired; here it is the many-sided +preciousness of forgiveness possessed which runs over in various yet +equivalent phrases. There the highest point to which he could climb was +the assurance that a bruised heart was accepted, and the bones broken +might still rejoice. Here the very first word is of blessedness, and the +close summons the righteous to exuberant joy. The one is a psalm of +wailing; the other, to use its own words, a "song of deliverance." + +What glad consciousness that he himself is the happy man whom he +describes rings in the melodious variations of the one thought of +forgiveness in the opening words! How gratefully he draws on the +treasures of that recent experience, while he sets it forth as being +the "taking away" of sin, as if it were the removal of a solid +something, or the lifting of a burden off his back; and as the +"covering" of sin, as if it were the wrapping of its ugliness in thick +folds that hide it for ever even from the all-seeing Eye; and as the +"non-reckoning" of sin, as if it were the discharge of a debt! What +vivid memory of past misery in the awful portrait of his impenitent +self, already referred to--on which the mind dwells in silence, while +the musical accompaniment (as directed by the "selah") touches some +plaintive minor or grating discord! How noble and eloquent the brief +words (echo of the historical narrative) that tell the full and swift +forgiveness that followed simple confession--and how effectively the +music again comes in, prolonging the thought and rejoicing in the +pardon! How sure he is that his experience is of priceless value to the +world for all time, when he sees in his absolution a motive that will +draw all the godly nearer to their Helper in heaven! How full his heart +is of praise, that he cannot but go back again to his own story, and +rejoice in God his hiding-place--whose past wondrous love assures him +that in the future songs of deliverance will ring him round, and all his +path be encompassed with music of praise. + +So ends the more personal part of the psalm. A more didactic portion +follows, the generalization of that. Possibly the voice which now speaks +is a higher than David's. "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the +way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye," scarcely +sounds like words meant to be understood as spoken by him. They are the +promise from heaven of a gentle teaching to the pardoned man, which will +instruct by no severity, but by patient schooling; which will direct by +no harsh authority, but by that loving glance that is enough for those +who love, and is all too subtle and delicate to be perceived by any +other. Such gracious direction is not for the psalmist alone, but it +needs a spirit in harmony with God to understand it. For others there +can be nothing higher than mere force, the discipline of sorrow, the +bridle in the hard mouth, the whip for the stiff back. The choice for +all men is through penitence and forgiveness to rise to the true +position of men, capable of receiving and obeying a spiritual guidance, +which appeals to the heart, and gently subdues the will, or by stubborn +impenitence to fall to the level of brutes, that can only be held in by +a halter and driven by a lash. And because this is the alternative, +therefore "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in +the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." + +And then the psalm ends with a great cry of gladness, three times +reiterated, like the voice of a herald on some festal day of a nation: +"Rejoice in Jehovah! and leap for joy, O righteous! and gladly shout, +all ye upright in heart!" + +Such is the end of the sobs of the penitent. + + + + +XIV.--CHASTISEMENTS. + + +The chastisements, which were the natural fruits of David's sin, soon +began to show themselves, though apparently ten years at least passed +before Absalom's revolt, at which time he was probably a man of sixty. +But these ten years were very weary and sad. There is no more joyous +activity, no more conquering energy, no more consciousness of his +people's love. Disasters thicken round him, and may all be traced to his +great sin. His children learned the lesson it had taught them, and lust +and fratricide desolated his family. A parent can have no sharper pang +than the sight of his own sins reappearing in his child. David saw the +ghastly reflection of his unbridled passion in his eldest son's foul +crime (and even a gleam of it in his unhappy daughter), and of his +murderous craft in his second son's bloody revenge. Whilst all this hell +of crime is boiling round him, a strange passiveness seems to have +crept over the king, and to have continued till his flight before +Absalom. The narrative is singularly silent about him. He seems +paralysed by the consciousness of his past sin; he originates nothing. +He dares not punish Ammon; he can only weep when he hears of Absalom's +crime. He weakly longs for the return of the latter from his exile, but +cannot nerve himself to send for him till Joab urges it. A flash of his +old kingliness blazes out for a moment in his refusal to see his son; +but even that slight satisfaction to justice vanishes as soon as Joab +chooses to insist that Absalom shall return to court. He seems to have +no will of his own. He has become a mere tool in the hands of his fierce +general--and Joab's hold upon him was his complicity in Uriah's murder. +Thus at every step he was dogged by the consequences of his crime, even +though it was pardoned sin. And if, as is probable, Ahithophel was +Bathsheba's grandfather, the most formidable person in Absalom's +conspiracy, whose defection wounded him so deeply, was no doubt driven +to the usurper's side out of revenge for the insult to his house in her +person. Thus "of our pleasant vices doth heaven make whips to scourge +us." "Be not deceived; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also +reap." + +It is not probable that many psalms were made in those dreary days. But +the forty-first and fifty-fifth are, with reasonable probability, +referred to this period by many commentators. They give a very touching +picture of the old king during the four years in which Absalom's +conspiracy was being hatched. It seems, from the forty-first, that the +pain and sorrow of his heart had brought on some serious illness, which +his enemies had used for their own purposes, and embittered by +hypocritical condolences and ill-concealed glee. The sensitive +nature of the psalmist winces under their heartless desertion of him, +and pours out its plaint in this pathetic lament. He begins with a +blessing on those who "consider the afflicted"--having reference, +perhaps, to the few who were faithful to him in his languishing +sickness. He passes thence to his own case, and, after humble confession +of his sin,--almost in the words of the fifty-first psalm,--he tells how +his sickbed had been surrounded by very different visitors. His disease +drew no pity, but only fierce impatience that he lingered in life so +long. "Mine enemies speak evil of me--when will he die, and his name +have perished?" One of them, in especial, who must have been a man in +high position to gain access to the sick chamber, has been conspicuous +by his lying words of condolence: "If he come to see me he speaketh +vanity." The sight of the sick king touched no chord of affection, but +only increased the traitor's animosity--"his heart gathereth evil to +itself"--and then, having watched his pale face for wished-for +unfavourable symptoms, the false friend hurries from the bedside to talk +of his hopeless illness--"he goeth abroad, he telleth it." The tidings +spread, and are stealthily passed from one conspirator to another. "All +that hate me whisper together against me." They exaggerate the gravity +of his condition, and are glad because, making the wish the father to +the thought, they believe him dying. "A thing of Belial" (_i.e._, a +destructive disease), "say they, is poured out upon him, and now that he +lieth, he shall rise up no more." And, sharpest pang of all, that among +these traitors, and probably the same person as he whose heartless +presence in the sick chamber was so hard to bear, should be Ahithophel, +whose counsel had been like an oracle from God. Even he, "the man of my +friendship, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread"--he, like an +ignoble, vicious mule--"has lifted high his heel" against the sick lion. + +We should be disposed to refer the thirty-ninth psalm also to this +period. It, too, is the meditation of one in sickness, which he knows to +be a Divine judgment for his sin. There is little trace of enemies in +it; but his attitude is that of silent submission, while wicked men are +disquieted around him--which is precisely the characteristic peculiarity +of his conduct at this period. It consists of two parts (vers. 1-6 and +7-13), in both of which the subjects of his meditations are the same, +but the tone of them different. His own sickness and mortality, and +man's fleeting, shadowy life, are his themes. The former has led him to +think of the latter. The first effect of his sorrow was to close his +lips in a silence that was not altogether submission. "I held my peace, +even from good, and my sorrow was stirred." As in his sin, when he kept +silence, his "bones waxed old," so now in his sorrow and sickness the +pain that could not find expression raged the more violently. The +tearless eyes were hot and aching; but he conquered the dumb spirit, and +could carry his heavy thoughts to God. They are very heavy at first. He +only desires that the sad truth may be driven deeper into his soul. With +the engrossment so characteristic of melancholy, he asks, what might +have been thought the thing he needed least, "Make me to know mine end;" +and then he dilates on the gloomy reflections which he had been +cherishing in silence. Not only he himself, with his handbreadth of +days, that shrink into absolute nothingness when brought into contrast +with the life of God, but "every man," even when apparently "standing" +most "firm, is only a breath." As a shadow every man moves spectral +among shadows. The tumult that fills their lives is madness; "only for a +breath are they disquieted." So bitterly, with an anticipation of the +sad, clear-eyed pity and scorn of "The Preacher," does the sick and +wearied king speak, in tones very unlike the joyous music of his earlier +utterances. + +But, true and wholesome as such thoughts are, they are not all the +truth. So the prayer changes in tone, even while its substance is the +same. He rises from the shows of earth to his true home, driven thither +by their hollowness. "My hope is in Thee." The conviction of earth's +vanity is all different when it has "tossed him to Thy breast." The +pardoned sinner, who never thereafter forgot his grievous fall, asks for +deliverance "from all his transgressions." The sullen silence has +changed into full acquiescence: "I opened not my mouth, because Thou +didst it,"--a silence differing from the other as the calm after the +storm, when all the winds sleep and the sun shines out on a freshened +world, differs from the boding stillness while the slow thunder-clouds +grow lurid on the horizon. He cries for healing, for he knows his +sickness to be the buffet and assault of God's hand; and its bitterness +is assuaged, even while its force continues, by the conviction that it +is God's fatherly chastisement for sin which gnaws away his manly vigour +as the moth frets his kingly robe. The very thought which had been so +bitter--that every man is vanity--reappears in a new connection as the +basis of the prayer that God would hear, and is modified so as to become +infinitely blessed and hopeful. "I am a stranger with Thee, and a +sojourner, as all my fathers were." A wanderer indeed, and a transient +guest on earth; but what of that, if he be God's guest? All that is +sorrowful is drawn off from the thought when we realise our connection +with God. We are in God's house; the host, not the guest, is responsible +for the housekeeping. We need not feel life lonely if He be with us, nor +its shortness sad. It is not a shadow, a dream, a breath, if it be +rooted in Him. And thus the sick man has conquered his gloomy thoughts, +even though he sees little before him but the end; and he is not cast +down even though his desires are all summed up in one for a little +respite and healing, ere the brief trouble of earth be done with: "O +spare me, that I may recover strength before I go hence, and be no +more." + +It may be observed that this supposition of a protracted illness, which +is based upon these psalms, throws light upon the singular passiveness +of David during the maturing of Absalom's conspiracy, and may naturally +be supposed to have favoured his schemes, an essential part of which was +to ingratiate himself with suitors who came to the king for judgment by +affecting great regret that no man was deputed of the king to hear them. +The accumulation of untried causes, and the apparent disorganization of +the judicial machinery, are well accounted for by David's sickness. + +The fifty-fifth psalm gives some very pathetic additional particulars. +It is in three parts--a plaintive prayer and portraiture of the +psalmist's mental distress (vers. 1-8); a vehement supplication against +his foes, and indignant recounting of their treachery (vers. 9-16); and, +finally, a prophecy of the retribution that is to fall upon them (vers. +17-23). In the first and second portions we have some points which help +to complete our picture of the man. For instance, his heart "writhes" +within him, the "terrors of death" are on him, "fear and trembling" are +come on him, and "horror" has covered him. All this points, like +subsequent verses, to his knowledge of the conspiracy before it came to +a head. The state of the city, which is practically in the hands of +Absalom and his tools, is described with bold imagery. Violence and +Strife in possession of it, spies prowling about the walls day and +night, Evil and Trouble in its midst, and Destruction, Oppression, and +Deceit--a goodly company--flaunting in its open spaces. And the spirit, +the brain of the whole, is the trusted friend whom he had made his own +equal, who had shared his secretest thoughts in private, who had walked +next him in solemn processions to the temple. Seeing all this, what does +the king do, who was once so fertile in resource, so decisive in +counsel, so prompt in action? Nothing. His only weapon is prayer. "As +for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord will save me. Evening, and +morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my +voice." He lets it all grow as it list, and only longs to be out of all +the weary coil of troubles. "Oh that I had wings like a dove, then would +I fly away and be at rest. Lo, I would flee far off, I would lodge in +the wilderness. I would swiftly fly to my refuge from the raging wind, +from the tempest." The langour of his disease, love for his worthless +son, consciousness of sin, and submission to the chastisement through +"one of his own house," which Nathan had foretold, kept him quiet, +though he saw the plot winding its meshes round him. And in this +submission patient confidence is not wanting, though subdued and +saddened, which finds expression in the last words of this psalm of the +heavy laden, "Cast thy burden upon Jehovah. He, He will sustain +thee.... I will trust in Thee." + +When the blow at last fell, the same passive acquiescence in what he +felt to be God's chastisement is very noticeable. Absalom escapes to +Hebron, and sets up the standard of revolt. When the news comes to +Jerusalem the king's only thought is immediate flight. He is almost +cowardly in his eagerness to escape, and is prepared to give up +everything without a blow. It seems as if only a touch was needed to +overthrow his throne. He hurries on the preparations for flight with +nervous haste. He forms no plans beyond those of his earlier wish to fly +away and be at rest. He tries to denude himself of followers. When the +six hundred men of Gath--who had been with him ever since his early days +in Philistia, and had grown grey in his service--make themselves the van +of his little army, he urges the heroic Ittai, their leader, to leave +him a fugitive, and to worship the rising sun, "Return to thy place, and +abide with _the king_"--so thoroughly does he regard the crown as passed +already from his brows. The priests with the ark are sent back; he is +not worthy to have the symbol of the Divine presence identified with +his doubtful cause, and is prepared to submit without a murmur if God +"thus say, I have no delight in thee." With covered head and naked feet +he goes up the slope of Olivet, and turning perhaps at that same bend in +the rocky mountain path where the true King, coming to the city, wept as +he saw its shining walls and soaring pinnacles across the narrow valley, +the discrowned king and all his followers broke into passionate weeping +as they gazed their last on the lost capital, and then with choking sobs +rounded the shoulder of the hill and set their faces to their forlorn +flight. Passing through the territory of Saul's tribe--dangerous ground +for him to tread--the rank hatred of Shimei's heart blossoms into +speech. With Eastern vehemence, he curses and flings stones and dust in +the transports of his fury, stumbling along among the rocks high up on +the side of the glen, as he keeps abreast of the little band below. Did +David remember how the husband from whom he had torn Michal had followed +her to this very place, and there had turned back weeping to his lonely +home? The remembrance, at any rate, of later and more evil deeds +prompted his meek answer, "Let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden +him." + +The first force of the disaster spent itself, and by the time he was +safe across Jordan, on the free uplands of Bashan, his spirit rises. He +makes a stand at Mahanaim, the place where his great ancestor, in +circumstances somewhat analogous to his own, had seen the vision of +"bright-harnessed angels" ranked in battle array for the defence of +himself and his own little band, and called the name of the place the +"two camps." Perhaps that old story helped to hearten him, as the +defection of Ahithophel from the conspiracy certainly would do. As the +time went on, too, it became increasingly obvious that the leaders of +the rebellion were "infirm of purpose," and that every day of respite +from actual fighting diminished their chances of success, as that +politic adviser saw so plainly. Whatever may have been the reason, it is +clear that by the time David had reached Mahanaim he had resolved not to +yield without a struggle. He girds on his sword once more with some of +the animation of early days, and the light of trustful valour blazes +again in his old eyes. + + + + +XV. THE SONGS OF THE FUGITIVE. + + +The psalms which probably belong to the period of Absalom's rebellion +correspond well with the impression of his spirit gathered from the +historical books. Confidence in God, submission to His will, are +strongly expressed in them, and we may almost discern a progress in the +former respect as the rebellion grows. They flame brighter and brighter +in the deepening darkness. From the lowest abyss the stars are seen most +clearly. He is far more buoyant when he is an exile once more in the +wilderness, and when the masks of plot and trickery are fallen, and the +danger stands clear before him. Like some good ship issuing from the +shelter of the pier heads, the first blow of the waves throws her over +on her side and makes her quiver like a living thing recoiling from a +terror, but she rises above the tossing surges and keeps her course. We +may allocate with a fair amount of likelihood the following psalms to +this period--iii.; iv.; xxv. (?); xxviii. (?); lviii. (?); lxi.; lxii.; +lxiii.; cix. (?); cxliii. + +The first two of these form a pair; they are a morning and an evening +hymn. The little band are encamped on their road to Mahanaim, with no +roof but the stars, and no walls but the arm of God. In the former the +discrowned king sings, as he rises from his nightly bivouac. He pours +out first his plaint of the foes, who are described as "many," and as +saying that, "There is no help for him in God," words which fully +correspond to the formidable dimensions of the revolt, and to the belief +which actuated the conspirators, and had appeared as possible even to +himself, that his sin had turned away the aid of heaven from his cause. +To such utterances of malice and confident hatred he opposes the +conviction which had again filled his soul, that even in the midst of +real peril and the shock of battle Jehovah is his "shield." With bowed +and covered head he had fled from Jerusalem, but "Thou art the lifter up +of mine head." He was an exile from the tabernacle on Zion, and he had +sent back the ark to its rest; but though he has to cry to God from +beyond Jordan, He answers "from His holy hill." He and his men camped +amidst dangers, but one unslumbering Helper mounted guard over their +undefended slumbers. "I laid me down and slept" there among the echoes +of the hills. "I awaked, for Jehovah sustained me;" and another night +has passed without the sudden shout of the rebels breaking the silence, +or the gleam of their swords in the starlight. The experience of +protection thus far heartens him to front even the threatening circle of +his foes around him, whom it is his pain to think of as "the people" of +God, and yet as his foes. And then he betakes himself in renewed energy +of faith to his one weapon of prayer, and even before the battle sees +the victory, and the Divine power fracturing the jaws and breaking the +teeth of the wild beasts who hunt him. But his last thought is not of +retribution nor of fear; for himself he rises to the height of serene +trust, "Salvation is of the Lord;" and for his foes and for all the +nation that had risen against him his thoughts are worthy of a true +king, freed from all personal animosity, and his words are a prayer +conceived in the spirit of Him whose dying breath was intercession for +His rebellious subjects who crucified their King, "Thy blessing be upon +Thy people." + +The fourth psalm is the companion evening hymn. Its former portion +(vers. 2-4) seems to be a remonstrance addressed as if to the leaders of +the revolt ("sons of men" being equivalent to "persons of rank and +dignity"). It is the expression in vivid form, most natural to such a +nature, of his painful feeling under their slanders; and also of his +hopes and desires for them, that calm thought in these still evening +hours which are falling on the world may lead them to purer service and +to reliance on God. So forgivingly, so lovingly does he think of them, +ere he lays himself down to rest, wishing that "on their beds," as on +his, the peace of meditative contemplation may rest, and the day of +war's alarms be shut in by holy "communion with their own hearts" and +with God. + +The second portion turns to himself and his followers, among whom we may +suppose some faint hearts were beginning to despond; and to them, as to +the very enemy, David would fain be the bringer of a better mind. "Many +say, Who will show us good?" He will turn them from their vain search +round the horizon on a level with their own eyes for the appearance of +succour. They must look upwards, not round about. They must turn their +question, which only expects a negative answer, into a prayer, fashioned +like that triple priestly benediction of old (Numbers vi. 24-26). His +own experience bursts forth irrepressible. He had prayed in his hour of +penitence, "Make me to hear joy and gladness" (Psa. li.); and the prayer +had been answered, if not before, yet now when peril had brought him +nearer to God, and trust had drawn God nearer to him. In his calamity, +as is ever the case with devout souls, his joy increased, as Greek fire +burns more brightly under water. Therefore this pauper sovereign, +discrowned and fed by the charity of the Gileadite pastoral chief, +sings, "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that +their corn and wine increased." And how tranquilly the psalm closes, and +seems to lull itself to rest, "In peace I will at once lie down and +sleep, for Thou, O Jehovah, only makest me dwell safely." The growing +security which experience of God's care should ever bring, is +beautifully marked by the variation on the similar phrase in the +previous psalm. There he gratefully recorded that he had laid himself +down and slept; here he promises himself that he will lie down "in +peace;" and not only so, but that at once on his lying down he will +sleep--kept awake by no anxieties, by no bitter thoughts, but, homeless +and in danger as he is, will close his eyes, like a tired child, without +a care or a fear, and forthwith sleep, with the pressure and the +protection of his Father's arm about him. + +This psalm sounds again the glad trustful strain which has slumbered in +his harp-strings ever since the happy old days of his early trials, and +is re-awakened as the rude blast of calamity sweeps through them once +more. + +The sixty-third psalm is by the superscription referred to the time when +David was "in the wilderness of Judah," which has led many readers to +think of his long stay there during Saul's persecution. But the psalm +certainly belongs to the period of his reign, as is obvious from its +words, "_The king_ shall rejoice in God." It must therefore belong to +his brief sojourn in the same wilderness on his flight to Mahanaim, +when, as we read in 2 Sam., "The people were weary and hungry and +thirsty in the wilderness." There is a beautiful progress of thought in +it, which is very obvious if we notice the triple occurrence of the +words "my soul," and their various connections--"my soul thirsteth," "my +soul is satisfied," "my soul followeth hard after Thee;" or, in other +words, the psalm is a transcript of the passage of a believing soul from +longing through fruition to firm trust, in which it is sustained by the +right hand of God. + +The first of these emotions, which is so natural to the fugitive in his +sorrows, is expressed with singular poetic beauty in language borrowed +from the ashen grey monotony of the waterless land in which he was. One +of our most accurate and least imaginative travellers describes it thus: +"There were no signs of vegetation, with the exception of a few reeds +and rushes, and here and there a tamarisk." This lonely land, cracked +with drought, as if gaping with chapped lips for the rain that comes +not, is the image of his painful yearning for the Fountain of living +waters. As his men plodded along over the burning marl, fainting for +thirst and finding nothing in the dry torrent beds, so he longed for the +refreshment of that gracious presence. Then he remembers how in happier +days he had had the same desires, and they had been satisfied in the +tabernacle. Probably the words should read, "Thus in the sanctuary have +I gazed upon Thee, to see Thy power and Thy glory." In the desert and in +the sanctuary his longing had been the same, but then he had been able +to behold the symbol which bore the name, "the glory,"--and now he +wanders far from it. How beautifully this regretful sense of absence +from and pining after the ark is illustrated by those inimitably +pathetic words of the fugitive's answer to the priests who desired to +share his exile. "And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of +God into the city. If I find favour in the eyes of the Lord, He will +bring me again, and show me both it and His habitation." + +The fulfilment is cotemporaneous with the desire. The swiftness of the +answer is beautifully indicated in the quick turn with which the psalm +passes from plaintive longing to exuberant rapture of fruition. In the +one breath "my soul thirsteth;" in the next, "my soul is satisfied"--as +when in tropical lands the rain comes, and in a day or two what had been +baked earth is rich meadow, and the dry torrent-beds, where the white +stones glistered in the sunshine, foam with rushing waters and are edged +with budding willows. The fulness of satisfaction when God fills the +soul is vividly expressed in the familiar image of the feast of "marrow +and fatness," on which he banquets even while hungry in the desert. The +abundant delights of fellowship with God make him insensible to external +privations, are drink for him thirsty, food for his hunger, a home in +his wanderings, a source of joy and music in the midst of much that is +depressing: "My mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips." The little +camp had to keep keen look-out for nightly attacks; and it is a slight +link of connection, very natural under the circumstances, between the +psalms of this period, that they all have some references to the +perilous hours of darkness. We have found him laying himself down to +sleep in peace; here he wakes, not to guard from hostile surprises, but +in the silence there below the stars to think of God and feel again the +fulness of His all-sufficiency. Happy thoughts, not fears, hold his eyes +waking. "I remember Thee upon my bed." + +The fruition heartens for renewed exercise of confidence, in which +David feels himself upheld by God, and foresees his enemies' defeat and +his own triumph. "My soul cleaveth after Thee"--a remarkable phrase, in +which the two metaphors of tenacious adherence and eager following are +mingled to express the two "phases of faith," which are really one--of +union with and quest after God, the possession which pursues, the +pursuit which possesses Him who is at once grasped and felt after by the +finite creature whose straitest narrowness is not too narrow to be +blessed by some indwelling of God, but whose widest expansion of +capacity and desire can but contain a fragment of His fulness. From such +elevation of high communion he looks down and onward into the dim +future, his enemies sunken, like Korah and his rebels, into the gaping +earth, or scattered in fight, and the jackals that were snuffing +hungrily about his camp in the wilderness gorging themselves on corpses, +while he himself, once more "king," shall rejoice in God, and with his +faithful companions, whose lips and hearts were true to God and His +anointed, shall glory in the deliverance that by the arbitrament of +victory has flung back the slanders of the rebels in their teeth, and +choked them with their own lies. + +Our space forbids more than a brief reference to psalm lxii., which +seems also to belong to this time. It has several points of contact with +those already considered, _e.g._, the phrase, "sons of men," in the +sense of "nobles" (ver. 9); "my soul," as equivalent to "myself," and +yet as a kind of quasi-separate personality which he can study and +exhort; the significant use of the term "people," and the double +exhortations to his own devout followers and to the arrogant enemy. The +whole tone is that of patient resignation, which we have found +characterising David now. The first words are the key-note of the whole, +"Truly unto God my soul is silence"--is all one great stillness of +submissive waiting upon Him. It was in the very crisis of his fate, in +the suspense of the uncertain issue of the rebellion, that these words, +the very sound of which has calmed many a heart since, welled to his +lips. The expression of unwavering faith and unbroken peace is much +heightened by the frequent recurrence of the word which is variously +translated "truly," "surely," and "only." It carries the force of +confident affirmation, like the "verily" of the New Testament, and is +here most significantly prefixed to the assertions of his patient +resignation (ver. 1); of God's defence (ver. 2); of the enemies' +whispered counsels (ver. 4); to his exhortation of his soul to the +resignation which it already exercises (ver. 5); and to the triumphant +reiteration of God's all-sufficient protection. How beautifully, too, +does that reiteration--almost verbal repetition--of the opening words +strengthen the impression of his habitual trust. His soul in its silence +murmurs to itself, as it were, the blessed thoughts over and over again. +Their echoes haunt his spirit "lingering and wandering on, as loth to +die;" and if for a moment the vision of his enemies disturbs their flow, +one indignant question flung at them suffices, "How long will ye rush +upon a man? (how long) will ye all of you thrust him down as (if he +were) a bowing wall, a tottering fence?" and with a rapid glance at +their plots and bitter words, he comes back again to his calm gaze on +God. Lovingly he accumulates happy names for Him, which, in their +imagery, as well as in their repetition, remind us of the former songs +of the fugitive. "My rock," in whom I hide; "He is my salvation," which +is even more than "from Him cometh my salvation;" my "fortress," my +"glory," "the rock of my strength," "my refuge." So many phases of his +need and of God's sufficiency thus gathered together, tell how familiar +to the thoughts and real to the experience of the aged fugitive was his +security in Jehovah. The thirty years since last he had wandered there +have confirmed the faith of his earlier songs; and though the ruddy +locks of the young chieftain are silvered with grey now, and sins and +sorrows have saddened him, yet he can take up again with deeper meaning +the tones of his old praise, and let the experience of age seal with its +"verily" the hopes of youth. Exhortations to his people to unite +themselves with him in his faith, and assurances that God is a refuge +for them too, with solemn warnings to the rebels, close this psalm of +glad submission. It is remarkable for the absence of all petitions. He +needs nothing beyond what he has. As the companion psalm says, his soul +"is satisfied." Communion with God has its moments of restful +blessedness, when desire is stilled, and expires in peaceful fruition. + +The other psalms of this period must be left unnoticed. The same general +tone pervades them all. In many particulars they closely resemble those +of the Sauline period. But the resemblance fails very significantly at +one point. The emphatic assertion of his innocence is gone for ever. +Pardoned indeed he is, cleansed, conscious of God's favour, and able to +rejoice in it; but carrying to the end the remembrance of his sore fall, +and feeling it all the more penitently, the more he is sure of God's +forgiveness. Let us remember that there are sins which, once done, leave +their traces on memory and conscience, painting indelible forms on the +walls of our "chambers of imagery," and transmitting results which +remission and sanctifying do not, on earth at least, wholly obliterate. +Let David's youthful prayer be ours, "Keep back Thy servant from +presumptuous sins: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from +much transgression." + +It does not fall within the scope of this volume to deal with the +suppression of Absalom's revolt, nor with the ten years of rule that +remained to David after his restoration. The psalter does not appear to +contain psalms which throw light upon the somewhat clouded closing +years of his reign. One psalm, indeed, there is attributed to him, which +is, at any rate, the work of an old man--a sweet song into which mellow +wisdom has condensed its final lessons--and a snatch of it may stand +instead of any summing-up of the life by us: + + "Trust in the Lord, and do good; + Dwell in the land, and enjoy security; + Delight thyself also in the Lord, + And He shall give thee the desires of thy heart. + Commit thy way unto the Lord. + + Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. + + I have been young and now am old, + Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken. + + I have seen the wicked in great power, + And spreading himself like a green tree.... + Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not." + +May we not apply the next words to the psalmist himself, and hear him +calling us to look on him as he lies on his dying bed--disturbed though +it were by ignoble intrigues of hungry heirs--after so many storms +nearing the port; after so many vicissitudes, close to the unchanging +home; after so many struggles, resting quietly on the breast of God: +"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man +is peace?" Into this opal calmness, as of the liquid light of sunset, +all the flaming splendours of the hot day have melted. The music of his +songs die away into "peace;" as when some master holds our ears captive +with tones so faint that we scarce can tell sound from silence, until +the jar of common noises, which that low sweetness had deadened, rushes +in. + +One strain of a higher mood is preserved for us in the historical books +that prophesy of the true King, whom his own failures and sins, no less +than his consecration and victories, had taught him to expect. The dying +eyes see on the horizon of the far-off future the form of Him who is to +be a just and perfect ruler; before the brightness of whose presence, +and the refreshing of whose influence, verdure and beauty shall clothe +the world. As the shades gather, that radiant glory to come brightens. +He departs in peace, having seen the salvation from afar. It was fitting +that this fullest of his prophecies should be the last of his strains, +as if the rapture which thrilled the trembling strings had snapped them +in twain. + +And then, for earth, the richest voice which God ever tuned for His +praise was hushed, and the harp of Jesse's son hangs untouched above his +grave. But for him death was God's last, best answer to his prayer, "O +Lord, open Thou my lips;" and as that cold but most loving hand +unclothes him from the weakness of flesh, and leads him in among the +choirs of heaven, we can almost hear again his former thanksgiving +breaking from his immortal lips, "Thou hast put a new song into my +mouth," whose melodies, unsaddened by plaintive minors of penitence and +pain, are yet nobler and sweeter than the psalms which he sang here, and +left to be the solace and treasure of all generations! + + + + +INDEX. + + +PSALM PAGE + + iii. 246 + + iv. 248 + + vii. 110 + + viii. 28 + + xi. 138 + + xiii. 138 + + xv. 177 + + xvii. 138 + + xviii. 153 and 157 + + xix. 24 + + xx. 203 + + xxii. 141 + + xxiii. 37 + + xxiv. 177 + + xxv. 138 + + xxvii. 89 + + xxix. 31 + + xxxi. 132 + + xxxii. 227 + + xxxiv. 86 + + xxxv. 139 + +xxxvii. 259 + + xxxix. 236 + + xli. 234 + + li. 209 + + lii. 72 + + liv. 100 + + lv. 240 + + lvi. 77 + + lvii. 119 + + lix. 63 + + lx. 201 + + lxii. 255 + + lxiii. 250 + + lxiv. 138 + +lxviii. 208 + + cx. 189 + +cxliii. 128 + + + + +_WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ + +_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each._ + + +THE PSALMS. + +VOL. I.--PSALMS I.-XXXVIII. + " II.--PSALMS XXXIX.-LXXXIX. + " III.--PSALMS XC-CL. + +IN THE "EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE." + + "The work of a brilliant and effective teacher. He writes with + real power and insight."--_Saturday Review._ + + "Dr. Maclaren has evidently mastered his subject with the aid of + the best authorities, and has put the results of his studies + before his readers in a most attractive form, and if we add that + this commentary really helps to the better understanding of the + Psalms, that, far from degrading, it vivifies and illuminates + these sublime stories, and that it is written in a charming style, + very seldom falling below the dignity of the subject, we believe + we only give it the praise which is its due."--_Scotsman._ + + "It is scholarly, honest, thoughtful, and suggestive."--_Daily + Chronicle._ + + "Striking thoughts, strongly expressed, are to be found on every + page."--_Manchester Guardian._ + + "There is certainly room for the work which Dr. Maclaren does + here--largely because it is he who does it. The book is most + heartily to be commended. Preachers will find it to be a mine of + wealth, and to Christians of all kinds it may serve as a manual of + devotion."--_Christian World._ + + "Dr. Maclaren's charming pages furnish a most fruitful field of + study, alike for those whose chief aim is personal edification, + and for those who are in quest of suggestions in the line of + ministerial service. Altogether a most valuable book."--_United + Presbyterian Magazine._ + + "Most heartily do we welcome this new volume of Dr. Maclaren's + 'Exposition of the Psalms.' It fully sustains the traditions of + insight, scholarly instinct, and spiritual force which gather + around that beloved name. Notwithstanding the rich treasures of + devout literature which the Psalter has called forth, there is a + special niche for this book, and it makes a distinct advance in + tone and method upon all other commentaries on the Psalms. We + greatly err if this does not prove the most popular and useful + commentary in the English language, both among preachers and the + commonality of Christ's Church."--_Evangelical Magazine._ + +LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON. + + + + +BIBLE CLASS EXPOSITIONS. + +_Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. each volume._ + + +THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. + +TWO VOLS. + + "They are all written in clear, forcible language, and bring + abundant illustration from science, the facts of life and history + and Scripture. All through they manifest a true philosophical + spirit, and a deep knowledge of human nature. None can read them + without profit."--_Leeds Mercury._ + + +THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. + + "As clear, luminous, and pellucid as is everything that comes from + the pen of the great Manchester preacher. Even in treating the + simplest incident he surprises his readers, and that without once + forcing the note, or seeking sensationalism."--_Christian World._ + + +THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. + + "Dr. Maclaren is a prince of expositors, and his expositions are + as wholesome as they are able, and as interesting as they are + instructive and edifying. Every paragraph is luminous with vivid + expression."--_The London Quarterly Review._ + + +THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. + + "There is much freshness and suggestiveness in these papers. Dr. + Maclaren has studied the art of compression with great success, + and no teacher of a class could desire anything better for his + purpose than these lessons. They may be heartily recommended to + all teachers as about the best things of the kind to be + had."--_Glasgow Herald._ + + +THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. + + "The more this volume is read and studied the more do we admire + the humility that ranks such a book as for Bible Classes only. It + is for them beyond all question, and better fare has nowhere been + provided for them. Whether they be Bible Classes or preachers who + study this volume they will be enriched and strengthened by + it."--_Presbyterian._ + + +LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON. + + + + +{Transcriber's Note: The following list of books has been moved from + the front to the back of the book to make the beginning more + reader-friendly.} + + + + +THE HOUSEHOLD LIBRARY OF EXPOSITION + + +=The Life of David as Reflected in his Psalms.= By ALEXANDER MACLAREN, + D.D. Ninth Edition. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +=Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.= By MARCUS DODS, D.D. Sixth Thousand. 3_s._ + 6_d._ + +=The Last Supper of our Lord, and His Words of Consolation to the + Disciples.= By Principal J. MARSHALL LANG, D.D. Third Edition. 3_s._ + 6_d._ + +=The Speeches of the Holy Apostles.= By the Rev. DONALD FRASER, D.D., + London. Second Edition. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +=The Galilean Gospel.= By the Rev. Professor A.B. BRUCE, D.D. Fourth + Edition. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +=The Lamb of God: Expositions in the Writings of St. John.= By W.R. + NICOLL, M.A., LL.D. Second Thousand. 2_s._ 6_d._ + +=The Lord's Prayer.= By CHARLES STANFORD, D.D. Fourth Thousand. 3_s._ + 6_d._ + +=The Parables of our Lord. First Series.= As Recorded by St. Matthew. By + MARCUS DODS, D.D. Twelfth Thousand. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +=The Parables of our Lord. Second Series.= As Recorded by St. Luke. By + the same Author. Tenth Thousand. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +=The Law of the Ten Words.= By Principal J. OSWALD DYKES, D.D. Fourth + Thousand. 3_s._ 6_d._ + + +LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON, +27, PATERNOSTER ROW. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of David, by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF DAVID *** + +***** This file should be named 21872-8.txt or 21872-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/7/21872/ + +Produced by Colin Bell, Thomas Strong and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life of David + As Reflected in His Psalms + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: June 19, 2007 [EBook #21872] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF DAVID *** + + + + +Produced by Colin Bell, Thomas Strong and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="trans-note">Transcriber's Note: Obvious typos, printing errors and wrong spellings have +been corrected, but spellings have not been modernized. Footnotes follow immediately the +paragraph in which they are noted. In Chapter XV, eighth paragraph, second last line, "His" +changed to "his" in the sentence "Happy thoughts, not fears, hold his eyes waking" to agree with +the author's obvious reference to David rather than to God.</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> +<h3>The Household Library of Exposition.</h3> + +<br /> + +<h1>THE LIFE OF DAVID</h1> +<h3><span class="smcap">AS REFLECTED IN HIS PSALMS.</span></h3> + +<hr /> + +<br /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p> +<p class="center">THE</p> +<h1>LIFE OF DAVID</h1> +<p class="center">AS REFLECTED IN HIS PSALMS.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +BY<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>NINTH EDITION.</i><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<b>London:</b><br /> +HODDER AND STOUGHTON<br /> +27, PATERNOSTER ROW<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +MCMIII</p> +<br /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><i>Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London</i></p> +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="toc" id="toc"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents" style="width: 90%;"> +<tr> +<td align='left' style="width: 10%;"> </td> +<td align='right' style="width: 80%;"> </td> +<td align='right' style="width: 10%;"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>I.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Introduction</span>,</td> +<td align='right'><a href="#INTRO">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>II.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Early Days</span>,</td> +<td align='right'><a href="#EARLY">14</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>III.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Early Days</span>,--<i>continued</i></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#DAYS">31</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>IV.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Exile</span>,</td> +<td align='right'><a href="#EXILE_1">49</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>V.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Exile</span>,--<i>continued</i></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#EXILE_2">70</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>VI.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Exile</span>,--<i>continued</i></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#EXILE_3">86</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>VII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Exile</span>,--<i>continued</i></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#EXILE_4">110</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>VIII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Exile</span>,--<i>continued</i></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#EXILE_5">130</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>IX.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The King</span>,</td> +<td align='right'><a href="#KING_1">144</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>X.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The King</span>,--<i>continued</i></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#KING_2">157</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>XI.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The King</span>,--<i>continued</i></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#KING_3">174</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>XII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The King</span>,--<i>continued</i></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#KING_4">185</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>XIII.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Tears of the Penitent</span>,</td> +<td align='right'><a href="#TEARS">205</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>XIV.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chastisements</span>,</td> +<td align='right'><a href="#CHASTISE">232</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>XV.</td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Songs of the Fugitive</span>,</td> +<td align='right'><a href="#SONGS">245</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'> </td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Index</span>,</td> +<td align='right'><a href="#INDEX">262</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'> </td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Works by the same Author</span>,</td> +<td align='right'><a href="#WORKS">263</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'> </td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bible Class Expositions</span>,</td> +<td align='right'><a href="#BIBLE">264</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'> </td> +<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Household Library of Exposition</span></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#LIBRARY">265</a></td> +</tr> +</table></div> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="INTRO" id="INTRO">I.—INTRODUCTION.</a></h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span> + +<p>Perhaps the most striking characteristic +of the life of David is its romantic variety +of circumstances. What a many-coloured career +that was which began amidst the pastoral solitudes +of Bethlehem, and ended in the chamber +where the dying ears heard the blare of the +trumpets that announced the accession of Bathsheba's +son! He passes through the most sharply +contrasted conditions, and from each gathers +some fresh fitness for his great work of giving +voice and form to all the phases of devout feeling. +The early shepherd life deeply influenced +his character, and has left its traces on many a +line of his psalms.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Love had he found in huts where poor men lie;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">His daily teachers had been woods and rills;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">The silence that is in the starry sky,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">The sleep that is among the lonely hills."</span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<p>And then, in strange contrast with the meditative +quiet and lowly duties of these first years, +came the crowded vicissitudes of the tempestuous +course through which he reached his throne—court +minstrel, companion and friend of a +king, idol of the people, champion of the armies +of God—and in his sudden elevation keeping the +gracious sweetness of his lowlier, and perhaps +happier days. The scene changes with startling +suddenness to the desert. He is "hunted like +a partridge upon the mountains," a fugitive and +half a freebooter, taking service at foreign courts, +and lurking on the frontiers with a band of outlaws +recruited from the "dangerous classes" of +Israel. Like Dante and many more, he has to +learn the weariness of the exile's lot—how hard +his fare, how homeless his heart, how cold the +courtesies of aliens, how unslumbering the suspicions +which watch the refugee who fights on +the side of his "natural enemies." One more +swift transition and he is on the throne, for long +years victorious, prosperous, and beloved.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Nor did he change; but kept in lofty place</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">The wisdom which adversity had bred,"</span></p> + +<p>till suddenly he is plunged into the mire, and +falsifies all his past, and ruins for ever, by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +sin of his mature age, his peace of heart and +the prosperity of his kingdom. Thenceforward +trouble is never far away; and his later years +are shaded with the saddening consciousness of +his great fault, as well as by hatred and rebellion +and murder in his family, and discontent +and alienation in his kingdom.</p> + +<p>None of the great men of Scripture pass +through a course of so many changes; none of +them touched human life at so many points; +none of them were so tempered and polished by +swift alternation of heat and cold, by such heavy +blows and the friction of such rapid revolutions. +Like his great Son and Lord, though in a lower +sense, he, too, must be "in all points tempted +like as we are," that his words may be fitted for +the solace and strength of the whole world. +Poets "learn in suffering what they teach in +song." These quick transitions of fortune, and +this wide experience, are the many-coloured +threads from which the rich web of his psalms +is woven.</p> + +<p>And while the life is singularly varied, the +character is also singularly full and versatile. +In this respect, too, he is most unlike the other +leading figures of Old Testament history. Con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>trast +him, for example, with the stern majesty +of Moses, austere and simple as the tables of +stone; or with the unvarying tone in the gaunt +strength of Elijah. These and the other mighty +men in Israel are like the ruder instruments of +music—the trumpet of Sinai, with its one prolonged +note. David is like his own harp of many +chords, through which the breath of God murmured, +drawing forth wailing and rejoicing, the +clear ring of triumphant trust, the low plaint of +penitence, the blended harmonies of all devout +emotions.</p> + +<p>The man had his faults—grave enough. Let +it be remembered that no one has judged them +more rigorously than himself. The critics who +have delighted to point at them have been anticipated +by the penitent; and their indictment +has been little more than the quotation of his +own confession. His tremulously susceptible +nature, especially assailable by the delights of +sense, led him astray. There are traces in his +life of occasional craft and untruthfulness which +even the exigencies of exile and war do not +wholly palliate. Flashes of fierce vengeance at +times break from the clear sky of his generous +nature. His strong affection became, in at least<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +one case, weak and foolish fondness for an unworthy +son.</p> + +<p>But when all this is admitted, there remains a +wonderfully rich, lovable character. He is the +very ideal of a minstrel hero, such as the legends +of the East especially love to paint. The shepherd's +staff or sling, the sword, the sceptre, and +the lyre are equally familiar to his hands. +That union of the soldier and the poet gives the +life a peculiar charm, and is very strikingly +brought out in that chapter of the book of +Samuel (2 Sam. xxiii.) which begins, "These be +the last words of David," and after giving the +swan-song of him whom it calls "the sweet +psalmist of Israel," passes immediately to the +other side of the dual character, with, "These +be the names of the mighty men whom David +had."</p> + +<p>Thus, on the one side, we see the true poetic +temperament, with all its capacities for keenest +delight and sharpest agony, with its tremulous +mobility, its openness to every impression, its +gaze of child-like wonder, and eager welcome to +whatsoever things are lovely, its simplicity and +self-forgetfulness, its yearnings "after worlds +half realized," its hunger for love, its pity, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +its tears. He was made to be the inspired poet +of the religious affections.</p> + +<p>And, on the other side, we see the greatest +qualities of a military leader of the antique type, +in which personal daring and a strong arm +count for more than strategic skill. He dashes +at Goliath with an enthusiasm of youthful courage +and faith. While still in the earliest bloom +of his manhood, at the head of his wild band of +outlaws, he shows himself sagacious, full of resource, +prudent in counsel, and swift as lightning +in act; frank and generous, bold and gentle, +cheery in defeat, calm in peril, patient in privations +and ready to share them with his men, +modest and self-restrained in victory, chivalrous +to his foes, ever watchful, ever hopeful—a born +leader and king of men.</p> + +<p>The basis of all was a profound, joyous trust +in his Shepherd God, an ardour of personal love +to Him, such as had never before been expressed, +if it had ever found place, in Israel. +That trust "opened his mouth to show forth" +God's praise, and strengthened his "fingers to +fight." He has told us himself what was his +habitual temper, and how it was sustained: "I +have set the Lord always before me. Because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. +Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth." +(Psa. xvi. 8, 9.)</p> + +<p>Thus endowed, he moved among men with +that irresistible fascination which only the greatest +exercise. From the day when he stole like +a sunbeam into the darkened chamber where +Saul wrestled with the evil spirit, he bows all +hearts that come under his spell. The women +of Israel chant his name with song and timbrel, +the daughter of Saul confesses her love unasked, +the noble soul of Jonathan cleaves to him, the +rude outlaws in his little army peril their lives to +gratify his longing for a draught from the well +where he had watered his father's flocks; the +priests let him take the consecrated bread, and +trust him with Goliath's sword, from behind the +altar; his lofty courtesy wins the heart of Abigail; +the very king of the Philistines tells him that he +is "good in his sight as an angel of God;" the +unhappy Saul's last word to him is a blessing; +six hundred men of Gath forsake home and +country to follow his fortunes when he returns +from exile; and even in the dark close of his +reign, though sin and self-indulgence, and neglect +of his kingly duties, had weakened his subjects'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +loyalty, his flight before Absalom is brightened +by instances of passionate devotion which no +common character could have evoked; and even +then his people are ready to die for him, and in +their affectionate pride call him "the light of +Israel." It was a prophetic instinct which +made Jesse call his youngest boy by a name +apparently before unused—David, "Beloved."</p> + +<p>The Spirit of God, acting through these great +natural gifts, and using this diversified experience +of life, originated in him a new form of +inspiration. The Law was the revelation of the +mind, and, in some measure, of the heart, of God +to man. The Psalm is the echo of the law, the +return current set in motion by the outflow of +the Divine will, the response of the heart of man +to the manifested God. There had, indeed, +been traces of hymns before David. There +were the burst of triumph which the daughters +of Israel sang, with timbrel and dance, over +Pharaoh and his host; the prayer of Moses the +man of God (Psa. xc.), so archaic in its tone, +bearing in every line the impress of the weary +wilderness and the law of death; the song of +the dying lawgiver (Deut. xxxii.); the passionate +pæan of Deborah; and some few briefer frag<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>ments. +But, practically, the Psalm began with +David; and though many hands struck the harp +after him, even down at least to the return from +exile, he remains emphatically "the sweet psalmist +of Israel."</p> + +<p>The psalms which are attributed to him have, +on the whole, a marked similarity of manner. +Their characteristics have been well summed up +as "creative originality, predominantly elegiac +tone, graceful form and movement, antique but +lucid style;"<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> to which may be added the intensity +of their devotion, the passion of Divine +love that glows in them all. They correspond, +too, with the circumstances of his life as given +in the historical books. The early shepherd +days, the manifold sorrows, the hunted wanderings, +the royal authority, the wars, the triumphs, +the sin, the remorse, which are woven together +so strikingly in the latter, all reappear in the +psalms. The illusions, indeed, are for the most +part general rather than special, as is natural. +His words are thereby the better fitted for ready +application to the trials of other lives. But it +has been perhaps too hastily assumed that the +allusions are so general as to make it impossible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +to connect them with any precise events, or to +make the psalms and the history mutually +illustrative. Much, no doubt, must be conjectured +rather than affirmed, and much must +be left undetermined; but when all deductions +on that score have been made, it still appears +possible to carry the process sufficiently far to +gain fresh insight into the force and definiteness +of many of David's words, and to use them with +tolerable confidence as throwing light upon the +narrative of his career. The attempt is made in +some degree in this volume.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Delitzsch, Kommentar. u. d. Psalter II. 376.</p></div> + +<p>It will be necessary to prefix a few further +remarks on the Davidic psalms in general. Can +we tell which are David's? The Psalter, as is +generally known, is divided into five books or +parts, probably from some idea that it corresponded +with the Pentateuch. These five books +are marked by a doxology at the close of each, +except the last. The first portion consists of +Psa. i.-xli.; the second of Psa. xlii.-lxxii; the +third of Psa. lxxiii.-lxxxix; the fourth of Psa. +xc.-cvi.; and the fifth of Psa. cvii.-cl. The +psalms attributed to David are unequally distributed +through these five books. There are +seventy-three in all, and they run thus:—In the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +first book there are thirty-seven; so that if we +regard psalms i. and ii. as a kind of double +introduction, a frontispiece and vignette title-page +to the whole collection, the first book proper +only two which are not regarded as David's. +The second book has a much smaller proportion, +only eighteen out of thirty-one. The third book +has but one, the fourth two; while the fifth has +fifteen, eight of which (cxxxviii.-cxlv.) occur +almost at the close. The intention is obvious—to +throw the Davidic psalms as much as possible +together in the first two books. And the inference +is not unnatural that these may have +formed an earlier collection, to which were afterwards +added the remaining three, with a considerable +body of alleged psalms of David, +which had subsequently come to light, placed side +by side at the end, so as to round off the whole.</p> + +<p>Be that as it may, one thing is clear from the +arrangement of the Psalter, namely, that the +superscriptions which give the authors' names +are at least as old as the collection itself; for +they have guided the order of the collection in +the grouping not only of Davidic psalms, but +also of those attributed to the sons of Korah +(xlii.-xlix.) and to Asaph (lxxiii.-lxxxiii.)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<p>The question of the reliableness of these +superscriptions is hotly debated. The balance +of modern opinion is decidedly against their +genuineness. As in greater matters, so here +"the higher criticism" comes to the consideration +of their claims with a prejudice against +them, and on very arbitrary grounds determines +for itself, quite irrespective of these ancient +voices, the date and authorship of the psalms. +The extreme form of this tendency is to be +found in the masterly work of Ewald, who has +devoted all his vast power of criticism (and eked +it out with all his equally great power of confident +assertion) to the book, and has come to +the conclusion that we have but eleven of +David's psalms,—which is surely a result that +may lead to questionings as to the method +which has attained it.</p> + +<p>These editorial notes are proved to be of extreme +antiquity by such considerations as these: +The Septuagint translators found them, and +did not understand them; the synagogue preserves +no traditions to explain them; the Book +of Chronicles throws no light upon them; they +are very rare in the two last books of the Psalter +(Delitzsch, ii. 393). In some cases they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +obviously erroneous, but in the greater number +there is nothing inconsistent with their correctness +in the psalms to which they are appended; +while very frequently they throw a flood of +light upon these, and all but prove their trustworthiness +by their appropriateness. They are +not authoritative, but they merit respectful consideration, +and, as Dr. Perowne puts it in his +valuable work on the Psalms, stand on a par +with the subscriptions to the Epistles in the New +Testament. Regarding them thus, and yet +examining the psalms to which they are prefixed, +there seem to be about forty-five which we may +attribute with some confidence to David, and +with these we shall be concerned in this book.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="EARLY" id="EARLY"></a>II.—EARLY DAYS.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> + +<p>The life of David is naturally divided into +epochs, of which we may avail ourselves +for the more ready arrangement of our material. +These are—his early years up to his +escape from the court of Saul, his exile, the +prosperous beginning of his reign, his sin and +penitence, his flight before Absalom's rebellion, +and the darkened end.</p> + +<p>We have but faint incidental traces of his life +up to his anointing by Samuel, with which the +narrative in the historical books opens. But +perhaps the fact that the story begins with that +consecration to office, is of more value than the +missing biography of his childhood could have +been. It teaches us the point of view from +which Scripture regards its greatest names—as +nothing, except in so far as they are God's instruments. +Hence its carelessness, notwithstanding +that so much of it is history, of all that +merely illustrates the personal character of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +heroes. Hence, too, the clearness with which, +notwithstanding that indifference, the living men +are set before us—the image cut with half a +dozen strokes of the chisel.</p> + +<p>We do not know the age of David when +Samuel appeared in the little village with the +horn of sacred oil in his hand. The only approximation +to it is furnished by the fact, that +he was thirty at the beginning of his reign. +(2 Sam. v. 4.) If we take into account that his +exile must have lasted for a very considerable +period (one portion of it, his second flight to the +Philistines, was sixteen months, 1 Sam. xxvii. +7),—that the previous residence at the court of +Saul must have been long enough to give time +for his gradual rise to popularity, and thereafter +for the gradual development of the king's +insane hatred,—that further back still there was +an indefinite period, between the fight with +Goliath, and the first visit as a minstrel-physician +to the palace, which was spent at +Bethlehem, and that that visit itself cannot have +been very brief, since in its course he became +very dear and familiar to Saul,—it will not seem +that all these events could be crowded into less +than some twelve or fifteen years, or that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +could have been more than a lad of some sixteen +years of age when Samuel's hand smoothed +the sacred oil on his clustering curls.</p> + +<p>How life had gone with him till then, we can +easily gather from the narrative of Scripture. +His father's household seems to have been one +in which modest frugality ruled. There is no +trace of Jesse having servants; his youngest +child does menial work; the present which he +sends to his king when David goes to court was +simple, and such as a man in humble life would +give—an ass load of bread, one skin of wine, +and one kid—his flocks were small—"a few +sheep." It would appear as if prosperity had +not smiled on the family since the days of Jesse's +grandfather, Boaz, that "mighty man of wealth." +David's place in the household does not seem to +have been a happy one. His father scarcely +reckoned him amongst his sons, and answers +Samuel's question, if the seven burly husbandmen +whom he has seen are all his children, with a +trace of contempt as he remembers that there +is another, "and, behold, he keepeth the sheep." +Of his mother we hear but once, and that +incidentally, for a moment, long after. His +brothers had no love for him, and do not appear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +to have shared either his heart or his fortunes. +The boy evidently had the usual fate of souls +like his, to grow up in uncongenial circumstances, +little understood and less sympathised with by +the common-place people round them, and +thrown back therefore all the more decisively +upon themselves. The process sours and spoils +some, but it is the making of more—and where, +as in this case, the nature is thrown back upon +God, and not on its own morbid operation, +strength comes from repression, and sweetness +from endurance. He may have received some +instruction in one of Samuel's schools for the +prophets, but we are left in entire ignorance of +what outward helps to unfold itself were given +to his budding life.</p> + +<p>Whatever others he had, no doubt those which +are emphasized in the Bible story were the chief, +namely, his occupation and the many gifts +which it brought to him. The limbs, "like +hinds' feet," the sinewy arms which "broke a +bow of steel," the precision with which he used +the sling, the agility which "leaped over a +rampart," the health that glowed in his "ruddy" +face, were the least of his obligations to the +breezy uplands, where he kept his father's sheep.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +His early life taught him courage, when he +"smote the lion" and laid hold by his ugly +muzzle of the bear that "rose against him," +rearing itself upright for the fatal hug. Solitude +and familiarity with nature helped to nurture +the poetical side of his character, and to +strengthen that meditative habit which blends +so strangely with his impetuous activity, and +which for the most part kept tumults and toils +from invading his central soul. They threw him +back on God who peopled the solitude and +spoke in all nature. Besides this, he acquired +in the sheepcote lessons which he practised on +the throne, that rule means service, and that +the shepherd of men holds his office in order +that he may protect and guide. And in the +lowly associations of his humble home, he +learned the life of the people, their simple joys, +their unconspicuous toils, their unnoticed sorrows—a +priceless piece of knowledge both for +the poet and for the king.</p> + +<p>A breach in all the tranquil habits of this +modest life was made by Samuel's astonishing +errand. The story is told with wonderful +picturesqueness and dramatic force. The minute +account of the successive rejections of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +brothers, Samuel's question and Jesse's answer, +and then the pause of idle waiting till the messenger +goes and returns, heighten the expectation +with which we look for his appearance. +And then what a sweet young face is lovingly +painted for us! "He was ruddy, and withal of +a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to" +(1 Sam. xvi. 12)—of fair complexion, with +golden hair, which is rare among these swarthy, +black-locked easterns, with lovely eyes (for that +is the meaning of the words which the English +Bible renders "of a beautiful countenance"), +large and liquid as become a poet. So he stood +before the old prophet, and with swelling heart +and reverent awe received the holy chrism. In +silence, as it would seem, Samuel anointed him. +Whether the secret of his high destiny was imparted +to him then, or left to be disclosed in +future years, is not told. But at all events, +whether with full understanding of what was +before him or no, he must have been conscious +of a call that would carry him far away from +the pastures and olive yards of the little hamlet +and of a new Spirit stirring in him from that +day forward.</p> + +<p>This sudden change in all the outlook of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +life must have given new materials for thought +when he went back to his humble task. Responsibility, +or the prospect of it, makes lads +into men very quickly. Graver meditations, +humbler consciousness of weakness, a firmer +trust in God who had laid the burden upon him, +would do in days the work of years. And the +necessity for bidding back the visions of the +future in order to do faithfully the obscure +duties of the present, would add self-control and +patience, not usually the graces of youth. How +swiftly he matured is singularly shown in the +next recorded incident—his summons to the +court of Saul, by the character of him drawn by +the courtier who recommends him to the king. +He speaks of David in words more suitable to a +man of established renown than to a stripling. +He is minstrel and warrior, "cunning in playing, +and a mighty valiant man," and "skilled in +speech (already eloquent), and fair in form, and +the Lord is with him." (1 Sam. xvi. 18.) So +quickly had the new circumstances and the +energy of the Spirit of God, like tropical sunshine, +ripened his soul.</p> + +<p>That first visit to the court was but an +episode in his life, however helpful to his growth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +it may have been. It would give him the +knowledge of new scenes, widen his experience, +and prepare him for the future. But it cannot +have been of very long duration. Possibly his +harp lost its power over Saul's gloomy spirit, +when he had become familiar with its notes. +For whatever reason, he returned to his father's +house, and gladly exchanged the favour at +court, which might have seemed to a merely +ambitious man the first step towards fulfilling +the prophecy of Samuel's anointing, for the +freedom of the pastoral solitudes about Bethlehem. +There he remained, living to outward +seeming as in the quiet days before these two +great earthquakes in his life, but with deeper +thoughts and new power, with broader experience, +and a wider horizon, until the hour when +he was finally wrenched from his seclusion, +and flung into the whirlpool of his public +career.</p> + +<p>There are none of David's psalms which can +be with any certainty referred to this first period +of his life; but it has left deep traces on many +of them. The allusions to natural scenery and +the frequent references to varying aspects of +the shepherd's life are specimens of these. One<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +characteristic of the poetic temperament is the +faithful remembrance and cherishing of early +days. How fondly he recalled them is shown +in that most pathetic incident of his longing, as +a weary exile, for one draught of water from +the well at Bethlehem—where in the dear old +times he had so often led his flocks.</p> + +<p>But though we cannot say confidently that +we have any psalms prior to his first exile, there +are several which, whatever their date may be, +are echoes of his thoughts in these first days. +This is especially the case in regard to the +group which describe varying aspects of nature—viz., +Psalms xix., viii., xxix. They are unlike +his later psalms in the almost entire absence +of personal references, or of any trace of pressing +cares, or of signs of a varied experience of +human life. In their self-forgetful contemplation +of nature, in their silence about sorrow, in +their tranquil beauty, they resemble the youthful +works of many a poet whose later verse +throbs with quivering consciousness of life's +agonies, or wrestles strongly with life's problems. +They may not unnaturally be regarded +as the outpouring of a young heart at leisure +from itself, and from pain, far from men and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +very near God. The fresh mountain air of +Bethlehem blows through them, and the dew of +life's quiet morning is on them. The early +experience supplied their materials, whatever +was the date of their composition; and in them +we can see what his inward life was in these +budding years. The gaze of child-like wonder +and awe upon the blazing brightness of the +noonday, and on the mighty heaven with all its +stars, the deep voice with which all creation +spoke of God, the great thoughts of the dignity +of man (thoughts ever welcome to lofty youthful +souls), the gleaming of an inward light brighter +than all suns, the consciousness of mysteries of +weakness which may become miracles of sin in +one's own heart, the assurance of close relation +to God as His anointed and His servant, the cry +for help and guidance—all this is what we +should expect David to have thought and felt +as he wandered among the hills, alone with God; +and this is what these psalms give us.</p> + +<p>Common to them all is the peculiar manner +of looking upon nature, so uniform in David's +psalms, so unlike more modern descriptive +poetry. He can smite out a picture in a phrase, +but he does not care to paint landscapes. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +feels the deep analogies between man and his +dwelling-place, but he does not care to lend to +nature a shadowy life, the reflection of our own. +Creation is to him neither a subject for poetical +description, nor for scientific examination. It +is nothing but the garment of God, the +apocalypse of the heavenly. And common to +them all is also the swift transition from the +outward facts which reveal God, to the spiritual +world, where His presence is, if it were possible, +yet more needful, and His operations yet +mightier. And common to them all is a certain +rush of full thought and joyous power, which is +again a characteristic of youthful work, and is +unlike the elegiac tenderness and pathos of +David's later hymns.</p> + +<p>The nineteenth Psalm paints for us the glory +of the heavens by day, as the eighth by night. +The former gathers up the impressions of many +a fresh morning when the solitary shepherd-boy +watched the sun rising over the mountains of +Moab, which close the eastern view from the +hills above Bethlehem. The sacred silence of +dawn, the deeper hush of night, have voice for +his ear. "No speech! and no words! unheard is +their voice." But yet, "in all the earth goeth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +forth their line,<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> and in the end of the habitable +world their sayings." The heavens and the +firmament, the linked chorus of day and night, +are heralds of God's glory, with silent speech, +heard in all lands, an unremitting voice. And +as he looks, there leaps into the eastern heavens, +not with the long twilight of northern lands, the +sudden splendour, the sun radiant as a bridegroom +from the bridal chamber, like some +athlete impatient for the course. How the joy +of morning and its new vigour throb in the +words! And then he watches the strong runner +climbing the heavens till the fierce heat beats +down into the deep cleft of the Jordan, and all +the treeless southern hills, as they slope towards +the desert, lie bare and blazing beneath the +beams.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Their boundary, <i>i.e.</i>, their territory, or the region through +which their witness extends. Others render "their chord," or +sound (LXX. Ewald, etc.)</p></div> + +<p>The sudden transition from the revelation of +God in nature to His voice in the law, has +seemed to many critics unaccountable, except +on the supposition that this psalm is made up +of two fragments, put together by a later compiler; +and some of them have even gone so far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +as to maintain that "the feeling which saw God +revealed in the law did not arise till the time +of Josiah."<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> But such a hypothesis is not required +to explain either the sudden transition or +the difference in style and rhythm between the +two parts of the psalm, which unquestionably +exists. The turn from the outer world to the +better light of God's word, is most natural; the +abruptness of it is artistic and impressive; the +difference of style and measure gives emphasis +to the contrast. There is also an obvious connection +between the two parts, inasmuch as the +law is described by epithets, which in part hint +at its being a brighter sun, enlightening the eyes.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> "Psalms chronologically arranged"—following Ewald.</p></div> + +<p>The Word which declares the will of the Lord +is better than the heavens which tell His glory. +The abundance of synonyms for that word +show how familiar to his thoughts it was. +To him it is "the law," "the testimonies" by +which God witnesses of Himself and of man: +"the statutes," the fixed settled ordinances; +that which teaches "the fear of God," the +"judgments" or utterances of His mind on +human conduct. They are "perfect, firm, right, +clean, pure,"—like that spotless sun—"eternal,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +true." "They quicken, make wise, enlighten," +even as the light of the lower world. His heart +prizes them "more than gold," of which in his +simple life he knew so little; more than "the +honey," which he had often seen dropping from +"the comb" in the pastures of the wilderness.</p> + +<p>And then the twofold contemplation rises +into the loftier region of prayer. He feels that +there are dark depths in his soul, gloomier pits +than any into which the noontide sun shines. +He speaks as one who is conscious of dormant +evils, which life has not yet evolved, and his +prayer is more directed towards the future than +the past, and is thus very unlike the tone of the +later psalms, that wail out penitence and plead +for pardon. "Errors," or weaknesses,—"faults" +unknown to himself,—"high-handed sins,"<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a>—such +is the climax of the evils from which he +prays for deliverance. He knows himself "Thy +servant" (2 Sam. vii. 5, 8; Psa. lxxviii. 70)—an +epithet which may refer to his consecration to +God's work by Samuel's anointing. He needs +not only a God who sets His glory in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +heavens, nor even one whose will is made +known, but one who will touch his spirit,—not +merely a Maker, but a pardoning God; and his +faith reaches its highest point as his song closes +with the sacred name of the covenant Jehovah, +repeated for the seventh time, and invoked in +one final aspiration of a trustful heart, as "my +Rock, and my Redeemer."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> The form of the word would make "reckless men" a more +natural translation; but probably the context requires a third, +more aggravated sort of sin.</p></div> + +<p>The eighth psalm is a companion picture, a +night-piece, which, like the former, speaks of +many an hour of lonely brooding below the +heavens, whether its composition fall within this +early period or no. The prophetic and doctrinal +value of the psalms is not our main subject +in the present volume, so that we have to +touch but very lightly on this grand hymn. +What does it show us of the singer? We see +him, like other shepherds on the same hills, long +after "keeping watch over his flocks by night," +and overwhelmed by all the magnificence of an +eastern sky, with its lambent lights. So bright, +so changeless, so far,—how great they are, how +small the boy that gazes up so wistfully. Are +they gods, as all but his own nation believed? +No,—"the work of Thy fingers," "which Thou +hast ordained." The consciousness of God as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +their Maker delivers from the temptation of +confounding bigness with greatness, and wakes +into new energy that awful sense of personality +which towers above all the stars. He is a babe +and suckling—is that a trace of the early composition +of the psalm?—still he knows that out +of his lips, already beginning to break into song, +and out of the lips of his fellows, God perfects +praise. There speaks the sweet singer of Israel, +prizing as the greatest of God's gifts his growing +faculty, and counting his God-given words as +nobler than the voice of "night unto night." +God's fingers made these, but God's own breath +is in him. God ordained them, but God visits +him. The description of man's dignity and +dominion indicates how familiar David was +with the story in Genesis. It may perhaps also, +besides all the large prophetic truths which it +contains, have some special reference to his own +earlier experience. It is at least worth noting +that he speaks of the dignity of man as kingly, +like that which was dawning on himself, and +that the picture has no shadows either of sorrow +or of sin,—a fact which may point to his younger +days, when lofty thoughts of the greatness of +the soul are ever natural and when in his case<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +the afflictions and crimes that make their presence +felt in all his later works had not fallen +upon him. Perhaps, too, it may not be altogether +fanciful to suppose that we may see the +shepherd-boy surrounded by his flocks, and the +wild creatures that prowled about the fold, and +the birds asleep in their coverts beneath the +moonlight, in his enumeration of the subjects of +his first and happiest kingdom, where he ruled +far away from men and sorrow, seeing God +everywhere, and learning to perfect praise from +his youthful lips.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="DAYS" id="DAYS"></a>III.—EARLY DAYS—<i><span class="smcap">continued</span></i>.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> + +<p>In addition to the psalms already considered, +which are devoted to the devout contemplation +of nature, and stand in close connection +with David's early days, there still remains one +universally admitted to be his. The twenty-ninth +psalm, like both the preceding, has to do +with the glory of God as revealed in the +heavens, and with earth only as the recipient of +skyey influences; but while these breathed the +profoundest tranquillity, as they watched the +silent splendour of the sun, and the peace of +moonlight shed upon a sleeping world, this is +all tumult and noise. It is a highly elaborate +and vivid picture of a thunderstorm, such as +must often have broken over the shepherd-psalmist +as he crouched under some shelf of +limestone, and gathered his trembling charge +about him. Its very structure reproduces in +sound an echo of the rolling peals reverberating +among the hills.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>There is first an invocation, in the highest +strain of devout poetry, calling upon the "sons +of God," the angels who dwell above the lower +sky, and who see from above the slow gathering +of the storm-clouds, to ascribe to Jehovah the +glory of His name—His character as set forth in +the tempest. They are to cast themselves before +Him "in holy attire," as priests of the +heavenly sanctuary. Their silent and expectant +worship is like the brooding stillness +before the storm. We feel the waiting hush in +heaven and earth.</p> + +<p>Then the tempest breaks. It crashes and +leaps through the short sentences, each like the +clap of the near thunder.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><i>a.</i> The voice of Jehovah (is) on the waters.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The God of glory thunders.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><i>Jehovah (is) on many waters.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The voice of Jehovah in strength!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The voice of Jehovah in majesty!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><i>b.</i> The voice of Jehovah rending the cedars!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><i>And Jehovah rends the cedars of Lebanon</i>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">And makes them leap like a calf;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Lebanon and Sirion like a young buffalo</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The voice of Jehovah hewing flashes of fire!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><i>c.</i> The voice of Jehovah shakes the desert,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><i>Jehovah shakes the Kadesh desert.</i></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 9em;">The voice of Jehovah makes the hinds writhe<br /> +And scathes the woods—and in His temple—<br /> +—All in it (are) saying, "Glory."</p> + +<p>Seven times the roar shakes the world. The +voice of the seven thunders is the voice of +Jehovah. In the short clauses, with their uniform +structure, the pause between, and the recurrence +of the same initial words, we hear the successive +peals, the silence that parts them, and the +monotony of their unvaried sound. Thrice we +have the reverberation rolling through the sky +or among the hills, imitated by clauses which +repeat previous ones, as indicated by the italics, +and one forked flame blazes out in the brief, +lightning-like sentence, "The voice of Jehovah +(is) hewing flashes of fire," which wonderfully +gives the impression of their streaming fiercely +forth, as if cloven from some solid block of fire, +their swift course, and their instantaneous extinction.</p> + +<p>The range and effects of the storm, too, are +vividly painted. It is first "on the waters," +which may possibly mean the Mediterranean, +but more probably, "the waters that are above +the firmament," and so depicts the clouds as +gathering high in air. Then it comes down with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +a crash on the northern mountains, splintering +the gnarled cedars, and making Lebanon rock +with all its woods—leaping across the deep +valley of Cœlo-Syria, and smiting Hermon (for +which Sirion is a Sidonian name), the crest of +the Anti Lebanon, till it reels. Onward it +sweeps—or rather, perhaps, it is all around the +psalmist; and even while he hears the voice +rolling from the furthest north, the extreme +south echoes the roar. The awful voice shakes<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> +the wilderness, as it booms across its level surface. +As far south as Kadesh (probably Petra) +the tremor spreads, and away in the forests of +Edom the wild creatures in their terror slip their +calves, and the oaks are scathed and stripped of +their leafy honours. And all the while, like a +mighty diapason sounding on through the +tumult, the voice of the sons of God in the +heavenly temple is heard proclaiming "Glory!"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> Delitzsch would render "whirls in circles"—a picturesque +allusion to the sand pillars which accompany storms in the +desert.</p></div> + +<p>The psalm closes with lofty words of confidence, +built on the story of the past, as well as +on the contemplation of the present. "Jehovah +sat throned for (<i>i.e.</i>, to send on earth) the flood"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +which once drowned the world of old. "Jehovah +will sit throned, a King for ever." That ancient +judgment spoke of His power over all the forces +of nature, in their most terrible form. So now +and for ever, all are His servants, and effect His +purposes. Then, as the tempest rolls away, +spent and transient, the sunshine streams out +anew from the softened blue over a freshened +world, and every raindrop on the leaves twinkles +into diamond light, and the end of the psalm is +like the after brightness; and the tranquil low +voice of its last words is like the songs of the +birds again as the departing storm growls low +and faint on the horizon. "The Lord will bless +His people with peace."</p> + +<p>Thus, then, nature spoke to this young heart. +The silence was vocal; the darkness, bright; the +tumult, order—and all was the revelation of a +present God. It is told of one of our great +writers that, when a child, he was found lying +on a hill-side during a thunderstorm, and +at each flash clapping his hands and shouting, +unconscious of danger, and stirred to ecstasy. +David, too, felt all the poetic elevation, and +natural awe, in the presence of the crashing +storm; but he felt something more. To him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +the thunder was not a power to tremble before, +not a mere subject for poetic contemplation. +Still less was it something, the like of which +could be rubbed out of glass and silk, and +which he had done with when he knew its laws. +No increase of knowledge touching the laws of +physical phenomena in the least affects the +point of view which these Nature-psalms take. +David said, "God makes and moves all things." +We may be able to complete the sentence by a +clause which tells something of the methods of +His operation. But that is only a parenthesis +after all, and the old truth remains widened, not +overthrown by it. The psalmist knew that all +being and action had their origin in God. He +saw the last links of the chain, and knew that it +was rivetted to the throne of God, though the +intermediate links were unseen; and even the +fact that there were any was not present to his +mind. We know something of these; but the +first and the last of the series to him, are the +first and the last to us also. To us as to him, +the silent splendour of noonday speaks of God, +and the nightly heavens pour the soft radiance +of His "excellent name over all the earth." The +tempest is His voice, and the wildest commo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>tions +in nature and among men break in obedient +waves around His pillared throne.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Well roars the storm to those who hear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">A deeper voice across the storm!"</span></p> + +<p>There still remains one other psalm which +may be used as illustrating the early life of +David. The Twenty-third psalm is coloured +throughout by the remembrances of his youthful +occupation, even if its actual composition is of +a later date. Some critics, indeed, think that +the mention in the last verse of "the house of +the Lord" compels the supposition of an origin +subsequent to the building of the Temple; but +the phrase in question need not have anything +to do with tabernacle or temple, and is most +naturally accounted for by the preceding image +of God as the Host who feasts His servants at +His table. There are no other notes of time in +the psalm, unless, with some commentators, we +see an allusion in that image of the furnished +table to the seasonable hospitality of the Gileadite +chieftains during David's flight before Absalom +(2 Sam. xvii. 27-29)—a reference which +appears prosaic and flat. The absence of traces +of distress and sorrow—so constantly present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +in the later songs—may be urged with some +force in favour of the early date; and if we +follow one of the most valuable commentators +(Hupfeld) in translating all the verbs as futures, +and so make the whole a hymn of hope, we +seem almost obliged to suppose that we have +here the utterance of a youthful spirit, which +ventured to look forward, because it first looked +upward. In any case, the psalm is a transcript +of thoughts that had been born and cherished +in many a meditative hour among the lonely +hills of Bethlehem. It is the echo of the shepherd +life. We see in it the incessant care, the +love to his helpless charge, which was expressed +in and deepened by all his toil for them. He +had to think for their simplicity, to fight for +their defencelessness, to find their pasture, to +guard them while they lay amid the fresh +grass; sometimes to use his staff in order to +force their heedlessness with loving violence +past tempting perils; sometimes to guide them +through gloomy gorges, where they huddled +close at his heels; sometimes to smite the lion +and the bear that prowled about the fold—but +all was for their good and meant their comfort. +And thus he has learned, in preparation for his own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +kingdom, the inmost meaning of pre-eminence +among men—and, more precious lesson still, thus +he has learned the very heart of God. Long +before, Jacob had spoken of Him as the "Shepherd +of Israel;" but it was reserved for David +to bring that sweet and wonderful name into +closer relations with the single soul; and, with +that peculiar enthusiasm of personal reliance, +and recognition of God's love to the individual +which stamps all his psalms, to say "The Lord +is my Shepherd." These dumb companions of +his, in their docility to his guidance, and absolute +trust in his care, had taught him the +secret of peace in helplessness, of patience in +ignorance. The green strips of meadow-land +where the clear waters brought life, the wearied +flocks sheltered from the mid-day heat, the quiet +course of the little stream, the refreshment of +the sheep by rest and pasture, the smooth paths +which he tried to choose for them, the rocky +defiles through which they had to pass, the rod +in his hand that guided, and chastised, and +defended, and was never lifted in anger,—all +these, the familiar sights of his youth, pass +before us as we read; and to us too, in our widely +different social state, have become the undying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +emblems of the highest care and the wisest love. +The psalm witnesses how close to the youthful +heart the consciousness of God must have been, +which could thus transform and glorify the little +things which were so familiar. We can feel, in +a kind of lazy play of sentiment, the fitness of the +shepherd's life to suggest thoughts of God—because +it is not our life. But it needs both a +meditative habit and a devout heart to feel that +the trivialities of our own daily tasks speak to +us of Him. The heavens touch the earth on +the horizon of our vision, but it always seems +furthest to the sky from the spot where we +stand. To the psalmist, however,—as in higher +ways to his Son and Lord,—all things around +him were full of God; and as the majesties of +nature, so the trivialities of man's works—shepherds +and fishermen—were solemn with deep +meanings and shadows of the heavenly. With +such lofty thoughts he fed his youth.</p> + +<p>The psalm, too, breathes the very spirit of +sunny confidence and of perfect rest in God. +We have referred to the absence of traces of +sorrow, and to the predominant tone of hopefulness, +as possibly favouring the supposition of an +early origin. But it matters little whether they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +were young eyes which looked so courageously +into the unknown future, or whether we have +here the more solemn and weighty hopes of age, +which can have few hopes at all, unless they be +rooted in God. The spirit expressed in the +psalm is so thoroughly David's, that in his +younger days, before it was worn with responsibilities +and sorrows, it must have been especially +strong. We may therefore fairly take the tone +of this song of the Shepherd God as expressing +the characteristic of his godliness in the happy +early years. In his solitude he was glad. One +happy thought fills the spirit; one simple emotion +thrills the chords of his harp. No doubts, +or griefs, or remorse throw their shadows upon +him. He is conscious of dependence, but he is +above want and fear. He does not ask, he +has—he possesses God, and is at rest in Him. He +is satisfied with that fruition which blesseth all +who hunger for God, and is the highest form of +communion with Him. As the present has no +longings, the future has no terrors. All the +horizon is clear, all the winds are still, the ocean +at rest, "and birds of peace sit brooding on the +charmed wave." If there be foes, God holds +them back. If there lie far off among the hills<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +any valley of darkness, its black portals cast no +gloom over him, and will not when he enters. +God is his Shepherd, and, by another image, +God is his Host. The life which in one aspect, +by reason of its continual change, and occupation +with outward things, may be compared to +the journeyings of a flock, is in another aspect, +by reason of its inward union with the stability +of God, like sitting ever at the table which His +hand has spread as for a royal banquet, where +the oil of gladness glistens on every head, and +the full cup of Divine pleasure is in every hand. +For all the outward and pilgrimage aspect, the +psalmist knows that only Goodness and Mercy—these +two white-robed messengers of God—will +follow his steps, however long may be the +term of the days of his yet young life; for all +the inward, he is sure that, in calm, unbroken +fellowship, he will dwell in the house of God, +and that when the twin angels who fed and +guided him all his young life long have finished +their charge, and the days of his journeyings are +ended, there stretches beyond a still closer union +with his heavenly Friend, which will be perfected +in His true house "for ever." We look in vain +for another example, even in David's psalms, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +such perfect, restful trust in God. These clear +notes are perhaps the purest utterance ever given +of "the peace of God which passeth all understanding."</p> + +<p>Such were the thoughts and hopes of the lad +who kept his father's sheep at Bethlehem. He +lived a life of lofty thoughts and lowly duties. +He heard the voice of God amidst the silence of +the hills, and the earliest notes of his harp +echoed the deep tones. He learned courage as +well as tenderness from his daily tasks, and +patience from the contrast between them and the +high vocation which Samuel's mysterious anointing +had opened before him. If we remember +how disturbing an influence the consciousness of +it might have wrought in a soul less filled with +God, we may perhaps accept as probably correct +the superscription which refers one sweet, simple +psalm to him, and may venture to suppose that +it expresses the contentment, undazzled by +visions of coming greatness, that calmed his +heart. "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor +mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in +great matters, or in things too high for me. +Surely I have smoothed and quieted my soul: like +a weanling on his mother's (breast), like a wean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>ling +is my soul within me." (Psa. cxxxi.) So +lying in God's arms, and content to be folded in +His embrace, without seeking anything beyond, +he is tranquil in his lowly lot.</p> + +<p>It does not fall within our province to follow +the course of the familiar narrative through the +picturesque events that led him to fame and +position at court. The double character of +minstrel and warrior, to which we have already +referred, is remarkably brought out in his double +introduction to Saul, once as soothing the king's +gloomy spirit with the harmonies of his shepherd's +harp, once as bringing down the boasting +giant of Gath with his shepherd's sling. On the +first occasion his residence in the palace seems +to have been ended by Saul's temporary recovery. +He returns to Bethlehem for an indefinite time, +and then leaves it and all its peaceful tasks for +ever. The dramatic story of the duel with +Goliath needs no second telling. His arrival at +the very crisis of the war, the eager courage with +which he leaves his baggage in the hands of the +guard and runs down the valley to the ranks of +the army, the busy hum of talk among the +Israelites, the rankling jealousy of his brother +that curdles into bitter jeers, the modest courage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +with which he offers himself as champion, +the youthful enthusiasm of brave trust in "the +Lord, that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, +and out of the paw of the bear;" the wonderfully +vivid picture of the young hero with his shepherd +staff in one hand, his sling in the other, +and the rude wallet by his side, which had +carried his simple meal, and now held the +smooth stone from the brook that ran between +the armies in the bottom of the little valley—the +blustering braggadocio of the big champion, +the boy's devout confidence in "the name of the +Lord of hosts;" the swift brevity of the narrative +of the actual fight, which in its hurrying +clauses seems to reproduce the light-footed +eagerness of the young champion, or the rapid +whizz of the stone ere it crashed into the thick +forehead; the prostrate bulk of the dead giant +prone upon the earth, and the conqueror, slight +and agile, hewing off the huge head with Goliath's +own useless sword;—all these incidents, +so full of character, so antique in manner, +so weighty with lessons of the impotence of +strength that is merely material, and the power +of a living enthusiasm of faith in God, may, for +our present purposes, be passed with a mere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +glance. One observation may, however, be +allowed. After the victory, Saul is represented +as not knowing who David was, and as sending +Abner to find out where he comes from. Abner, +too, professes entire ignorance; and when +David appears before the king, "with the head +of the Philistine in his hand," he is asked, +"Whose son art thou, young man?" It has +been thought that here we have an irreconcilable +contradiction with previous narratives, according +to which there was close intimacy between him +and the king, who "loved him greatly," and +gave him an office of trust about his person. +Suppositions of "dislocation of the narrative," +the careless adoption by the compiler of two +separate legends, and the like, have been freely +indulged in. But it may at least be suggested +as a possible explanation of the seeming discrepancy, +that when Saul had passed out of his +moody madness it is not wonderful that he +should have forgotten all which had occurred in +his paroxysm. It is surely a common enough +psychological phenomenon that a man restored +to sanity has no remembrance of the events +during his mental aberration. And as for +Abner's profession of ignorance, an incipient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +jealousy of this stripling hero may naturally +have made the "captain of the host" willing to +keep the king as ignorant as he could concerning +a probable formidable rival. There is no +need to suppose he was really ignorant, but only +that it suited him to say that he was.</p> + +<p>With this earliest deed of heroism the peaceful +private days are closed, and a new epoch of +court favour and growing popularity begins. +The impression which the whole story leaves +upon one is well summed up in a psalm which +the Septuagint adds to the Psalter. It is not +found in the Hebrew, and has no pretension to +be David's work; but, as a <i>résumé</i> of the salient +points of his early life, it may fitly end our considerations +of this first epoch.</p> + +<p>"This is the autograph psalm of David, and +beyond the number (<i>i.e.</i>, of the psalms in the +Psalter), when he fought the single fight with +Goliath:—</p> + +<p>"(1.) I was little among my brethren, and the +youngest in the house of my father: I kept the +flock of my father. (2.) My hands made a pipe, +my fingers tuned a psaltery. (3.) And who +shall tell it to my Lord? He is the Lord, He +shall hear me. (4.) He sent His angel (mes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>senger), +and took me from the flocks of my +father, and anointed me with the oil of His +anointing. (5.) But my brethren were fair and +large, and in them the Lord took not pleasure. +(6.) I went out to meet the Philistine, and he +cursed me by his idols. (7.) But I, drawing his +sword, beheaded him, and took away reproach +from the children of Israel."<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="EXILE_1" id="EXILE_1"></a>IV.—THE EXILE.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> + +<p>David's first years at the court of Saul in +Gibeah do not appear to have produced +any psalms which still survive.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"The sweetest songs are those</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">Which tell of saddest thought."</span></p> + +<p>It was natural, then, that a period full of novelty +and of prosperous activity, very unlike the quiet +days at Bethlehem, should rather accumulate +materials for future use than be fruitful in +actual production. The old life shut to behind +him for ever, like some enchanted door in a hill-side, +and an unexplored land lay beckoning +before. The new was widening his experience, +but it had to be mastered, to be assimilated by +meditation before it became vocal.</p> + +<p>The bare facts of this section are familiar and +soon told. There is first a period in which he +is trusted by Saul, who sets him in high command, +with the approbation not only of the +people, but even of the official classes. But a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +new dynasty resting on military pre-eminence +cannot afford to let a successful soldier stand on +the steps of the throne; and the shrill chant of +the women out of all the cities of Israel, which +even in Saul's hearing answered the praises of +his prowess with a louder acclaim for David's +victories, startled the king for the first time with +a revelation of the national feeling. His unslumbering +suspicion "eyed David from that +day." Rage and terror threw him again into +the gripe of his evil spirit, and in his paroxysm +he flings his heavy spear, the symbol of his +royalty, at the lithe harper, with fierce vows of +murder. The failure of his attempt to kill +David seems to have aggravated his dread of +him as bearing a charm which won all hearts +and averted all dangers. A second stage is +marked not only by Saul's growing fear, +but by David's new position. He is removed +from court, and put in a subordinate command, +which only extends his popularity, and brings +him into more immediate contact with the mass +of the people. "All Israel and Judah loved +David, because he went out and came in before +them." Then follows the offer of Saul's elder +daughter in marriage, in the hope that by play<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>ing +upon his gratitude and his religious feeling, +he might be urged to some piece of rash bravery +that would end him without scandal. Some new +caprice of Saul's, however, leads him to insult +David by breaking his pledge at the last +moment, and giving the promised bride to +another. Jonathan's heart was not the only one +in Saul's household that yielded to his spell. +The younger Michal had been cherishing his +image in secret, and now tells her love. Her +father returns to his original purpose, with the +strange mixture of tenacity and capricious +changefulness that marks his character, and +again attempts, by demanding a grotesquely +savage dowry, to secure David's destruction. +But that scheme, too, fails; and he becomes a +member of the royal house.</p> + +<p>This third stage is marked by Saul's deepening +panic hatred, which has now become a fixed +idea. All his attempts have only strengthened +David's position, and he looks on his irresistible +advance with a nameless awe. He calls, with +a madman's folly, on Jonathan and on all his +servants to kill him; and then, when his son +appeals to him, his old better nature comes over +him, and with a great oath he vows that David<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +shall not be slain. For a short time David +returns to Gibeah, and resumes his former +relations with Saul, but a new victory over the +Philistines rouses the slumbering jealousy. Again +the "evil spirit" is upon him, and the great +javelin is flung with blind fury, and sticks +quivering in the wall. It is night, and David +flies to his house. A stealthy band of assassins +from the palace surround the house with orders +to prevent all egress, and, by what may be +either the strange whim of a madman, or the +cynical shamelessness of a tyrant, to slay him +in the open daylight. Michal, who, though in +after time she showed a strain of her father's +proud godlessness, and an utter incapacity of +understanding the noblest parts of her husband's +character, seems to have been a true wife in +these early days, discovers, perhaps with a +woman's quick eye sharpened by love, the +crouching murderers, and with rapid promptitude +urges immediate flight. Her hands let +him down from the window—the house being +probably on the wall. Her ready wit dresses +up one of those mysterious teraphim (which +appear to have had some connection with +idolatry or magic, and which are strange pieces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +of furniture for David's house), and lays it in the +bed to deceive the messengers, and so gain a +little more time before pursuit began. "So +David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel to +Ramah," and thus ended his life at court.</p> + +<p>Glancing over this narrative, one or two points +come prominently forth. The worth of these +events to David must have lain chiefly in the +abundant additions made to his experience of +life, which ripened his nature, and developed +new powers. The meditative life of the sheepfold +is followed by the crowded court and camp. +Strenuous work, familiarity with men, constant +vicissitude, take the place of placid thought, of +calm seclusion, of tranquil days that knew no +changes but the alternation of sun and stars, +storm and brightness, green pastures and dusty +paths. He learned the real world, with its +hate and effort, its hollow fame and its whispering +calumnies. Many illusions no doubt faded, +but the light that had shone in his solitude still +burned before him for his guide, and a deeper +trust in his Shepherd God was rooted in his +soul by all the shocks of varying fortune. The +passage from the visions of youth and the solitary +resolves of early and uninterrupted piety to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +the naked realities of a wicked world, and the +stern self-control of manly godliness, is ever painful +and perilous. Thank God! it may be made +clear gain, as it was by this young hero psalmist.</p> + +<p>David's calm indifference to outward circumstances +affecting himself, is very strikingly expressed +in his conduct. Partly from his poetic +temperament, partly from his sweet natural +unselfishness, and chiefly from his living trust in +God, he accepts whatever happens with equanimity, +and makes no effort to alter it. He +originates nothing. Prosperity comes unsought, +and dangers unfeared. He does not ask for +Jonathan's love, or the people's favour, or the +women's songs, or Saul's daughter. If Saul +gives him command he takes it, and does his +work. If Saul flings his javelin at him, he +simply springs aside and lets it whizz past. If +his high position is taken from him, he is quite +content with a lower. If a royal alliance is +offered, he accepts it; if it is withdrawn, he is +not ruffled; if renewed, he is still willing. If a +busy web of intrigue is woven round him, he +takes no notice. If reconciliation is proposed, +he cheerfully goes back to the palace. If his +life is threatened he goes home. He will not stir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +to escape but for the urgency of his wife. So +well had he already begun to learn the worthlessness +of life's trifles. So thoroughly does he +practice his own precept, "Fret not thyself +because of evil-doers;" "rest in the Lord, and +wait patiently for Him." (Psa. xxxvii. 1, 7.)</p> + +<p>This section gives also a remarkable impression +of the irresistible growth of his popularity +and influence. The silent energy of the Divine +purpose presses his fortunes onward with a +motion slow and inevitable as that of a glacier. +The steadfast flow circles unchecked round, or +rises victorious over all hindrances. Efforts to +ruin, to degrade, to kill—one and all fail. +Terror and hate, suspicion and jealousy, only +bring him nearer the goal. A clause which +comes in thrice in the course of one chapter, +expresses this fated advance. In the first stage +of his court life, we read, "David prospered" +(1 Sam. xviii. 5, margin), and again with increased +emphasis it is told as the result of the +efforts to crush him, that, "He prospered in all +his ways, and the Lord was with him" (verse +14), and yet again, in spite of Saul's having +"become his enemy continually," he "prospered +more than all the servants of Saul" (verse 30).<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +He moves onward as stars in their courses +move, obeying the equable impulse of the calm +and conquering will of God.</p> + +<p>The familiar Scripture antithesis, which naturally +finds its clearest utterance in the words of +the last inspired writer—namely, the eternal +opposition of Light and Darkness, Love and +Hate, Life and Death, is brought into sharpest +relief by the juxtaposition and contrast of David +and Saul. This is the key to the story. The +two men are not more unlike in person than in +spirit. We think of the one with his ruddy +beauty and changeful eyes, and lithe slight form, +and of the other gaunt and black, his giant +strength weakened, and his "goodly" face +scarred with the lightnings of his passions—and +as they look so they are. The one full of joyous +energy, the other devoured by gloom; the +one going in and out among the people and +winning universal love, the other sitting moody +and self-absorbed behind his palace walls; the +one bringing sweet clear tones of trustful praise +from his harp, the other shaking his huge spear +in his madness; the one ready for action and +prosperous in it all, the other paralyzed, shrinking +from all work, and leaving the conduct of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +the war to the servant whom he feared; the one +conscious of the Divine presence making him +strong and calm, the other writhing in the gripe +of his evil spirit, and either foaming in fury, or +stiffened into torpor; the one steadily growing +in power and favour with God and man, the +other sinking in deeper mire, and wrapped +about with thickening mists as he moves to his +doom. The tragic pathos of these two lives in +their fateful antagonism is the embodiment of +that awful alternative of life and death, blessing +and cursing, which it was the very aim of +Judaism to stamp ineffaceably on the conscience.</p> + +<p>David's flight begins a period to which a large +number of his psalms are referred. We may +call them "The Songs of the Outlaw." The +titles in the psalter connect several with specific +events during his persecution by Saul, and +besides these, there are others which have +marked characteristics in common, and may +therefore be regarded as belonging to the same +time. The bulk of the former class are found in +the second book of the psalter (Ps. xlii.-lxxii.), +which has been arranged with some care. There +are first eight Korahite psalms, and one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +Asaph's; then a group of fifteen Davidic (li.-lxv.), +followed by two anonymous; then three +more of David's (lxviii.-lxx.), followed by one +anonymous and the well-known prayer "for +Solomon." Now it is worth notice that the +group of fifteen psalms ascribed to David is as +nearly as possible divided in halves, eight having +inscriptions which give a specific date of composition, +and seven having no such detail. +There has also been some attempt at arranging +the psalms of these two classes alternately, but +that has not been accurately carried out. These +facts show that the titles are at all events as old +as the compilation of the second book of the +psalter, and were regarded as accurate then. +Several points about the complete book of +psalms as we have it, seem to indicate that these +two first books were an older nucleus, which was +in existence long prior to the present collection—and +if so, the date of the titles must be carried +back a very long way indeed, and with a proportionate +increase of authority.</p> + +<p>Of the eight psalms in the second book +having titles with specific dates, five (Ps. +lii., liv., lvi., lvii., lix.) are assigned to the +period of the Sauline persecution, and, as it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +would appear, with accuracy. There is a +general similarity of tone in them all, as well +as considerable parallelisms of expression, favourite +phrases and metaphors, which are favourable +to the hypothesis of a nearly cotemporaneous +date. They are all in what, to use a +phrase from another art, we may call David's +earlier manner. For instance, in all the psalmist +is surrounded by enemies. They would "swallow +him up" (lvi. 1, 2; lvii. 3). They "oppress" +him (liv. 3; lvi. 1). One of their weapons is +calumny, which seems from the frequent references +to have much moved the psalmist. Their +tongues are razors (lii. 2), or swords (lvii. 4; +lix. 7; lxiv. 3). They seem to him like crouching +beasts ready to spring upon harmless prey +(lvi. 6; lvii. 6; lix. 3); they are "lions" (lvii. 4), +dogs (lix. 6, 14). He is conscious of nothing +which he has done to provoke this storm of +hatred (lix. 3; lxiv. 4.) The "strength" of God +is his hope (liv. 1; lix. 9, 17). He is sure that +retribution will fall upon the enemies (lii. 5; +liv. 5; lvi. 7; lvii. 6; lix. 8-15; lxiv. 7, 8). +He vows and knows that psalms of deliverance +will yet succeed these plaintive cries (lii. 9; +liv. 7; lvi. 12; lvii. 7-11; lix. 16, 17).<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>We also find a considerable number of psalms +in the first book of the psalter which present +the same features, and may therefore probably +be classed with these as belonging to the time +of his exile. Such for instance are the seventh +and thirty-fourth, which have both inscriptions +referring them to this period, with others which +we shall have to consider presently. The +imagery of the preceding group reappears in +them. His enemies are lions (vii. 2; xvii. 12; +xxii. 13; xxxv. 17); dogs (xxii. 16); bulls +(xxii. 12). Pitfalls and snares are in his path +(vii. 15; xxxi. 4; xxxv. 7). He passionately +protests his innocence, and the kindliness of his +heart to his wanton foes (vii. 3-5; xvii. 3, 4); +whom he has helped and sorrowed over in their +sickness (xxxv. 13, 14)—a reference, perhaps, to +his solacing Saul in his paroxysms with the +music of his harp. He dwells on retribution +with vehemence (vii. 11-16; xi. 5-7; xxxi. +23; xxxv. 8), and on his own deliverance with +confidence.</p> + +<p>These general characteristics accurately correspond +with the circumstances of David during +the years of his wanderings. The scenery and +life of the desert colours the metaphors which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +describe his enemies as wild beasts; himself as +a poor hunted creature amongst pits and snares; +or as a timid bird flying to the safe crags, and +God as his Rock. Their strong assertions of +innocence accord with the historical indications +of Saul's gratuitous hatred, and appear to distinguish +the psalms of this period from those of +Absalom's revolt, in which the remembrance of +his great sin was too deep to permit of any such +claims. In like manner the prophecies of the +enemies' destruction are too triumphant to suit +that later time of exile, when the father's heart +yearned with misplaced tenderness over his +worthless son, and nearly broke with unkingly +sorrow for the rebel's death. Their confidence +in God, too, has in it a ring of joyousness in +peril which corresponds with the buoyant faith +that went with him through all the desperate +adventures and hairbreadth escapes of the +Sauline persecution. If then we may, with some +confidence, read these psalms in connection with +that period, what a noble portraiture of a brave, +devout soul looks out upon us from them. We +see him in the first flush of his manhood—somewhere +about five-and-twenty years old—fronting +perils of which he is fully conscious,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +with calm strength and an enthusiasm of trust +that lifts his spirit above them all, into a region +of fellowship with God which no tumult can invade, +and which no remembrance of black transgression +troubled and stained. His harp is his +solace in his wanderings; and while plaintive +notes are flung from its strings, as is needful for +the deepest harmonies of praise here, every wailing +tone melts into clear ringing notes of glad +affiance in the "God of his mercy."</p> + +<p>Distinct references to the specific events of +his wanderings are, undoubtedly, rare in them, +though even these are more obvious than has +been sometimes carelessly assumed. Their infrequency +and comparative vagueness has been +alleged against the accuracy of the inscriptions +which allocate certain psalms to particular occasions. +But in so far as it is true that these allusions +are rare and inexact, the fact is surely +rather in favour of than against the correctness +of the titles. For if these are not suggested by +obvious references in the psalms to which they +are affixed, by what can they have been suggested +but by a tradition considerably older +than the compilation of the psalter? Besides, +the analogy of all other poetry would lead us to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +expect precisely what we find in these psalms—general +and not detailed allusions to the +writer's circumstances. The poetic imagination +does not reproduce the bald prosaic facts which +have set it in motion, but the echo of them +broken up and etherealised. It broods over +them till life stirs, and the winged creature +bursts from them to sing and soar.</p> + +<p>If we accept the title as accurate, the fifty-ninth +psalm is the first of these Songs of the +Outlaw. It refers to the time "when Saul sent, +and they watched the house to kill him." Those +critics who reject this date, which they do on +very weak grounds, lose themselves in a chaos +of assumptions as to the occasion of the psalm. +The Chaldean invasion, the assaults in the time +of Nehemiah, and the era of the Maccabees, are +alleged with equal confidence and equal groundlessness. +"We believe that it is most advisable +to adhere to the title, and most scientific to +ignore these hypotheses built on nothing." +(Delitzsch.)</p> + +<p>It is a devotional and poetic commentary on +the story in Samuel. There we get the bare +facts of the assassins prowling by night round +David's house; of Michal's warning; of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +ready-witted trick to gain time, and of his hasty +flight to Samuel at Ramah. In the narrative +David is, as usual at this period, passive and +silent; but when we turn to the psalm, we learn +the tone of his mind as the peril bursts upon +him, and all the vulgar craft and fear fades from +before his lofty enthusiasm of faith.</p> + +<p>The psalm begins abruptly with a passionate +cry for help, which is repeated four times, thus +bringing most vividly before us the extremity +of the danger and the persistency of the suppliant's +trust. The peculiar tenderness and +closeness of his relation to his heavenly Friend, +which is so characteristic of David's psalms, and +which they were almost the first to express, +breathes through the name by which he invokes +help, "my God." The enemies are painted in +words which accurately correspond with the +history, and which by their variety reveal how +formidable they were to the psalmist. They +"lie in wait (literally weave plots) for my life." +They are "workers of iniquity," "men of blood," +insolent or violent ("mighty" in English version). +He asserts his innocence, as ever in these +Sauline psalms, and appeals to God in confirmation, +"not for my transgressions, nor for my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +sins, O Lord." He sees these eager tools of +royal malice hurrying to their congenial work: +"they run and prepare themselves." And then, +rising high above all encompassing evils, he +grasps at the throne of God in a cry, which +gains additional force when we remember that +the would-be murderers compassed his house in +the night. "Awake to meet me, and behold;" +as if he had said, "In the darkness do Thou see; +at midnight sleep not Thou." The prayer is +continued in words which heap together with +unwonted abundance the Divine names, in each +of which lie an appeal to God and a pillar of +faith. As Jehovah, the self-existent Fountain +of timeless Being; as the God of Hosts, the +Commander of all the embattled powers of the +universe, whether they be spiritual or material; +as the <span class="smcap">God</span> of Israel, who calls that people His, +and has become theirs—he stirs up the strength +of God to "awake to visit all the heathen,"—a +prayer which has been supposed to compel the +reference of the whole psalm to the assaults of +Gentile nations, but which may be taken as an +anticipation on David's lips of the truth that, +"They are not all Israel which are of Israel." +After a terrible petition—"Be not merciful to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +any secret plotters of evil"—there is a pause +(Selah) to be filled, as it would appear, by some +chords on the harp, or the blare of the trumpets, +thus giving time to dwell on the previous petitions.</p> + +<p>But still the thought of the foe haunts him, +and he falls again to the lower level of painting +their assembling round his house, and their +whispers as they take their stand. It would +appear that the watch had been kept up for +more than one night. How he flings his growing +scorn of them into the sarcastic words, +"They return at evening; they growl like a dog, +and compass the city" (or "go their rounds in +the city"). One sees them stealing through the +darkness, like the troops of vicious curs that +infest Eastern cities, and hears their smothered +threatenings as they crouch in the shadow of +the unlighted streets. Then growing bolder, as +the night deepens and sleep falls on the silent +houses: "Behold they pour out with their mouth, +swords (are) in their lips, for 'who hears'?" In +magnificent contrast with these skulking murderers +fancying themselves unseen and unheard, +David's faith rends the heaven, and, with a +daring image which is copied in a much later<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +psalm (ii. 4), shows God gazing on them with +Divine scorn which breaks in laughter and +mockery. A brief verse, which recurs at the end +of the psalm, closes the first portion of the +psalm with a calm expression of untroubled +trust, in beautiful contrast with the peril +and tumult of soul, out of which it rises +steadfast and ethereal, like a rainbow spanning +a cataract. A slight error appears to have crept +into the Hebrew text, which can be easily +corrected from the parallel verse at the end, +and then the quiet confident words are—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"My strength! upon Thee will I wait,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">For God is my fortress!"</span></p> + +<p>The second portion is an intensification of +the first; pouring out a terrible prayer for exemplary +retribution on his enemies; asking that no +speedy destruction may befall them, but that +God would first of all "make them reel" by the +blow of His might; would then fling them prostrate; +would make their pride and fierce words +a net to snare them; and then, at last, would +bring them to nothing in the hot flames of His +wrath—that the world may know that He is king. +The picture of the prowling dogs recurs with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +deepened scorn and firmer confidence that they +will hunt for their prey in vain.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"And they return at evening; they growl like a dog,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And compass the city.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">They—they prowl about for food</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">If (or, since) they are not satisfied, they spend the night (in the search.)"</span></p> + +<p>There is almost a smile on his face as he +thinks of their hunting about for him, like +hungry hounds snuffing for their meal in the +kennels, and growling now in disappointment—while +he is safe beyond their reach. And the +psalm ends with a glad burst of confidence, +and a vow of praise very characteristic on his +lips—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"But I—I will sing Thy power,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And shout aloud, in the morning, Thy mercy,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">For Thou hast been a fortress for me.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And a refuge in the day of my trouble.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">My strength! unto Thee will I harp,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">For God is my fortress—the God of my mercy."</span></p> + +<p>Thrice he repeats the vow of praise. His harp +was his companion in his flight, and even in the +midst of peril the poet's nature appears which +regards all life as materials for song, and the +devout spirit appears which regards all trial as +occasions for praise. He has calmed his own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +spirit, as he had done Saul's, by his song, and by +prayer has swung himself clear above fightings +and fears. The refrain, which occurs twice in +the psalm, witnesses to the growth of his faith +even while he sings. At first he could only say +in patient expectance, "My strength! I will +wait upon thee, for God is my fortress." But at +the end his mood is higher, his soul has caught +fire as it revolves, and his last words are a +triumphant amplification of his earlier trust: +"My strength! unto thee will I sing with the +harp—for God is my fortress—the God of my +mercy."<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="EXILE_2" id="EXILE_2"></a>V.—THE EXILE—<span class="smcap"><i>continued</i>.</span></h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> + +<p>"So David fled, and escaped and came to +Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that +Saul had done unto him. And he and Samuel +went and dwelt in Naioth" (1 Sam. xix. 18)—or, +as the word probably means, in the collection +of students' dwellings, inhabited by the sons of +the prophets, where possibly there may have +been some kind of right of sanctuary. Driven +thence by Saul's following him, and having had +one last sorrowful hour of Jonathan's companionship—the +last but one on earth—he fled to +Nob, whither the ark had been carried after the +destruction of Shiloh. The story of his flight +had not reached the solitary little town among +the hills, and he is received with the honour due +to the king's son-in-law. He pleads urgent +secret business for Saul as a reason for his +appearance with a slender retinue, and unarmed; +and the priest, after some feeble scruples, supplies +the handful of hungry fugitives with the shew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>bread. +But David's quick eye caught a swarthy +face peering at him from some enclosure of the +simple forest sanctuary, and as he recognised +Doeg the Edomite, Saul's savage herdsman, a +cold foreboding of evil crept over his heart, and +made him demand arms from the peaceful +priest. The lonely tabernacle was guarded by +its own sanctity, and no weapons were there, +except one trophy which was of good omen to +David—Goliath's sword. He eagerly accepts +the matchless weapon which his hand had +clutched on that day of danger and deliverance, +and thus armed, lest Doeg should try to bar his +flight, he hurries from the pursuit which he knew +that the Edomite's malignant tongue would +soon bring after him. The tragical end of the +unsuspecting priest's kindness brings out the +furious irrational suspicion and cruelty of Saul. +He rages at his servants as leagued with David +in words which have a most dreary sound of +utter loneliness sighing through all their fierce +folly: "All of you have conspired against me; +there is none of you that is sorry for me" (1 +Sam. xxii. 8.) Doeg is forward to curry favour +by telling his tale, and so tells it as to suppress +the priest's ignorance of David's flight, and to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +represent him as aiding and comforting the +rebel knowingly. Then fierce wrath flames out +from the darkened spirit, and the whole priestly +population of Nob are summoned before him, +loaded with bitter reproaches, their professions +of innocence disregarded, and his guard ordered +to murder them all then and there. The very +soldiers shrink from the sacrilege, but a willing +tool is at hand. The wild blood of Edom, fired +by ancestral hatred, desires no better work, and +Doeg crowns his baseness by slaying—with the +help of his herdsmen, no doubt—"on that day +fourscore and five persons that did wear an +ephod," and utterly extirpating every living +thing from the defenceless little city.</p> + +<p>One psalm, the fifty-second, is referred by its +inscription to this period, but the correspondence +between the history and the tone of the +psalm is doubtful. It is a vehement rebuke and +a prophecy of destruction directed against an +enemy, whose hostility was expressed in "devouring +words." The portrait does not apply very +accurately to the Doeg of the historical books, +inasmuch as it describes the psalmist's enemy +as "a mighty man,"—or rather as "a hero," and +as trusting "in the abundance of his riches,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>—and +makes the point of the reproach against +him that he is a confirmed liar. But the +dastardly deed of blood may be covertly alluded +to in the bitterly sarcastic "hero"—as if he had +said, "O brave warrior, who dost display thy +prowess in murdering unarmed priests and +women?" And Doeg's story to Saul was a +lie in so far as it gave the impression of the +priests' complicity with David, and thereby +caused their deaths on a false charge. The +other features of the description are not contrary +to the narrative, and most of them are +in obvious harmony with it. The psalm, then, +may be taken as showing how deeply David's +soul was stirred by the tragedy. He pours out +broken words of hot and righteous indignation:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Destructions doth thy tongue devise,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">Like a razor whetted—O thou worker of deceit."</span></p><br /> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Thou lovest all words that devour:<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> O thou deceitful tongue!"</span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> Literally, "words of swallowing up."</p></div> + +<p>He prophesies the destruction of the cruel liar, +and the exultation of the righteous when he +falls, in words which do indeed belong to the +old covenant of retribution, and yet convey an +eternal truth which modern sentimentalism finds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +very shocking, but which is witnessed over and +over again in the relief that fills the heart of +nations and of individuals when evil men fade: +"When the wicked perish, there is shouting"—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Also God shall smite thee down for ever,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">Will draw thee out,<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> and carry thee away from the tent,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And root thee out of the land of the living;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And the righteous shall see and fear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And over him shall they laugh."</span></p> + +<p>In confident security he opposes his own happy +fellowship with God to this dark tragedy of +retribution:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"But I—(I am) like a green olive tree in the house of God."</span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> The full force of the word is, "will pluck out as a glowing +ember from a hearth" (Delitzsch).</p></div> + +<p>The enemy was to be "rooted out;" the +psalmist is to flourish by derivation of life and +vigour from God. If Robinson's conjecture +that Nob was on the Mount of Olives were +correct (which is very doubtful), the allusion +here would gain appropriateness. As the olives +grew all round the humble forest sanctuary, +and were in some sort hallowed by the shrine +which they encompassed, so the soul grows and +is safe in loving fellowship with God. Be that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +as it may, the words express the outlaw's +serene confidence that he is safe beneath the +sheltering mercy of God, and re-echo the hopes +of his earlier psalm, "I will dwell in the house +of the Lord for ever." The stormy indignation +of the earlier verses passes away into +calm peace and patient waiting in praise and +trust:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"I will praise Thee for ever, for Thou hast done (it),</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And wait on Thy name in the presence of Thy beloved, for it is good."</span></p> + +<p>Hunted from Nob, David with a small company +struck across the country in a southwesterly +direction, keeping to the safety of the +tangled mountains, till, from the western side +of the hills of Judah, he looked down upon the +broad green plain of Philistia. Behind him was a +mad tyrant, in front the uncircumcised enemies +of his country and his God. His condition was +desperate, and he had recourse to desperate +measures. That nearest Philistine city, some +ten miles off, on which he looked down from +his height, was Gath; the glen where he had +killed its champion was close beside him,—every +foot of ground was familiar by many a +foray and many a fight. It was a dangerous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +resource to trust himself in Gath, with Goliath's +sword dangling in his belt. But he may have +hoped that he was not known by person, or +may have thought that Saul's famous commander +would be a welcome guest, as a banished +man, at the Philistine court. So he made the +plunge, and took refuge in Goliath's city. Discovery +soon came, and in the most ominous +form. It was an ugly sign that the servants +of Achish should be quoting the words of the +chant of victory which extolled him as the +slayer of their countryman. Vengeance for his +death was but too likely to come next. The +doubts of his identity seem to have lasted for +some little time, and to have been at first +privately communicated to the king. They +somehow reached David, and awoke his watchful +attention, as well as his fear. The depth +of his alarm and his ready resource are shown +by his degrading trick of assumed madness—certainly +the least heroic action of his life. +What a picture of a furious madman is the +description of his conduct when Achish's servants +came to arrest him. He "twisted himself +about in their hands" in the feigned contortions +of possession; he drummed on the leaves of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +the gate,<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> and "let his spittle run down into +his beard." (1 Sam. xxi. 13.) Israelitish quickness +gets the better of Philistine stupidity, as +it had been used to do from Sampson's time +onwards, and the dull-witted king falls into the +trap, and laughs away the suspicions with a +clumsy joke at his servants' expense about +more madmen being the last thing he was +short of. A hasty flight from Philistine territory +ended this episode.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> The Septuagint appears to have followed a different reading +here from that of our present Hebrew text, and the change +adds a very picturesque clause to the description. A madman +would be more likely to hammer than to "scrabble" on the +great double-leaved gate.</p></div> + +<p>The fifty-sixth psalm, which is referred by its +title to this period, seems at first sight to be in +strange contrast with the impressions drawn +from the narrative, but on a closer examination +is found to confirm the correctness of the reference +by its contents. The terrified fugitive, owing +his safety to a trick, and slavering like an idiot +in the hands of his rude captors, had an inner +life of trust strong enough to hold his mortal +terror in check, though not to annihilate it. +The psalm is far in advance of the conduct—is +it so unusual a circumstance as to occasion sur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>prise, +that lofty and sincere utterances of faith +and submission should co-exist with the opposite +feelings? Instead of taking the contrast +between the words and the acts as a proof that +this psalm is wrongly ascribed to the period in +question, let us rather be thankful for another +instance that imperfect faith may be genuine, +and that if we cannot rise to the height of unwavering +fortitude, God accepts a tremulous +trust fighting against mortal terror, and grasping +with a feeble hand the word of God, and the +memory of all his past deliverances. It is precisely +this conflict of faith and fear which the +psalm sets before us. It falls into three portions, +the first and second of which are closed by a +kind of refrain (vers. 4, 10, 11)—a structure +which is characteristic of several of these +Sauline persecution psalms (<i>e.g.</i>, lvii. 5, 11; lix. +9, 17). The first part of each of these two +portions is a vivid description of his danger, +from which he rises to the faith expressed in +the closing words. The repetition of the same +thoughts in both is not to be regarded as a cold +artifice of composition, but as the true expression +of the current of his thoughts. He sees his +enemies about him, ready to swallow him up—"there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +be many fighting against me disdainfully"<a name="FNanchor_I_9" id="FNanchor_I_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_9" class="fnanchor">[I]</a> +(ver. 2). Whilst the terror creeps round +his heart ("he was sore afraid," 1 Sam. xxi. 12), +he rouses himself to trust, as he says, in words +which express most emphatically the co-existence +of the two, and carry a precious lesson of the +reality of even an interrupted faith, streaked with +many a black line of doubt and dread.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_9" id="Footnote_I_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_9"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> Literally, "loftily." Can there be any allusion to the giant +stature of Goliath's relations in Gath? We hear of four men +"born to the giant in Gath," who were killed in David's wars. +(2 Sam. xxi. 22.)</p></div> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"(In) the day (that) I am afraid—I trust on Thee."</span></p> + +<p>And then he breaks into the utterance of praise +and confidence—to which he has climbed by the +ladder of prayer.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"In God I praise His word,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">In God I trust, I do not fear:—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">What shall flesh do to me?"</span></p> + +<p>How profoundly these words set forth the +object of his trust, as being not merely the +promise of God—which in David's case may be +the specific promise conveyed by his designation +to the throne—but the God who promises, the +inmost nature of that confidence as being a +living union with God, the power of it as grapp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>ling +with his dread, and enabling him now to +say, "I do <i>not</i> fear."</p> + +<p>But again he falls from this height; another +surge of fear breaks over him, and almost washes +him from his rock. His foes, with ceaseless +malice, arrest his words; they skulk in ambush, +they dog his heels, they long for his life. The +crowded clauses portray the extremity of the +peril and the singer's agitation. His soul is still +heaving with the ground swell of the storm, +though the blasts come more fitfully, and are +dying into calm. He is not so afraid but that +he can turn to God; he turns to Him because +he is afraid, like the disciples in later days, who +had so much of terror that they must awake +their Master, but so much of trust that His +awaking was enough. He pleads with God, as +in former psalms, against his enemies, in words +which go far beyond the occasion, and connect +his own deliverance with the judgments of God +over the whole earth. He plaintively recalls his +homelessness and his sorrows in words which +exhibit the characteristic blending of hope and +pain, and which are beautifully in accordance +with the date assigned to the psalm. "My +wanderings dost Thou, even Thou, number."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +He is not alone in these weary flights from +Gibeah to Ramah, from Ramah to Nob, from +Nob to Gath, from Gath he knows not whither. +One friend goes with him through them all. +And as the water-skin was a necessary part of +a traveller's equipment, the mention of his wanderings +suggests the bold and tender metaphor +of the next clause, "Put my tears in Thy bottle,"—a +prayer for that very remembrance of his +sorrows, in the existence of which he immediately +declares his confidence—"Are they not in +Thy book?" The true office of faithful communion +with God is to ask for, and to appropriate, +the blessings which in the very act become +ours. He knows that his cry will scatter his +foes, for God is for him. And thus once again +he has risen to the height of confidence where +for a moment his feet have been already planted, +and again—but this time with even fuller +emphasis, expressed by an amplification which +introduces for the only time in the psalm the +mighty covenant name—he breaks into his +triumphant strain—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"In God I praise the Word;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">In JEHOVAH I praise the Word:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">In God I trust, I do not fear:—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">What shall man do to me?"</span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<p>And from this mood of trustful expectation he +does not again decline. Prayer has brought its +chiefest blessing—the peace that passeth understanding. +The foe is lost to sight, the fear +conquered conclusively by faith; the psalm +which begins with a plaintive cry, ends in praise +for deliverance, as if it had been already +achieved—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Thou hast delivered my life from death,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">(Hast Thou) not (delivered) my feet from falling,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">That I may walk before God in the light of the living?"</span></p> + +<p>He already reckons himself safe; his question +is not an expression of doubt, but of assurance; +and he sees the purpose of all God's dealings +with him to be that the activities of life may all +be conducted in the happy consciousness of <i>His</i> +eye who is at once Guardian and Judge of His +children. How far above his fears and lies has +this hero and saint risen by the power of supplication +and the music of his psalm!</p> + +<p>David naturally fled into Israelitish territory +from Gath. The exact locality of the cave +Adullam, where we next find him, is doubtful; +but several strong reasons occur for rejecting +the monkish tradition which places it away to +the east, in one of the wild wadies which run<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +down from Bethlehem to the Dead Sea. We +should expect it to be much more accessible by +a hasty march from Gath. Obviously it would +be convenient for him to hang about the frontier +of Philistia and Israel, that he might quickly +cross the line from one to the other, as dangers +appeared. Further, the city of Adullam is +frequently mentioned, and always in connections +which fix its site as on the margin of the great +plain of Philistia, and not far from Gath. +(2 Chron. xi. 7, etc.) There is no reason to +suppose that the cave of Adullam was in a +totally different district from the city. The +hills of Dan and Judah, which break sharply +down into the plain within a few miles of Gath, +are full of "extensive excavations," and there, +no doubt, we are to look for the rocky hold, +where he felt himself safer from pursuit, and +whence he could look down over the vast sweep +of the rich Philistine country. Gath lay at his +feet, close by was the valley where he had killed +Goliath, the scenes of Samson's exploits were +all about him. Thither fled to him his whole +family, from fear, no doubt, of Saul's revenge +falling on them; and there he gathers his band +of four hundred desperate men, whom poverty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +and misery, and probably the king's growing +tyranny, drove to flight. They were wild, +rough soldiers, according to the picturesque +description, "whose faces were like the faces of +lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the +mountains." They were not freebooters, but +seem to have acted as a kind of frontier-guard +against southern Bedouins and western Philistines +for the sheep-farmers of the border whom +Saul's government was too weak to protect. +In this desultory warfare, and in eluding the +pursuit of Saul, against whom it is to be observed +David never employed any weapon but flight, +several years were passed. The effect of such +life on his spiritual nature was to deepen his +unconditional dependence on God; by the +alternations of heat and cold, fear and hope, +danger and safety, to temper his soul and make +it flexible, tough and bright as steel. It evolved +the qualities of a leader of men; teaching him +command and forbearance, promptitude and +patience, valour and gentleness. It won for +him a name as the defender of the nation, as +Nabal's servant said of him and his men, "They +were a wall unto us, both by night and by day" +(1 Sam. xxv. 16). And it gathered round him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +a force of men devoted to him by the enthusiastic +attachment bred from long years of +common dangers, and the hearty friendships of +many a march by day, and nightly encampment +round the glimmering watchfires, beneath +the lucid stars.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="EXILE_3" id="EXILE_3"></a>VI.—THE EXILE—<span class="smcap"><i>continued</i>.</span></h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> + +<p>We have one psalm which the title connects +with the beginning of David's +stay at Adullam,—the thirty-fourth. The supposition +that it dates from that period throws +great force into many parts of it, and gives a +unity to what is else apparently fragmentary +and disconnected. Unlike those already considered, +which were pure soliloquies, this is full +of exhortation and counsel, as would naturally +be the case if it were written when friends and +followers began to gather to his standard. It +reads like a long sigh of relief at escape from a +danger just past; its burden is to tell of God's +deliverance, and to urge to trust in Him. How +perfectly this tone corresponds to the circumstances +immediately after his escape from Gath +to Adullam need not be more than pointed out. +The dangers which he had dreaded and the cry +to God which he had sent forth are still present +to his mind, and echo through his song, like a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +subtly-touched chord of sadness, which appears +for a moment, and is drowned in the waves of +some triumphant music.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"I sought the Lord, and He heard me,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And from all my alarms He delivered me.</span></p> +<br /> +<p><span style="margin-left:8.25em;">This afflicted (man) cried, and Jehovah heard,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And from all his troubles He saved him."</span></p> + +<p>And the "local colouring" of the psalm corresponds +too with the circumstances of Adullam. +How appropriate, for instance, does the form in +which the Divine protection is proclaimed become, +when we think of the little band bivouacking +among the cliffs, "The angel of the Lord +encampeth round about them that fear Him, +and delivereth them." Like his great ancestor, +he is met in his desert flight by heavenly guards, +"and he calls the name of that place Mahanaim" +(that is, "two camps"), as discerning gathered +round his own feeble company the ethereal +weapons of an encircling host of the warriors +of God, through whose impenetrable ranks his +foes must pierce before they can reach him. +From Samson's time we read of lions in this +district (Judges xiv. 8, 9), and we may recognise +another image as suggested by their growls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +heard among the ravines, and their gaunt forms +prowling near the cave. "The young lions do +lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the +Lord shall not want any good" (ver. 10).</p> + +<p>And then he passes to earnest instructions +and exhortations, which derive appositeness +from regarding them as a proclamation to his +men of the principles on which his camp is to +be governed. "Come, ye children, hearken +unto me." He regards himself as charged with +guiding them to godliness: "I will teach you +the fear of the Lord." With some remembrance, +perhaps, of his deception at Gath, he warns +them to "keep" their "tongues from evil" and +their "lips from speaking guile." They are not +to be in love with warfare, but, even with their +swords in their hands, are to "seek peace, and +pursue it." On these exhortations follow joyous +assurances of God's watchful eye fixed upon +the righteous, and His ear open to their cry; of +deliverance for his suppliants, whatsoever hardship +and trouble they may have to wade through; +of a guardianship which "keepeth all the bones" +of the righteous, so that neither the blows of the +foe nor the perils of the crags should break them,—all +crowned with the contrast ever present to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +David's mind, and having a personal reference +to his enemies and to himself:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Evil shall slay the wicked,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And the haters of the righteous shall suffer penalty.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">Jehovah redeems the life of His servants,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And no penalty shall any suffer who trust in Him."</span></p> + +<p>Such were the counsels and teachings of the +young leader to his little band,—noble "general +orders" from a commander at the beginning of +a campaign!</p> + +<p>We venture to refer the twenty-seventh psalm +also to this period. It is generally supposed, +indeed, by those commentators who admit its +Davidic authorship, to belong to the time of +Absalom's rebellion. The main reason for +throwing it so late is the reference in ver. 4 to +dwelling in the house of the Lord and inquiring +in His temple.<a name="FNanchor_J_10" id="FNanchor_J_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_J_10" class="fnanchor">[J]</a> This is supposed to require a +date subsequent to David's bringing up of the +ark to Jerusalem, and placing it in a temporary +sanctuary. But whilst longing for the sanctuary +is no doubt characteristic of the psalms of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +later wanderings, it is by no means necessary to +suppose that in the present case that desire, +which David represents as the longing of his +life, was a desire for mere bodily presence in a +material temple. Indeed, the very language +seems to forbid such an interpretation. Surely +the desire for an abode in the house of the Lord—which +was his one wish, which he longed to +have continuous throughout all the days of his +life, which was to surround him with a privacy +of protection in trouble, and to be as the +munitions of rocks about him—was something +else than a morbid desire for an impossible +seclusion in the tabernacle,—a desire fitter for +some sickly mediæval monarch who buried his +foolish head and faint heart in a monastery than +for God's Anointed. We have seen an earlier +germ of the same desire in the twenty-third +psalm, the words of which are referred to here; +and the interpretation of the one is the interpretation +of the other. The psalmist breathes +his longing for the Divine fellowship, which +shall be at once vision, and guidance, and +hidden life in distress, and stability, and victory, +and shall break into music of perpetual praise.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_10" id="Footnote_J_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_J_10"><span class="label">[J]</span></a> "The fourth verse in its present form <i>must</i> have been +written after the temple was built."—"The Psalms chronologically +arranged," p. 68—following Ewald, in whose imperious +criticism that same naked "must have been," works +wonders.</p></div> + +<p>If, then, we are not obliged by the words in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +question to adopt the later date, there is much +in the psalm which strikingly corresponds with +the earlier, and throws beautiful illustration on +the psalmist's mood at this period. One +such allusion we venture to suppose in the +words (ver. 2),</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"When the wicked came against me to devour my flesh,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">My enemies and my foes,—they stumbled and fell;"</span></p> + +<p>which have been usually taken as a mere general +expression, without any allusion to a specific +event. But there was one incident in David's +life which had been forced upon his remembrance +by his recent peril at Gath—his duel with +Goliath, which exactly meets the very peculiar +language here. The psalm employs the same +word as the narrative, which tells how the +Philistine "arose, and came, and drew near to +David." The braggart boast, "I will give thy +flesh unto the fowls of the air and the beasts of +the fields," is echoed in the singular phrase of +the psalm; and the emphatic, rapid picture, +"they stumbled and fell," is at once a reminiscence +of the hour when the stone crashed +through the thick forehead, "and he fell upon +his face to the earth;" and also a reference to +an earlier triumph in Israel's history, celebrated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +with fierce exultation in the wild chant whom +rolls the words like a sweet morsel under the +tongue, as it tells of Sisera—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">Between her feet he bowed, he fell;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">Where he bowed, there he fell down dead."</span></p> + +<p>Another autobiographical reference in the +psalm has been disputed on insufficient grounds:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"For my father and my mother forsake me,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">And Jehovah takes me up." (Ver. 10.)</span></p> + +<p>It is, at all events, a remarkable coincidence +that the only mention of his parents after the +earliest chapters of his life falls in precisely with +this period of the history, and is such as might +have suggested these words. We read (1 Sam. +xxii. 3, 4) that he once ventured all the way +from Adullam to Moab to beg an asylum from +Saul's indiscriminate fury for his father and +mother, who were no doubt too old to share his +perils, as the rest of his family did. Having +prepared a kindly welcome for them, perhaps on +the strength of the blood of Ruth the Moabitess +in Jesse's veins, he returned to Bethlehem, +brought the old couple away, and guarded them +safely to their refuge. It is surely most natural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +to suppose that the psalm is the lyrical echo of +that event, and most pathetic to conceive of the +psalmist as thinking of the happy home at +Bethlehem now deserted, his brothers lurking +with him among the rocks, and his parents +exiles in heathen lands. Tears fill his eyes, but +he lifts them to a Father that is never parted +from him, and feels that he is no more orphaned +nor homeless.</p> + +<p>The psalm is remarkable for the abrupt +transition of feeling which cleaves it into two +parts; one (vers. 1-6) full of jubilant hope and +enthusiastic faith, the other (vers. 7-14) a lowly +cry for help. There is no need to suppose, with +some critics, that we have here two independent +hymns bound together in error. He must have +little knowledge of the fluctuations of the devout +life who is surprised to find so swift a +passage from confidence to conscious weakness. +Whilst the usual order in the psalms, as the +usual order in good men's experience, is that +prayer for deliverance precedes praise and +triumph, true communion with God is bound +to no mechanical order, and may begin with +gazing on God, and realizing the mysteries of +beauty in His secret place, ere it drops to earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +The lark sings as it descends from the "privacy +of glorious light" to its nest in the stony furrows +as sweetly, though more plaintively, than whilst +it circles upwards to the sky. It is perhaps a +nobler effect of faith to begin with God and hymn +the victory as if already won, than to begin with +trouble and to call for deliverance. But with +whichever we commence, the prayer of earth must +include both; and so long as we are weak, and +God our strength, its elements must be "supplication +and thanksgiving." The prayer of our +psalm bends round again to its beginning, and +after the plaintive cry for help breaks once more +into confidence (vers. 13, 14). The psalmist +shudders as he thinks what ruin would have befallen +him if he had not trusted in God, and leaves +the unfinished sentence,—as a man looking +down into some fearful gulf starts back and +covers his eyes, before he has well seen the bottom +of the abyss.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"If I had not believed to see the goodness of the Lord</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:10.5em;">in the land of the living!"</span></p> + +<p>Then rejoicing to remember how even by his +feeble trust he has been saved, he stirs up himself +to a firmer faith, in words which are them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>selves +an exercise of faith, as well as an incitement +to it:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Wait on Jehovah!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">Courage! and let thy heart be strong!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">Yea! wait on Jehovah!"</span></p> + +<p>Here is the true highest type of a troubled soul's +fellowship with God, when the black fear and +consciousness of weakness is inclosed in a golden +ring of happy trust. Let the name of our God +be first upon our lips, and the call to our wayward +hearts to wait on Him be last, and then we +may between think of our loneliness, and feebleness, +and foes, and fears, without losing our hold +of our Father's hand.</p> + +<p>David in his rocky eyrie was joyful, because +he began with God. It was a man in real peril +who said, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, +whom shall I fear?" It was at a critical +pause in his fortunes, when he knew not yet +whether Saul's malice was implacable, that he +said, "Though war should rise against me, in +this will I be confident." It was in thankfulness +for the safe hiding-place among the dark +caverns of the hills that he celebrated the +dwelling of the soul in God with words coloured +by his circumstances, "In the secret of His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me +up upon a rock." It was with Philistia at his +feet before and Saul's kingdom in arms behind +that his triumphant confidence was sure that +"Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine +enemies round about me." It was in weakness, +not expelled even by such joyous faith, that he +plaintively besought God's mercy, and laid +before His mercy-seat as the mightiest plea His +own inviting words, "Seek ye My face," and His +servant's humble response, "Thy face, Lord, +will I seek." Together, these made it impossible +that that Face, the beams of which are +light and salvation, should be averted. God's +past comes to his lips as a plea for a present +consistent with it and with His own mighty +name. "Thou hast been my help; leave me +not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation." +His loneliness, his ignorance of his road, +and the enemies who watch him, and, like a +later Saul, "breathe out cruelty" (see Acts ix. 1), +become to him in his believing petitions, not +grounds of fear, but arguments with God; and +having thus mastered all that was distressful in +his lot, by making it all the basis of his cry for +help, he rises again to hope, and stirs up him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>self +to lay hold on God, to be strong and bold, +because his expectation is from Him. A noble +picture of a steadfast soul; steadfast not because +of absence of fears and reasons for fear, but +because of presence of God and faith in Him.</p> + +<p>Having abandoned Adullam, by the advice of +the prophet Gad, who from this time appears to +have been a companion till the end of his reign +(2 Sam. xxiv. 11), and who subsequently became +his biographer (1 Chron. xxix. 29), he +took refuge, as outlaws have ever been wont +to do, in the woods. In his forest retreat, somewhere +among the now treeless hills of Judah, he +heard of a plundering raid made by the Philistines +on one of the unhappy border towns. +The marauders had broken in upon the mirth +of the threshing-floors with the shout of battle, +and swept away the year's harvest. The +banished man resolved to strike a blow at +the ancestral foes. Perhaps one reason may +have been the wish to show that, outlaw as he +was, he, and not the morbid laggard at Gibeah, +who was only stirred to action by mad jealousy, +was the sword of Israel. The little band bursts +from the hills on the spoil-encumbered Philistines, +recaptures the cattle which like moss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +troopers they were driving homewards from the +ruined farmsteads, and routs them with great +slaughter. But the cowardly townspeople of +Keilah had less gratitude than fear; and the +king's banished son-in-law was too dangerous +a guest, even though he was of their own tribe, +and had delivered them from the enemy. Saul, +who had not stirred from his moody seclusion +to beat back invasion, summoned a hasty +muster, in the hope of catching David in the +little city, like a fox in his earth: and the +cowardly citizens meditated saving their homes +by surrendering their champion. David and +his six hundred saved themselves by a rapid +flight, and, as it would appear, by breaking up +into detachments. "They went whithersoever +they could go" (1 Sam. xxiii. 13); whilst David, +with some handful, made his way to the inhospitable +wilderness which stretches from the hills +of Judah to the shores of the Dead Sea, and +skulked there in "lurking places" among the +crags and tangled underwood. With fierce perseverance +"Saul sought him every day, but +God delivered him not into his hand." One +breath of love, fragrant and strength-giving, was +wafted to his fainting heart, when Jonathan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +found his way where Saul could not come, and +the two friends met once more. In the woodland +solitudes they plighted their faith again, +and the beautiful unselfishness of Jonathan is +wonderfully set forth in his words, "Thou shalt +be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto +thee;" while an awful glimpse is given into +that mystery of a godless will consciously +resisting the inevitable, when there is added, +"and that also Saul, my father, knoweth." In +such resistance the king's son has no part, for it +is pointedly noticed that he returned to his +house. Treachery, and that from the men of +his own tribe, again dogs David's steps. The +people of Ziph, a small place on the edge of +the southern desert, betray his haunt to Saul. +The king receives the intelligence with a burst +of thanks, in which furious jealousy and perverted +religion, and a sense of utter loneliness +and misery, and a strange self-pity, are mingled +most pathetically and terribly: "Blessed be ye +of the Lord, for ye have compassion on me!" +He sends them away to mark down his prey; +and when they have tracked him to his lair, he +follows with his force and posts them round the +hill where David and his handful lurk. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +little band try to escape, but they are surrounded +and apparently lost. At the very moment +when the trap is just going to close, a sudden +messenger, "fiery red with haste," rushes into +Saul's army with news of a formidable invasion: +"Haste thee and come; for the Philistines have +spread themselves upon the land!" So the +eager hand, ready to smite and crush, is plucked +back; and the hour of deepest distress is the +hour of deliverance.</p> + +<p>At some period in this lowest ebb of David's +fortunes, we have one short psalm, very simple +and sad (liv.) It bears the title, "When the +Ziphims came and said to Saul, Doth not David +hide himself with us?" and may probably be +referred to the former of the two betrayals by +the men of Ziph. The very extremity of peril +has made the psalmist still and quiet. The sore +need has shortened his prayer. He is too sure +that God hears to use many words; for it is +distrust, not faith, which makes us besiege His +throne with much speaking. He is confident as +ever; but one feels that there is a certain self-restraint +and air of depression over the brief +petitions, which indicate the depth of his distress +and the uneasiness of protracted anxiety. Two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +notes only sound from his harp: one a plaintive +cry for help; the other, thanksgiving for deliverance +as already achieved. The two are bound +together by the recurrence in each of "the name" +of <span class="smcap">God</span>, which is at once the source of his salvation +and the theme of his praise. We have +only to read the lowly petitions to feel that +they speak of a spirit somewhat weighed down +by danger, and relaxed from the loftier mood of +triumphant trust.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">(1) O God, by Thy name save me,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.35em;">And in Thy strength do judgment for me</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">(2) O God, hear my prayer,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.35em;">Give ear to the words of my mouth.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">(3) For strangers are risen against me,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.3em;">And tyrants seek my life.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.35em;">They set not God before them.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The enemies are called "strangers;" but, as +we have seen in the first of these songs of the +exile, it is not necessary, therefore, to suppose +that they were not Israelites. The Ziphites +were men of Judah like himself; and there is +bitter emphasis as well as a gleam of insight +into the spiritual character of the true Israel in +calling them foreigners. The other name, oppressors, +or violent men, or, as we have rendered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +it, tyrants, corresponds too accurately with the +character of Saul in his later years, to leave +much doubt that it is pointed at him. If so, +the softening of the harsh description by the use +of the plural is in beautiful accordance with the +forgiving leniency which runs through all David's +conduct to him. Hard words about Saul himself +do not occur in the psalms. His counsellors, +his spies, the liars who calumniated David to +him, and for their own ends played upon his +suspicious nature,—the tools who took care that +the cruel designs suggested by themselves should +be carried out, kindle David's wrath, but it +scarcely ever lights on the unhappy monarch +whom he loved with all-enduring charity while +he lived, and mourned with magnificent eulogy +when he died. The allusion is made all the more +probable, because of the verbal correspondence +with the narrative which records that "Saul was +come out to seek his life" (1 Sam. xxiii. 15.)</p> + +<p>A chord or two from the harp permits the +mind to dwell on the thought of the foes, and +prepares for the second part of this psalm. In +it thanksgiving and confidence flow from the +petitions of the former portion. But the praise +is not so jubilant, nor the trust so victorious,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +as we have seen them. "The peace of God" +has come in answer to prayer, but it is somewhat +subdued:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Behold, God is my helper;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.35em;">The Lord is the supporter of my life."</span></p> + +<p>The foes sought his life, but, as the historical +book gives the antithesis, "Saul sought him +every day, but God delivered him not into his +hand." The rendering of the English version, +"The Lord is with them that uphold my soul," +is literally accurate, but does not convey the +meaning of the Hebrew idiom. God is not +regarded as one among many helpers, but as +alone the supporter or upholder of his life. +Believing that, the psalmist, of course, believes +as a consequence that his enemies will be +smitten with evil for their evil. The prophetic +lip of faith calls things that are not as though +they were. In the midst of his dangers he looks +forward to songs of deliverance and glad sacrifices +of praise; and the psalm closes with words +that approach the more fervid utterances we +have already heard, as if his song had raised his +own spirit above its fears:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(6) With willinghood will I sacrifice unto Thee.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.55em;">I will praise Thy name for it is good.</span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(7) For from all distress it has delivered me.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">And on my enemies will mine eye see (my desire)</span></p> + +<p>The name—the revealed character of God—was +the storehouse of all the saving energies to +which he appealed in verse 1. It is the theme +of his praise when the deliverance shall have +come. It is almost regarded here as equivalent +to the Divine personality—it is good, <i>it</i> has +delivered him. Thus, we may say that this +brief psalm gives us as the single thought of a +devout soul in trouble, the name of the Lord, +and teaches by its simple pathos how the contemplation +of God as He has made Himself +known, should underlie every cry for help and +crown every thanksgiving; whilst it may assure +us that whosoever seeks for the salvation of that +mighty name may, even in the midst of trouble, +rejoice as in an accomplished deliverance. And +all such thoughts should be held with a faith at +least as firm as the ancient psalmist's, by us to +whom the "name" of the Lord is "declared" +by Him who is the full revelation of God, and +the storehouse of all blessings and help to his +"brethren." (Heb. ii. 12.)</p> + +<p>A little plain of some mile or so in breadth +slopes gently down towards the Dead Sea about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +the centre of its western shore. It is girdled +round by savage cliffs, which, on the northern +side, jut out in a bold headland to the water's +edge. At either extremity is a stream flowing +down a deep glen choked with luxurious vegetation; +great fig-trees, canes, and maiden-hair +ferns covering the rocks. High up on the hills +forming its western boundary a fountain sparkles +into light, and falls to the flat below in long +slender threads. Some grey weathered stones +mark the site of a city that was old when +Abraham wandered in the land. Traces of the +palm forests which, as its name indicates, were +cleared for its site (Hazezon Tamar, The palm-tree +clearing) have been found, encrusted with +limestone, in the warm, damp gullies, and ruined +terraces for vineyards can be traced on the bare +hill-sides. But the fertility of David's time is +gone, and the precious streams nourish only a +jungle haunted by leopard and ibex. This is +the fountain and plain of Engedi (the fount of +the wild goat), a spot which wants but industry +and care to make it a little paradise. Here +David fled from the neighbouring wilderness, +attracted no doubt by the safety of the deep +gorges and rugged hills, as well as by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +abundance of water in the fountain and the +streams. The picturesque and touching episode +of his meeting with Saul has made the place +for ever memorable. There are many excavations +in the rocks about the fountain, which may +have been the cave—black as night to one looking +inward with eyes fresh from the blinding +glare of sunlight upon limestone, but holding a +glimmering twilight to one looking outwards with +eyes accustomed to the gloom—in the innermost +recesses of which David lay hid while Saul tarried +in its mouth. The narrative gives a graphic +picture of the hurried colloquy among the little +band, when summary revenge was thus unexpectedly +put within their grasp. The fierce retainers +whispered their suggestion that it would +be "tempting providence" to let such an opportunity +escape; but the nobler nature of David +knows no personal animosity, and in these +earliest days is flecked by no cruelty nor lust of +blood. He cannot, however, resist the temptation +of showing his power and almost parading +his forbearance by stealing through the darkness +and cutting away the end of Saul's long +robe. It was little compared with what he +could as easily have done—smite him to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +heart as he crouched there defenceless. But it +was a coarse practical jest, conveying a rude insult, +and the quickly returning nobleness of his +nature made him ashamed of it, as soon as he +had clambered back with his trophy. He felt +that the sanctity of Saul's office as the anointed +of the Lord should have saved him from the +gibe. The king goes his way all unawares, and, +as it would seem, had not regained his men, +when David, leaving his band (very much out of +temper no doubt at his foolish nicety), yields to +a gush of ancient friendship and calls loudly +after him, risking discovery and capture in his +generous emotion. The pathetic conversation +which ensued is eminently characteristic of +both men, so tragically connected and born to +work woe to one another. David's remonstrance +(1 Sam. xxiv. 9-15) is full of nobleness, of +wounded affection surviving still, of conscious +rectitude, of solemn devout appeal to the judgment +of God. He has no words of reproach +for Saul, no weak upbraidings, no sullen anger, +no repaying hate with hate. He almost pleads +with the unhappy king, and yet there is nothing +undignified or feeble in his tone. The whole is +full of correspondences, often of verbal identity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +with the psalms which we assign to this period. +The calumnies which he so often complains of +in these are the subject of his first words to +Saul, whom he regards as having had his heart +poisoned by lies: "Wherefore hearest thou +men's words, saying, Behold! David seeketh +thy hurt." He asserts absolute innocence of +anything that warranted the king's hostility, +just as he does so decisively in the psalms. +"There is neither evil nor transgression in my +hand, and I have not sinned against thee." As +in them he so often compares himself to some +wild creature pursued like the goats in the cliffs +of Engedi, so he tells Saul, "Thou huntest my +life to take it." And his appeal from earth's +slanders, and misconceptions, and cruelties, to +the perfect tribunal of God, is couched in language, +every clause of which may be found in +his psalms. "The Lord, therefore, be judge, +and judge between me and thee, and see, and +plead my cause, and deliver me out of thy +hand."</p> + +<p>The unhappy Saul again breaks into a passion +of tears. With that sudden flashing out into +vehement emotion so characteristic of him, and +so significant of his enfeebled self-control, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +recognises David's generous forbearance and its +contrast to his own conduct. For a moment, at +all events, he sees, as by a lightning flash, the +mad hopelessness of the black road he is treading +in resisting the decree that has made his +rival king—and he binds him by an oath to +spare his house when he sits on the throne. The +picture moves awful thoughts and gentle pity +for the poor scathed soul writhing in its hopelessness +and dwelling in a great solitude of fear, +but out of which stray gleams of ancient nobleness +still break;—and so the doomed man goes +back to his gloomy seclusion at Gibeah, and +David to the free life of the mountains and the +wilderness.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="EXILE_4" id="EXILE_4"></a>VII.—THE EXILE—<span class="smcap"><i>continued</i>.</span></h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> + +<p>There are many echoes of this period of +Engedi in the Psalms. Perhaps the most +distinctly audible of these are to be found in +the seventh psalm, which is all but universally +recognised as David's, even Ewald concurring +in the general consent. It is an irregular ode—for +such is the meaning of Shiggaion in the +title, and by its broken rhythms and abrupt +transitions testifies to the emotion of its author. +The occasion of it is said to be "the words of +Cush the Benjamite." As this is a peculiar +name for an Israelite, it has been supposed to +be an allegorical designation for some historical +person, expressive of his character. We might +render it "the negro." The Jewish commentators +have taken it to refer to Saul himself, +but the bitter tone of the psalm, so unlike +David's lingering forbearance to the man whom +he never ceased to love, is against that supposition. +Shimei the Benjamite, whose foul tongue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +cursed him in rabid rage, as he fled before +Absalom, has also been thought of, but the +points of correspondence with the earlier date +are too numerous to make that reference tenable. +It seems better to suppose that Cush "the +black" was one of Saul's tribe, who had been +conspicuous among the calumniators of whom +we have seen David complaining to the king. +And if so, there is no period in the Sauline persecution +into which the psalm will fit so naturally +as the present. Its main thoughts are precisely +those which he poured out so passionately in +his eager appeal when he and Saul stood face +to face on the solitary hill side. They are +couched in the higher strain of poetry indeed, +but that is the only difference; whilst there are +several verbal coincidences, and at least one +reference to the story, which seem to fix the +date with considerable certainty.</p> + +<p>In it we see the psalmist's soul surging with +the ground swell of strong emotion, which +breaks into successive waves of varied feeling—first +(vers. 1, 2) terror blended with trust, the +enemy pictured, as so frequently in these early +psalms, as a lion who tears the flesh and breaks +the bones of his prey—and the refuge in God<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +described by a graphic word very frequent also +in the cotemporaneous psalms (xi. 1; lvii. 1, etc.). +Then with a quick turn comes the passionate +protestation of his innocence, in hurried words, +broken by feeling, and indignantly turning +away from the slanders which he will not speak +of more definitely than calling them "this."</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(3) Jehovah, my God! if I have done this—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.35em;">If there be iniquity in my hands—</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(4) If I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.35em;">Yea, I delivered him that without cause is mine enemy—</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(5) May the enemy pursue my soul and capture it,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.35em;">And trample down to the earth my life,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.35em;">And my glory in the dust may he lay!</span></p> + +<p>How remarkably all this agrees with his +words to Saul, "There is neither evil nor transgression +in my hand, ... yet thou huntest +my soul to take it" (1 Sam. xxiv. 11); and how +forcible becomes the singular reiteration in the +narrative, of the phrase "my hand," which +occurs six times in four verses. The peculiarly +abrupt introduction in ver. 4 of the clause, "I +delivered him that without cause is mine enemy," +which completely dislocates the grammatical +structure, is best accounted for by supposing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +that David's mind is still full of the temptation +to stain his hands with Saul's blood, and is +vividly conscious of the effort which he had had +to make to overcome it. And the solemn +invocation of destruction which he dares to +address to Jehovah his God includes the familiar +figure of himself as a fugitive before the hunters, +which is found in the words already quoted, +and which here as there stands in immediate +connection with his assertion of clean hands.</p> + +<p>Then follows, with another abrupt turn, a +vehement cry to God to judge his cause; his +own individual case melts into the thought of a +world-wide judgment, which is painted with +grand power with three or four broad rapid +strokes.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(6) Awake for me—Thou hast commanded judgment.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(7) Let the assembly of the nations stand round Thee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.35em;">And above it return Thou up on high.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(8) Jehovah will judge the nations.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.35em;">Judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness and mine integrity in</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">me!</span></p> + +<p>Each smaller act of God's judgment is connected +with the final world-judgment, is a prophecy +of it, is one in principle therewith; and +He, who at the last will be known as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +universal Judge of all, certainly cannot leave +His servants' cause unredressed nor their cry +unheard till then. The psalmist is led by his +own history to realize more intensely that truth +of a Divine manifestation for judicial purposes +to the whole world, and his prophetic lip paints +its solemnities as the surest pledge of his own +deliverance. He sees the gathered nations +standing hushed before the Judge, and the +Victor God at the close of the solemn act +ascending up on high where He was before, +above the heads of the mighty crowd (Psalm +lxviii. 19). In the faith of this vision, and +because God will judge the nations, he invokes +for himself the anticipation of that final triumph +of good over evil, and asks to be dealt with +according to his righteousness. Nothing but +the most hopeless determination to find difficulties +could make a difficulty of such words. +David is not speaking of his whole character +or life, but of his conduct in one specific matter, +namely, in his relation to Saul. The righteous +integrity which he calls God to vindicate is +not general sinlessness nor inward conformity +with the law of God, but his blamelessness in +all his conduct to his gratuitous foe. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +prayer that God would judge him is distinctly +equivalent to his often repeated cry for deliverance, +which should, as by a Divine arbitration, +decide the debate between Saul and him. +The whole passage in the psalm, with all its +lyrical abruptness and lofty imagery, is the expression +of the very same thought which we +find so prominent in his words to Saul, already +quoted, concerning God's judging between them +and delivering David out of Saul's hand. The +parallel is instructive, not only as the prose +rendering of the poetry in the psalm, explaining +it beyond the possibility of misunderstanding, +but also as strongly confirmatory of the date +which we have assigned to the latter. It is so +improbable as to be almost inconceivable that +the abrupt disconnected themes of the psalm +should echo so precisely the <i>whole</i> of the arguments +used in the remonstrance of the historical +books, and should besides present verbal resemblances +and historical allusions to these, +unless it be of the same period, and therefore +an inlet into the mind of the fugitive as he +lurked among the rugged cliffs by "the fountain +of the wild goat."</p> + +<p>In that aspect the remainder of the psalm is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +very striking and significant. We have two +main thoughts in it—that of God as punishing +evil in this life, and that of the self-destruction +inherent in all sin; and these are expressed with +such extraordinary energy as to attest at once +the profound emotion of the psalmist, and his +familiarity with such ideas during his days of +persecution. It is noticeable, too, that the +language is carefully divested of all personal +reference; he has risen to the contemplation of +a great law of the Divine government, and at +that elevation the enemies whose calumnies and +cruelties had driven him to God fade into insignificance.</p> + +<p>With what magnificent boldness he paints +God the Judge arraying Himself in His armour +of destruction!</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(11) God is a righteous Judge,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">And a God (who is) angry every day.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(12) If he (<i>i.e.</i>, the evil-doer) turn not, He whets His sword,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">His bow He has bent, and made it ready.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(13) And for him He has prepared weapons of death,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">His arrows He has made blazing darts.</span></p> + +<p>Surely there is nothing grander in any poetry +than this tremendous image, smitten out with so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +few strokes of the chisel, and as true as it is +grand. The representation applies to the facts +of life, of which as directed by a present Providence, +and not of any future retribution, David +is here thinking. Among these facts is chastisement +falling upon obstinate antagonism to God. +Modern ways of thinking shrink from such representations; +but the whole history of the +world teems with confirmation of their truth—only +what David calls the flaming arrows of +God, men call "the natural consequences of +evil." The later revelation of God in Christ +brings into greater prominence the disciplinary +character of all punishment here, but bates no +jot of the intensity with which the earlier revelation +grasped the truth of God as a righteous +Judge in eternal opposition to, and aversion +from, evil.</p> + +<p>With that solemn picture flaming before his +inward eye, the prophet-psalmist turns to gaze +on the evil-doer who has to bear the brunt of +these weapons of light. Summoning us to look +with him by a "Behold!" he tells his fate in an +image of frequent occurrence in the psalms of +this period, and very natural in the lips of a +man wandering in the desert among wild<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +creatures, and stumbling sometimes into the +traps dug for them: "He has dug a hole and +hollowed it out, and he falls into the pitfall he +is making." The crumbling soil in which he +digs makes his footing on the edge more precarious +with every spadeful that he throws out, +and at last, while he is hard at work, in he +tumbles. It is the conviction spoken in the +proverbs of all nations, expressed here by David +in a figure drawn from life—the conviction that +all sin digs its own grave and is self-destructive. +The psalm does not proclaim the yet deeper +truth that this automatic action, by which sin +sets in motion its own punishment, has a disciplinary +purpose, so that the arrows of God +wound for healing, and His armour is really +girded on for, even while it seems to be against, +the sufferer. But it would not be difficult to +show that that truth underlies the whole Old +Testament doctrine of retribution, and is obvious +in many of David's psalms. In the present one +the deliverance of the hunted prey is contemplated +as the end of the baffled trapper's fall +into his own snare, and beyond that the +psalmist's thoughts do not travel. His own +safety, the certainty that his appeal to God's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +judgment will not be in vain, fill his mind; +and without following the fate of his enemy +further, he closes this song of tumultuous and +varied emotion with calm confidence and a vow +of thanksgiving for a deliverance which is already +as good as accomplished:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(17) I will give thanks to Jehovah according to His righteousness,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">And I will sing the name of Jehovah, Most High.</span></p> + +<p>We have still another psalm (lvii.) which is +perhaps best referred to this period. According +to the title, it belongs to the time when David +"fled from Saul in the cave." This may, of +course, apply to either Adullam or Engedi, and +there is nothing decisive to be alleged for +either; yet one or two resemblances to psalm +vii. incline the balance to the latter period.</p> + +<p>These resemblances are the designation of +his enemies as lions (vii. 2; lvii. 4); the image +of their falling into their own trap (vii. 15; lvii. +6); the use of the phrase "my honour" or +"glory" for "my soul" (vii. 5; lvii. 8—the same +word in the original); the name of God as +"Most High" (vii. 17; lvii. 2), an expression +which only occurs twice besides in the Davidic +psalms (ix. 2; xxi. 7); the parallelism in sense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +between the petition which forms the centre and +the close of the one, "Be Thou exalted, O God, +above the heavens" (lvii. 5, 11), and that which +is the most emphatic desire of the other, +"Arise, O Lord, awake, ... lift up Thyself for +me" (vii. 6). Another correspondence, not preserved +in our English version, is the employment +in both of a rare poetical word, which originally +means "to complete," and so comes naturally +to have the secondary significations of "to perfect" +and "to put an end to." The word in +question only occurs five times in the Old Testament, +and always in psalms. Four of these are +in hymns ascribed to David, of which two are +(lvii. 2), "The God that <i>performeth</i> all things +for me," and (vii. 9), "Let the wickedness of the +wicked <i>come to an end</i>." The use of the same +peculiar word in two such dissimilar connections +seems to show that it was, as we say, "running +in his head" at the time, and is, perhaps, a +stronger presumption of the cotemporaneousness +of both psalms than its employment in both +with the same application would have been.</p> + +<p>Characteristic of these early psalms is the occurrence +of a refrain (compare lvi. and lix.) +which in the present instance closes both of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +portions of which the hymn consists. The +former of these (1-5) breathes prayerful trust, +from which it passes to describe the encompassing +dangers; the second reverses this order, and +beginning with the dangers and distress, rises +to ringing gladness and triumph, as though the +victory were already won. The psalmist's confident +cleaving of soul to God is expressed (ver. +1) by an image that may be connected with his +circumstances at Engedi: "In Thee has my +soul taken refuge." The English version is +correct as regards the sense, though it obliterates +the beautiful metaphor by its rendering +"trusteth." The literal meaning of the verb is +"to flee to a refuge," and its employment here +may be due to the poetical play of the imagination, +which likens his secure retreat among the +everlasting hills to the safe hiding-place which +his spirit found in God his habitation. A +similar analogy appears in the earliest use of +the expression, which may have been floating +in the psalmist's memory, and which occurs in +the ancient song of Moses (Deut. xxxii.). The +scenery of the forty years' wanderings remarkably +colours that ode, and explains the frequent +recurrence in it of the name of God as "the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +Rock." We have false gods, too, spoken of in +it, as, "Their rock in whom they took refuge," +where the metaphor appears in its completeness +(ver. 37). Our psalm goes on with words which +contain a further allusion to another part of the +same venerable hymn, "And in the shadow of +Thy wings will I take refuge," which remind +us of the grand image in it of God's care over +Israel, as of the eagle bearing her eaglets on her +mighty pinions (ver. 11), and point onwards to +the still more wonderful saying in which all that +was terrible and stern in the older figure is +softened into tenderness, and instead of the +fierce affection of the mother eagle, the hen +gathering her chickens under her wings becomes +the type of the brooding love and more than +maternal solicitude of God in Christ. Nor can +we forget that the only other instance of the +figure before David's psalms is in the exquisite +idyl which tells of the sweet heroism of David's +ancestress, Ruth, on whose gentle and homeless +head was pronounced the benediction, "A full +reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, +under whose wings thou art come to trust" +(Ruth ii. 12). We may perhaps also see in this +clause an extension of the simile which unquestionably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +lies in the verb, and may think of the +strong "sides of the cave," arching above the +fugitive like a gigantic pair of wings beneath +which he nestles warm and dry, while the short-lived +storm roars among the rocks—a type of +that broad pinion which is his true defence till +threatening evils be overpast. In the past he +has sheltered his soul in God, but no past act of +faith can avail for present distresses. It must +be perpetually renewed. The past deliverances +should make the present confidence more easy; +and the true use of all earlier exercises of trust +is to prepare for the resolve that we will still +rely on the help we have so often proved. "I +have trusted in Thee" should ever be followed +by "And in the shadow of Thy wings will I +trust."</p> + +<p>The psalmist goes on to fulfil his resolve. +He takes refuge by prayer in God, whose absolute +elevation above all creatures and circumstances +is the ground of his hope, whose faithful +might will accomplish its design, and complete +His servant's lot. "I will call to God +Most High; to God who perfects (His purpose) +for me." And then assured hope gleams upon +his soul, and though the storm-clouds hang low<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +and black as ever, they are touched with light. +"He will send from heaven and save me." But +even while this happy certainty dawns upon +him, the contending fears, which ever lurk hard +by faith, reassert their power, and burst in, +breaking the flow of the sentence, which by its +harsh construction indicates the sudden irruption +of disturbing thoughts. "He that would +swallow me up reproaches (me)." With this +two-worded cry of pain—prolonged by the very +unusual occurrence, in the middle of a verse, of +the "Selah," which is probably a musical direction +for the accompaniment—a billow of terror +breaks over his soul; but its force is soon spent, +and the hope, above which for a moment it had +rolled, rises from the broken spray like some +pillared light round which the surges dash in +vain. "God shall send forth His mercy and +His truth"—those two white-robed messengers +who draw nigh to all who call on Him. Then +follows in broken words, the true rendering of +which is matter of considerable doubt, a renewed +picture of his danger:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8.5em;">(4) (With) my soul—among lions will I lie down.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">Devourers are the sons of men;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">Their teeth a spear and arrows,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">And their tongue a sharp sword</span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>The psalmist seems to have broken off the +construction, and instead of finishing the sentence +as he began it, to have substituted the +first person for the third, which ought to have +followed "my soul." This fragmentary construction +expresses agitation of spirit. It may +be a question whether the "lions" in the first +clause are to be regarded as a description of his +enemies, who are next spoken of without metaphor +as sons of men who devour (or who +"breathe out fire"), and whose words are cutting +and wounding as spear and sword. The analogy +of the other psalms of this period favours such +an understanding of the words. But, on the +other hand, the reference preferred by Delitzsch +and others gives great beauty. According to +that interpretation, the fugitive among the +savage cliffs prepares himself for his nightly +slumbers in calm confidence, and lays himself +down there in the cave, while the wild beasts, +whose haunt it may have been, prowl without, +feeling himself safer among them than among +the more ferocious "sons of men," whose hatred +has a sharper tooth than even theirs. And then +this portion of the psalm closes with the refrain, +"Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +let Thy glory be above all the earth." A +prayer that God would show forth His power, +and exalt His name by delivering His servant. +What lofty conviction that his cause was God's +cause, that the Divine honour was concerned in +his safety, that he was a chosen instrument to +make known God's praise over all the world!—and +what self-forgetfulness in that, even +whilst he prays for his own deliverance, he +thinks of it rather as the magnifying of God, +than as it affects himself personally!</p> + +<p>The second part continues the closing strain +of the former, and describes the plots of his foes +in the familiar metaphor of the pit, into which +they fall themselves. The contemplation of +this divine Nemesis on evil-doers leads up to +the grand burst of thanksgiving with which the +psalm closes—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(7) Fixed is my heart, O God! fixed my heart!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">I will sing and strike the harp.<a name="FNanchor_K_11" id="FNanchor_K_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_K_11" class="fnanchor">[K]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(8) Awake, my glory! awake psaltery and harp!<a name="FNanchor_L_12" id="FNanchor_L_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_L_12" class="fnanchor">[L]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">I will awake the dawn.</span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_K_11" id="Footnote_K_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_K_11"><span class="label">[K]</span></a> Properly, "sing with a musical accompaniment."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_L_12" id="Footnote_L_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_L_12"><span class="label">[L]</span></a> Two kinds of stringed instrument, the difference between +which is very obscure.</p></div> + +<p>If the former part may be regarded as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +evening song of confidence, this is the morning +hymn of thankfulness. He lay down in peace +among lions; he awakes to praise. He calls upon +his soul to shake off slumber; he invokes the +chords of his harp to arouse from its chamber +the sleeping dawn. Like a mightier than himself, +he will rise a great while before day, and +the clear notes of the rude lyre, his companion +in all his wanderings, will summon the morning +to add its silent speech to His praise. But a +still loftier thought inspires him. This hunted +solitary not only knows that his deliverance is +certain, but he has already the consciousness of +a world-wide vocation, and anticipates that the +story of his sorrow and his trust, with the music +of his psalms, belong to the world, and will flow +over the barriers of his own generation and of +his own land into the whole earth—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">(9) I will praise Thee among the peoples, O Lord,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">I will strike the harp to Thee among the nations.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(10) For great unto the heavens is Thy mercy,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">And to the clouds Thy truth.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>These two mighty messengers of God, whose +coming he was sure of (ver. 3), will show themselves +in his deliverance, boundless and filling +all the creation. They shall be the theme of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +world-wide praise. And then with the repetition +of the refrain the psalm comes round again +to supplication, and dies into silent waiting +before God till He shall be pleased to answer. +Thus triumphant were the hopes of the lonely +fugitive skulking in the wilderness; such bright +visions peopled the waste places, and made the +desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose.</p> + +<p>The cxlii. is also, according to the title, one +of the cave-psalms. But considerable doubt +attaches to the whole group of so-called Davidic +compositions in the last book of the psalter +(p. 138-144), from their place, and from the fact +that there are just seven of them, as well as in +some cases from their style and character. +They are more probably later hymns in David's +manner. The one in question corresponds in +tone with the psalms which we have been considering. +It breathes the same profound consciousness +of desolation and loneliness: "My +spirit is darkened within me;" "Refuge fails +me, no man cares for my soul." It glows with +the same ardour of personal trust in and love to +God which spring from his very loneliness and +helplessness: "I cry unto Thee, O Jehovah! I +say Thou art my refuge and my portion in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +land of the living." It triumphs with the same +confidence, and with the same conviction that +his deliverance concerns all the righteous: +"They shall <i>crown themselves in me</i>, for Thou +hast dealt bountifully with me;" for such would +appear to be the true meaning of the word +rendered in our version "compass me about;" +the idea being that the mercy of God to the +psalmist would become a source of festal gladness +to all His servants, who would bind the +story of God's bounty to him upon their brows +like a coronal for a banquet.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="EXILE_5" id="EXILE_5"></a>VIII.—THE EXILE—<span class="smcap"><i>continued</i>.</span></h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> + +<p>As our purpose in this volume is not a complete +biography, it will not be necessary +to dwell on the subsequent portions of the exile, +inasmuch as there is little reference to these in +the psalms. We must pass over even that exquisite +episode of Abigail, whose graceful +presence and "most subtle flow of silver-paced +counsel" soothed David's ruffled spirit, and led +him captive at once as in a silken leash. The +glimpse of old-world ways in the story, the +rough mirth of the shearers, the hint of the kind +of black mail by which David's little force was +provided, the snarling humour and garrulous +crustiness of Nabal, David's fierce blaze of hot +wrath, the tribute of the shepherds to the kindliness +and honour of the outlaws, the rustic +procession, with the gracious lady last of all, the +stately courtesy of the meeting, her calm wise +words—not flattery, yet full of predictions of +prosperity most pleasant to hear from such lips;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +not rebuke, yet setting in the strongest light +how unworthy of God's anointed personal vengeance +was; not servile, but yet recognising in +delicate touches his absolute power over her; +not abject, and yet full of supplication,—the +quick response of David's frank nature and +susceptible heart, which sweeps away all his +wrath; the budding germ of love, which makes +him break into benedictions on her and her +wisdom, and thankfulness that he had been kept +back from "hurting <i>thee</i>," and the dramatic +close in their happy union,—all make up one of +the most charming of the many wonderful idyls of +Scripture, all fragrant with the breath of love, +and fresh with undying youth. The story lives—alas! +how much longer do words endure than +the poor earthly affections which they record!</p> + +<p>After a second betrayal by the men of Ziph, +and a second meeting with Saul—their last—in +which the doomed man parts from him with +blessing and predictions of victory on his unwilling +lips, David seems to have been driven to +desperation by his endless skulking in dens and +caves, and to have seen no hope of continuing +much longer to maintain himself on the frontier +and to elude Saul's vigilance. Possibly others<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +than Nabal grudged to pay him for the volunteer +police which he kept up on behalf of the pastoral +districts exposed to the wild desert tribes. At +all events he once more made a plunge into +Philistine territory, and offers himself and his +men to the service of the King of Gath. On the +offer being accepted, the little town of Ziklag +was allotted to them, and became their home +for a year and four months.</p> + +<p>To this period of comparative security one +psalm has been supposed to belong—the xxxi., +which, in tone and in certain expressions, corresponds +very well with the circumstances. There +are many similarities in it with the others of the +same period which we have already considered—such, +for instance, as the figure of God his rock +(ver. 3), the net which his enemies have laid for +him (ver. 4), the allusions to their calumnies and +slanders (vers. 13, 18), his safe concealment in +God (ver. 20: compare xxvii. 5; lvii. 1; xvii. 8, +etc.), and the close verbal resemblance of ver. 24 +with the closing words of psalm xxvii. The +reference, however, which has been taken as +pointing to David's position in Ziklag is that +contained in the somewhat remarkable words +(ver. 21): "Blessed be the Lord, for He hath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +showed me His marvellous loving-kindness in a +strong city." Of course, the expression may be +purely a graphic figure for the walls and +defences of the Divine protection, as, indeed, it +is usually understood to be. But the general +idea of the encompassing shelter of God has just +been set forth in the magnificent imagery of the +previous verse as the tabernacle, the secret of +His presence in which He hides and guards His +servants. And the further language of the +phrase in question, introduced as it is by a +rapturous burst of blessing and praise, seems so +emphatic and peculiar as to make not unnatural +the supposition of a historical basis in some +event which had recently happened to the +psalmist.</p> + +<p>No period of the life will so well correspond +to such a requirement as the sixteen months of +his stay in Ziklag, during which he was completely +free from fear of Saul, and stood high in +favour with the King of Gath, in whose territory +he had found a refuge. We may well believe +that to the hunted exile, so long accustomed to +a life of constant alarms and hurried flight, the +quiet of a settled home was very sweet, and +that behind the rude fortifications of the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +town in the southern wilderness there seemed +security, which made a wonderful contrast to +their defenceless lairs and lurking-places among +the rocks. Their eyes would lose their watchful +restlessness, and it would be possible to lay aside +their weapons, to gather their households about +them, and, though they were in a foreign land, +still to feel something of the bliss of peaceful +habitudes and tranquil use and wont healing +their broken lives. No wonder, then, that such +thankful praise should break from the leader's +lips! No wonder that he should regard this +abode in a fortified city as the result of a miracle +of Divine mercy! He describes the tremulous +despondency which had preceded this marvel of +loving-kindness in language which at once +recalls the wave of hopelessness which swept +across his soul after his final interview with +Saul, and which led to his flight into Philistine +territory, "And David said in his heart, I shall +now perish one day by the hand of Saul" +(1 Sam. xxvii. 1). How completely this corresponds +with the psalm, allowance being made +for the difference between poetry and prose, +when he describes the thoughts which had +shaded his soul just before the happy peace of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +the strong city—"I said in my haste,<a name="FNanchor_M_13" id="FNanchor_M_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_M_13" class="fnanchor">[M]</a> I am cut +off from before Thine eyes; nevertheless Thou +heardest the voice of my supplication" (ver. 22). +And rising, as was ever his manner, from his +own individual experience to the great truths +concerning God's care of His children, the +discovery of which was to him even more precious +than his personal safety, he breaks forth +in jubilant invocation, which, as always, is +full of his consciousness that his life and his +story belong to the whole household of God—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(23) O love Jehovah, all ye beloved of Him!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">The faithful doth Jehovah preserve,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">And plentifully repayeth the proud-doer.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(24) Courage! and let your heart be strong,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.85em;">All ye that wait for Jehovah!</span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_M_13" id="Footnote_M_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_M_13"><span class="label">[M]</span></a> Confusion (Perowne), distrust (Delitzsch), anguish (Ewald), +trepidation (Calvin). The word literally means to sway backwards +and forwards, and hence to be agitated by any emotion, +principally by fear; and then, perhaps, to flee in terror.</p></div> + +<p>The glow of personal attachment to Jehovah +which kindles in the trustful words is eminently +characteristic. It anticipates the final teaching +of the New Testament in bringing all the relations +between God and the devout soul down to +the one bond of love. "We love Him because +He first loved us," says John. And David has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +the same discernment that the basis of all must +be the outgoing of love from the heart of God, +and that the only response which that seeking +love requires is the awaking of the echo of its +own Divine voice in our hearts. Love begets +love; love seeks love; love rests in love. Our +faith <i>corresponds</i> to His faithfulness, our obedience +to His command, our reverence to His +majesty; but our love <i>resembles</i> His, from which +it draws its life. So the one exhortation is +"love the Lord," and the ground of it lies in +that name—"His beloved"—those to whom He +shows His loving-kindness (ver. 21).</p> + +<p>The closing words remind us of the last verse +of psalm xxvii. They are distinctly quoted +from it, with the variation that there the heartening +to courage was addressed to his own soul, +and here to "all who wait on the Lord." The +resemblance confirms the reference of both +psalms to the same epoch, while the difference +suits the change in his circumstances from a +period of comparative danger, such as his stay +at Adullam, to one of greater security, like his +residence in Ziklag. The same persons who +were called to love the Lord because they were +participant of His loving-kindness, are now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +called to courage and manly firmness of soul +because their hope is fixed on Jehovah. The +progress of thought is significant and obvious. +Love to God, resting on consciousness of His +love to us, is the true armour. "There is no +fear in love." The heart filled with it is strong +to resist the pressure of outward disasters, while +the empty heart is crushed like a deserted hulk +by the grinding collision of the icebergs that +drift rudderless on the wild wintry sea of life. +Love, too, is the condition of hope. The +patience and expectation of the latter must +come from the present fruition of the sweetness +of the former. Of these fair sisters, Love is the +elder as the greater; it is she who bears in +her hands the rich metal from which Hope +forges her anchor, and the strong cords that +hold it; her experience supplies all the colours +with which her sister paints the dim distance; +and she it is who makes the other bold to be +sure of the future, and clear-sighted to see the +things that are not as though they were. To +love the Lord is the path, and the only path, to +hoping in the Lord. So had the psalmist found +it for himself. In his changeful, perilous years +of exile he had learned that the brightness with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +which hope glowed on his lonely path depended +not on the accident of greater or less external +security, but on the energy of the clear flame of +love in his heart. Not in vain had his trials +been to him, which cast that rich treasure to his +feet from their stormy waves. Not in vain will +ours be to us, if we learn the lesson which he +here would divide with all those "that wait on +the Lord."</p> + +<p>Our limits prevent the further examination of +the remaining psalms of this period. It is the +less necessary, inasmuch as those which have +been already considered fairly represent the +whole. The xi., xiii., xvii., xxii., xxv., and lxiv. +may, with varying probability, be considered +as belonging to the Sauline persecution. To +this list some critics would add the xl. and lxix., +but on very uncertain grounds. But if we exclude +them, the others have a strong family +likeness, not only with each other, but with +those which have been presented to the reader. +The imagery of the wilderness, which has become +so familiar to us, continually reappears; +the prowling wild beasts, the nets and snares, +the hunted psalmist like a timid bird among the +hills; the protestation of innocence, the passion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>ate +invocation of retribution on the wicked, the +confidence that their own devices will come +down on their heads, the intense yearning of +soul after God—are all repeated in these psalms. +Single metaphors and peculiar phrases which +we have already met with recur—as, for instance, +"the shadow of Thy wings" (xvii. 8, lvii. 1), +and the singular phrase rendered in our version, +"show Thy marvellous loving-kindness" (xvii. +7, xxxi. 21), which is found only here. In one +of these psalms (xxxv. 13) there seems to be a +reference to his earliest days at the court, and +to the depth of loving sympathy with Saul's +darkened spirit, which he learned to cherish, as +he stood before him to soothe him with the +ordered harmonies of harp and voice. The +words are so definite that they appear to refer +to some historic occasion:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">And as for me—in their sickness my clothing was sackcloth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">With fasting I humbled my soul,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">And my prayer into my own bosom returned.</span></p> + +<p>So truly did he feel for him who is now his foe. +The outward marks of mourning became the +natural expression of his feelings. Such is +plainly the meaning of the two former clauses,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +as well as of the following verse. As the whole +is a description of the outward signs of grief, it +seems better to understand the last of these +three clauses as a picture of the bent head +sunk on the bosom even while he prayed,<a name="FNanchor_N_14" id="FNanchor_N_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_N_14" class="fnanchor">[N]</a> than +to break the connection by referring it either to +the requital of hate for his sympathy,<a name="FNanchor_O_15" id="FNanchor_O_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_O_15" class="fnanchor">[O]</a> or to the +purity of his prayer, which was such that he +could desire nothing more for himself.<a name="FNanchor_P_16" id="FNanchor_P_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_P_16" class="fnanchor">[P]</a> He +goes on with the enumeration of the signs of +sorrow: "As if (he had been) a friend, a brother +to me, I went,"—walking slowly, like a man +absorbed in sorrow: "as one who laments a +mother, in mourning garments I bowed down,"—walking +with a weary, heavy stoop, like one +crushed by a mother's death, with the garb of +woe. Thus faithfully had he loved, and truly +wept for the noble ruined soul which, blinded +by passion and poisoned by lies, had turned to +be his enemy. And that same love clung by +him to the last, as it ever does with great and +good men, who learn of God to suffer long +and be kind, to bear all things, and hope all +things.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_N_14" id="Footnote_N_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_N_14"><span class="label">[N]</span></a> So Ewald and Delitzsch.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_O_15" id="Footnote_O_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_O_15"><span class="label">[O]</span></a> Hupfeld.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_P_16" id="Footnote_P_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_P_16"><span class="label">[P]</span></a> Perowne.</p></div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> + +<p>Of these psalms the xxii. is remarkable. In +it David's personal experience seems to afford +only the starting-point for a purely Messianic +prophecy, which embraces many particulars +that far transcend anything recorded of his +sorrows. The impossibility of finding occurrences +in his life corresponding to such traits as +tortured limbs and burning thirst, pierced hands +and parted garments, has driven some critics to +the hypothesis that we have here a psalm of the +exile describing either actual sufferings inflicted +on some unknown confessor in Babylon, or in +figurative language the calamities of Israel there. +But the Davidic origin is confirmed by many +obvious points of resemblance with the psalms +which are indisputably his, and especially +with those of the Sauline period, while the +difficulty of finding historical facts answering to +the emphatic language is evaded, not met, by +either assuming that such facts existed in some +life which has left no trace, or by forcing a +metaphorical sense on words which sound +wonderfully like the sad language of a real +sufferer. Of course, if we believe that prediction +is an absurdity, any difficulty will be lighter +than the acknowledgment that we have pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>diction +here. But, unless we have a foregone +conclusion of that sort to blind us, we shall see +in this psalm a clear example of the prophecy +of a suffering Messiah. In most of the other +psalms where David speaks of his sorrows we +have only a typical foreshadowing of Christ. +But in this, and in such others as lxix. and cix. +(if these are David's), we have type changing +into prophecy, and the person of the psalmist +fading away before the image which, by occasion +of his own griefs, rose vast, and solemn, and +distant before his prophet gaze,—the image of +One who should be perfectly all which he was +in partial measure, the anointed of God, the +utterer of His name to His brethren, the King +of Israel,—and whose path to His dominion +should be thickly strewn with solitary sorrow, +and reproach, and agony, to whose far more exceeding +weight of woe all his affliction was light +as a feather, and transitory as a moment. And +when the psalmist had learned that lesson, +besides all the others of trust and patience which +his wanderings taught him, his schooling was +nearly over, he was almost ready for a new +discipline; and the slowly-evolving revelation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +of God's purposes, which by his sorrows had +unfolded more distinctly than before "the +sufferings of the Messiah," was ripening for the +unveiling, in his Kinghood, of "the glory that +should follow."<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="KING_1" id="KING_1"></a>IX.—THE KING.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> + +<p>We have now to turn and see the sudden +change of fortune which lifted the +exile to a throne. The heavy cloud which had +brooded so long over the doomed king broke +in lightning crash on the disastrous field of +Gilboa. Where is there a sadder and more +solemn story of the fate of a soul which makes +shipwreck "of faith and of a good conscience," +than that awful page which tells how, godless, +wretched, mad with despair and measureless +pride, he flung himself on his bloody sword, +and died a suicide's death, with sons and armour-bearer +and all his men, a ghastly court of +corpses, laid round him? He had once been +brave, modest, and kind, full of noble purposes +and generous affections—and he ended so. +Into what doleful regions of hate and darkness +may self-will drag a soul, when once the reins +fall loose from a slackened hand! And what +a pathetic beam of struggling light gleams<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +through heavy clouds, in the grateful exploit +of the men of Jabesh, who remembered how he +had once saved them, while yet he could care +and dare for his kingdom, and perilled their +lives to bear the poor headless corpse to its rude +resting-place!</p> + +<p>The news is received by the fugitive at Ziklag +in striking and characteristic fashion. He first +flames out in fierce wrath upon the lying +Amalekite, who had hurried with the tidings +and sought favour by falsely representing that +he had killed the king on the field. A short +shrift and a bloody end were his. And then +the wrath melts into mourning. Forgetting the +mad hatred and wild struggles of that poor +soul, and his own wrongs, remembering only +the friendship and nobleness of his earlier days, +he casts over the mangled corpses of Saul and +Jonathan the mantle of his sweet elegy, and +bathes them with the healing waters of his +unstinted praise and undying love. Not till +these two offices of justice and affection had +been performed, does he remember himself and +the change in his own position which had been +effected. He had never thought of Saul as +standing between him and the kingdom; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +first feeling on his death was not, as it would +have been with a less devout and less generous +heart, a flush of gladness at the thought of the +empty throne, but a sharp pang of pain from +the sense of an empty heart. And even when +he begins to look forward to his own new +course, there is that same remarkable passiveness +which we have observed already. His +first step is to "inquire of the Lord, saying, +Shall I go up to any of the cities of Judah?" +(2 Sam. ii. 1). He will do nothing in this crisis +of his fortunes, when all which had been so long +a hope seemed to be rapidly becoming a fact, +until his Shepherd shall lead him. Rapid and +impetuous as he was by nature, schooled to +swift decisions, followed by still swifter action, +knowing that a blow struck at once, while all +was chaos and despair at home, might set him +on the throne, he holds nature and policy and +the impatience of his people in check to hear +what God will say. So fully did he fulfil the +vow of his early psalm, "My strength! upon +thee will I wait" (lix. 9).</p> + +<p>We can fancy the glad march to the ancient +Hebron, where the great fathers of the nation +lay in their rock-hewn tombs. Even before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +death of Saul, David's strength had been +rapidly increasing, by a constant stream of +fugitives from the confusion and misery into +which the kingdom had fallen. Even Benjamin, +Saul's own tribe, sent him some of its famous +archers—a sinister omen of the king's waning +fortunes; the hardy half-independent men of +Manasseh and Gad, from the pastoral uplands +on the east of Jordan, "whose faces," according +to the vivid description of the chronicler (1 +Chron. xii. 8), "were like the faces of lions, and +were as swift as roes upon the mountains," +sought his standard; and from his own kinsmen +of Judah recruits "day by day came to +David to help him, until it was a great host +like the host of God." With such forces, it +would have been child's play to have subdued +any scattered troops of the former dynasty +which might still have been in a condition to +keep the field. But he made no attempt of the +sort; and even when he came to Hebron he +took no measures to advance any claims to the +crown. The language of the history seems +rather to imply a disbanding of his army, or at +least their settling down to domestic life in the +villages round Hebron, without a thought of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +winning the kingdom by arms. And his elevation +to the partial monarchy which he at first +possessed was the spontaneous act of "the men +of Judah," who come to him and anoint him +king over Judah.</p> + +<p>The limits of his territory are substantially +those of the kingdom over which his descendants +ruled after Jeroboam's revolt, thus indicating +the existence of a natural "line of cleavage" +between north and south. The geographical +position of Benjamin finally attached it to the +latter monarchy; but for the present, the wish +to retain the supremacy which it had had while +the king was one of the tribe, made it the +nucleus of a feeble and lingering opposition to +David, headed by Saul's cousin Abner, and +rallying round his incompetent son Ishbosheth.<a name="FNanchor_Q_17" id="FNanchor_Q_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_Q_17" class="fnanchor">[Q]</a> +The chronology of this period is obscure. +David reigned in Hebron seven years and a +half, and as Ishbosheth's phantom sovereignty +only occupied two of these years, and those +evidently the last, it would appear almost as if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +the Philistines had held the country, with the +exception of Judah, in such force that no rival +cared to claim the dangerous dignity, and that +five years passed before the invaders were so +far cleared out as to leave leisure for civil war.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_Q_17" id="Footnote_Q_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_Q_17"><span class="label">[Q]</span></a> The Canaanitish worship of Baal seems to have lingered +in Saul's family. One of his grand-uncles was named Baal +(1 Chron. ix. 36); his son was really called Eshbaal (Fire of +Baal), which was contemptuously converted into Ishbosheth +(Man of Shame). So also Mephibosheth was properly Meribbaal +(Fighter for Baal).</p></div> + +<p>The summary narrative of these seven years +presents the still youthful king in a very lovable +light. The same temper which had marked +his first acts after Saul's death is strikingly +brought out (2 Sam. ii.-iv.) He seems to +have left the conduct of the war altogether to +Joab, as if he shrank from striking a single +blow for his own advancement. When he does +interfere, it is on the side of peace, to curb +and chastise ferocious vengeance and dastardly +assassination. The incidents recorded +all go to make up a picture of rare generosity, +of patient waiting for God to fulfil His purposes, +of longing that the miserable strife between the +tribes of God's inheritance should end. He +sends grateful messages to Jabesh-Gilead; he +will not begin the conflict with the insurgents. +The only actual fight recorded is provoked by +Abner, and managed with unwonted mildness +by Joab. The list of his children born in +Hebron is inserted in the very heart of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +story of the insurrection, a token of the quiet +domestic life of peaceful joys and cares which +he lived while the storm was raging without. +Eagerly, and without suspicion, he welcomes +Abner's advances towards reconciliation. He +falls for a moment to the level of his times, and +yields to a strong temptation, in making the +restoration of his long-lost wife Michal the +condition of further negotiations—a demand +which was strictly just, no doubt, but for which +little more can be said. The generosity of his +nature and the ideal purity of his love, which +that incident shadows, shine out again in his +indignation at Joab's murder of Abner, though +he was too meek to avenge it. There is no +more beautiful picture in his life than that of his +following the bier where lay the bloody corpse +of the man who had been his enemy ever since +he had known him, and sealing the reconciliation +which Death ever makes in noble souls, by the +pathetic dirge he chanted over Abner's grave. +We have a glimpse of his people's unbounded +confidence in him, given incidentally when we +are told that his sorrow pleased them, "as whatsoever +the king did pleased all the people." +We have a glimpse of the feebleness of his new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +monarchy as against the fierce soldier who had +done so much to make it, in his acknowledgment +that he was yet weak, being but recently +anointed king, and that these vehement sons of +Zeruiah were too strong for him; and we have +a remarkable trace of connection with the +psalms, in the closing words with which he invokes +on Joab the vengeance which he as yet +felt himself unable to execute: "The Lord shall +reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness."</p> + +<p>The only other incident recorded of his reign +in Hebron is his execution of summary justice +upon the murderers of the poor puppet-king +Ishbosheth, upon whose death, following so +closely that of Abner, the whole resistance to +David's power collapses. There had never been +any real popular opposition. His enemies are +emphatically named as "the house of Saul," +and we find Abner himself admitting that "the +elders of Israel" wanted David as king (2 Sam. +iii. 17), so that when he was gone, it is two +Benjamites who give the <i>coup-de-grâce</i> to Ishbosheth, +and end the whole shadowy rival +power. Immediately the rulers of all the tribes +come up to Hebron, with the tender of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +crown. They offer it on the triple grounds of +kinship, of his military service even in Saul's +reign, and of the Divine promise of the throne. +A solemn pact was made, and David was +anointed in Hebron, a king by Divine right, but +also a constitutional monarch chosen by popular +election, and limited in his powers.</p> + +<p>The first result of his new strength is the +capture of the old hill-fortress of the Jebusites, +the city of Melchizedek, which had frowned +down upon Israel unsubdued till now, and +whose inhabitants trusted so absolutely in its +natural strength that their answer to the demand +for surrender was the jeer, "Thou wilt not come +hither, but the blind and lame will drive thee +away." This time David does not leave the +war to others. For the first time for seven +years we read, "<i>The king</i> and his men went to +Jerusalem." Established there as his capital, +he reigns for some ten years with unbroken +prosperity over a loyal and loving people, +with this for the summary of the whole +period, "David went on and grew great, and +the Lord God of Hosts was with him" (2 Sam. +v. 10). These years are marked by three principal +events—the bringing up of the ark to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +city of David, the promise by Nathan of the +perpetual dominion of his house, and the unbroken +flow of victories over the surrounding +nations. These are the salient points of the +narrative in the Book of Samuel (2 Sam. v.-viii.), +and are all abundantly illustrated by the +psalms. We shall have next then to consider +"The Songs of the King."</p> + +<p>How did the fugitive bear his sudden change +of fortune? What were his thoughts when at +last the dignity which he had ever expected and +never sought was his? The answer is ready to +our hand in that grand psalm (Ps. xviii.) which +he "spake in the day that the Lord delivered +him from all his enemies, and from the hand of +Saul." The language of this superscription +seems to connect the psalm with the period of +internal and external repose which preceded +and prompted David's "purpose to build an +house for the Lord" (2 Sam. vii.) The same +thankfulness which glows so brightly in the +psalm stimulated that desire, and the emphatic +reference to the mercy promised by God to "his +seed for evermore," which closes the hymn, +points perhaps to the definite promise of the +perpetuity of the kingdom to his descendants,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +which was God's answer to the same desire. +But whether the psalm belongs to the years of +the partial sovereignty at Hebron, or to those +of the complete dominion at Jerusalem, it cannot +be later than the second of these two dates; +and whatever may have been the time of its +composition, the feelings which it expresses are +those of the first freshness of thankful praise +when he was firmly settled in the kingdom. +Some critics would throw it onwards to the very +close of his life. But this has little in its favour +beyond the fact that the author of the Book of +Samuel has placed his version of the psalm +among the records of David's last days. There +is, however, nothing to show that that position +is due to chronological considerations. The +victories over heathen nations which are supposed +to be referred to in the psalm, and are +relied on by the advocates of later date, really +point to the earlier, which was the time of his +most brilliant conquests. And the marked +assertions of his own purity, as well as the +triumphant tone of the whole, neither of which +characteristics corresponds to the sad and shaded +years after his great fall, point in the same +direction. On the whole, then, we may fairly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +take this psalm as belonging to the bright beginning +of the monarchy, and as showing us +how well the king remembered the vows which +the exile had mingled with his tears.</p> + +<p>It is one long outpouring of rapturous thankfulness +and triumphant adoration, which streams +from a full heart in buoyant waves of song. +Nowhere else, even in the psalms—and if not +there, certainly nowhere else—is there such a +continuous tide of unmingled praise, such magnificence +of imagery, such passion of love to the +delivering God, such joyous energy of conquering +trust. It throbs throughout with the life +blood of devotion. The strong flame, white +with its very ardour, quivers with its own intensity +as it steadily rises heavenward. All the +terrors, and pains, and dangers of the weary +years—the black fuel for the ruddy glow—melt +into warmth too great for smoke, too equable +to blaze. The plaintive notes that had so often +wailed from his harp, sad as if the night wind +had been wandering among its chords, have all +led up to this rushing burst of full-toned gladness. +The very blessedness of heaven is anticipated, +when sorrows gone by are understood +and seen in their connection with the joy to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +which they have led, and are felt to be the +theme for deepest thankfulness. Thank God +that, for the consolation of the whole world, we +have this hymn of praise from the same lips +which said, "My life is spent with grief, and +my years with sighing." "We have seen the +end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful +and of tender mercy." The tremulous minors +of trustful sorrow shall swell into rapturous +praise; and he who, compassed with foes, cries +upon God, will, here or yonder, sing this song +"unto the Lord, in the day that the Lord +delivers him from the hand of all his enemies."<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="KING_2" id="KING_2"></a>X.—THE KING—<i><span class="smcap">continued</span></i>.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> + +<p>In our last chapter we have seen that the key-note +of "The Songs of the King" may be +said to be struck in Psalm xviii. Its complete +analysis would carry us far beyond our limits. +We can but glance at some of the more prominent +points of the psalm.</p> + +<p>The first clause strikes the key-note. "I love +Thee, O Jehovah, my strength." That personal +attachment to God, which is so characteristic of +David's religion, can no longer be pent up in +silence, but gushes forth like some imprisoned +stream, broad and full even from its well-head. +The common word for "love" is too weak for +him, and he bends to his use another, never +elsewhere employed to express man's emotions +towards God, the intensity of which is but +feebly expressed by some such periphrasis as, +"From my heart do I love Thee." The same +exalted feeling is wonderfully set forth by the +loving accumulation of Divine names which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +follow, as if he would heap together in one +great pile all the rich experiences of that God, +unnamed after all names, which he had garnered +up in his distresses and deliverances. They tell +so much as the poor vehicle of words can tell, +what his Shepherd in the heavens had been to +him. They are the treasures which he has +brought back from his exile; and they most +pathetically point to the songs of that time. +He had called on God by these names when +it was hard to believe in their reality, and now +he repeats them all in his glad hour of fruition, +for token that they who in their extremity trust +in the name of the Lord will one day have the +truth of faith transformed into truth of experience. +"Jehovah, my rock and my fortress," +reminds us of his cry in Ziklag, "Thou art my +rock and my fortress" (xxxi. 3), and of the +"hold" (the same word) of Adullam in which +he had lain secure. "My deliverer" echoes +many a sigh in the past, now changed into +music of praise. "My rock" (a different word +from that in a preceding clause), "in whom I +take refuge," recalls the prayer, "Be Thou my +rock of strength" (xxxi. 2), and his former +effort of confidence, when, in the midst of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +calamities, he said, "My soul takes refuge in +Thee" (lvii. 1.) "My shield" carries us back +to the ancient promise, fresh after so many +centuries, and fulfilled anew in every age, "Fear +not, Abram, I am thy shield," and to his own +trustful words at a time when trust was difficult, +"My shield is upon God" (vii. 10). "My high +tower," the last of this glowing series, links on +to the hope breathed in the first song of his +exile, "God is my defence" (the same expression); +"Thou hast been my defence in the day +of trouble" (lix. 9, 16). And then he sums up +his whole past in one general sentence, which +tells his habitual resource in his troubles, and +the blessed help which he has ever found, "I +call on Jehovah, who is worthy to be praised;<a name="FNanchor_R_18" id="FNanchor_R_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_R_18" class="fnanchor">[R]</a> +and from my enemies am I saved" (verse 3).</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_R_18" id="Footnote_R_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_R_18"><span class="label">[R]</span></a> The old English word "the worshipful" comes near the +form and meaning of the phrase.</p></div> + +<p>No comment can heighten, and no translation +can adequately represent, while none can +altogether destroy the unapproachable magnificence +of the description which follows, of the +majestic coming forth of God in answer to his +cry. It stands at the very highest point, even +when compared with the other sublime passages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +of a like kind in Scripture. How pathetically +he paints his sore need in metaphors which +again bring to mind the songs of the outlaw:—</p> + +<p style="margin-left:8em;">The snares of death compassed me,<br /> +And floods of destruction made me afraid;<br /> +The snares of Sheol surrounded me,<br /> +The toils of death surprised me.</p> + +<p>As he so often likened himself to some wild +creature in the nets, so here Death, the hunter, +has cast his fatal cords about him, and they are +ready suddenly to close on the unsuspecting +prey. Or, varying the image, he is sinking in +black waters, which are designated by a difficult +phrase (literally, "streams of Belial," or worthlessness), +which is most probably rendered as +above (so Ewald, Hupfeld). In this dire extremity +one thing alone is left him. He is +snared, but he has his voice free to cry with, +and a God to cry to. He is all but sinking, +but he can still shriek (so one of the words +might be rendered) "like some strong swimmer +in his agony." And it is enough. That one +loud call for help rises, like some slender pillar +of incense-smoke, straight into the palace +temple of God—and, as he says, with a meaning +which our version obscures, "My cry before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +Him came into His ears." The prayer that +springs from a living consciousness of being +in God's presence, even when nearest to perishing, +is the prayer that He hears. The cry is +a poor, thin, solitary voice, unheard on earth, +though shrill enough to rise to heaven; the +answer shakes creation. One man in his extremity +can put in motion all the magnificence +of God. Overwhelming is the contrast between +the cause and the effect. And marvellous as +the greatness, so also is the swiftness of the +answer. A moment suffices—and then! Even +whilst he cries, the rocking earth and the +quivering foundations of the hills are conscious +that the Lord comes from afar for his help. +The majestic self-revelation of God as the +deliverer has for its occasion the psalmist's +cry of distress, and for its issue, "He drew me +out of many waters." All the splendour flames +out because a poor man prays, and all the +upheaval of earth and the artillery of heaven +has simply this for its end, that a poor man +may be delivered. The paradox of prayer +never found a more bold expression than in +this triumphant utterance, of the insignificant +occasion for, and the equally insignificant result<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +sought by, the exercise of the energy of +Omnipotence.</p> + +<p>The Divine deliverance is set forth under +the familiar image of the coming of God in a +tempest. Before it bursts, and simultaneous +with the prayer, the "earth rocks and quivers," +the sunless "pillars of the hills reel and rock +to and fro," as if conscious of the gathering +wrath which begins to flame far off in the +highest heavens. There has been no forth-putting +yet of the Divine power. It is but +accumulating its fiery energy, and already the +solid framework of the world trembles, anticipating +the coming crash. The firmest things +shake, the loftiest bow before His wrath. +"There went up smoke out of his nostrils, and +fire out of his mouth devoured; coals were +kindled by it." This kindling anger, expressed +by these tremendous metaphors, is conceived +of as the preparation in "His temple" for the +earthly manifestation of delivering vengeance. +It is like some distant thunder-cloud which +grows on the horizon into ominous blackness, +and seems to be filling its ashen-coloured depths +with store of lightnings. Then the piled-up +terror begins to move, and, drawing nearer,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +pours out an avalanche of gloom seamed with +fire. First the storm-cloud descends, hanging +lower and lower in the sky. And whose foot +is that which is planted upon its heavy mass, +thick and frowning enough to be the veil of +God?</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"He bowed the heavens, and came down,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And blackness of cloud was under His feet."</span></p> + +<p>Then the sudden rush of wind which heralds +the lightning breaks the awful silence:—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">Yea, He swept along upon the wings of the wind.</span></p> + +<p>The cherubs bear, as in a chariot, the throned +God, and the swift pinions of the storm bear +the cherubs. But He that sits upon the throne, +above material forces and the highest creatures, +is unseen. The psalmist's imagination stops at +its base, nor dares to gaze into that light above; +and the silence is more impressive than all +words. Instead of pagan attempts at a likeness +of God, we have next painted, with equal descriptive +accuracy, poetic force, and theological +truth, the pitchy blackness which hides Him. In +the gloom of its depths He makes His "secret +place" His "tent." It is "darkness of waters," +that is, darkness from which streams out the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +thunder-rain; it is "thick clouds of the skies;" +or perhaps the expression should be rendered, +"heavy masses of clouds." Then comes the +crash of the tempest. The brightness that lies +closer around Him, and lives in the heart of the +blackness, flames forth, parting the thick clouds—and +through the awful rent hail and coals of +fire are flung down on the trembling earth. +The grand description may be rendered in two +ways: either that adopted in our version, "At +the brightness that was before Him His thick +clouds passed—hailstones and coals of fire;" +or, "Through His thick clouds there passed +hailstones and coals of fire." The former of +these is the more dramatic; the broken construction +expresses more vividly the fierce suddenness +of the lightning blaze and of the down-rush +of the hail, and is confirmed by the repetition +of the same words in the same construction +in the next verse. That verse describes another +burst of the tempest—the deep roll of the +thunder along the skies is the voice of Jehovah, +and again the lightning tears through the +clouds, and the hail streams down. With what +profound truth all this destructive power is +represented as coming from the brightness of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +God—that "glory" which in its own nature is +light, but in its contact with finite and sinful +creatures must needs become darkness, rent +asunder by lightning! What lessons as to the +root and the essential nature of all punitive acts +of God cluster round such words! and how +calm and blessed the faith which can pierce +even the thickest mass "that veileth Love!"—to +see the light at the centre, even though the +circumference be brooding thunder-clouds torn +by sudden fires. Then comes the purpose of +all this apocalypse of Divine magnificence. The +fiery arrows scatter the psalmist's enemies. The +waters in which he had well nigh drowned are +dried up before the hot breath of His anger. +"That dread voice" speaks "which shrinks +their streams." And amid the blaze of tempest, +the rocking earth, and the failing floods, His +arm is thrust forth from above, and draws His +servant from many waters. As one in later +times, "he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he +cried, saying, Lord, save me; and immediately +He stretched forth His hand and caught him."</p> + +<p>A calmer tone follows, as the psalmist recounts +without metaphor his deliverance, and +reiterates the same assertion of his innocence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +which we have already found so frequently in +the previous psalms (vers. 17-24). Rising from +his personal experience to the broad and lofty +thoughts of God which that experience had +taught him, as it does all who prize life chiefly +as a means of knowing Him, he proclaims the +solemn truth, that in the exercise of a righteous +retribution, and by the very necessity of our +moral nature, God appears to man what +man is to God: loving to the loving, upright +to the upright, pure to the pure, and +froward to the froward. Our thoughts of God +are shaped by our moral character; the capacity +of perceiving depends on sympathy. "Unless the +eye were light, how could it see the sun?" The +self-revelation of God in His providence, of +which only the psalm speaks, is modified according +to our moral character, being full of +love to those who love, being harsh and antagonistic +to those who set themselves in opposition +to it. There is a higher law of grace, +whereby the sinfulness of man but draws forth +the tenderness of a father's pardoning pity; +and the brightest revelation of His love is made +to froward prodigals. But that is not in the +psalmist's view here, nor does it interfere with +the law of retribution in its own sphere.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + +<p>The purely personal tone is again resumed, +and continued unbroken to the close. In the +former portion David was passive, except for +the voice of prayer, and God's arm alone was +his deliverance. In the latter half he is active, +the conquering king, whose arm is strengthened +for victory by God. This difference may possibly +suggest the reference of the former half to +the Sauline persecution, when, as we have seen, +the exile ever shrunk from avenging himself; +and of the latter to the early years of his +monarchy, which, as we shall see, were characterized +by much successful military activity; +and if so, the date of the psalm would most +naturally be taken to be the close of his victorious +campaigns, when "the Lord had given +him rest from all his enemies round about" (2 +Sam. vii. 1). Be that as it may, the latter portion +of the psalm shows us the soldier king +tracing all his past victories to God alone, and +building upon them the confidence of a world-wide +dominion. The point at which memory +passes into hope is difficult to determine, and +great variety of opinion prevails on the matter +among commentators. It is perhaps best to +follow many of the older versions, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +valuable exposition of Hupfeld, in regarding +the whole section from ver. 37 of our translation +as the expression of the trust which past experience +had wrought. We shall then have two +periods in the second half of the psalm—the +past victories won by God's help (vers. 31-36), +the coming triumphs of which these are the +pledge (vers. 37-end).</p> + +<p>In the former there shine out not only David's +habitual consciousness of dependence on and +aid from God, but also a very striking picture +of his physical qualifications for a military +leader. He is girded with bodily strength, +swift and sure of foot like a deer, able to scale +the crags where his foes fortified themselves +like the wild antelopes he had so often seen +bounding among the dizzy ledges of the cliffs +in the wilderness; his hands are trained for +war, and his sinewy arms can bend the great +bow of brass. But these capacities are gifts, +and not they, but their Giver, have made him +victorious. Looking back upon all his past, +this is its summing up:—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And Thy right hand hath holden me up,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And Thy lowliness hath made me great."</span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<p>God's strength, God's buckler, God's supporting +hand, God's condescension, by which He bows +down to look upon and help the feeble, with the +humble showing Himself humble—these have +been his weapons, and from these has come his +victory.</p> + +<p>And because of these, he looks forward to a +future like the past, but more glorious still, +thereby teaching us how the unchanging faithfulness +of our God should encourage us to take +all the blessings which we have received as but +the earnest of what is yet to come. He sees +himself pursuing his enemies, and smiting them +to the ground. The fierce light of battle blazes +through the rapid sentences which paint the panic +flight, and the swift pursuit, the vain shrieks to +man and God for succour, and the utter annihilation +of the foe:—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(42) "And I will pound them like dust before the wind,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10.25em;">Like street-filth will I empty them out."</span></p> + +<p>Then he gives utterance to the consciousness +that his kingdom is destined to extend far +beyond the limits of Israel, in words which, like +so many of the prophecies, may be translated in +the present tense, but are obviously future in +signification—the prophet placing himself in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +imagination in the midst of the time of which +he speaks:—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(43) "Thou deliverest me from the strivings of the people (<i>i.e.</i>, Israel),</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10.2em;">Thou makest me head of the heathen;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10.2em;">People whom I knew not serve me.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(44) At the hearing of the ear they obey me.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10.2em;">The sons of the stranger feign obedience to me.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(45) The sons of the stranger fade away,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10.2em;">They come trembling from their hiding-places."</span></p> + +<p>The rebellion which weakened his early reign +is subdued, and beyond the bounds of his own +people his dominion spreads. Strange tribes +submit to the very sound of his name, and +crouch before him in extorted and pretended +submission. The words are literally "lie unto +me," descriptive of the profuse professions of +loyalty characteristic of conquered orientals. +Their power withers before him like a gathered +flower before a hot wind, and the fugitives creep +trembling out of their holes where they have +hid themselves.</p> + +<p>Again he recurs to the one thought which +flows like a river of light through all the psalm—that +all his help is in God. The names which +he lovingly heaped together at the beginning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +are in part echoed in the close. "The Lord +liveth, and blessed is my rock, and the God of +my salvation is exalted." His deliverances +have taught him to know a living God, swift to +hear, active to help, in whom he lives, who has +magnified His own name in that He has saved +His servant. And as that blessed conviction is +the sum of all his experience, so one glad vow +expresses all his resolves, and thrills with the +expectation which he had cherished even in his +lonely exile, that the music of his psalm would +one day echo through all the world. With lofty +consciousness of his new dignity, and with lowly +sense that it is God's gift, he emphatically +names himself <i>His</i> king, <i>His</i> anointed, taking, +as it were, his crown from his brows and laying +it on the altar. With prophetic eye he looks +onward, and sees the throne to which he had +been led by a series of miracles enduring for +ever, and the mercy of God sustaining the +dominion of his house through all generations:—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">(49) "Therefore will I give thanks to Thee among the nations, O Jehovah,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10.25em;">And to Thy name will I strike the harp:</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left:8em;">(50) Who maketh great the deliverances of His king</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10.25em;">And executeth mercy for His anointed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10.25em;">For David and his seed for evermore."</span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<p>And what were his purposes for the future? +Here is his answer, in a psalm which has been +with considerable appropriateness regarded as a +kind of manifesto of the principles which he intended +should characterize his reign (Psa. ci.): +"I will walk within my house with a perfect +heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine +eyes." For himself, he begins his reign with +noble self-restraint, not meaning to make it a +region of indulgence, but feeling that there is a +law above his will, of which he is only the servant, +and knowing that if his people and his +public life are to be what they should be, his +own personal and domestic life must be pure. +As for his court and his ministers, he will make +a clean sweep of the vermin who swarm and +sting and buzz about a throne. The froward, +the wicked, privy slanderers, proud hearts, +crafty plotters, liars, and evil-doers he will not +suffer—but "mine eyes shall be upon the faithful +in the land; he that walketh in a perfect +way, he shall serve me." He is fired with +ambition, such as has brightened the beginning +of many a reign which has darkened to cruelty +and crime, to make his kingdom some faint +image of God's, and to bring the actual Israel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +into conformity with its ancient Magna Charta, +"Ye shall be to me a holy nation." And so, +not knowing perhaps how hard a task he +planned, and little dreaming of his own sore +fall, he grasps the sword, resolved to use it for +the terror of evil-doers, and vows, "I will early +destroy all the wicked in the land, that I may +cut off all wicked doers from the city of the +Lord." Such was his "proclamation against +vice and immorality" on his accession to his +throne.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="KING_3" id="KING_3"></a>XI.—THE KING—<i><span class="smcap">continued</span></i>.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> + +<p>The years thus well begun are, in the +historical books, characterized mainly by +three events, namely, the bringing up of the ark +to the newly won city of David, Nathan's +prophecy of the perpetual dominion of his house, +and his victories over the surrounding nations. +These three hinges of the narrative are all abundantly +illustrated in the psalms.</p> + +<p>As to the first, we have relics of the joyful +ceremonial connected with it in two psalms, the +fifteenth and twenty-fourth, which are singularly +alike not only in substance but in manner, both +being thrown into a highly dramatic form by +question and answer. This peculiarity, as we +shall see, is one of the links of connection which +unite them with the history as given in the Book +of Samuel (2 Sam. vi.). From that record we +learn that David's first thought after he was +firmly seated as king over all Israel, was the +enthronement in his recently-captured city of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +the long-forgotten ark. That venerable symbol +of the presence of the true King had passed +through many vicissitudes since the days when +it had been carried round the walls of Jericho. +Superstitiously borne into battle, as if it were a +mere magic palladium, by men whose hearts +were not right with God, the presence which +they had invoked became their ruin, and Israel +was shattered, and "the ark of God taken," on +the fatal field of Aphek. It had been carried in +triumph through Philistine cities, and sent back +in dismay. It had been welcomed with gladness +by the villagers of Bethshemesh, who lifted their +eyes from their harvest work, and saw it borne +up the glen from the Philistine plain. Their +rude curiosity was signally punished, "and the +men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand +before this holy Lord God, and to whom shall +He go up from us?" It had been removed to +the forest seclusion of Kirjath-jearim (the city +of the woods), and there bestowed in the house +of Abinadab "upon the hill," where it lay +neglected and forgotten for about seventy years. +During Saul's reign they "inquired not at it," +and, indeed, the whole worship of Jehovah seems +to have been decaying. David set himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +to reorganize the public service of God, arranged +a staff of priests and Levites, with disciplined +choir and orchestra (1 Chron. xv.), and then proceeded +with representatives of the whole nation +to bring up the ark from its woodland hiding-place. +But again death turned gladness into +dread, and Uzzah's fate silenced the joyous +songs, "and David was afraid of the Lord that +day, and said, How shall the ark of God come +unto me?" The dangerous honour fell on the +house of Obed-edom; and only after the blessing +which followed its three months' stay there, +did he venture to carry out his purpose. The +story of the actual removal of the ark to the city +of David with glad ceremonial need not be +repeated here; nor the mocking gibes of Michal +who had once loved him so fondly. Probably +she bitterly resented her violent separation from +the household joys that had grown up about her +in her second home; probably the woman who +had had teraphim among her furniture cared +nothing for the ark of God; probably, as she +grew older, her character had hardened in its +lines, and become like her father's in its measureless +pride, and in its half-dread, half-hatred +of David—and all these motives together pour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +their venom into her sarcasm. Taunts provoke +taunts; the husband feels that the wife is in +heart a partisan of the fallen house of her father, +and a despiser of the Lord and of His worship; +her words hiss with scorn, his flame with anger +and rebuke—and so these two that had been so +tender in the old days part for ever. The one +doubtful act that stained his accession was +quickly avenged. Better for both that she had +never been rent from that feeble, loving husband +that followed her weeping, and was driven back +by a single word, flung at him by Abner as +if he had been a dog at their heels! (2 Sam. +iii. 16).</p> + +<p>The gladness and triumph, the awe, and the +memories of victory which clustered round the +dread symbol of the presence of the Lord of +Hosts, are wonderfully expressed in the choral +twenty-fourth psalm. It is divided into two +portions, which Ewald regards as being originally +two independent compositions. They +are, however, obviously connected both in form +and substance. In each we have question and +answer, as in psalm xv., which belongs to the +same period. The first half replies to the +question, "Who shall ascend the hill of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +Lord, and who shall stand in His holy place?"—an +echo of the terror-struck exclamation of +the people of Bethshemesh, already quoted. +The answer is a description of the <i>men who +dwell with God</i>. The second half deals with +the correlative inquiry, "Who is the King of +Glory?" and describes the <i>God who comes to dwell +with men</i>. It corresponds in substance, though not +in form, with David's thought when Uzzah died, +in so far as it regards God as drawing near to +the worshippers, rather than the worshippers +drawing near to Him. Both portions are united +by a real internal connection, in that they set +forth the mutual approach of God and man +which leads to communion, and thus constitute +the two halves of an inseparable whole.</p> + +<p>Most expositors recognise a choral structure +in the psalm, as in several others of this date, as +would be natural at the time of the reorganization +of the public musical service. Probably we may +gain the key to its form by supposing it to be a +processional hymn, of which the first half was to +be sung during the ascent to the city of David, +and the second while standing before the gates. +We have then to fancy the long line of worshippers +climbing the rocky steep hill-side to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +ancient fortress so recently won, the Levites +bearing the ark, and the glad multitude streaming +along behind them.</p> + +<p>First there swells forth from all the singers +the triumphant proclamation of God's universal +sovereignty, "The earth is the Lord's and the +fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell +therein. For He hath founded it upon the seas +and established it upon the floods." It is very +noteworthy that such a thought should precede +the declaration of His special dwelling in Zion. +It guards that belief from the abuses to which it +was of course liable—the superstitions, the narrowness, +the contempt of all the rest of the +world as God-deserted, which are its perversion +in sensuous natures. If Israel came to fancy +that God belonged to them, and that there was +only one sacred place in all the world, it was not +for want of clear utterances to the contrary, +which became more emphatic with each fresh +step in the development of the specializing +system under which they lived. The very +ground of their peculiar relation to God had +been declared, in the hour of constituting it to +be—"all the earth is Mine" (Exod. xix. 5). So +now, when the symbol of His presence is to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +a local habitation in the centre of the national +life, the psalmist lays for the foundation of his +song the great truth, that the Divine presence is +concentrated in Israel, but not confined there, +and concentrated in order that it may be diffused. +The glory that lights the bare top of Zion lies +on all the hills; and He who dwells between +the cherubim dwells in all the world, which His +continual presence fills with its fulness, and +upholds above the floods.</p> + +<p>Then, as they climb, a single voice perhaps +chants the solemn question, "Who shall ascend +the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in the +place of His holiness?"</p> + +<p>And the full-toned answer portrays the men +who shall dwell with God, in words which begin +indeed with stringent demands for absolute +purity, but wonderfully change in tone as they +advance, into gracious assurances, and the +clearest vision that the moral nature which fits +for God's presence is God's gift. "The clean-handed, +and pure-hearted, who has not lifted up +his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully;" there is +the eternal law which nothing can ever alter, that +to abide with God a man must be like God—the +law of the new covenant as of the old, "Blessed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." +But this requirement, impossible of fulfilment, +is not all. If it were, the climbing procession +might stop. But up and up they rise, and +once again the song bursts forth in deeper and +more hopeful words, "He shall <i>receive</i> the +blessing from Jehovah, and righteousness from +the God of his salvation." Then that righteousness, +which he who honestly attempts to comply +with such requirements will soon find that he +does not possess, is to be received from above, +not elaborated from within; is a gift from God, +not a product of man's toils. God will make us +pure, that we may dwell with Him. Nor is this +all. The condition of receiving such a gift has +been already partially set forth in the preceding +clause, which seems to require righteousness to +be possessed as the preliminary to receiving it. +The paradox which thus results is inseparable +from the stage of religious knowledge attained +under the Mosaic Law. But the last words of +the answer go far beyond it, and proclaim the +special truth of the gospel, that the righteousness +which fits for dwelling with God is given on the +simple condition of <i>seeking</i> Him. To this designation +of the true worshippers is appended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +somewhat abruptly the one word "Jacob," which +need neither be rendered as in the English +version as an invocation, nor as in the margin, +with an unnecessary and improbable supplement, +"O God of Jacob;" but is best regarded as in +apposition with the other descriptive clauses, and +declaring, as we have found David doing already +in previous psalms, that the characters portrayed +in them, and these only, constituted the true +Israel.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">This is the generation of them that seek Him,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">That seek Thy face—(this is) Jacob.</span></p> + +<p>And so the first question is answered, "Who are +the men who dwell with God?"—The pure, +who receive righteousness, who seek Him, the +true Israel.</p> + +<p>And now the procession has reached the front +of the ancient city on the hill, and stands before +the very walls and weather-beaten gates which +Melchizedek may have passed through, and +which had been barred against Israel till David's +might had burst them. National triumph and +glad worship are wonderfully blended in the +summons which rings from the lips of the +Levites without: "Lift up your heads, O ye +gates! and be ye lift up, ye doors (that have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +been from) of old!" as if even their towering +portals were too low, "and the King of glory +shall come in." What force in that name here, +in this early song of the King! How clearly he +recognises his own derived power, and the real +Monarch of whom he is but the shadowy representative! +The newly-conquered city is summoned +to admit its true conqueror and sovereign, +whose throne is the ark, which was emphatically +named "the glory,"<a name="FNanchor_S_19" id="FNanchor_S_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_S_19" class="fnanchor">[S]</a> and in whose +train the earthly king follows as a subject and +a worshipper. Then, with wonderful dramatic +force, a single voice from within the barred +gates asks, like some suspicious warder, "Who +then is the King of glory?" With what a +shout of proud confidence and triumphant +memories of a hundred fields comes, ready and +full, the crash of many voices in the answer, +"Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty +in battle!" How vividly the reluctance of an +antagonistic world to yield to Israel and Israel's +King, is represented in the repetition of the +question in a form slightly more expressive of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +ignorance and doubt, in answer to the reiterated +summons, "Who is He, then, the King of glory?" +With what deepened intensity of triumph there +peals, hoarse and deep, the choral shout, "The +Lord of Hosts, He is the King of glory." That +name which sets Him forth as Sovereign of the +personal and impersonal forces of the universe—angels, +and stars, and terrene creatures, all +gathered in ordered ranks, embattled for His +service—was a comparatively new name in +Israel,<a name="FNanchor_T_20" id="FNanchor_T_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_T_20" class="fnanchor">[T]</a> and brought with it thoughts of irresistible +might in earth and heaven. It crashes +like a catapult against the ancient gates; and +at that proclamation of the omnipotent name of +the God who dwells with men, they grate back +on their brazen hinges, and the ark of the Lord +enters into its rest.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_S_19" id="Footnote_S_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_S_19"><span class="label">[S]</span></a> "And she named the child I-chabod (Where is the glory?) +saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of +God was taken."—1 <i>Sam.</i> iv. 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_T_20" id="Footnote_T_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_T_20"><span class="label">[T]</span></a> It has been asserted that this is the first introduction of the +name. ("Psalms Chronologically Arranged by Four Friends," +p. 14). But it occurs in Hannah's vow (1 Sam. i. 11); in +Samuel's words to Saul (xv. 2); in David's reply to Goliath +(xvii. 45). We have it also in Psalm lix. 5, which we regard as +his earliest during his exile. Do the authors referred to consider +these speeches in 1 Sam. as not authentic?</p></div><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="KING_4" id="KING_4"></a>XII.—THE KING—<i><span class="smcap">continued</span></i>.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> + +<p>The second event recorded as important in +the bright early years is the great promise +of the perpetuity of the kingdom in +David's house. As soon as the king was firmly +established and free from war, he remembered +the ancient word which said, "When He giveth +you rest from all your enemies round about, so +that ye dwell in safety, then there shall be a +place which the Lord your God shall choose +to cause His name to dwell there" (Deut. +xii. 10, 11). His own ease rebukes him; he +regards his tranquillity not as a season for +selfish indolence, but as a call to new forms +of service. He might well have found in the +many troubles and vicissitudes of his past life +an excuse for luxurious repose now. But +devout souls will consecrate their leisure as +their toil to God, and will serve Him with +thankful offerings in peace whom they invoked +with earnest cries in battle. Prosperity is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +harmless only when it is accepted as an opportunity +for fresh forms of devotion, not as an +occasion for idle self-indulgence. So we read, +with distinct verbal reference to the words +already quoted, that "when the Lord had given +him rest round about from all his enemies, +the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See +now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the +ark of God dwelleth in curtains." The impulse +of generous devotion, which cannot bear to +lavish more upon self than it gives to God, +at first commended itself to the prophet; but +in the solitude of his nightly thoughts the +higher wisdom speaks in his spirit, and the +word of God gives him a message for the king. +The narrative in 2 Sam. makes no mention of +David's warlike life as unfitting him for the +task, which we find from 2 Chron. was one +reason why his purpose was set aside, but +brings into prominence the thought that David's +generous impulse was outrunning God's commandment, +and that his ardour to serve was in +some danger of forgetting his entire dependence +on God, and of fancying that God would be the +better for him. So the prophetic message reminds +him that the Lord had never, through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +all the centuries, asked for a house of cedar, +and recalls the past life of David as having +been wholly shaped and blessed by Him, while +it pointedly inverts the king's proposal in its +own grand promise, "The Lord telleth thee +that He will make thee an house." Then +follows the prediction of a son of David who +should build the house, whose kingdom should +be perpetual, whose transgressions should be +corrected indeed, but never punished as those +of the unhappy Saul; and then, in emphatic +and unmistakable words, the perpetuity of +David's house, his kingdom, and his throne, +is reiterated as the close of the whole.</p> + +<p>The wonderful burst of praise which sprang +from David's heart in answer cannot be dealt +with here; but clearly from that time onwards +a new element had been added to his hopes, +and a new object presented to his faith. The +prophecy of the Messiah enters upon a new +stage, bearing a relation, as its successive stages, +always unmistakably did, to the history which +supplies a framework for it. Now for the first +time can he be set forth as the king of Israel; +now the width of the promise which at first +had embraced the seed of the woman, and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +had been narrowed to the seed of Abraham, +and thereafter probably to the tribe of Judah, +is still further defined as to be fulfilled in the +line of the house of David; now the personal +Messiah Himself begins to be discerned through +the words which are to have a preparatory +fulfilment, in itself prophetic, in the collective +Davidic monarchs whose very office is itself +also a prophecy.</p> + +<p>Many echoes of this new message ring through +the later psalms of the king. His own dominion, +his conquests, and his office, gradually became +to himself a solemn prophecy of a mysterious +descendant who should be really and fully all +that he was in shadow and in part. As the +experience of the exile, so that of the victorious +monarch supplied the colours with which the +spirit of prophecy in him painted "beforehand +the sufferings of Christ and the glory that +should follow." In both classes of psalms we +have two forms of the Messianic reference, the +typical and the purely prophetic. In the former +the events of David's own biography and the +feelings of his own soul are so portrayed and +expressed as to suggest his greater Son. In +the latter, the personality of the psalmist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +retreats into the background, and is at most +only the starting-point for wails of sorrow or +gleams of glory which far transcend anything +in the life of the singer. There are portions, +for instance, of the xxii. and lxix. psalms which +no torturing can force into correspondence with +any of David's trials; and in like manner there +are pæans of victory and predictions of dominion +which demand a grander interpretation than his +own royalty or his hopes for his house can yield. +Of course, if prophecy is impossible, there is no +more to be said, but that in that case a considerable +part of the Old Testament, including +many of David's psalms, is unintelligible.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the clearest instance of distinct prophecy +of the victorious dominion of the personal +Messiah is the 110th psalm. In it we do see, no +doubt, the influence of the psalmist's own history, +shaping the image which rises before his soul. +But the attributes of that king whom he +beholds are not his attributes, nor those of any +son of his who wore the crown in Israel. And +whilst his own history gives the form, it is "the +Spirit of Christ that was in" him which gives +the substance, and transfigures the earthly +monarchy into a heavenly dominion. We do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +not enter upon the question of the Davidic +authorship of this psalm. Here we have not to +depend upon Jewish superscriptions, but on the +words of Him whose bare assertion should be +"an end of all strife." Christ says that David +wrote it. Some of us are far enough behind the +age to believe that what He said He meant, and +that what He meant is truth.</p> + +<p>This psalm, then, being David's, can hardly +be earlier than the time of Nathan's prophecy. +There are traces in it of the influence of the history +of the psalmist, giving, as we have said, form to +the predictions. Perhaps we may see these in +Zion being named as the seat of Messiah's sovereignty +and in the reference to Melchizedek, +both of which points assume new force if we +suppose that the ancient city over which that +half-forgotten name once ruled had recently +become his own. Possibly, too, his joy in +exchanging his armour and kingly robe for the +priest's ephod, when he brought up the ark to +its rest, and his consciousness that in himself +the regal and the sacerdotal offices did not +blend, may have led him to meditations on the +meaning of both, on the miseries that seemed to +flow equally from their separation and from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +their union, which were the precursors of his +hearing the Divine oath that, in the far-off +future, they would be fused together in that +mighty figure who was to repeat in higher +fashion the union of functions which invested +that dim King of Righteousness and Priest of +God in the far-off past. He discerns that <i>his</i> +support from the right hand of God, <i>his</i> sceptre +which he swayed in Zion, <i>his</i> loyal people fused +together into a unity at last, <i>his</i> triumphant warfare +on the nations around, are all but faint +shadows of One who is to come. That solemn +form on the horizon of hope is his Lord, the +true King whose viceroy he was, the "bright +consummate flower" for the sake of which the +root has its being. And, as he sees the majestic +lineaments shimmering through the facts of his +own history, like some hidden fire toiling in a +narrow space ere it leaps into ruddy spires that +burst their bonds and flame heaven high, he is +borne onwards by the prophetic impulse, and +the Spirit of God speaks through his tongue +words which have no meaning unless their theme +be a Divine ruler and priest for all the world.</p> + +<p>He begins with the solemn words with which +a prophetic message is wont to be announced,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +thus at the outset stamping on the psalm its +true character. The "oracle" or "word of +Jehovah unto my Lord," which he heard, is a +new revelation made to him from the heavens. +He is taken up and listens to the Divine voice +calling to His right hand, to the most intimate +communion with Himself, and to wielding the +energies of omnipotence—Him whom David +knew to be his lord. And when that Divine +voice ceases, its mandate having been fulfilled, +the prophetic spirit in the seer hymns the coronation +anthem of the monarch enthroned by +the side of the majesty in the heavens. "The +sceptre of Thy strength will Jehovah send out +of Zion. Rule Thou in the midst of Thine +enemies." In singular juxtaposition are the +throne at God's right hand and the sceptre—the +emblem of sovereignty—issuing from +Zion, a dominion realised on earth by a monarch +in the heavens, a dominion the centre of which +is Zion, and the undefined extent universal. It +is a monarchy, too, established in the midst of +enemies, sustained in spite of antagonism not +only by the power of Jehovah, but by the +activity of the sovereign's own "rule." It is a +dominion for the maintenance of which devout<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +souls will burst into prayer, and the most +powerful can bring but their aspirations. But +the vision includes more than the warrior king +and his foes. Imbedded, as it were, in the very +heart of the description of the former comes the +portraiture of his subjects, for a witness how +close is the union between Him and them, and +how inseparable from His glories are those who +serve Him. They are characterised in a threefold +manner. "Thy people (shall be) willing in +the day of Thine array." The army is being +mustered.<a name="FNanchor_U_21" id="FNanchor_U_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_U_21" class="fnanchor">[U]</a> They are not mercenaries, nor +pressed men. They flock gladly to the standard, +like the warriors celebrated of old in +Deborah's chant of victory, who "willingly +offered themselves." The word of our psalm +might be translated "freewill offerings," and the +whole clause carries us into the very heart of +that great truth, that glad consecration and +grateful self-surrender is the one bond which +knits us to the Captain of our salvation who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +gave Himself for us, to the meek Monarch +whose crown is of thorns and His sceptre a reed, +for tokens that His dominion rests on suffering +and is wielded in gentleness. The next words +should be punctuated as a separate clause, co-ordinate +with the former, and adding another +feature to the description of the army. "In the +beauties of holiness" is a common name for the +dress of the priests: the idea conveyed is that +the army is an army of priests, as the king himself +is a priest. They are clothed, not in mail +and warlike attire, but in "fine linen clean and +white," like the armies which a later prophet +saw following the Lord of lords. Their warfare +is not to be by force and cruelty, nor their +conquests bloody; but while soldiers they are +to be priests, their weapons purity and devotion, +their merciful struggle to bring men to God, +and to mirror God to men. Round the one +image gather all ideas of discipline, courage, +consecration to a cause, loyalty to a leader; +round the other, all thoughts of gentleness, of +an atmosphere of devotion calm and still as the +holy place, of stainless character. Christ's servants +must be both soldiers and priests, like +some of those knightly orders who bore the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +cross on helmet and shield, and shaped the very +hilts of their swords into its likeness. And +these soldier-priests are described by yet +another image, "From the womb of the morning +thou hast the dew of thy youth," where we +are to regard the last word as used in a collective +sense, and equivalent to "Thy young +warriors." They are like the dew sparkling in +infinite globelets on every blade of grass, hanging +gems on every bit of dead wood, formed +in secret silence, reflecting the sunlight, and, +though the single drops be small and feeble, +yet together freshening the thirsty world. So, +formed by an unseen and mysterious power, one +by one insignificant, but in the whole mighty, +mirroring God and quickening and beautifying +the worn world, the servants of the priest-king +are to be "in the midst of many people like the +dew from the Lord."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_U_21" id="Footnote_U_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_U_21"><span class="label">[U]</span></a> The word translated "power" in our version, has the +same double meaning as that has in old English, or as "force" +has now, sometimes signifying "strength" and sometimes an +"army." The latter is the more appropriate here. "The day +of Thine army" will then be equivalent to the day of mustering +the troops.</p></div> + +<p>Another solemn word from the lips of God +begins the second half of the psalm. "Jehovah +swears," gives the sanction and guarantee of His +own nature, puts in pledge His own being +for the fulfilment of the promise. And +that which He swears is a new thing in +the earth. The blending of the royal and +priestly offices in the Messiah, and the eternal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +duration in Him of both, is a distinct advancement +in the development of Messianic prophecy. +The historical occasion for it may indeed be +connected with David's kingship and conquest +of Melchizedek's city; but the real source of it +is a direct predictive inspiration. We have here +not merely the devout psalmist meditating on +the truths revealed before his day, but the +prophet receiving a new word from God unheard +by mortal ears, and far transcending even the +promises made to him by Nathan. There is +but one person to whom it can apply, who sits +as a priest upon his throne, who builds the +temple of the Lord (Zech. vi. 12, 13).</p> + +<p>As the former Divine word, so this is followed +by the prophet's rapturous answer, which carries +on the portraiture of the priest-king. There is +some doubt as to the person addressed in these +later verses. "The Lord at thy right hand +crushes kings in the day of His wrath." Whose +right hand? The answer generally given is, +"The Messiah's." Who is the Lord that smites +the petty kinglets of earth? The answer +generally given is, "God." But it is far more +dramatic, avoids an awkward abruptness in the +change of persons in the last verse, and brings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +out a striking contrast with the previous half, if +we take the opposite view, and suppose Jehovah +addressed and the Messiah spoken of throughout. +Then the first Divine word is followed by +the prophetic invocation of the exalted Messiah +throned at the right hand and expecting till +His enemies be made His footstool. The second +is followed by the prophetic invocation of +Jehovah, and describes the Lord Messiah at +God's right hand as before, but instead of longer +waiting He now flames forth in all the resistless +energy of a conqueror. The day of His array +is succeeded by the day of His wrath. He +crushes earth's monarchies. The psalmist's eye +sees the whole earth one great battle-field. +"(It is) full of corpses. He wounds the head +over wide lands," where there may possibly be +a reference to the first vague dawning of a hope +which God's mercy had let lighten on man's +horizon—"He shall bruise thy head," or the +word may be used as a collective expression +for rulers, as the parallelism with the previous +verse requires. Thus striding on to victory +across the prostrate foe, and pursuing the flying +relics of their power, "He drinks of the brook +in the way, therefore shall He lift up the head,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +words which are somewhat difficult, however interpreted. +If, with the majority of modern +commentators, we take them as a picturesque +embodiment of eager haste in the pursuit, the +conqueror "faint, yet pursuing," and stooping +for a moment to drink, then hurrying on with +renewed strength after the fugitives, one can +scarcely help feeling that such a close to such a +psalm is trivial and liker the artificial play of +fancy than the work of the prophetic spirit, to +say nothing of the fact that there is nothing +about pursuit in the psalm. If we fall back on +the older interpretation, which sees in the words +a prophecy of the sufferings of the Messiah +who tastes death and drinks of the cup of +sorrows, and therefore is highly exalted, we +get a meaning which worthily crowns the +psalm, but seems to break somewhat abruptly +the sequence of thought, and to force the +metaphor of drinking of the brook into somewhat +strained parallelism with the very different +New Testament images just named. But the +doubt we must leave over these final words does +not diminish the preciousness of this psalm as a +clear, articulate prophecy from David's lips of +David's Son, whom he had learned to know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +through the experiences and facts of his own +life. He had climbed through sufferings to his +throne. God had exalted him and given him +victory, and surrounded him with a loyal people. +But he was only a shadow; limitations and +imperfections surrounded his office and weakened +himself; half of the Divine counsel of +peace could not be mirrored in his functions at +all, and death lay ahead of him. So his glory +and his feebleness alike taught him that "one +mightier than" he must be coming behind him, +"the latchet of whose shoes he was not worthy +to unloose"—the true King of Israel, to bear +witness to whom was his highest honour.</p> + +<p>The third characteristic of the first seventeen +years of David's reign is his successful wars with +surrounding nations. The gloomy days of +defeat and subjugation which had darkened the +closing years of Saul are over now, and blow +after blow falls with stunning rapidity on the +amazed enemies. The narrative almost pants +for breath as it tells with hurry and pride how, +south, and east, and north, the "lion of the tribe of +Judah" sprang from his fastness, and smote +Philistia, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Amalek, Damascus, +and the Syrians beyond, even to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +Euphrates; and the bounding courage of king +and people, and the unity of heart and hand +with which they stood shoulder to shoulder in +many a bloody field, ring through the psalms of +this period. Whatever higher meaning may be +attached to them, their roots are firm in the soil +of actual history, and they are first of all the +war-songs of a nation. That being so, that +they should also be inspired hymns for the +church in all ages will present no difficulty nor +afford any consecration to modern warfare, if +the progressive character of revelation be duly +kept in mind. There is a whole series of such +psalms, such as xx., xxi., lx., and probably lxviii. +We cannot venture in our limited space on any +analysis of the last of these. It is a splendid +burst of national triumph and devout praise, full +of martial ardour, throbbing with lofty consciousness +of God's dwelling in Israel, abounding +with allusions to the ancient victories of the +people, and world-wide in its anticipations of +future triumph. How strange the history of its +opening words has been! Through the battle +smoke of how many a field they have rung! +On the plains of the Palatinate, from the lips of +Cromwell's Ironsides, and from the poor pea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>sants +that went to death on many a bleak moor +for Christ's crown and covenant, to the Doric +music of their rude chant—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left:8em;">"Let God arise, and scattered</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">Let all His enemies be;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:8.25em;">And let all those that do Him hate,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">Before His presence flee."</span></p> + +<p>The sixtieth psalm is assigned to David after +Joab's signal victory over the Edomites (2 Sam. +viii.). It agrees very well with that date, +though the earlier verses have a wailing tone so +deep over recent disasters, so great that one is +almost inclined to suppose that they come from +a later hand than his. But after the first verses +all is warlike energy and triumph. How the glad +thought of ruling over a united people dances +in the swift words, "I will rejoice, I will divide +Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth;" +he has, as it were, repeated Joshua's conquest +and division of the land, and the ancient historical +sites that fill a conspicuous place in the +history of his great ancestor are in his power. +"Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine, Ephraim +also is the defence of my head, Judah my staff +of command." He looks eastward to the woods +and pastoral uplands across the Jordan, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +inhabitants had been but loosely attached to +the western portion of the nation, and triumphs +in knowing that Gilead and Manasseh own his +sway. The foremost tribes on this side the river +are to him like the armour and equipments of a +conqueror; he wears the might of Ephraim, +the natural head of the northern region, as his +helmet, and he grasps the power of Judah +as his baton of command or sceptre of kingly +rule (Gen. xlix. 10).</p> + +<p>Thus, strong in the possession of a united +kingdom, his flashing eye turns to his enemies, +and a stern joy, mingled with contempt, blazes +up as he sees them reduced to menial offices +and trembling before him. "Moab (is) my +washing-basin; to Edom will I fling my shoe; +because of me, Philistia, cry out" (in fear). The +three ancestral foes that hung on Israel's +southern border from east to west are subdued. +He will make of one "a vessel of dishonour" to +wash his feet, soiled with battle; he will throw +his shoes to another the while, as one would to +a slave to take care of; and the third, expecting +a like fate, shrieks out in fear of the impending +vengeance. He pants for new victories, "Who +will bring me into (the) strong city?" probably +the yet unsubdued Petra, hidden away in its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +tortuous ravine, with but one perilous path +through the gorge. And at last all the triumph +of victory rises to a higher region of thought in +the closing words, which lay bare the secret of +his strength, and breathe the true spirit of +the soldier of Jehovah. "In God we shall do +valiantly; and He, even He, shall tread down +our enemies."</p> + +<p>The twentieth psalm, another of these stirring +war-songs, is in that choral manner which we +have already seen in psalm xxiv., and the adoption +of which was probably connected with +David's careful organization of "the service of +song." It is all ablaze with the light of battle +and the glow of loyal love.</p> + +<p>The army, ready drawn up for action, as we +may fancy, prays for the king, who, according to +custom, brings sacrifices and offerings before the +fight. "Jehovah hear thee in the day of trouble; +the name of the God of Jacob defend thee, send +thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen +thee out of Zion, remember all thine offerings, +and accept thy burnt sacrifice." Then, as they +wave their standards in the sunshine, or plant +before the ranks of each tribe its cognizance, to +be defended to the death, the hoarse shout rises +from the files, "In the name of our God we will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +set up (or wave) our banners." Then the +single voice of the king speaks, rejoicing in his +soldiers' devotion, which he accepts as an omen +that his sacrifice has not been in vain: "Now +know I that Jehovah saveth His anointed. He +will hear him from the heaven of His holiness +with the strength of the salvation of His right +hand;" not merely from a God dwelling in Zion, +according to language of the previous prayer, +but from the Lord in the heavens, will the +strength come. Then again the chorus of the +host exclaims, as they look across the field to +the chariots and cavalry of the foe—forces which +Israel seldom used—"These (boast<a name="FNanchor_V_22" id="FNanchor_V_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_V_22" class="fnanchor">[V]</a>) of chariots, +and those of horses, and we, of the name of +Jehovah, our God, do we boast." Ere a sword +has been drawn, they see the enemy scattered. +"They are brought down and fallen; and we, +we are risen and stand upright." Then one +earnest cry to God, one more thought of the +true monarch of Israel, whom David would +teach them to feel he only shadowed; and +with the prayer, "Jehovah! save! Let the King +hear us in the day when we cry," ringing like +the long trumpet blast that sounds for the +charge, they dash forth to victory!<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_V_22" id="Footnote_V_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_V_22"><span class="label">[V]</span></a> Lit. "make mention of" or "commemorate."</p></div> +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="TEARS" id="TEARS"></a>XIII.—THE TEARS OF THE PENITENT.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> + +<p>Adversity had taught David self-restraint, +had braced his soul, had driven +him to grasp firmly the hand of God. And +prosperity had seemed for nearly twenty years +but to perfect the lessons. Gratitude had followed +deliverance, and the sunshine after the +rain had brought out the fragrance of devotion +and the blossoms of glad songs. A good man, +and still more a man of David's age at the date +of his great crime, seldom falls so low, unless +there has been previous, perhaps unconscious, +relaxation of the girded loins, and negligence of +the untrimmed lamp. The sensitive nature of +the psalmist was indeed not unlikely to yield to +the sudden force of such a temptation as conquered +him, but we can scarcely conceive of its +having done so without a previous decay of his +religious life, hidden most likely from himself. +And the source of that decay may probably be +found in self-indulgence, fostered by ease, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +by long years of command. The actual fall +into sin seems to have been begun by slothful +abdication of his functions as captain of Israel. +It is perhaps not without bitter emphasis that +the narrative introduces it by telling us that, +"at the time when kings go forth to battle," +David contented himself with sending his troops +against Ammon, and "tarried still at Jerusalem." +At all events, the story brings into +sharp contrast the levy <i>en masse</i>, encamped +round Rabbath, and their natural head, who had +once been so ready to take his share of blows +and privations, loitering behind, taking his +quiet siesta in the hot hours after noon, as if +there had been no soldiers of his sweltering in +their armour, and rising from his bed to stroll +on his palace roof, and peer into the household +privacies below, as if his heart had no interest +in the grim tussle going on behind the hills +that he could almost see from his height, as +they grew purple in the evening twilight. He +has fallen to the level of an Eastern despot, and +has lost his sense of the responsibilities of his +office. Such loosening of the tension of his +moral nature as is indicated in his absence from +the field, during what was evidently a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +severe as well as a long struggle, prepared the +way for the dismal headlong plunge into sin.</p> + +<p>The story is told in all its hideousness, without +palliation or reserve, without comment or +heightening, in that stern judicial fashion so +characteristic of the Bible records of its greatest +characters. Every step is narrated without a +trace of softening, and without a word of emotion. +Not a single ugly detail is spared. The +portraiture is as vivid as ever. Bathsheba's willing +complicity, her punctilious observance of +ceremonial propriety while she is trampling +under foot her holiest obligations; the fatal +necessity which drags sin after sin, and summons +up murder to hide, if it be possible, the foul +form of adultery; the stinging rebuke in the conduct +of Uriah, who, Hittite as he was, has a +more chivalrous, not to say devout, shrinking +from personal ease while his comrades and the +ark are in the field, than the king has; the mean +treason, the degradation implied in getting into +Joab's power; the cynical plainness of the +murderous letter, in which a hardened conscience +names his purposed evil by its true name; the +contemptuous measure of his master which +Joab takes in his message, the king's indifference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +to the loss of his men so long as Uriah is out of +the way; the solemn platitudes with which he +pretends to console his tool for the check of his +troops; and the hideous haste with which, after +her scrupulous "mourning" for one week, Bathsheba +threw herself again into David's arms;—all +these particulars, and every particular an +aggravation, stand out for ever, as men's most +hidden evil will one day do, in the clear, unpitying, +unmistakable light of the Divine record. +What a story it is!</p> + +<p>This saint of nearly fifty years of age, bound +to God by ties which he rapturously felt and +acknowledged, whose words have been the very +breath of devotion for every devout heart, forgets +his longings after righteousness, flings +away the joys of Divine communion, darkens +his soul, ends his prosperity, brings down upon +his head for all his remaining years a cataract +of calamities, and makes his name and his religion +a target for the barbed sarcasms of each +succeeding generation of scoffers. "All the +fences and their whole array," which God's +mercies and his own past had reared, "one +cunning sin sweeps quite away." Every obligation +of his office, as every grace of his charac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>ter, +is trodden under foot by the wild beast +roused in his breast. As man, as king, as +soldier, he is found wanting. Lust and treason, +and craft and murder, are goodly companions +for him who had said, "I will walk within my +house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked +thing before mine eyes." Why should we dwell +on the wretched story? Because it teaches us, +as no other page in the history of God's church +does, how the alchemy of Divine love can extract +sweet perfumes of penitence and praise out +of the filth of sin; and therefore, though we +turn with loathing from David's sin, we have to +bless God for the record of it, and for the +lessons of hope that come from David's pardon.</p> + +<p>To many a sin-tortured soul since then, the +two psalms (li., xxxii.), all blotted with tears, in +which he has sobbed out his penitence, have +been as footsteps in a great and terrible wilderness. +They are too familiar to need, and too +sacred to bear, many words here, but we may +briefly note some points connected with them—especially +those which assist us in forming +some image of the psalmist's state of mind +after his transgression. It may be observed +that of these two psalms, the fifty-first is evi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>dently +earlier than the thirty-second. In the +former we see the fallen man struggling up out +of the "horrible pit and miry clay;" in the +latter he stands upon the rock, with a new song +in his mouth, even the blessedness of him +"whose sin is covered." It appears also that +both must be dated after the sharp thrust of +God's lancet which Nathan drove into his conscience, +and the healing balsam of God's assurance +of forgiveness which Nathan laid upon his +heart. The passionate cries of the psalm are +the echo of the Divine promise—the effort of +his faith to grasp and keep the merciful gift of +pardon. The consciousness of forgiveness is +the basis of the prayer for forgiveness.</p> + +<p>Somewhere about a year passed between the +crime and the message of Nathan. And what +sort of a year it was the psalms tell us. The +coarse satisfactions of his sin could not long +content him, as they might have done a lower +type of man. Nobody buys a little passing +pleasure in evil at so dear a rate, or keeps it +for so short a time as a good man. He cannot +make himself as others. "That which cometh +into your mind shall not be at all, in that ye +say, We will be as the families of the nations,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +which serve wood and stone." Old habits +quickly reassert their force, conscience soon +lifts again its solemn voice; and while worse +men are enjoying the strong-flavoured meats +on sin's table, the servant of God, who has been +seduced to prefer them for a moment to the +"light bread" from heaven, tastes them already +bitter in his mouth. He may be far from true +repentance, but he will very soon know remorse. +Months may pass before he can feel again the +calm joys of God, but disgust with himself +and with his sin will quickly fill his soul. No +more vivid picture of such a state has ever been +drawn, than is found in the psalms of this period. +They tell of sullen "silence;" dust had settled +on the strings of his harp, as on helmet and +sword. He will not speak to God of his sin, +and there is nothing else that he can speak of. +They tell of his "roaring all the day long"—the +groan of anguish forced from his yet unsoftened +spirit. Day and night God's heavy +hand weighed him down; the consciousness of +that power, whose gentleness had once holden +him up, crushed, but did not melt him. Like +some heated iron, its heaviness scorched as well +as bruised, and his moisture—all the dew and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +freshness of his life—was dried up at its touch +and turned into dusty, cracking drought, that +chaps the hard earth, and shrinks the streamlets, +and burns to brown powder the tender herbage +(Ps. xxxii.). Body and mind seem both to be +included in this wonderful description, in which +obstinate dumbness, constant torture, dread of +God, and not one softening drop of penitence +fill the dry and dusty heart, while "bones waxing +old," or, as the word might be rendered, +"rotting," sleepless nights, and perhaps the +burning heat of disease, are hinted at as the +accompaniments of the soul-agony. It is possible +that similar allusions to actual bodily +illness are to be found in another psalm, probably +referring to the same period, and presenting +striking parallelisms of expression (Ps. vi.), +"Have mercy upon me, Jehovah, for I languish +(fade away); heal me, for my bones are +affrighted. My soul is also sore vexed. I +am weary with my groaning; every night +make I my bed to swim. I water my couch +with my tears." The similar phrase, too, in +psalm fifty-one, "The bones which Thou hast +broken," may have a similar application. Thus, +sick in body and soul, he dragged through a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +weary year—ashamed of his guilty dalliance, +wretched in his self-accusations, afraid of God, +and skulking in the recesses of his palace from +the sight of his people. A goodly price he had +sold integrity for. The bread had been sweet +for a moment, but how quickly his "mouth is +filled with gravel" (Proverbs xx. 17). David +learned, what we all learn (and the holier a +man is, the more speedily and sharply does +the lesson follow on the heels of his sin), that +every transgression is a blunder, that we never +get the satisfaction which we expect from any +sin, or if we do, we get something with it which +spoils it all. A nauseous drug is added to the +exciting, intoxicating drink which temptation +offers, and though its flavour is at first disguised +by the pleasanter taste of the sin, its bitterness +is persistent though slow, and clings to the +palate long after that has faded utterly.</p> + +<p>Into this dreary life Nathan's message comes +with merciful rebuke. The prompt severity of +David's judgment against the selfish sinner of +the inimitable apologue may be a subtle indication +of his troubled conscience, which fancies +some atonement for his own sin in stern repression +of that of others; for consciousness of evil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +may sometimes sting into harshness as well as +soften to lenity, and sinful man is a sterner +judge than the righteous God. The answer of +Nathan is a perfect example of the Divine way +of convincing of sin. There is first the plain +charge pressed home on the individual conscience, +"Thou art the man." Then follows, +not reproach nor further deepening of the +blackness of the deed, but a tender enumeration +of God's great benefits, whereon is built +the solemn question, "Wherefore hast thou +despised the commandment of the Lord, to +do evil in His sight?" The contemplation of +God's faithful love, and of the all-sufficient gifts +which it bestows, makes every transgression +irrational as well as ungrateful, and turns remorse, +which consumes like the hot wind of +the wilderness, into tearful repentance which +refreshes the soul. When God has been seen +loving and bestowing ere He commands and +requires, it is profitable to hold the image of +the man's evil in all its ugliness close up to his +eyes; and so the bald facts are repeated next +in the fewest, strongest words. Nor can the +message close until a rigid law of retribution +has been proclaimed, the slow operation of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +which will filter bitterness and shame through +all his life. "And David said unto Nathan, +I have sinned against the Lord." Two words +(in the Hebrew) make the transition from +sullen misery to real though shaded peace. +No lengthened outpouring, no accumulation +of self-reproach; he is too deeply moved for +many words, which he knows God does not +need. More would have been less. All is contained +in that one sob, in which the whole +frostwork of these weary months breaks up +and rolls away, swept before the strong flood. +And as brief and simple as the confession, is +the response, "And Nathan said unto David, +The Lord also hath put away thy sin." How +full and unconditional the blessing bestowed +in these few words; how swift and sufficient +the answer! So the long estrangement is +ended. Thus simple and Divine is the manner +of pardon. In such short compass may the +turning point of a life lie! But while confession +and forgiveness heal the breach between +God and David, pardon is not impunity, and +the same sentence which bestows the remission +of sin announces the exaction of a penalty. +The judgments threatened a moment before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>—a +moment so far removed now to David's consciousness +that it would look as if an age had +passed—are not withdrawn, and another is +added, the death of Bathsheba's infant. God +loves His servants too well to "suffer sin upon +them," and the freest forgiveness and the +happiest consciousness of it may consist with +the loving infliction and the submissive bearing +of pains, which are no longer the strokes of an +avenging judge, but the chastisements of a +gracious father.</p> + +<p>The fifty-first psalm must, we think, be conceived +of as following soon after Nathan's +mission. There may be echoes of the prophet's +stern question, "Wherefore hast thou despised +the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in +His sight?" and of the confession, "I have +sinned against the Lord," in the words, "Against +Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done evil +in Thy sight" (ver. 4), though perhaps the +expressions are not so peculiar as to make +the allusion certain. But, at all events, the +penitence and prayers of the psalm can scarcely +be supposed to have preceded the date of the +historical narrative, which clearly implies that +the rebuke of the seer was the first thing that +broke up the dumb misery of unrepented sin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> + +<p>Although the psalm is one long cry for +pardon and restoration, one can discern an +order and progress in its petitions—the order, +not of an artificial reproduction of a past mood +of mind, but the instinctive order in which the +emotion of contrite desire will ever pour itself +forth. In the psalm all begins, as all begins in +fact, with the grounding of the cry for favour +on "Thy loving-kindness," "the multitude of +Thy tender mercies;" the one plea that avails +with God, whose love is its own motive and its +own measure, whose past acts are the standard +for all His future, whose compassions, in their +innumerable numbers, are more than the sum +of our transgressions, though these be "more +than the hairs of our head." Beginning +with God's mercy, the penitent soul can +learn to look next upon its own sin +in all its aspects of evil. The depth and +intensity of the psalmist's loathing of self is +wonderfully expressed in his words for his +crime. He speaks of his "transgressions" and +of his "sin." Looked at in one way, he sees +the separate acts of which he had been guilty—lust, +fraud, treachery, murder: looked at in +another, he sees them all knotted together, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +one inextricable tangle of forked, hissing +tongues, like the serpent locks that coil and +twist round a Gorgon head. No sin dwells +alone; the separate acts have a common root, +and the whole is matted together like the green +growth on a stagnant pond, so that, by whatever +filament it is grasped, the whole mass is drawn +towards you. And a profound insight into the +essence and character of sin lies in the accumulated +synonyms. It is "transgression," or, as +the word might be rendered, "rebellion"—not +the mere breach of an impersonal law, not +merely an infraction of "the constitution of our +nature"—but the rising of a subject will against +its true king, disobedience to a person as well as +contravention of a standard. It is "iniquity"—perversion +or distortion—a word which expresses +the same metaphor as is found in many languages, +namely, crookedness as descriptive of +deeds which depart from the perfect line of right. +It is "sin," <i>i.e.</i>, "missing one's aim;" in which +profound word is contained the truth that all +sin is a blunder, shooting wide of the true goal, +if regard be had to the end of our being, and not +less wide if regard be had to our happiness. It +ever misses the mark; and the epitaph might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +be written over every sinner who seeks pleasure +at the price of righteousness, "Thou fool."</p> + +<p>Nor less pregnant with meaning is the psalmist's +emphatic acknowledgment, "Against Thee, +Thee only have I sinned." He is not content +with looking upon his evil in itself, or in relation +only to the people who had suffered by it; he +thinks of it in relation to God. He had been +guilty of crimes against Bathsheba and Uriah, +and even the rough soldier whom he made his +tool, as well as against his whole subjects; but, +dark as these were, they assumed their true +character only when they were discerned as done +against God. "Sin," in its full sense, implies +"God" as its correlative. We transgress against +each other, but we sin against Him.</p> + +<p>Nor does the psalmist stop here. He has +acknowledged the tangled multiplicity and +dreadful unity of his evil, he has seen its inmost +character, he has learned to bring his deed into +connection with God; what remains still to be +confessed? He laments, and that not as extenuation +(though it be explanation), but as +aggravation, the sinful nature in which he had +been born. The deeds had come from a source—a +bitter fountain had welled out this blackness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +He himself is evil, therefore he has done evil. +The sin is his; he will not contest his full responsibility; +and its foul characteristics declare +the inward foulness from which it has flowed—and +that foulness is himself. Does he therefore +think that he is less to blame? By no means. +His acknowledgment of an evil nature is the +very deepest of his confessions, and leads not to +a palliation of his guilt, but to a cry to Him who +alone can heal the inward wound; and as He +can purge away the transgressions, can likewise +stanch their source, and give him to feel within +"that he is healed from that plague."</p> + +<p>The same intensity of feeling expressed +by the use of so many words for sin is +revealed also in the reiterated synonyms +for pardon. The prayer comes from his +lips over and over again, not because he +thinks that he shall be heard for his much +speaking, but because of the earnestness of his +longing. Such repetitions are signs of the persistence +of faith, while others, though they last +like the prayers of Baal's priests, "from morning +till the time of the evening sacrifice," indicate +only the suppliant's doubt. David prays that +his sins may be "blotted out," in which petition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +they are conceived as recorded against him in +the archives of the heavens; that he may be +"washed" from them, in which they are conceived +as foul stains upon himself, needing for +their removal hard rubbing and beating (for +such is, according to some commentators, the +force of the word); that he may be "cleansed"—the +technical word for the priestly cleansing +of the leper, and declaring him clear of the +taint. He also, with similar recurrence to the +Mosaic symbols, prays that he may be "purged +with hyssop." There is a pathetic appropriateness +in the petition, for not only lepers, but +those who had become defiled by contact +with a dead body, were thus purified; and on +whom did the taint of corruption cleave as on +the murderer of Uriah? The prayer, too, is +even more remarkable in the original, which +employs a verb formed from the word for +"sin;" "and if in our language that were a +word in use, it might be translated, 'Thou shalt +un-sin me.'"<a name="FNanchor_W_23" id="FNanchor_W_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_W_23" class="fnanchor">[W]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_W_23" id="Footnote_W_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_W_23"><span class="label">[W]</span></a> Donne's Sermons, quoted in Perowne, <i>in. loc.</i></p></div> + +<p>In the midst of these abased confessions and +cries for pardon there comes with wonderful +force and beauty the bold prayer for restoration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +to "joy and gladness"—an indication surely of +more than ordinary confidence in the full mercy +of God, which would efface all the consequences +of his sin.</p> + +<p>And following upon them are petitions for +sanctifying, reiterated and many-sided, like +those that have preceded. Three pairs of +clauses contain these, in each of which the +second member of the clause asks for the infusion +into his spirit of some grace from God—that +he may possess a "steadfast spirit," "Thy +Holy Spirit," "a willing spirit." It is perhaps +not an accident that the central petition of the +three is the one which most clearly expresses +the thought which all imply—that the human +spirit can only be renewed and hallowed by +the entrance into it of the Divine. We are not +to commit the theological anachronism which +has been applied with such evil effect to the +whole Old Testament, and suppose that David +meant by that central clause in his prayer for +renewal all that we mean by it; but he meant, +at least, that his spiritual nature could be made +to love righteousness and hate iniquity by none +other power than God's breathing on it. If we +may venture to regard this as the heart of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +series, the other two on either side of it may be +conceived as its consequences. It will then be +"a right spirit," or, as the word means, a steadfast +spirit, strong to resist, not swept away by +surges of passion, nor shaken by terrors of remorse, +but calm, tenacious, and resolved, pressing +on in the path of holiness, and immovable +with the immobility of those who are rooted in +God and goodness. It will be a free, or "a +willing spirit," ready for all joyful service of +thankfulness, and so penetrated with the love of +his God that he will delight to do His will, and +carry the law charactered in the spontaneous +impulses of his renewed nature. Not without +profound meaning does the psalmist seem to +recur in his hour of penitence to the tragic fate +of his predecessor in the monarchy, to whom, as +to himself, had been given by the same anointing, +the same gift of "the Spirit of God." Remembering +how the holy chrism had faded from +the raven locks of Saul long before his bloody +head had been sent round Philistine cities to +glut their revenge, and knowing that if God +were "strict to mark iniquity," the gift which +had been withdrawn from Saul would not be +continued to himself, he prays, not as anointed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +monarch only, but as sinful man, "Take not +Thy Holy Spirit from me." As before he had +ventured to ask for the joy of forgiveness, so +now he pleads once more for "the joy of Thy +salvation," which comes from cleansing, from +conscious fellowship—which he had so long and +deeply felt, which for so many months had been +hid from him by the mists of his own sin. The +psalmist's natural buoyancy, the gladness which +was an inseparable part of his religion, and had +rung from his harp in many an hour of peril, +the bold width of his desires, grounded on the +clear breadth of his faith in God's perfect forgiveness, +are all expressed in such a prayer +from such lips at such a time, and may well be +pondered and imitated by us.</p> + +<p>The lowly prayer which we have been tracing +rises ere its close to a vow of renewed praise. It +is very beautiful to note how the poet nature, as +well as the consciousness of a Divine function, +unite in the resolve that crowns the psalm. To +David no tribute that he could bring to God +seemed so little unworthy—none to himself so +joyous—as the music of his harp, and the melody +of his songs; nor was any part of his kingly +office so lofty in his estimation as his calling to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +proclaim in glowing words the name of the +Lord, that men might learn to love. His +earliest song in exile had closed with a like +vow. It had been well fulfilled for many a +year; but these last doleful months had silenced +all his praise. Now, as hope begins to shine +upon him once more, the frost which had stilled +the stream of his devotion is melting, and as he +remembers his glad songs of old, and this +miserable dumbness, his final prayer is, "O +Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall +show forth Thy praise."</p> + +<p>The same consciousness of sin, which we have +found in a previous verse discerning the true +significance of ceremonial purification, leads +also to the recognition of the insufficiency of +outward sacrifices—a thought which is not, as +some modern critics would fain make it, the +product of the latest age of Judaism, but appears +occasionally through the whole of the history, +and indicates not the date, but the spiritual +elevation of its utterer. David sets it on the very +summit of his psalm, to sparkle there like some +stone of price. The rich jewel which he has +brought up from the abyss of degradation is +that truth which has shone out from its setting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +here over three millenniums: "The sacrifices of +God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite +heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise."</p> + +<p>The words which follow, containing a prayer +for the building up of Zion, and a prediction of +the continuous offering of sacrifice, present some +difficulty. They do not necessarily presuppose +that Jerusalem is in ruins; for "build Thou the +walls" would be no less appropriate a petition +if the fortifications were unfinished (as we know +they were in David's time) than if they had +been broken down. Nor do the words contradict +the view of sacrifice just given, for the use +of the symbol and the conviction of its insufficiency +co-existed, in fact, in every devout +life, and may well be expressed side by +side. But the transition from so intensely +personal emotions to intercession for Zion +seems almost too sudden even for a nature +as wide and warm as David's. If the closing +verses are his, we may, indeed, see in +them the king re-awaking to a sense of his +responsibilities, which he had so long neglected, +first, in the selfishness of his heart, and then in +the morbid self-absorption of his remorse; and +the lesson may be a precious one that the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +thought of a pardoned man should be for others. +But there is much to be said, on the other hand, +in favour of the conjecture that these verses are +a later addition, probably after the return from +captivity, when the walls of Zion were in ruins, +and the altar of the temple had been long cold. +If so, then our psalm, as it came from David's +full heart, would be all of a piece—one great +gush of penitence and faith, beginning with, +"Have mercy upon me, O God," ending with +the assurance of acceptance, and so remaining +for all ages the chart of the thorny and yet +blessed path that leads "from death unto life." +In that aspect, what it does not contain is as +noteworthy as what it does. Not one word asks +for exemption from such penalties of his great +fall as can be inflicted by a loving Father on a +soul that lives in His love. He cries for pardon, +but he gives his back to the smiters whom God +may please to send.</p> + +<p>The other psalm of the penitent (xxxii.) has +been already referred to in connection with the +autobiographical materials which it contains. It +is evidently of a later period than the fifty-first. +There is no struggle in it; the prayer has been +heard, and this is the beginning of the fulfilment of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +the vow to show forth God's praise. In the earlier +he had said, "Then will I teach transgressors the +way;" here he says, "I will instruct thee and +teach thee in the way which thou shalt go." +There he began with the plaintive cry for mercy; +here with a burst of praise celebrating the +happiness of the pardoned penitent. There we +heard the sobs of a man in the very agony of +abasement; here we have the story of their +blessed issue. There we had multiplied synonyms +for sin, and for the forgiveness which was +desired; here it is the many-sided preciousness +of forgiveness possessed which runs over in +various yet equivalent phrases. There the +highest point to which he could climb was the +assurance that a bruised heart was accepted, +and the bones broken might still rejoice. Here +the very first word is of blessedness, and the +close summons the righteous to exuberant joy. +The one is a psalm of wailing; the other, to use +its own words, a "song of deliverance."</p> + +<p>What glad consciousness that he himself is +the happy man whom he describes rings in the +melodious variations of the one thought of +forgiveness in the opening words! How gratefully +he draws on the treasures of that recent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +experience, while he sets it forth as being the +"taking away" of sin, as if it were the removal +of a solid something, or the lifting of a burden off +his back; and as the "covering" of sin, as if it +were the wrapping of its ugliness in thick folds +that hide it for ever even from the all-seeing +Eye; and as the "non-reckoning" of sin, as if it +were the discharge of a debt! What vivid +memory of past misery in the awful portrait of +his impenitent self, already referred to—on +which the mind dwells in silence, while the +musical accompaniment (as directed by the +"selah") touches some plaintive minor or +grating discord! How noble and eloquent +the brief words (echo of the historical narrative) +that tell the full and swift forgiveness +that followed simple confession—and how +effectively the music again comes in, prolonging +the thought and rejoicing in the pardon! +How sure he is that his experience is of +priceless value to the world for all time, +when he sees in his absolution a motive that +will draw all the godly nearer to their Helper +in heaven! How full his heart is of praise, +that he cannot but go back again to his own +story, and rejoice in God his hiding-place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>—whose +past wondrous love assures him that in +the future songs of deliverance will ring him +round, and all his path be encompassed with +music of praise.</p> + +<p>So ends the more personal part of the psalm. +A more didactic portion follows, the generalization +of that. Possibly the voice which now +speaks is a higher than David's. "I will instruct +thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt +go. I will guide thee with mine eye," scarcely +sounds like words meant to be understood as +spoken by him. They are the promise from +heaven of a gentle teaching to the pardoned +man, which will instruct by no severity, but by +patient schooling; which will direct by no harsh +authority, but by that loving glance that is +enough for those who love, and is all too subtle +and delicate to be perceived by any other. +Such gracious direction is not for the psalmist +alone, but it needs a spirit in harmony with +God to understand it. For others there can be +nothing higher than mere force, the discipline +of sorrow, the bridle in the hard mouth, the +whip for the stiff back. The choice for all men +is through penitence and forgiveness to rise to +the true position of men, capable of receiving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +and obeying a spiritual guidance, which appeals +to the heart, and gently subdues the will, or by +stubborn impenitence to fall to the level of +brutes, that can only be held in by a halter and +driven by a lash. And because this is the +alternative, therefore "Many sorrows shall be to +the wicked; but he that trusteth in the Lord, +mercy shall compass him about."</p> + +<p>And then the psalm ends with a great cry of +gladness, three times reiterated, like the voice +of a herald on some festal day of a nation: +"Rejoice in Jehovah! and leap for joy, O +righteous! and gladly shout, all ye upright in +heart!"</p> + +<p>Such is the end of the sobs of the penitent.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="CHASTISE" id="CHASTISE"></a>XIV.—CHASTISEMENTS.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> + +<p>The chastisements, which were the natural +fruits of David's sin, soon began to show +themselves, though apparently ten years at least +passed before Absalom's revolt, at which time +he was probably a man of sixty. But these ten +years were very weary and sad. There is no +more joyous activity, no more conquering +energy, no more consciousness of his people's +love. Disasters thicken round him, and may +all be traced to his great sin. His children +learned the lesson it had taught them, and lust +and fratricide desolated his family. A parent +can have no sharper pang than the sight of his +own sins reappearing in his child. David saw +the ghastly reflection of his unbridled passion +in his eldest son's foul crime (and even a gleam +of it in his unhappy daughter), and of his +murderous craft in his second son's bloody +revenge. Whilst all this hell of crime is boiling +round him, a strange passiveness seems to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +crept over the king, and to have continued till +his flight before Absalom. The narrative is +singularly silent about him. He seems paralysed +by the consciousness of his past sin; he +originates nothing. He dares not punish Ammon; +he can only weep when he hears of +Absalom's crime. He weakly longs for the +return of the latter from his exile, but cannot +nerve himself to send for him till Joab urges it. +A flash of his old kingliness blazes out for a +moment in his refusal to see his son; but even +that slight satisfaction to justice vanishes as +soon as Joab chooses to insist that Absalom +shall return to court. He seems to have no +will of his own. He has become a mere tool in +the hands of his fierce general—and Joab's hold +upon him was his complicity in Uriah's murder. +Thus at every step he was dogged by the consequences +of his crime, even though it was +pardoned sin. And if, as is probable, Ahithophel +was Bathsheba's grandfather, the most +formidable person in Absalom's conspiracy, +whose defection wounded him so deeply, was +no doubt driven to the usurper's side out of +revenge for the insult to his house in her person. +Thus "of our pleasant vices doth heaven make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +whips to scourge us." "Be not deceived; whatsoever +a man soweth, that shall he also reap."</p> + +<p>It is not probable that many psalms were +made in those dreary days. But the forty-first +and fifty-fifth are, with reasonable probability, +referred to this period by many commentators. +They give a very touching picture of the old +king during the four years in which Absalom's +conspiracy was being hatched. It seems, from +the forty-first, that the pain and sorrow of his +heart had brought on some serious illness, which +his enemies had used for their own purposes, +and embittered by hypocritical condolences and +ill-concealed glee. The sensitive nature of +the psalmist winces under their heartless desertion +of him, and pours out its plaint in this +pathetic lament. He begins with a blessing on +those who "consider the afflicted"—having +reference, perhaps, to the few who were faithful +to him in his languishing sickness. He passes +thence to his own case, and, after humble confession +of his sin,—almost in the words of the +fifty-first psalm,—he tells how his sickbed had +been surrounded by very different visitors. His +disease drew no pity, but only fierce impatience +that he lingered in life so long. "Mine enemies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +speak evil of me—when will he die, and his +name have perished?" One of them, in +especial, who must have been a man in +high position to gain access to the sick +chamber, has been conspicuous by his lying +words of condolence: "If he come to see me +he speaketh vanity." The sight of the sick king +touched no chord of affection, but only increased +the traitor's animosity—"his heart gathereth +evil to itself"—and then, having watched his +pale face for wished-for unfavourable symptoms, +the false friend hurries from the bedside to talk +of his hopeless illness—"he goeth abroad, he +telleth it." The tidings spread, and are +stealthily passed from one conspirator to +another. "All that hate me whisper together +against me." They exaggerate the gravity of +his condition, and are glad because, making the +wish the father to the thought, they believe him +dying. "A thing of Belial" (<i>i.e.</i>, a destructive +disease), "say they, is poured out upon him, +and now that he lieth, he shall rise up no more." +And, sharpest pang of all, that among these +traitors, and probably the same person as he +whose heartless presence in the sick chamber +was so hard to bear, should be Ahithophel,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +whose counsel had been like an oracle from +God. Even he, "the man of my friendship, in +whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread"—he, +like an ignoble, vicious mule—"has lifted +high his heel" against the sick lion.</p> + +<p>We should be disposed to refer the thirty-ninth +psalm also to this period. It, too, is the +meditation of one in sickness, which he knows +to be a Divine judgment for his sin. There is +little trace of enemies in it; but his attitude is +that of silent submission, while wicked men are +disquieted around him—which is precisely the +characteristic peculiarity of his conduct at this +period. It consists of two parts (vers. 1-6 and +7-13), in both of which the subjects of his +meditations are the same, but the tone of them +different. His own sickness and mortality, and +man's fleeting, shadowy life, are his themes. +The former has led him to think of the latter. +The first effect of his sorrow was to close his +lips in a silence that was not altogether submission. +"I held my peace, even from good, and +my sorrow was stirred." As in his sin, when he +kept silence, his "bones waxed old," so now in +his sorrow and sickness the pain that could not +find expression raged the more violently. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +tearless eyes were hot and aching; but he conquered +the dumb spirit, and could carry his +heavy thoughts to God. They are very heavy +at first. He only desires that the sad truth +may be driven deeper into his soul. With the +engrossment so characteristic of melancholy, he +asks, what might have been thought the thing +he needed least, "Make me to know mine end;" +and then he dilates on the gloomy reflections +which he had been cherishing in silence. Not +only he himself, with his handbreadth of days, +that shrink into absolute nothingness when +brought into contrast with the life of God, but +"every man," even when apparently "standing" +most "firm, is only a breath." As a shadow +every man moves spectral among shadows. +The tumult that fills their lives is madness; +"only for a breath are they disquieted." So +bitterly, with an anticipation of the sad, clear-eyed +pity and scorn of "The Preacher," does +the sick and wearied king speak, in tones very +unlike the joyous music of his earlier utterances.</p> + +<p>But, true and wholesome as such thoughts +are, they are not all the truth. So the prayer +changes in tone, even while its substance is the +same. He rises from the shows of earth to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +true home, driven thither by their hollowness. +"My hope is in Thee." The conviction of earth's +vanity is all different when it has "tossed him +to Thy breast." The pardoned sinner, who +never thereafter forgot his grievous fall, asks for +deliverance "from all his transgressions." The +sullen silence has changed into full acquiescence: +"I opened not my mouth, because Thou +didst it,"—a silence differing from the other as +the calm after the storm, when all the winds +sleep and the sun shines out on a freshened +world, differs from the boding stillness while +the slow thunder-clouds grow lurid on the +horizon. He cries for healing, for he knows his +sickness to be the buffet and assault of God's +hand; and its bitterness is assuaged, even while +its force continues, by the conviction that it is +God's fatherly chastisement for sin which gnaws +away his manly vigour as the moth frets his +kingly robe. The very thought which had been +so bitter—that every man is vanity—reappears +in a new connection as the basis of the prayer +that God would hear, and is modified so as to +become infinitely blessed and hopeful. "I +am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as +all my fathers were." A wanderer indeed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +and a transient guest on earth; but what of +that, if he be God's guest? All that is sorrowful +is drawn off from the thought when we +realise our connection with God. We are in +God's house; the host, not the guest, is responsible +for the housekeeping. We need not feel life +lonely if He be with us, nor its shortness sad. +It is not a shadow, a dream, a breath, if it +be rooted in Him. And thus the sick man has +conquered his gloomy thoughts, even though he +sees little before him but the end; and he is not +cast down even though his desires are all summed +up in one for a little respite and healing, ere the +brief trouble of earth be done with: "O spare me, +that I may recover strength before I go hence, +and be no more."</p> + +<p>It may be observed that this supposition of a +protracted illness, which is based upon these +psalms, throws light upon the singular passiveness +of David during the maturing of Absalom's +conspiracy, and may naturally be supposed to +have favoured his schemes, an essential part of +which was to ingratiate himself with suitors who +came to the king for judgment by affecting +great regret that no man was deputed of the +king to hear them. The accumulation of untried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +causes, and the apparent disorganization of the +judicial machinery, are well accounted for by +David's sickness.</p> + +<p>The fifty-fifth psalm gives some very +pathetic additional particulars. It is in three +parts—a plaintive prayer and portraiture of the +psalmist's mental distress (vers. 1-8); a +vehement supplication against his foes, and +indignant recounting of their treachery (vers. +9-16); and, finally, a prophecy of the retribution +that is to fall upon them (vers. 17-23). +In the first and second portions we have some +points which help to complete our picture of the +man. For instance, his heart "writhes" within +him, the "terrors of death" are on him, "fear +and trembling" are come on him, and "horror" +has covered him. All this points, like subsequent +verses, to his knowledge of the conspiracy before +it came to a head. The state of the city, which +is practically in the hands of Absalom and his +tools, is described with bold imagery. Violence +and Strife in possession of it, spies prowling +about the walls day and night, Evil and Trouble +in its midst, and Destruction, Oppression, and +Deceit—a goodly company—flaunting in its +open spaces. And the spirit, the brain of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +whole, is the trusted friend whom he had made +his own equal, who had shared his secretest +thoughts in private, who had walked next him +in solemn processions to the temple. Seeing all +this, what does the king do, who was once so +fertile in resource, so decisive in counsel, so +prompt in action? Nothing. His only weapon +is prayer. "As for me, I will call upon God; +and the Lord will save me. Evening, and +morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: +and He shall hear my voice." He lets it all +grow as it list, and only longs to be out of all +the weary coil of troubles. "Oh that I had +wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be +at rest. Lo, I would flee far off, I would lodge +in the wilderness. I would swiftly fly to my +refuge from the raging wind, from the tempest." +The langour of his disease, love for his worthless +son, consciousness of sin, and submission to the +chastisement through "one of his own house," +which Nathan had foretold, kept him quiet, though +he saw the plot winding its meshes round him. +And in this submission patient confidence is not +wanting, though subdued and saddened, which +finds expression in the last words of this psalm of +the heavy laden, "Cast thy burden upon Jehovah.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +He, He will sustain thee.... I will trust in +Thee."</p> + +<p>When the blow at last fell, the same passive +acquiescence in what he felt to be God's chastisement +is very noticeable. Absalom escapes +to Hebron, and sets up the standard of revolt. +When the news comes to Jerusalem the king's +only thought is immediate flight. He is almost +cowardly in his eagerness to escape, and is +prepared to give up everything without a blow. +It seems as if only a touch was needed to overthrow +his throne. He hurries on the preparations +for flight with nervous haste. He forms no +plans beyond those of his earlier wish to fly +away and be at rest. He tries to denude himself +of followers. When the six hundred men of +Gath—who had been with him ever since his +early days in Philistia, and had grown grey in +his service—make themselves the van of his +little army, he urges the heroic Ittai, their +leader, to leave him a fugitive, and to worship +the rising sun, "Return to thy place, and abide +with <i>the king</i>"—so thoroughly does he regard +the crown as passed already from his brows. +The priests with the ark are sent back; he is not +worthy to have the symbol of the Divine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +presence identified with his doubtful cause, and +is prepared to submit without a murmur if God +"thus say, I have no delight in thee." With +covered head and naked feet he goes up the +slope of Olivet, and turning perhaps at that same +bend in the rocky mountain path where the true +King, coming to the city, wept as he saw its +shining walls and soaring pinnacles across the +narrow valley, the discrowned king and all his +followers broke into passionate weeping as they +gazed their last on the lost capital, and then +with choking sobs rounded the shoulder of the +hill and set their faces to their forlorn flight. +Passing through the territory of Saul's tribe—dangerous +ground for him to tread—the rank +hatred of Shimei's heart blossoms into speech. +With Eastern vehemence, he curses and flings +stones and dust in the transports of his fury, +stumbling along among the rocks high up on the +side of the glen, as he keeps abreast of the little +band below. Did David remember how the +husband from whom he had torn Michal had +followed her to this very place, and there had +turned back weeping to his lonely home? The +remembrance, at any rate, of later and more evil +deeds prompted his meek answer, "Let him +curse, for the Lord hath bidden him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + +<p>The first force of the disaster spent itself, and +by the time he was safe across Jordan, on the +free uplands of Bashan, his spirit rises. He +makes a stand at Mahanaim, the place where +his great ancestor, in circumstances somewhat +analogous to his own, had seen the vision of +"bright-harnessed angels" ranked in battle array +for the defence of himself and his own little +band, and called the name of the place the "two +camps." Perhaps that old story helped to +hearten him, as the defection of Ahithophel from +the conspiracy certainly would do. As the time +went on, too, it became increasingly obvious +that the leaders of the rebellion were "infirm of +purpose," and that every day of respite from +actual fighting diminished their chances of +success, as that politic adviser saw so plainly. +Whatever may have been the reason, it is clear +that by the time David had reached Mahanaim +he had resolved not to yield without a struggle. +He girds on his sword once more with some of +the animation of early days, and the light of +trustful valour blazes again in his old eyes.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="SONGS" id="SONGS"></a>XV. THE SONGS OF THE FUGITIVE.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> + +<p>The psalms which probably belong to the +period of Absalom's rebellion correspond +well with the impression of his spirit gathered +from the historical books. Confidence in God, +submission to His will, are strongly expressed in +them, and we may almost discern a progress in +the former respect as the rebellion grows. They +flame brighter and brighter in the deepening +darkness. From the lowest abyss the stars +are seen most clearly. He is far more buoyant +when he is an exile once more in the wilderness, +and when the masks of plot and trickery are +fallen, and the danger stands clear before him. +Like some good ship issuing from the shelter +of the pier heads, the first blow of the waves +throws her over on her side and makes her +quiver like a living thing recoiling from a terror, +but she rises above the tossing surges and keeps +her course. We may allocate with a fair amount +of likelihood the following psalms to this period<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>—iii.; +iv.; xxv. (?); xxviii. (?); lviii. (?); lxi.; +lxii.; lxiii.; cix. (?); cxliii.</p> + +<p>The first two of these form a pair; they are +a morning and an evening hymn. The little +band are encamped on their road to Mahanaim, +with no roof but the stars, and no walls but the +arm of God. In the former the discrowned +king sings, as he rises from his nightly bivouac. +He pours out first his plaint of the foes, who +are described as "many," and as saying that, +"There is no help for him in God," words which +fully correspond to the formidable dimensions +of the revolt, and to the belief which actuated +the conspirators, and had appeared as possible +even to himself, that his sin had turned away +the aid of heaven from his cause. To such +utterances of malice and confident hatred he +opposes the conviction which had again filled +his soul, that even in the midst of real peril and +the shock of battle Jehovah is his "shield." +With bowed and covered head he had fled from +Jerusalem, but "Thou art the lifter up of mine +head." He was an exile from the tabernacle +on Zion, and he had sent back the ark to its +rest; but though he has to cry to God from +beyond Jordan, He answers "from His holy hill."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +He and his men camped amidst dangers, but +one unslumbering Helper mounted guard over +their undefended slumbers. "I laid me down +and slept" there among the echoes of the hills. +"I awaked, for Jehovah sustained me;" and +another night has passed without the sudden +shout of the rebels breaking the silence, or the +gleam of their swords in the starlight. The +experience of protection thus far heartens him +to front even the threatening circle of his foes +around him, whom it is his pain to think of as +"the people" of God, and yet as his foes. And +then he betakes himself in renewed energy of +faith to his one weapon of prayer, and even +before the battle sees the victory, and the +Divine power fracturing the jaws and breaking +the teeth of the wild beasts who hunt him. But +his last thought is not of retribution nor of fear; +for himself he rises to the height of serene trust, +"Salvation is of the Lord;" and for his foes +and for all the nation that had risen against +him his thoughts are worthy of a true king, +freed from all personal animosity, and his +words are a prayer conceived in the spirit of +Him whose dying breath was intercession for +His rebellious subjects who crucified their King, +"Thy blessing be upon Thy people."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> + +<p>The fourth psalm is the companion evening +hymn. Its former portion (vers. 2-4) seems to +be a remonstrance addressed as if to the leaders +of the revolt ("sons of men" being equivalent +to "persons of rank and dignity"). It is the +expression in vivid form, most natural to such +a nature, of his painful feeling under their +slanders; and also of his hopes and desires for +them, that calm thought in these still evening +hours which are falling on the world may lead +them to purer service and to reliance on God. +So forgivingly, so lovingly does he think of +them, ere he lays himself down to rest, wishing +that "on their beds," as on his, the peace of +meditative contemplation may rest, and the +day of war's alarms be shut in by holy "communion +with their own hearts" and with God.</p> + +<p>The second portion turns to himself and +his followers, among whom we may suppose +some faint hearts were beginning to +despond; and to them, as to the very enemy, +David would fain be the bringer of a better +mind. "Many say, Who will show us +good?" He will turn them from their vain +search round the horizon on a level with their +own eyes for the appearance of succour. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +must look upwards, not round about. They +must turn their question, which only expects a +negative answer, into a prayer, fashioned like +that triple priestly benediction of old (Numbers +vi. 24-26). His own experience bursts forth +irrepressible. He had prayed in his hour of +penitence, "Make me to hear joy and gladness" +(Psa. li.); and the prayer had been answered, if +not before, yet now when peril had brought +him nearer to God, and trust had drawn God +nearer to him. In his calamity, as is ever the +case with devout souls, his joy increased, as +Greek fire burns more brightly under water. +Therefore this pauper sovereign, discrowned +and fed by the charity of the Gileadite pastoral +chief, sings, "Thou hast put gladness in my +heart, more than in the time that their corn and +wine increased." And how tranquilly the psalm +closes, and seems to lull itself to rest, "In peace +I will at once lie down and sleep, for Thou, O +Jehovah, only makest me dwell safely." The +growing security which experience of God's care +should ever bring, is beautifully marked by the +variation on the similar phrase in the previous +psalm. There he gratefully recorded that he +had laid himself down and slept; here he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +promises himself that he will lie down "in +peace;" and not only so, but that at once on +his lying down he will sleep—kept awake by +no anxieties, by no bitter thoughts, but, homeless +and in danger as he is, will close his eyes, +like a tired child, without a care or a fear, and +forthwith sleep, with the pressure and the protection +of his Father's arm about him.</p> + +<p>This psalm sounds again the glad trustful +strain which has slumbered in his harp-strings +ever since the happy old days of his early trials, +and is re-awakened as the rude blast of calamity +sweeps through them once more.</p> + +<p>The sixty-third psalm is by the superscription +referred to the time when David was "in the +wilderness of Judah," which has led many +readers to think of his long stay there during +Saul's persecution. But the psalm certainly +belongs to the period of his reign, as is obvious +from its words, "<i>The king</i> shall rejoice in God." +It must therefore belong to his brief sojourn in +the same wilderness on his flight to Mahanaim, +when, as we read in 2 Sam., "The people were +weary and hungry and thirsty in the wilderness." +There is a beautiful progress of thought +in it, which is very obvious if we notice the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +triple occurrence of the words "my soul," and +their various connections—"my soul thirsteth," +"my soul is satisfied," "my soul followeth hard +after Thee;" or, in other words, the psalm is a +transcript of the passage of a believing soul +from longing through fruition to firm trust, +in which it is sustained by the right hand of +God.</p> + +<p>The first of these emotions, which is so +natural to the fugitive in his sorrows, is expressed +with singular poetic beauty in language +borrowed from the ashen grey monotony of the +waterless land in which he was. One of our +most accurate and least imaginative travellers +describes it thus: "There were no signs of +vegetation, with the exception of a few reeds +and rushes, and here and there a tamarisk." +This lonely land, cracked with drought, as if +gaping with chapped lips for the rain that comes +not, is the image of his painful yearning for +the Fountain of living waters. As his men +plodded along over the burning marl, fainting +for thirst and finding nothing in the dry +torrent beds, so he longed for the refreshment +of that gracious presence. Then he remembers +how in happier days he had had the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +desires, and they had been satisfied in the +tabernacle. Probably the words should read, +"Thus in the sanctuary have I gazed upon +Thee, to see Thy power and Thy glory." In the +desert and in the sanctuary his longing had +been the same, but then he had been able to +behold the symbol which bore the name, "the +glory,"—and now he wanders far from it. How +beautifully this regretful sense of absence from +and pining after the ark is illustrated by those +inimitably pathetic words of the fugitive's +answer to the priests who desired to share his +exile. "And the king said unto Zadok, Carry +back the ark of God into the city. If I find +favour in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring +me again, and show me both it and His habitation."</p> + +<p>The fulfilment is cotemporaneous with the +desire. The swiftness of the answer is beautifully +indicated in the quick turn with which the +psalm passes from plaintive longing to exuberant +rapture of fruition. In the one breath +"my soul thirsteth;" in the next, "my soul is +satisfied"—as when in tropical lands the rain +comes, and in a day or two what had been +baked earth is rich meadow, and the dry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +torrent-beds, where the white stones glistered +in the sunshine, foam with rushing waters and +are edged with budding willows. The fulness +of satisfaction when God fills the soul is vividly +expressed in the familiar image of the feast +of "marrow and fatness," on which he banquets +even while hungry in the desert. The +abundant delights of fellowship with God make +him insensible to external privations, are drink +for him thirsty, food for his hunger, a home in +his wanderings, a source of joy and music in +the midst of much that is depressing: "My +mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips." The +little camp had to keep keen look-out for +nightly attacks; and it is a slight link of connection, +very natural under the circumstances, +between the psalms of this period, that they all +have some references to the perilous hours of +darkness. We have found him laying himself +down to sleep in peace; here he wakes, not to +guard from hostile surprises, but in the silence +there below the stars to think of God and feel +again the fulness of His all-sufficiency. Happy +thoughts, not fears, hold his eyes waking. "I +remember Thee upon my bed."</p> + +<p>The fruition heartens for renewed exercise of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> +confidence, in which David feels himself upheld +by God, and foresees his enemies' defeat and +his own triumph. "My soul cleaveth after +Thee"—a remarkable phrase, in which the two +metaphors of tenacious adherence and eager +following are mingled to express the two +"phases of faith," which are really one—of +union with and quest after God, the possession +which pursues, the pursuit which possesses Him +who is at once grasped and felt after by the +finite creature whose straitest narrowness is not +too narrow to be blessed by some indwelling of +God, but whose widest expansion of capacity +and desire can but contain a fragment of His +fulness. From such elevation of high communion +he looks down and onward into the dim +future, his enemies sunken, like Korah and his +rebels, into the gaping earth, or scattered in +fight, and the jackals that were snuffing hungrily +about his camp in the wilderness gorging themselves +on corpses, while he himself, once more +"king," shall rejoice in God, and with his faithful +companions, whose lips and hearts were true +to God and His anointed, shall glory in the +deliverance that by the arbitrament of victory +has flung back the slanders of the rebels in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +their teeth, and choked them with their own +lies.</p> + +<p>Our space forbids more than a brief reference +to psalm lxii., which seems also to belong to +this time. It has several points of contact +with those already considered, <i>e.g.</i>, the phrase, +"sons of men," in the sense of "nobles" (ver. +9); "my soul," as equivalent to "myself," and +yet as a kind of quasi-separate personality +which he can study and exhort; the significant +use of the term "people," and the double exhortations +to his own devout followers and to +the arrogant enemy. The whole tone is that of +patient resignation, which we have found characterising +David now. The first words are the +key-note of the whole, "Truly unto God my +soul is silence"—is all one great stillness of +submissive waiting upon Him. It was in the +very crisis of his fate, in the suspense of the +uncertain issue of the rebellion, that these +words, the very sound of which has calmed +many a heart since, welled to his lips. The expression +of unwavering faith and unbroken +peace is much heightened by the frequent recurrence +of the word which is variously translated +"truly," "surely," and "only." It carries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +the force of confident affirmation, like the +"verily" of the New Testament, and is here +most significantly prefixed to the assertions of +his patient resignation (ver. 1); of God's defence +(ver. 2); of the enemies' whispered counsels +(ver. 4); to his exhortation of his soul to the +resignation which it already exercises (ver. 5); +and to the triumphant reiteration of God's all-sufficient +protection. How beautifully, too, does +that reiteration—almost verbal repetition—of +the opening words strengthen the impression of +his habitual trust. His soul in its silence murmurs +to itself, as it were, the blessed thoughts +over and over again. Their echoes haunt his +spirit "lingering and wandering on, as loth to +die;" and if for a moment the vision of his +enemies disturbs their flow, one indignant question +flung at them suffices, "How long will ye +rush upon a man? (how long) will ye all of you +thrust him down as (if he were) a bowing wall, +a tottering fence?" and with a rapid glance at +their plots and bitter words, he comes back +again to his calm gaze on God. Lovingly he +accumulates happy names for Him, which, in +their imagery, as well as in their repetition, +remind us of the former songs of the fugitive.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +"My rock," in whom I hide; "He is my salvation," +which is even more than "from Him +cometh my salvation;" my "fortress," my +"glory," "the rock of my strength," "my refuge." +So many phases of his need and of God's sufficiency +thus gathered together, tell how familiar +to the thoughts and real to the experience of +the aged fugitive was his security in Jehovah. +The thirty years since last he had wandered +there have confirmed the faith of his earlier +songs; and though the ruddy locks of the young +chieftain are silvered with grey now, and sins +and sorrows have saddened him, yet he can +take up again with deeper meaning the tones +of his old praise, and let the experience of age +seal with its "verily" the hopes of youth. Exhortations +to his people to unite themselves +with him in his faith, and assurances that God +is a refuge for them too, with solemn warnings +to the rebels, close this psalm of glad submission. +It is remarkable for the absence of all petitions. +He needs nothing beyond what he has. As the +companion psalm says, his soul "is satisfied." +Communion with God has its moments of restful +blessedness, when desire is stilled, and expires +in peaceful fruition.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p> + +<p>The other psalms of this period must be left unnoticed. +The same general tone pervades them +all. In many particulars they closely resemble +those of the Sauline period. But the resemblance +fails very significantly at one point. The +emphatic assertion of his innocence is gone for +ever. Pardoned indeed he is, cleansed, conscious +of God's favour, and able to rejoice in it; +but carrying to the end the remembrance of his +sore fall, and feeling it all the more penitently, +the more he is sure of God's forgiveness. Let +us remember that there are sins which, once +done, leave their traces on memory and conscience, +painting indelible forms on the walls of +our "chambers of imagery," and transmitting +results which remission and sanctifying do not, +on earth at least, wholly obliterate. Let David's +youthful prayer be ours, "Keep back Thy servant +from presumptuous sins: then shall I be +upright, and I shall be innocent from much +transgression."</p> + +<p>It does not fall within the scope of this volume +to deal with the suppression of Absalom's +revolt, nor with the ten years of rule that remained +to David after his restoration. The +psalter does not appear to contain psalms which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +throw light upon the somewhat clouded closing +years of his reign. One psalm, indeed, there is +attributed to him, which is, at any rate, the +work of an old man—a sweet song into which +mellow wisdom has condensed its final lessons—and +a snatch of it may stand instead of any +summing-up of the life by us:</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Trust in the Lord, and do good;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">Dwell in the land, and enjoy security;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">Delight thyself also in the Lord,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">And He shall give thee the desires of thy heart.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">Commit thy way unto the Lord.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">I have been young and now am old,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">I have seen the wicked in great power,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">And spreading himself like a green tree....</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.25em;">Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not."</span></p> + +<p>May we not apply the next words to the +psalmist himself, and hear him calling us to +look on him as he lies on his dying bed—disturbed +though it were by ignoble intrigues of +hungry heirs—after so many storms nearing the +port; after so many vicissitudes, close to the +unchanging home; after so many struggles, +resting quietly on the breast of God: "Mark +the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +end of that man is peace?" Into this opal +calmness, as of the liquid light of sunset, all the +flaming splendours of the hot day have melted. +The music of his songs die away into "peace;" +as when some master holds our ears captive +with tones so faint that we scarce can tell sound +from silence, until the jar of common noises, +which that low sweetness had deadened, rushes +in.</p> + +<p>One strain of a higher mood is preserved for +us in the historical books that prophesy of the +true King, whom his own failures and sins, no +less than his consecration and victories, had +taught him to expect. The dying eyes see on +the horizon of the far-off future the form of +Him who is to be a just and perfect ruler; before +the brightness of whose presence, and the refreshing +of whose influence, verdure and beauty +shall clothe the world. As the shades gather, +that radiant glory to come brightens. He +departs in peace, having seen the salvation from +afar. It was fitting that this fullest of his +prophecies should be the last of his strains, as +if the rapture which thrilled the trembling +strings had snapped them in twain.</p> + +<p>And then, for earth, the richest voice which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +God ever tuned for His praise was hushed, and +the harp of Jesse's son hangs untouched above +his grave. But for him death was God's last, +best answer to his prayer, "O Lord, open Thou +my lips;" and as that cold but most loving +hand unclothes him from the weakness of flesh, +and leads him in among the choirs of heaven, +we can almost hear again his former thanksgiving +breaking from his immortal lips, "Thou +hast put a new song into my mouth," whose +melodies, unsaddened by plaintive minors +of penitence and pain, are yet nobler and +sweeter than the psalms which he sang here, +and left to be the solace and treasure of all +generations!<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Index" style="width: 90%;"> +<tr> +<td align='left' style="width: 10%;"><span class="smcap"> Psalm</span></td> +<td align='right' style="width: 70%;"> </td> +<td align='right' style="width: 30%;"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>iii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_246">246</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>iv.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>vii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>viii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xi.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xiii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xv.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xvii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xviii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_153">153</a>, and <a href="#Page_157">157</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xix.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xx.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxiii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxiv.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxv.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxvii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxix.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxxi.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxxii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxxiv.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxxv.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxxvii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_259">259</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xxxix.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>xli.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_234">234</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>li.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>lii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>liv.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>lv.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_240">240</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>lvi.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>lvii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>lix.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>lx.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>lxii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>lxiii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>lxiv.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>lxviii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>cx.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align='right'>cxliii.</td> +<td align='left'> </td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td> +</tr> +</table></div><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="WORKS" id="WORKS"></a><i>WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</i></h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> + +<p class="center"><i>Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each.</i></p> + +<br /> + +<h3>THE PSALMS.</h3> + +<br /> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 13em;"><span class="smcap">Vol. I.—Psalms I.-XXXVIII.</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><span class="smcap">" II.—Psalms XXXIX.-LXXXIX.</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><span class="smcap">" III.—Psalms XC-CL.</span></span></p> + +<br /> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">In the "Expositor's Bible."</span></p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The work of a brilliant and effective teacher. He writes with real power +and insight."—<i>Saturday Review.</i></p> + +<p>"Dr. Maclaren has evidently mastered his subject with the aid of the best +authorities, and has put the results of his studies before his readers in a most +attractive form, and if we add that this commentary really helps to the better +understanding of the Psalms, that, far from degrading, it vivifies and illuminates +these sublime stories, and that it is written in a charming style, very +seldom falling below the dignity of the subject, we believe we only give it the +praise which is its due."—<i>Scotsman.</i></p> + +<p>"It is scholarly, honest, thoughtful, and suggestive."—<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>"Striking thoughts, strongly expressed, are to be found on every page."—<i>Manchester +Guardian.</i></p> + +<p>"There is certainly room for the work which Dr. Maclaren does here—largely +because it is he who does it. The book is most heartily to be commended. +Preachers will find it to be a mine of wealth, and to Christians of +all kinds it may serve as a manual of devotion."—<i>Christian World.</i></p> + +<p>"Dr. Maclaren's charming pages furnish a most fruitful field of study, +alike for those whose chief aim is personal edification, and for those who are +in quest of suggestions in the line of ministerial service. Altogether a most +valuable book."—<i>United Presbyterian Magazine.</i></p> + +<p>"Most heartily do we welcome this new volume of Dr. Maclaren's +'Exposition of the Psalms.' It fully sustains the traditions of insight, +scholarly instinct, and spiritual force which gather around that beloved name. +Notwithstanding the rich treasures of devout literature which the Psalter has +called forth, there is a special niche for this book, and it makes a distinct +advance in tone and method upon all other commentaries on the Psalms. +We greatly err if this does not prove the most popular and useful commentary +in the English language, both among preachers and the commonality of +Christ's Church."—<i>Evangelical Magazine.</i><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p></div> + +<p class="center">LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.</p> +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="BIBLE" id="BIBLE"></a>BIBLE CLASS EXPOSITIONS.</h3> + +<p class="center"><i>Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. each volume.</i></p> + +<p class="center">THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Two Vols.</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"They are all written in clear, forcible language, and bring abundant +illustration from science, the facts of life and history and Scripture. All +through they manifest a true philosophical spirit, and a deep knowledge of +human nature. None can read them without profit."—<i>Leeds Mercury.</i></p></div> + +<p class="center">THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"As clear, luminous, and pellucid as is everything that comes from the pen +of the great Manchester preacher. Even in treating the simplest incident he +surprises his readers, and that without once forcing the note, or seeking +sensationalism."—<i>Christian World.</i></p></div> + +<p class="center">THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Dr. Maclaren is a prince of expositors, and his expositions are as wholesome +as they are able, and as interesting as they are instructive and edifying. +Every paragraph is luminous with vivid expression."—<i>The London Quarterly +Review.</i></p></div> + +<p class="center">THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"There is much freshness and suggestiveness in these papers. Dr. +Maclaren has studied the art of compression with great success, and no +teacher of a class could desire anything better for his purpose than these +lessons. They may be heartily recommended to all teachers as about the +best things of the kind to be had."—<i>Glasgow Herald.</i></p></div> + +<p class="center">THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The more this volume is read and studied the more do we admire the +humility that ranks such a book as for Bible Classes only. It is for them +beyond all question, and better fare has nowhere been provided for them. +Whether they be Bible Classes or preachers who study this volume they will +be enriched and strengthened by it."—<i>Presbyterian.</i><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span></p></div> + +<p class="center">LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.</p> +<hr /> + +<div class="trans-note">Transcriber's Note: The following list of books has been moved from +the front to the back of the book to make the beginning more reader-friendly.</div> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="LIBRARY" id="LIBRARY">THE HOUSEHOLD LIBRARY OF EXPOSITION</a></h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> + +<p><b>The Life of David as Reflected in his Psalms.</b> By +<span class="smcap">Alexander Maclaren</span>, D.D. Ninth Edition. + 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.</b> By <span class="smcap">Marcus Dods</span>, D.D. Sixth +Thousand. 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>The Last Supper of our Lord, and His Words of Consolation +to the Disciples.</b> By Principal <span class="smcap">J. + Marshall Lang</span>, D.D. Third Edition. 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>The Speeches of the Holy Apostles.</b> By the Rev. <span class="smcap">Donald +Fraser</span>, D.D., London. Second Edition. 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>The Galilean Gospel.</b> By the Rev. Professor <span class="smcap">A. B. Bruce</span>, D.D. +Fourth Edition. 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>The Lamb of God: Expositions in the Writings of St. +John.</b> By <span class="smcap">W. R. Nicoll</span>, M.A., LL.D. Second Thousand. +2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>The Lord's Prayer.</b> By <span class="smcap">Charles Stanford</span>, D.D. Fourth +Thousand. 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>The Parables of our Lord. First Series.</b> As Recorded by +St. Matthew. By <span class="smcap">Marcus Dods</span>, D.D. Twelfth Thousand. +3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>The Parables of our Lord. Second Series.</b> As Recorded +by St. Luke. By the same Author. Tenth Thousand. 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><b>The Law of the Ten Words.</b> By Principal <span class="smcap">J. Oswald Dykes</span>, +D.D. Fourth Thousand. 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London</span>: HODDER & STOUGHTON,<br /> +27, <span class="smcap">Paternoster Row</span>.</p> +<hr /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of David, by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF DAVID *** + +***** This file should be named 21872-h.htm or 21872-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/7/21872/ + +Produced by Colin Bell, Thomas Strong and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life of David + As Reflected in His Psalms + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: June 19, 2007 [EBook #21872] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF DAVID *** + + + + +Produced by Colin Bell, Thomas Strong and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +{Transcriber's Note: Obvious typos, printing errors and mis-spellings + have been corrected, but spellings have not been modernized. Footnotes + follow immediately the paragraph in which they are noted. In Chapter + XV, eighth paragraph, second last line, "His" changed to "his" in the + sentence "Happy thoughts, not fears, hold his eyes waking" to agree + with the author's obvious reference to David rather than to God.} + + + =The Household Library of Exposition.= + + + THE LIFE OF DAVID + AS REFLECTED IN HIS PSALMS. + + + + + THE + LIFE OF DAVID + AS REFLECTED IN HIS PSALMS. + + + BY + + + ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D. + + + _NINTH EDITION._ + + + =London:= + HODDER AND STOUGHTON + 27, PATERNOSTER ROW + + + MCMIII + + +_Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I. INTRODUCTION, 1 + II. EARLY DAYS, 14 + III. EARLY DAYS--_continued_, 31 + IV. THE EXILE, 49 + V. THE EXILE--_continued_, 70 + VI. THE EXILE--_continued_, 86 + VII. THE EXILE--_continued_, 110 + VIII. THE EXILE--_continued_, 130 + IX. THE KING, 144 + X. THE KING--_continued_, 157 + XI. THE KING--_continued_, 174 + XII. THE KING--_continued_, 185 + XIII. THE TEARS OF THE PENITENT, 205 + XIV. CHASTISEMENTS, 232 + XV. THE SONGS OF THE FUGITIVE, 245 + INDEX, 262 + WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 263 + BIBLE CLASS EXPOSITIONS, 264 + THE HOUSEHOLD LIBRARY OF EXPOSITION, 265 + + + + +I.--INTRODUCTION. + + +Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the life of David is its +romantic variety of circumstances. What a many-coloured career that was +which began amidst the pastoral solitudes of Bethlehem, and ended in the +chamber where the dying ears heard the blare of the trumpets that +announced the accession of Bathsheba's son! He passes through the most +sharply contrasted conditions, and from each gathers some fresh fitness +for his great work of giving voice and form to all the phases of devout +feeling. The early shepherd life deeply influenced his character, and +has left its traces on many a line of his psalms. + + "Love had he found in huts where poor men lie; + His daily teachers had been woods and rills; + The silence that is in the starry sky, + The sleep that is among the lonely hills." + +And then, in strange contrast with the meditative quiet and lowly duties +of these first years, came the crowded vicissitudes of the tempestuous +course through which he reached his throne--court minstrel, companion +and friend of a king, idol of the people, champion of the armies of +God--and in his sudden elevation keeping the gracious sweetness of his +lowlier, and perhaps happier days. The scene changes with startling +suddenness to the desert. He is "hunted like a partridge upon the +mountains," a fugitive and half a freebooter, taking service at foreign +courts, and lurking on the frontiers with a band of outlaws recruited +from the "dangerous classes" of Israel. Like Dante and many more, he has +to learn the weariness of the exile's lot--how hard his fare, how +homeless his heart, how cold the courtesies of aliens, how unslumbering +the suspicions which watch the refugee who fights on the side of his +"natural enemies." One more swift transition and he is on the throne, +for long years victorious, prosperous, and beloved. + + "Nor did he change; but kept in lofty place + The wisdom which adversity had bred," + +till suddenly he is plunged into the mire, and falsifies all his past, +and ruins for ever, by the sin of his mature age, his peace of heart +and the prosperity of his kingdom. Thenceforward trouble is never far +away; and his later years are shaded with the saddening consciousness of +his great fault, as well as by hatred and rebellion and murder in his +family, and discontent and alienation in his kingdom. + +None of the great men of Scripture pass through a course of so many +changes; none of them touched human life at so many points; none of them +were so tempered and polished by swift alternation of heat and cold, by +such heavy blows and the friction of such rapid revolutions. Like his +great Son and Lord, though in a lower sense, he, too, must be "in all +points tempted like as we are," that his words may be fitted for the +solace and strength of the whole world. Poets "learn in suffering what +they teach in song." These quick transitions of fortune, and this wide +experience, are the many-coloured threads from which the rich web of his +psalms is woven. + +And while the life is singularly varied, the character is also +singularly full and versatile. In this respect, too, he is most unlike +the other leading figures of Old Testament history. Contrast him, for +example, with the stern majesty of Moses, austere and simple as the +tables of stone; or with the unvarying tone in the gaunt strength of +Elijah. These and the other mighty men in Israel are like the ruder +instruments of music--the trumpet of Sinai, with its one prolonged note. +David is like his own harp of many chords, through which the breath of +God murmured, drawing forth wailing and rejoicing, the clear ring of +triumphant trust, the low plaint of penitence, the blended harmonies of +all devout emotions. + +The man had his faults--grave enough. Let it be remembered that no one +has judged them more rigorously than himself. The critics who have +delighted to point at them have been anticipated by the penitent; and +their indictment has been little more than the quotation of his own +confession. His tremulously susceptible nature, especially assailable by +the delights of sense, led him astray. There are traces in his life of +occasional craft and untruthfulness which even the exigencies of exile +and war do not wholly palliate. Flashes of fierce vengeance at times +break from the clear sky of his generous nature. His strong affection +became, in at least one case, weak and foolish fondness for an unworthy +son. + +But when all this is admitted, there remains a wonderfully rich, lovable +character. He is the very ideal of a minstrel hero, such as the legends +of the East especially love to paint. The shepherd's staff or sling, the +sword, the sceptre, and the lyre are equally familiar to his hands. That +union of the soldier and the poet gives the life a peculiar charm, and +is very strikingly brought out in that chapter of the book of Samuel (2 +Sam. xxiii.) which begins, "These be the last words of David," and after +giving the swan-song of him whom it calls "the sweet psalmist of +Israel," passes immediately to the other side of the dual character, +with, "These be the names of the mighty men whom David had." + +Thus, on the one side, we see the true poetic temperament, with all its +capacities for keenest delight and sharpest agony, with its tremulous +mobility, its openness to every impression, its gaze of child-like +wonder, and eager welcome to whatsoever things are lovely, its +simplicity and self-forgetfulness, its yearnings "after worlds half +realized," its hunger for love, its pity, and its tears. He was made to +be the inspired poet of the religious affections. + +And, on the other side, we see the greatest qualities of a military +leader of the antique type, in which personal daring and a strong arm +count for more than strategic skill. He dashes at Goliath with an +enthusiasm of youthful courage and faith. While still in the earliest +bloom of his manhood, at the head of his wild band of outlaws, he shows +himself sagacious, full of resource, prudent in counsel, and swift as +lightning in act; frank and generous, bold and gentle, cheery in defeat, +calm in peril, patient in privations and ready to share them with his +men, modest and self-restrained in victory, chivalrous to his foes, ever +watchful, ever hopeful--a born leader and king of men. + +The basis of all was a profound, joyous trust in his Shepherd God, an +ardour of personal love to Him, such as had never before been expressed, +if it had ever found place, in Israel. That trust "opened his mouth to +show forth" God's praise, and strengthened his "fingers to fight." He +has told us himself what was his habitual temper, and how it was +sustained: "I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my +right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my +glory rejoiceth." (Psa. xvi. 8, 9.) + +Thus endowed, he moved among men with that irresistible fascination +which only the greatest exercise. From the day when he stole like a +sunbeam into the darkened chamber where Saul wrestled with the evil +spirit, he bows all hearts that come under his spell. The women of +Israel chant his name with song and timbrel, the daughter of Saul +confesses her love unasked, the noble soul of Jonathan cleaves to him, +the rude outlaws in his little army peril their lives to gratify his +longing for a draught from the well where he had watered his father's +flocks; the priests let him take the consecrated bread, and trust him +with Goliath's sword, from behind the altar; his lofty courtesy wins the +heart of Abigail; the very king of the Philistines tells him that he is +"good in his sight as an angel of God;" the unhappy Saul's last word to +him is a blessing; six hundred men of Gath forsake home and country to +follow his fortunes when he returns from exile; and even in the dark +close of his reign, though sin and self-indulgence, and neglect of his +kingly duties, had weakened his subjects' loyalty, his flight before +Absalom is brightened by instances of passionate devotion which no +common character could have evoked; and even then his people are ready +to die for him, and in their affectionate pride call him "the light of +Israel." It was a prophetic instinct which made Jesse call his youngest +boy by a name apparently before unused--David, "Beloved." + +The Spirit of God, acting through these great natural gifts, and using +this diversified experience of life, originated in him a new form of +inspiration. The Law was the revelation of the mind, and, in some +measure, of the heart, of God to man. The Psalm is the echo of the law, +the return current set in motion by the outflow of the Divine will, the +response of the heart of man to the manifested God. There had, indeed, +been traces of hymns before David. There were the burst of triumph which +the daughters of Israel sang, with timbrel and dance, over Pharaoh and +his host; the prayer of Moses the man of God (Psa. xc.), so archaic in +its tone, bearing in every line the impress of the weary wilderness and +the law of death; the song of the dying lawgiver (Deut. xxxii.); the +passionate paean of Deborah; and some few briefer fragments. But, +practically, the Psalm began with David; and though many hands struck +the harp after him, even down at least to the return from exile, he +remains emphatically "the sweet psalmist of Israel." + +The psalms which are attributed to him have, on the whole, a marked +similarity of manner. Their characteristics have been well summed up as +"creative originality, predominantly elegiac tone, graceful form and +movement, antique but lucid style;"[A] to which may be added the +intensity of their devotion, the passion of Divine love that glows in +them all. They correspond, too, with the circumstances of his life as +given in the historical books. The early shepherd days, the manifold +sorrows, the hunted wanderings, the royal authority, the wars, the +triumphs, the sin, the remorse, which are woven together so strikingly +in the latter, all reappear in the psalms. The illusions, indeed, are +for the most part general rather than special, as is natural. His words +are thereby the better fitted for ready application to the trials of +other lives. But it has been perhaps too hastily assumed that the +allusions are so general as to make it impossible to connect them with +any precise events, or to make the psalms and the history mutually +illustrative. Much, no doubt, must be conjectured rather than affirmed, +and much must be left undetermined; but when all deductions on that +score have been made, it still appears possible to carry the process +sufficiently far to gain fresh insight into the force and definiteness +of many of David's words, and to use them with tolerable confidence as +throwing light upon the narrative of his career. The attempt is made in +some degree in this volume. + +[A] Delitzsch, Kommentar, u. d. Psalter II. 376. + +It will be necessary to prefix a few further remarks on the Davidic +psalms in general. Can we tell which are David's? The Psalter, as is +generally known, is divided into five books or parts, probably from some +idea that it corresponded with the Pentateuch. These five books are +marked by a doxology at the close of each, except the last. The first +portion consists of Psa. i.-xli.; the second of Psa. xlii.-lxxii; the +third of Psa. lxxiii.-lxxxix; the fourth of Psa. xc.-cvi.; and the fifth +of Psa. cvii.-cl. The psalms attributed to David are unequally +distributed through these five books. There are seventy-three in all, +and they run thus:--In the first book there are thirty-seven; so that +if we regard psalms i. and ii. as a kind of double introduction, a +frontispiece and vignette title-page to the whole collection, the first +book proper only two which are not regarded as David's. The second book +has a much smaller proportion, only eighteen out of thirty-one. The +third book has but one, the fourth two; while the fifth has fifteen, +eight of which (cxxxviii.-cxlv.) occur almost at the close. The +intention is obvious--to throw the Davidic psalms as much as possible +together in the first two books. And the inference is not unnatural that +these may have formed an earlier collection, to which were afterwards +added the remaining three, with a considerable body of alleged psalms of +David, which had subsequently come to light, placed side by side at the +end, so as to round off the whole. + +Be that as it may, one thing is clear from the arrangement of the +Psalter, namely, that the superscriptions which give the authors' names +are at least as old as the collection itself; for they have guided the +order of the collection in the grouping not only of Davidic psalms, but +also of those attributed to the sons of Korah (xlii.-xlix.) and to Asaph +(lxxiii.-lxxxiii.) + +The question of the reliableness of these superscriptions is hotly +debated. The balance of modern opinion is decidedly against their +genuineness. As in greater matters, so here "the higher criticism" comes +to the consideration of their claims with a prejudice against them, and +on very arbitrary grounds determines for itself, quite irrespective of +these ancient voices, the date and authorship of the psalms. The extreme +form of this tendency is to be found in the masterly work of Ewald, who +has devoted all his vast power of criticism (and eked it out with all +his equally great power of confident assertion) to the book, and has +come to the conclusion that we have but eleven of David's psalms,--which +is surely a result that may lead to questionings as to the method which +has attained it. + +These editorial notes are proved to be of extreme antiquity by such +considerations as these: The Septuagint translators found them, and did +not understand them; the synagogue preserves no traditions to explain +them; the Book of Chronicles throws no light upon them; they are very +rare in the two last books of the Psalter (Delitzsch, ii. 393). In some +cases they are obviously erroneous, but in the greater number there is +nothing inconsistent with their correctness in the psalms to which they +are appended; while very frequently they throw a flood of light upon +these, and all but prove their trustworthiness by their appropriateness. +They are not authoritative, but they merit respectful consideration, +and, as Dr. Perowne puts it in his valuable work on the Psalms, stand on +a par with the subscriptions to the Epistles in the New Testament. +Regarding them thus, and yet examining the psalms to which they are +prefixed, there seem to be about forty-five which we may attribute with +some confidence to David, and with these we shall be concerned in this +book. + + + + +II.--EARLY DAYS + + +The life of David is naturally divided into epochs, of which we may +avail ourselves for the more ready arrangement of our material. These +are--his early years up to his escape from the court of Saul, his exile, +the prosperous beginning of his reign, his sin and penitence, his flight +before Absalom's rebellion, and the darkened end. + +We have but faint incidental traces of his life up to his anointing by +Samuel, with which the narrative in the historical books opens. But +perhaps the fact that the story begins with that consecration to office, +is of more value than the missing biography of his childhood could have +been. It teaches us the point of view from which Scripture regards its +greatest names--as nothing, except in so far as they are God's +instruments. Hence its carelessness, notwithstanding that so much of it +is history, of all that merely illustrates the personal character of +its heroes. Hence, too, the clearness with which, notwithstanding that +indifference, the living men are set before us--the image cut with half +a dozen strokes of the chisel. + +We do not know the age of David when Samuel appeared in the little +village with the horn of sacred oil in his hand. The only approximation +to it is furnished by the fact, that he was thirty at the beginning of +his reign. (2 Sam. v. 4.) If we take into account that his exile must +have lasted for a very considerable period (one portion of it, his +second flight to the Philistines, was sixteen months, 1 Sam. xxvii. +7),--that the previous residence at the court of Saul must have been +long enough to give time for his gradual rise to popularity, and +thereafter for the gradual development of the king's insane +hatred,--that further back still there was an indefinite period, between +the fight with Goliath, and the first visit as a minstrel-physician to +the palace, which was spent at Bethlehem, and that that visit itself +cannot have been very brief, since in its course he became very dear and +familiar to Saul,--it will not seem that all these events could be +crowded into less than some twelve or fifteen years, or that he could +have been more than a lad of some sixteen years of age when Samuel's +hand smoothed the sacred oil on his clustering curls. + +How life had gone with him till then, we can easily gather from the +narrative of Scripture. His father's household seems to have been one in +which modest frugality ruled. There is no trace of Jesse having +servants; his youngest child does menial work; the present which he +sends to his king when David goes to court was simple, and such as a man +in humble life would give--an ass load of bread, one skin of wine, and +one kid--his flocks were small--"a few sheep." It would appear as if +prosperity had not smiled on the family since the days of Jesse's +grandfather, Boaz, that "mighty man of wealth." David's place in the +household does not seem to have been a happy one. His father scarcely +reckoned him amongst his sons, and answers Samuel's question, if the +seven burly husbandmen whom he has seen are all his children, with a +trace of contempt as he remembers that there is another, "and, behold, +he keepeth the sheep." Of his mother we hear but once, and that +incidentally, for a moment, long after. His brothers had no love for +him, and do not appear to have shared either his heart or his fortunes. +The boy evidently had the usual fate of souls like his, to grow up in +uncongenial circumstances, little understood and less sympathised with +by the common-place people round them, and thrown back therefore all the +more decisively upon themselves. The process sours and spoils some, but +it is the making of more--and where, as in this case, the nature is +thrown back upon God, and not on its own morbid operation, strength +comes from repression, and sweetness from endurance. He may have +received some instruction in one of Samuel's schools for the prophets, +but we are left in entire ignorance of what outward helps to unfold +itself were given to his budding life. + +Whatever others he had, no doubt those which are emphasized in the Bible +story were the chief, namely, his occupation and the many gifts which it +brought to him. The limbs, "like hinds' feet," the sinewy arms which +"broke a bow of steel," the precision with which he used the sling, the +agility which "leaped over a rampart," the health that glowed in his +"ruddy" face, were the least of his obligations to the breezy uplands, +where he kept his father's sheep. His early life taught him courage, +when he "smote the lion" and laid hold by his ugly muzzle of the bear +that "rose against him," rearing itself upright for the fatal hug. +Solitude and familiarity with nature helped to nurture the poetical side +of his character, and to strengthen that meditative habit which blends +so strangely with his impetuous activity, and which for the most part +kept tumults and toils from invading his central soul. They threw him +back on God who peopled the solitude and spoke in all nature. Besides +this, he acquired in the sheepcote lessons which he practised on the +throne, that rule means service, and that the shepherd of men holds his +office in order that he may protect and guide. And in the lowly +associations of his humble home, he learned the life of the people, +their simple joys, their unconspicuous toils, their unnoticed sorrows--a +priceless piece of knowledge both for the poet and for the king. + +A breach in all the tranquil habits of this modest life was made by +Samuel's astonishing errand. The story is told with wonderful +picturesqueness and dramatic force. The minute account of the successive +rejections of his brothers, Samuel's question and Jesse's answer, and +then the pause of idle waiting till the messenger goes and returns, +heighten the expectation with which we look for his appearance. And then +what a sweet young face is lovingly painted for us! "He was ruddy, and +withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to" (1 Sam. xvi. +12)--of fair complexion, with golden hair, which is rare among these +swarthy, black-locked easterns, with lovely eyes (for that is the +meaning of the words which the English Bible renders "of a beautiful +countenance"), large and liquid as become a poet. So he stood before the +old prophet, and with swelling heart and reverent awe received the holy +chrism. In silence, as it would seem, Samuel anointed him. Whether the +secret of his high destiny was imparted to him then, or left to be +disclosed in future years, is not told. But at all events, whether with +full understanding of what was before him or no, he must have been +conscious of a call that would carry him far away from the pastures and +olive yards of the little hamlet and of a new Spirit stirring in him +from that day forward. + +This sudden change in all the outlook of his life must have given new +materials for thought when he went back to his humble task. +Responsibility, or the prospect of it, makes lads into men very quickly. +Graver meditations, humbler consciousness of weakness, a firmer trust in +God who had laid the burden upon him, would do in days the work of +years. And the necessity for bidding back the visions of the future in +order to do faithfully the obscure duties of the present, would add +self-control and patience, not usually the graces of youth. How swiftly +he matured is singularly shown in the next recorded incident--his +summons to the court of Saul, by the character of him drawn by the +courtier who recommends him to the king. He speaks of David in words +more suitable to a man of established renown than to a stripling. He is +minstrel and warrior, "cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man," +and "skilled in speech (already eloquent), and fair in form, and the +Lord is with him." (1 Sam. xvi. 18.) So quickly had the new +circumstances and the energy of the Spirit of God, like tropical +sunshine, ripened his soul. + +That first visit to the court was but an episode in his life, however +helpful to his growth it may have been. It would give him the knowledge +of new scenes, widen his experience, and prepare him for the future. But +it cannot have been of very long duration. Possibly his harp lost its +power over Saul's gloomy spirit, when he had become familiar with its +notes. For whatever reason, he returned to his father's house, and +gladly exchanged the favour at court, which might have seemed to a +merely ambitious man the first step towards fulfilling the prophecy of +Samuel's anointing, for the freedom of the pastoral solitudes about +Bethlehem. There he remained, living to outward seeming as in the quiet +days before these two great earthquakes in his life, but with deeper +thoughts and new power, with broader experience, and a wider horizon, +until the hour when he was finally wrenched from his seclusion, and +flung into the whirlpool of his public career. + +There are none of David's psalms which can be with any certainty +referred to this first period of his life; but it has left deep traces +on many of them. The allusions to natural scenery and the frequent +references to varying aspects of the shepherd's life are specimens of +these. One characteristic of the poetic temperament is the faithful +remembrance and cherishing of early days. How fondly he recalled them is +shown in that most pathetic incident of his longing, as a weary exile, +for one draught of water from the well at Bethlehem--where in the dear +old times he had so often led his flocks. + +But though we cannot say confidently that we have any psalms prior to +his first exile, there are several which, whatever their date may be, +are echoes of his thoughts in these first days. This is especially the +case in regard to the group which describe varying aspects of +nature--viz., Psalms xix., viii., xxix. They are unlike his later psalms +in the almost entire absence of personal references, or of any trace of +pressing cares, or of signs of a varied experience of human life. In +their self-forgetful contemplation of nature, in their silence about +sorrow, in their tranquil beauty, they resemble the youthful works of +many a poet whose later verse throbs with quivering consciousness of +life's agonies, or wrestles strongly with life's problems. They may not +unnaturally be regarded as the outpouring of a young heart at leisure +from itself, and from pain, far from men and very near God. The fresh +mountain air of Bethlehem blows through them, and the dew of life's +quiet morning is on them. The early experience supplied their materials, +whatever was the date of their composition; and in them we can see what +his inward life was in these budding years. The gaze of child-like +wonder and awe upon the blazing brightness of the noonday, and on the +mighty heaven with all its stars, the deep voice with which all creation +spoke of God, the great thoughts of the dignity of man (thoughts ever +welcome to lofty youthful souls), the gleaming of an inward light +brighter than all suns, the consciousness of mysteries of weakness which +may become miracles of sin in one's own heart, the assurance of close +relation to God as His anointed and His servant, the cry for help and +guidance--all this is what we should expect David to have thought and +felt as he wandered among the hills, alone with God; and this is what +these psalms give us. + +Common to them all is the peculiar manner of looking upon nature, so +uniform in David's psalms, so unlike more modern descriptive poetry. He +can smite out a picture in a phrase, but he does not care to paint +landscapes. He feels the deep analogies between man and his +dwelling-place, but he does not care to lend to nature a shadowy life, +the reflection of our own. Creation is to him neither a subject for +poetical description, nor for scientific examination. It is nothing but +the garment of God, the apocalypse of the heavenly. And common to them +all is also the swift transition from the outward facts which reveal +God, to the spiritual world, where His presence is, if it were possible, +yet more needful, and His operations yet mightier. And common to them +all is a certain rush of full thought and joyous power, which is again a +characteristic of youthful work, and is unlike the elegiac tenderness +and pathos of David's later hymns. + +The nineteenth Psalm paints for us the glory of the heavens by day, as +the eighth by night. The former gathers up the impressions of many a +fresh morning when the solitary shepherd-boy watched the sun rising over +the mountains of Moab, which close the eastern view from the hills above +Bethlehem. The sacred silence of dawn, the deeper hush of night, have +voice for his ear. "No speech! and no words! unheard is their voice." +But yet, "in all the earth goeth forth their line,[B] and in the end of +the habitable world their sayings." The heavens and the firmament, the +linked chorus of day and night, are heralds of God's glory, with silent +speech, heard in all lands, an unremitting voice. And as he looks, there +leaps into the eastern heavens, not with the long twilight of northern +lands, the sudden splendour, the sun radiant as a bridegroom from the +bridal chamber, like some athlete impatient for the course. How the joy +of morning and its new vigour throb in the words! And then he watches +the strong runner climbing the heavens till the fierce heat beats down +into the deep cleft of the Jordan, and all the treeless southern hills, +as they slope towards the desert, lie bare and blazing beneath the +beams. + +[B] Their boundary, _i.e._, their territory, or the region through which +their witness extends. Others render "their chord," or sound (LXX. +Ewald, etc.) + +The sudden transition from the revelation of God in nature to His voice +in the law, has seemed to many critics unaccountable, except on the +supposition that this psalm is made up of two fragments, put together by +a later compiler; and some of them have even gone so far as to maintain +that "the feeling which saw God revealed in the law did not arise till +the time of Josiah."[C] But such a hypothesis is not required to explain +either the sudden transition or the difference in style and rhythm +between the two parts of the psalm, which unquestionably exists. The +turn from the outer world to the better light of God's word, is most +natural; the abruptness of it is artistic and impressive; the difference +of style and measure gives emphasis to the contrast. There is also an +obvious connection between the two parts, inasmuch as the law is +described by epithets, which in part hint at its being a brighter sun, +enlightening the eyes. + +[C] "Psalms chronologically arranged"--following Ewald. + +The Word which declares the will of the Lord is better than the heavens +which tell His glory. The abundance of synonyms for that word show how +familiar to his thoughts it was. To him it is "the law," "the +testimonies" by which God witnesses of Himself and of man: "the +statutes," the fixed settled ordinances; that which teaches "the fear of +God," the "judgments" or utterances of His mind on human conduct. They +are "perfect, firm, right, clean, pure,"--like that spotless +sun--"eternal, true." "They quicken, make wise, enlighten," even as the +light of the lower world. His heart prizes them "more than gold," of +which in his simple life he knew so little; more than "the honey," which +he had often seen dropping from "the comb" in the pastures of the +wilderness. + +And then the twofold contemplation rises into the loftier region of +prayer. He feels that there are dark depths in his soul, gloomier pits +than any into which the noontide sun shines. He speaks as one who is +conscious of dormant evils, which life has not yet evolved, and his +prayer is more directed towards the future than the past, and is thus +very unlike the tone of the later psalms, that wail out penitence and +plead for pardon. "Errors," or weaknesses,--"faults" unknown to +himself,--"high-handed sins,"[D]--such is the climax of the evils from +which he prays for deliverance. He knows himself "Thy servant" (2 Sam. +vii. 5, 8; Psa. lxxviii. 70)--an epithet which may refer to his +consecration to God's work by Samuel's anointing. He needs not only a +God who sets His glory in the heavens, nor even one whose will is made +known, but one who will touch his spirit,--not merely a Maker, but a +pardoning God; and his faith reaches its highest point as his song +closes with the sacred name of the covenant Jehovah, repeated for the +seventh time, and invoked in one final aspiration of a trustful heart, +as "my Rock, and my Redeemer." + +[D] The form of the word would make "reckless men" a more natural +translation; but probably the context requires a third, more aggravated +sort of sin. + +The eighth psalm is a companion picture, a night-piece, which, like the +former, speaks of many an hour of lonely brooding below the heavens, +whether its composition fall within this early period or no. The +prophetic and doctrinal value of the psalms is not our main subject in +the present volume, so that we have to touch but very lightly on this +grand hymn. What does it show us of the singer? We see him, like other +shepherds on the same hills, long after "keeping watch over his flocks +by night," and overwhelmed by all the magnificence of an eastern sky, +with its lambent lights. So bright, so changeless, so far,--how great +they are, how small the boy that gazes up so wistfully. Are they gods, +as all but his own nation believed? No,--"the work of Thy fingers," +"which Thou hast ordained." The consciousness of God as their Maker +delivers from the temptation of confounding bigness with greatness, and +wakes into new energy that awful sense of personality which towers above +all the stars. He is a babe and suckling--is that a trace of the early +composition of the psalm?--still he knows that out of his lips, already +beginning to break into song, and out of the lips of his fellows, God +perfects praise. There speaks the sweet singer of Israel, prizing as the +greatest of God's gifts his growing faculty, and counting his God-given +words as nobler than the voice of "night unto night." God's fingers made +these, but God's own breath is in him. God ordained them, but God visits +him. The description of man's dignity and dominion indicates how +familiar David was with the story in Genesis. It may perhaps also, +besides all the large prophetic truths which it contains, have some +special reference to his own earlier experience. It is at least worth +noting that he speaks of the dignity of man as kingly, like that which +was dawning on himself, and that the picture has no shadows either of +sorrow or of sin,--a fact which may point to his younger days, when +lofty thoughts of the greatness of the soul are ever natural and when in +his case the afflictions and crimes that make their presence felt in +all his later works had not fallen upon him. Perhaps, too, it may not be +altogether fanciful to suppose that we may see the shepherd-boy +surrounded by his flocks, and the wild creatures that prowled about the +fold, and the birds asleep in their coverts beneath the moonlight, in +his enumeration of the subjects of his first and happiest kingdom, where +he ruled far away from men and sorrow, seeing God everywhere, and +learning to perfect praise from his youthful lips. + + + + +III.--EARLY DAYS--_CONTINUED_. + + +In addition to the psalms already considered, which are devoted to the +devout contemplation of nature, and stand in close connection with +David's early days, there still remains one universally admitted to be +his. The twenty-ninth psalm, like both the preceding, has to do with the +glory of God as revealed in the heavens, and with earth only as the +recipient of skyey influences; but while these breathed the profoundest +tranquillity, as they watched the silent splendour of the sun, and the +peace of moonlight shed upon a sleeping world, this is all tumult and +noise. It is a highly elaborate and vivid picture of a thunderstorm, +such as must often have broken over the shepherd-psalmist as he crouched +under some shelf of limestone, and gathered his trembling charge about +him. Its very structure reproduces in sound an echo of the rolling peals +reverberating among the hills. + +There is first an invocation, in the highest strain of devout poetry, +calling upon the "sons of God," the angels who dwell above the lower +sky, and who see from above the slow gathering of the storm-clouds, to +ascribe to Jehovah the glory of His name--His character as set forth in +the tempest. They are to cast themselves before Him "in holy attire," as +priests of the heavenly sanctuary. Their silent and expectant worship is +like the brooding stillness before the storm. We feel the waiting hush +in heaven and earth. + +Then the tempest breaks. It crashes and leaps through the short +sentences, each like the clap of the near thunder. + + _a._ The voice of Jehovah (is) on the waters. + The God of glory thunders. + _Jehovah (is) on many waters._ + The voice of Jehovah in strength! + The voice of Jehovah in majesty! + + _b._ The voice of Jehovah rending the cedars! + _And Jehovah rends the cedars of Lebanon_, + And makes them leap like a calf; + Lebanon and Sirion like a young buffalo + The voice of Jehovah hewing flashes of fire! + + _c._ The voice of Jehovah shakes the desert, + _Jehovah shakes the Kadesh desert_. + + The voice of Jehovah makes the hinds writhe + And scathes the woods--and in His temple-- + --All in it (are) saying, "Glory." + +Seven times the roar shakes the world. The voice of the seven thunders +is the voice of Jehovah. In the short clauses, with their uniform +structure, the pause between, and the recurrence of the same initial +words, we hear the successive peals, the silence that parts them, and +the monotony of their unvaried sound. Thrice we have the reverberation +rolling through the sky or among the hills, imitated by clauses which +repeat previous ones, as indicated by the italics, and one forked flame +blazes out in the brief, lightning-like sentence, "The voice of Jehovah +(is) hewing flashes of fire," which wonderfully gives the impression of +their streaming fiercely forth, as if cloven from some solid block of +fire, their swift course, and their instantaneous extinction. + +The range and effects of the storm, too, are vividly painted. It is +first "on the waters," which may possibly mean the Mediterranean, but +more probably, "the waters that are above the firmament," and so depicts +the clouds as gathering high in air. Then it comes down with a crash on +the northern mountains, splintering the gnarled cedars, and making +Lebanon rock with all its woods--leaping across the deep valley of +Coelo-Syria, and smiting Hermon (for which Sirion is a Sidonian name), +the crest of the Anti Lebanon, till it reels. Onward it sweeps--or +rather, perhaps, it is all around the psalmist; and even while he hears +the voice rolling from the furthest north, the extreme south echoes the +roar. The awful voice shakes[E] the wilderness, as it booms across its +level surface. As far south as Kadesh (probably Petra) the tremor +spreads, and away in the forests of Edom the wild creatures in their +terror slip their calves, and the oaks are scathed and stripped of their +leafy honours. And all the while, like a mighty diapason sounding on +through the tumult, the voice of the sons of God in the heavenly temple +is heard proclaiming "Glory!" + +[E] Delitzsch would render "whirls in circles"--a picturesque allusion +to the sand pillars which accompany storms in the desert. + +The psalm closes with lofty words of confidence, built on the story of +the past, as well as on the contemplation of the present. "Jehovah sat +throned for (_i.e._, to send on earth) the flood" which once drowned +the world of old. "Jehovah will sit throned, a King for ever." That +ancient judgment spoke of His power over all the forces of nature, in +their most terrible form. So now and for ever, all are His servants, and +effect His purposes. Then, as the tempest rolls away, spent and +transient, the sunshine streams out anew from the softened blue over a +freshened world, and every raindrop on the leaves twinkles into diamond +light, and the end of the psalm is like the after brightness; and the +tranquil low voice of its last words is like the songs of the birds +again as the departing storm growls low and faint on the horizon. "The +Lord will bless His people with peace." + +Thus, then, nature spoke to this young heart. The silence was vocal; the +darkness, bright; the tumult, order--and all was the revelation of a +present God. It is told of one of our great writers that, when a child, +he was found lying on a hill-side during a thunderstorm, and at each +flash clapping his hands and shouting, unconscious of danger, and +stirred to ecstasy. David, too, felt all the poetic elevation, and +natural awe, in the presence of the crashing storm; but he felt +something more. To him the thunder was not a power to tremble before, +not a mere subject for poetic contemplation. Still less was it +something, the like of which could be rubbed out of glass and silk, and +which he had done with when he knew its laws. No increase of knowledge +touching the laws of physical phenomena in the least affects the point +of view which these Nature-psalms take. David said, "God makes and moves +all things." We may be able to complete the sentence by a clause which +tells something of the methods of His operation. But that is only a +parenthesis after all, and the old truth remains widened, not overthrown +by it. The psalmist knew that all being and action had their origin in +God. He saw the last links of the chain, and knew that it was rivetted +to the throne of God, though the intermediate links were unseen; and +even the fact that there were any was not present to his mind. We know +something of these; but the first and the last of the series to him, are +the first and the last to us also. To us as to him, the silent splendour +of noonday speaks of God, and the nightly heavens pour the soft radiance +of His "excellent name over all the earth." The tempest is His voice, +and the wildest commotions in nature and among men break in obedient +waves around His pillared throne. + + "Well roars the storm to those who hear + A deeper voice across the storm!" + +There still remains one other psalm which may be used as illustrating +the early life of David. The Twenty-third psalm is coloured throughout +by the remembrances of his youthful occupation, even if its actual +composition is of a later date. Some critics, indeed, think that the +mention in the last verse of "the house of the Lord" compels the +supposition of an origin subsequent to the building of the Temple; but +the phrase in question need not have anything to do with tabernacle or +temple, and is most naturally accounted for by the preceding image of +God as the Host who feasts His servants at His table. There are no other +notes of time in the psalm, unless, with some commentators, we see an +allusion in that image of the furnished table to the seasonable +hospitality of the Gileadite chieftains during David's flight before +Absalom (2 Sam. xvii. 27-29)--a reference which appears prosaic and +flat. The absence of traces of distress and sorrow--so constantly +present in the later songs--may be urged with some force in favour of +the early date; and if we follow one of the most valuable commentators +(Hupfeld) in translating all the verbs as futures, and so make the whole +a hymn of hope, we seem almost obliged to suppose that we have here the +utterance of a youthful spirit, which ventured to look forward, because +it first looked upward. In any case, the psalm is a transcript of +thoughts that had been born and cherished in many a meditative hour +among the lonely hills of Bethlehem. It is the echo of the shepherd +life. We see in it the incessant care, the love to his helpless charge, +which was expressed in and deepened by all his toil for them. He had to +think for their simplicity, to fight for their defencelessness, to find +their pasture, to guard them while they lay amid the fresh grass; +sometimes to use his staff in order to force their heedlessness with +loving violence past tempting perils; sometimes to guide them through +gloomy gorges, where they huddled close at his heels; sometimes to smite +the lion and the bear that prowled about the fold--but all was for their +good and meant their comfort. And thus he has learned, in preparation +for his own kingdom, the inmost meaning of pre-eminence among men--and, +more precious lesson still, thus he has learned the very heart of God. +Long before, Jacob had spoken of Him as the "Shepherd of Israel;" but it +was reserved for David to bring that sweet and wonderful name into +closer relations with the single soul; and, with that peculiar +enthusiasm of personal reliance, and recognition of God's love to the +individual which stamps all his psalms, to say "The Lord is my +Shepherd." These dumb companions of his, in their docility to his +guidance, and absolute trust in his care, had taught him the secret of +peace in helplessness, of patience in ignorance. The green strips of +meadow-land where the clear waters brought life, the wearied flocks +sheltered from the mid-day heat, the quiet course of the little stream, +the refreshment of the sheep by rest and pasture, the smooth paths which +he tried to choose for them, the rocky defiles through which they had to +pass, the rod in his hand that guided, and chastised, and defended, and +was never lifted in anger,--all these, the familiar sights of his youth, +pass before us as we read; and to us too, in our widely different social +state, have become the undying emblems of the highest care and the +wisest love. The psalm witnesses how close to the youthful heart the +consciousness of God must have been, which could thus transform and +glorify the little things which were so familiar. We can feel, in a kind +of lazy play of sentiment, the fitness of the shepherd's life to suggest +thoughts of God--because it is not our life. But it needs both a +meditative habit and a devout heart to feel that the trivialities of our +own daily tasks speak to us of Him. The heavens touch the earth on the +horizon of our vision, but it always seems furthest to the sky from the +spot where we stand. To the psalmist, however,--as in higher ways to his +Son and Lord,--all things around him were full of God; and as the +majesties of nature, so the trivialities of man's works--shepherds and +fishermen--were solemn with deep meanings and shadows of the heavenly. +With such lofty thoughts he fed his youth. + +The psalm, too, breathes the very spirit of sunny confidence and of +perfect rest in God. We have referred to the absence of traces of +sorrow, and to the predominant tone of hopefulness, as possibly +favouring the supposition of an early origin. But it matters little +whether they were young eyes which looked so courageously into the +unknown future, or whether we have here the more solemn and weighty +hopes of age, which can have few hopes at all, unless they be rooted in +God. The spirit expressed in the psalm is so thoroughly David's, that in +his younger days, before it was worn with responsibilities and sorrows, +it must have been especially strong. We may therefore fairly take the +tone of this song of the Shepherd God as expressing the characteristic +of his godliness in the happy early years. In his solitude he was glad. +One happy thought fills the spirit; one simple emotion thrills the +chords of his harp. No doubts, or griefs, or remorse throw their shadows +upon him. He is conscious of dependence, but he is above want and fear. +He does not ask, he has--he possesses God, and is at rest in Him. He is +satisfied with that fruition which blesseth all who hunger for God, and +is the highest form of communion with Him. As the present has no +longings, the future has no terrors. All the horizon is clear, all the +winds are still, the ocean at rest, "and birds of peace sit brooding on +the charmed wave." If there be foes, God holds them back. If there lie +far off among the hills any valley of darkness, its black portals cast +no gloom over him, and will not when he enters. God is his Shepherd, +and, by another image, God is his Host. The life which in one aspect, by +reason of its continual change, and occupation with outward things, may +be compared to the journeyings of a flock, is in another aspect, by +reason of its inward union with the stability of God, like sitting ever +at the table which His hand has spread as for a royal banquet, where the +oil of gladness glistens on every head, and the full cup of Divine +pleasure is in every hand. For all the outward and pilgrimage aspect, +the psalmist knows that only Goodness and Mercy--these two white-robed +messengers of God--will follow his steps, however long may be the term +of the days of his yet young life; for all the inward, he is sure that, +in calm, unbroken fellowship, he will dwell in the house of God, and +that when the twin angels who fed and guided him all his young life long +have finished their charge, and the days of his journeyings are ended, +there stretches beyond a still closer union with his heavenly Friend, +which will be perfected in His true house "for ever." We look in vain +for another example, even in David's psalms, of such perfect, restful +trust in God. These clear notes are perhaps the purest utterance ever +given of "the peace of God which passeth all understanding." + +Such were the thoughts and hopes of the lad who kept his father's sheep +at Bethlehem. He lived a life of lofty thoughts and lowly duties. He +heard the voice of God amidst the silence of the hills, and the earliest +notes of his harp echoed the deep tones. He learned courage as well as +tenderness from his daily tasks, and patience from the contrast between +them and the high vocation which Samuel's mysterious anointing had +opened before him. If we remember how disturbing an influence the +consciousness of it might have wrought in a soul less filled with God, +we may perhaps accept as probably correct the superscription which +refers one sweet, simple psalm to him, and may venture to suppose that +it expresses the contentment, undazzled by visions of coming greatness, +that calmed his heart. "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes +lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too +high for me. Surely I have smoothed and quieted my soul: like a weanling +on his mother's (breast), like a weanling is my soul within me." (Psa. +cxxxi.) So lying in God's arms, and content to be folded in His embrace, +without seeking anything beyond, he is tranquil in his lowly lot. + +It does not fall within our province to follow the course of the +familiar narrative through the picturesque events that led him to fame +and position at court. The double character of minstrel and warrior, to +which we have already referred, is remarkably brought out in his double +introduction to Saul, once as soothing the king's gloomy spirit with the +harmonies of his shepherd's harp, once as bringing down the boasting +giant of Gath with his shepherd's sling. On the first occasion his +residence in the palace seems to have been ended by Saul's temporary +recovery. He returns to Bethlehem for an indefinite time, and then +leaves it and all its peaceful tasks for ever. The dramatic story of the +duel with Goliath needs no second telling. His arrival at the very +crisis of the war, the eager courage with which he leaves his baggage in +the hands of the guard and runs down the valley to the ranks of the +army, the busy hum of talk among the Israelites, the rankling jealousy +of his brother that curdles into bitter jeers, the modest courage with +which he offers himself as champion, the youthful enthusiasm of brave +trust in "the Lord, that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and +out of the paw of the bear;" the wonderfully vivid picture of the young +hero with his shepherd staff in one hand, his sling in the other, and +the rude wallet by his side, which had carried his simple meal, and now +held the smooth stone from the brook that ran between the armies in the +bottom of the little valley--the blustering braggadocio of the big +champion, the boy's devout confidence in "the name of the Lord of +hosts;" the swift brevity of the narrative of the actual fight, which in +its hurrying clauses seems to reproduce the light-footed eagerness of +the young champion, or the rapid whizz of the stone ere it crashed into +the thick forehead; the prostrate bulk of the dead giant prone upon the +earth, and the conqueror, slight and agile, hewing off the huge head +with Goliath's own useless sword;--all these incidents, so full of +character, so antique in manner, so weighty with lessons of the +impotence of strength that is merely material, and the power of a living +enthusiasm of faith in God, may, for our present purposes, be passed +with a mere glance. One observation may, however, be allowed. After the +victory, Saul is represented as not knowing who David was, and as +sending Abner to find out where he comes from. Abner, too, professes +entire ignorance; and when David appears before the king, "with the head +of the Philistine in his hand," he is asked, "Whose son art thou, young +man?" It has been thought that here we have an irreconcilable +contradiction with previous narratives, according to which there was +close intimacy between him and the king, who "loved him greatly," and +gave him an office of trust about his person. Suppositions of +"dislocation of the narrative," the careless adoption by the compiler of +two separate legends, and the like, have been freely indulged in. But it +may at least be suggested as a possible explanation of the seeming +discrepancy, that when Saul had passed out of his moody madness it is +not wonderful that he should have forgotten all which had occurred in +his paroxysm. It is surely a common enough psychological phenomenon that +a man restored to sanity has no remembrance of the events during his +mental aberration. And as for Abner's profession of ignorance, an +incipient jealousy of this stripling hero may naturally have made the +"captain of the host" willing to keep the king as ignorant as he could +concerning a probable formidable rival. There is no need to suppose he +was really ignorant, but only that it suited him to say that he was. + +With this earliest deed of heroism the peaceful private days are closed, +and a new epoch of court favour and growing popularity begins. The +impression which the whole story leaves upon one is well summed up in a +psalm which the Septuagint adds to the Psalter. It is not found in the +Hebrew, and has no pretension to be David's work; but, as a _resume_ of +the salient points of his early life, it may fitly end our +considerations of this first epoch. + +"This is the autograph psalm of David, and beyond the number (_i.e._, of +the psalms in the Psalter), when he fought the single fight with +Goliath:-- + +"(1.) I was little among my brethren, and the youngest in the house of +my father: I kept the flock of my father. (2.) My hands made a pipe, my +fingers tuned a psaltery. (3.) And who shall tell it to my Lord? He is +the Lord, He shall hear me. (4.) He sent His angel (messenger), and +took me from the flocks of my father, and anointed me with the oil of +His anointing. (5.) But my brethren were fair and large, and in them the +Lord took not pleasure. (6.) I went out to meet the Philistine, and he +cursed me by his idols. (7.) But I, drawing his sword, beheaded him, and +took away reproach from the children of Israel." + + + + +IV.--THE EXILE. + + +David's first years at the court of Saul in Gibeah do not appear to have +produced any psalms which still survive. + + "The sweetest songs are those + Which tell of saddest thought." + +It was natural, then, that a period full of novelty and of prosperous +activity, very unlike the quiet days at Bethlehem, should rather +accumulate materials for future use than be fruitful in actual +production. The old life shut to behind him for ever, like some +enchanted door in a hill-side, and an unexplored land lay beckoning +before. The new was widening his experience, but it had to be mastered, +to be assimilated by meditation before it became vocal. + +The bare facts of this section are familiar and soon told. There is +first a period in which he is trusted by Saul, who sets him in high +command, with the approbation not only of the people, but even of the +official classes. But a new dynasty resting on military pre-eminence +cannot afford to let a successful soldier stand on the steps of the +throne; and the shrill chant of the women out of all the cities of +Israel, which even in Saul's hearing answered the praises of his prowess +with a louder acclaim for David's victories, startled the king for the +first time with a revelation of the national feeling. His unslumbering +suspicion "eyed David from that day." Rage and terror threw him again +into the gripe of his evil spirit, and in his paroxysm he flings his +heavy spear, the symbol of his royalty, at the lithe harper, with fierce +vows of murder. The failure of his attempt to kill David seems to have +aggravated his dread of him as bearing a charm which won all hearts and +averted all dangers. A second stage is marked not only by Saul's growing +fear, but by David's new position. He is removed from court, and put in +a subordinate command, which only extends his popularity, and brings him +into more immediate contact with the mass of the people. "All Israel and +Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them." Then +follows the offer of Saul's elder daughter in marriage, in the hope that +by playing upon his gratitude and his religious feeling, he might be +urged to some piece of rash bravery that would end him without scandal. +Some new caprice of Saul's, however, leads him to insult David by +breaking his pledge at the last moment, and giving the promised bride to +another. Jonathan's heart was not the only one in Saul's household that +yielded to his spell. The younger Michal had been cherishing his image +in secret, and now tells her love. Her father returns to his original +purpose, with the strange mixture of tenacity and capricious +changefulness that marks his character, and again attempts, by demanding +a grotesquely savage dowry, to secure David's destruction. But that +scheme, too, fails; and he becomes a member of the royal house. + +This third stage is marked by Saul's deepening panic hatred, which has +now become a fixed idea. All his attempts have only strengthened David's +position, and he looks on his irresistible advance with a nameless awe. +He calls, with a madman's folly, on Jonathan and on all his servants to +kill him; and then, when his son appeals to him, his old better nature +comes over him, and with a great oath he vows that David shall not be +slain. For a short time David returns to Gibeah, and resumes his former +relations with Saul, but a new victory over the Philistines rouses the +slumbering jealousy. Again the "evil spirit" is upon him, and the great +javelin is flung with blind fury, and sticks quivering in the wall. It +is night, and David flies to his house. A stealthy band of assassins +from the palace surround the house with orders to prevent all egress, +and, by what may be either the strange whim of a madman, or the cynical +shamelessness of a tyrant, to slay him in the open daylight. Michal, +who, though in after time she showed a strain of her father's proud +godlessness, and an utter incapacity of understanding the noblest parts +of her husband's character, seems to have been a true wife in these +early days, discovers, perhaps with a woman's quick eye sharpened by +love, the crouching murderers, and with rapid promptitude urges +immediate flight. Her hands let him down from the window--the house +being probably on the wall. Her ready wit dresses up one of those +mysterious teraphim (which appear to have had some connection with +idolatry or magic, and which are strange pieces of furniture for +David's house), and lays it in the bed to deceive the messengers, and so +gain a little more time before pursuit began. "So David fled and +escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah," and thus ended his life at court. + +Glancing over this narrative, one or two points come prominently forth. +The worth of these events to David must have lain chiefly in the +abundant additions made to his experience of life, which ripened his +nature, and developed new powers. The meditative life of the sheepfold +is followed by the crowded court and camp. Strenuous work, familiarity +with men, constant vicissitude, take the place of placid thought, of +calm seclusion, of tranquil days that knew no changes but the +alternation of sun and stars, storm and brightness, green pastures and +dusty paths. He learned the real world, with its hate and effort, its +hollow fame and its whispering calumnies. Many illusions no doubt faded, +but the light that had shone in his solitude still burned before him for +his guide, and a deeper trust in his Shepherd God was rooted in his soul +by all the shocks of varying fortune. The passage from the visions of +youth and the solitary resolves of early and uninterrupted piety to the +naked realities of a wicked world, and the stern self-control of manly +godliness, is ever painful and perilous. Thank God! it may be made clear +gain, as it was by this young hero psalmist. + +David's calm indifference to outward circumstances affecting himself, is +very strikingly expressed in his conduct. Partly from his poetic +temperament, partly from his sweet natural unselfishness, and chiefly +from his living trust in God, he accepts whatever happens with +equanimity, and makes no effort to alter it. He originates nothing. +Prosperity comes unsought, and dangers unfeared. He does not ask for +Jonathan's love, or the people's favour, or the women's songs, or Saul's +daughter. If Saul gives him command he takes it, and does his work. If +Saul flings his javelin at him, he simply springs aside and lets it +whizz past. If his high position is taken from him, he is quite content +with a lower. If a royal alliance is offered, he accepts it; if it is +withdrawn, he is not ruffled; if renewed, he is still willing. If a busy +web of intrigue is woven round him, he takes no notice. If +reconciliation is proposed, he cheerfully goes back to the palace. If +his life is threatened he goes home. He will not stir to escape but for +the urgency of his wife. So well had he already begun to learn the +worthlessness of life's trifles. So thoroughly does he practice his own +precept, "Fret not thyself because of evil-doers;" "rest in the Lord, +and wait patiently for Him." (Psa. xxxvii. 1, 7.) + +This section gives also a remarkable impression of the irresistible +growth of his popularity and influence. The silent energy of the Divine +purpose presses his fortunes onward with a motion slow and inevitable as +that of a glacier. The steadfast flow circles unchecked round, or rises +victorious over all hindrances. Efforts to ruin, to degrade, to +kill--one and all fail. Terror and hate, suspicion and jealousy, only +bring him nearer the goal. A clause which comes in thrice in the course +of one chapter, expresses this fated advance. In the first stage of his +court life, we read, "David prospered" (1 Sam. xviii. 5, margin), and +again with increased emphasis it is told as the result of the efforts to +crush him, that, "He prospered in all his ways, and the Lord was with +him" (verse 14), and yet again, in spite of Saul's having "become his +enemy continually," he "prospered more than all the servants of Saul" +(verse 30). He moves onward as stars in their courses move, obeying the +equable impulse of the calm and conquering will of God. + +The familiar Scripture antithesis, which naturally finds its clearest +utterance in the words of the last inspired writer--namely, the eternal +opposition of Light and Darkness, Love and Hate, Life and Death, is +brought into sharpest relief by the juxtaposition and contrast of David +and Saul. This is the key to the story. The two men are not more unlike +in person than in spirit. We think of the one with his ruddy beauty and +changeful eyes, and lithe slight form, and of the other gaunt and black, +his giant strength weakened, and his "goodly" face scarred with the +lightnings of his passions--and as they look so they are. The one full +of joyous energy, the other devoured by gloom; the one going in and out +among the people and winning universal love, the other sitting moody and +self-absorbed behind his palace walls; the one bringing sweet clear +tones of trustful praise from his harp, the other shaking his huge spear +in his madness; the one ready for action and prosperous in it all, the +other paralyzed, shrinking from all work, and leaving the conduct of +the war to the servant whom he feared; the one conscious of the Divine +presence making him strong and calm, the other writhing in the gripe of +his evil spirit, and either foaming in fury, or stiffened into torpor; +the one steadily growing in power and favour with God and man, the other +sinking in deeper mire, and wrapped about with thickening mists as he +moves to his doom. The tragic pathos of these two lives in their fateful +antagonism is the embodiment of that awful alternative of life and +death, blessing and cursing, which it was the very aim of Judaism to +stamp ineffaceably on the conscience. + +David's flight begins a period to which a large number of his psalms are +referred. We may call them "The Songs of the Outlaw." The titles in the +psalter connect several with specific events during his persecution by +Saul, and besides these, there are others which have marked +characteristics in common, and may therefore be regarded as belonging to +the same time. The bulk of the former class are found in the second book +of the psalter (Ps. xlii.-lxxii.), which has been arranged with some +care. There are first eight Korahite psalms, and one of Asaph's; then a +group of fifteen Davidic (li.-lxv.), followed by two anonymous; then +three more of David's (lxviii.-lxx.), followed by one anonymous and the +well-known prayer "for Solomon." Now it is worth notice that the group +of fifteen psalms ascribed to David is as nearly as possible divided in +halves, eight having inscriptions which give a specific date of +composition, and seven having no such detail. There has also been some +attempt at arranging the psalms of these two classes alternately, but +that has not been accurately carried out. These facts show that the +titles are at all events as old as the compilation of the second book of +the psalter, and were regarded as accurate then. Several points about +the complete book of psalms as we have it, seem to indicate that these +two first books were an older nucleus, which was in existence long prior +to the present collection--and if so, the date of the titles must be +carried back a very long way indeed, and with a proportionate increase +of authority. + +Of the eight psalms in the second book having titles with specific +dates, five (Ps. lii., liv., lvi., lvii., lix.) are assigned to the +period of the Sauline persecution, and, as it would appear, with +accuracy. There is a general similarity of tone in them all, as well as +considerable parallelisms of expression, favourite phrases and +metaphors, which are favourable to the hypothesis of a nearly +cotemporaneous date. They are all in what, to use a phrase from another +art, we may call David's earlier manner. For instance, in all the +psalmist is surrounded by enemies. They would "swallow him up" (lvi. 1, +2; lvii. 3). They "oppress" him (liv. 3; lvi. 1). One of their weapons +is calumny, which seems from the frequent references to have much moved +the psalmist. Their tongues are razors (lii. 2), or swords (lvii. 4; +lix. 7; lxiv. 3). They seem to him like crouching beasts ready to spring +upon harmless prey (lvi. 6; lvii. 6; lix. 3); they are "lions" (lvii. +4), dogs (lix. 6, 14). He is conscious of nothing which he has done to +provoke this storm of hatred (lix. 3; lxiv. 4.) The "strength" of God is +his hope (liv. 1; lix. 9, 17). He is sure that retribution will fall +upon the enemies (lii. 5; liv. 5; lvi. 7; lvii. 6; lix. 8-15; lxiv. 7, +8). He vows and knows that psalms of deliverance will yet succeed these +plaintive cries (lii. 9; liv. 7; lvi. 12; lvii. 7-11; lix. 16, 17). + +We also find a considerable number of psalms in the first book of the +psalter which present the same features, and may therefore probably be +classed with these as belonging to the time of his exile. Such for +instance are the seventh and thirty-fourth, which have both inscriptions +referring them to this period, with others which we shall have to +consider presently. The imagery of the preceding group reappears in +them. His enemies are lions (vii. 2; xvii. 12; xxii. 13; xxxv. 17); dogs +(xxii. 16); bulls (xxii. 12). Pitfalls and snares are in his path (vii. +15; xxxi. 4; xxxv. 7). He passionately protests his innocence, and the +kindliness of his heart to his wanton foes (vii. 3-5; xvii. 3, 4); whom +he has helped and sorrowed over in their sickness (xxxv. 13, 14)--a +reference, perhaps, to his solacing Saul in his paroxysms with the music +of his harp. He dwells on retribution with vehemence (vii. 11-16; xi. +5-7; xxxi. 23; xxxv. 8), and on his own deliverance with confidence. + +These general characteristics accurately correspond with the +circumstances of David during the years of his wanderings. The scenery +and life of the desert colours the metaphors which describe his enemies +as wild beasts; himself as a poor hunted creature amongst pits and +snares; or as a timid bird flying to the safe crags, and God as his +Rock. Their strong assertions of innocence accord with the historical +indications of Saul's gratuitous hatred, and appear to distinguish the +psalms of this period from those of Absalom's revolt, in which the +remembrance of his great sin was too deep to permit of any such claims. +In like manner the prophecies of the enemies' destruction are too +triumphant to suit that later time of exile, when the father's heart +yearned with misplaced tenderness over his worthless son, and nearly +broke with unkingly sorrow for the rebel's death. Their confidence in +God, too, has in it a ring of joyousness in peril which corresponds with +the buoyant faith that went with him through all the desperate +adventures and hairbreadth escapes of the Sauline persecution. If then +we may, with some confidence, read these psalms in connection with that +period, what a noble portraiture of a brave, devout soul looks out upon +us from them. We see him in the first flush of his manhood--somewhere +about five-and-twenty years old--fronting perils of which he is fully +conscious, with calm strength and an enthusiasm of trust that lifts his +spirit above them all, into a region of fellowship with God which no +tumult can invade, and which no remembrance of black transgression +troubled and stained. His harp is his solace in his wanderings; and +while plaintive notes are flung from its strings, as is needful for the +deepest harmonies of praise here, every wailing tone melts into clear +ringing notes of glad affiance in the "God of his mercy." + +Distinct references to the specific events of his wanderings are, +undoubtedly, rare in them, though even these are more obvious than has +been sometimes carelessly assumed. Their infrequency and comparative +vagueness has been alleged against the accuracy of the inscriptions +which allocate certain psalms to particular occasions. But in so far as +it is true that these allusions are rare and inexact, the fact is surely +rather in favour of than against the correctness of the titles. For if +these are not suggested by obvious references in the psalms to which +they are affixed, by what can they have been suggested but by a +tradition considerably older than the compilation of the psalter? +Besides, the analogy of all other poetry would lead us to expect +precisely what we find in these psalms--general and not detailed +allusions to the writer's circumstances. The poetic imagination does not +reproduce the bald prosaic facts which have set it in motion, but the +echo of them broken up and etherealised. It broods over them till life +stirs, and the winged creature bursts from them to sing and soar. + +If we accept the title as accurate, the fifty-ninth psalm is the first +of these Songs of the Outlaw. It refers to the time "when Saul sent, and +they watched the house to kill him." Those critics who reject this date, +which they do on very weak grounds, lose themselves in a chaos of +assumptions as to the occasion of the psalm. The Chaldean invasion, the +assaults in the time of Nehemiah, and the era of the Maccabees, are +alleged with equal confidence and equal groundlessness. "We believe that +it is most advisable to adhere to the title, and most scientific to +ignore these hypotheses built on nothing." (Delitzsch.) + +It is a devotional and poetic commentary on the story in Samuel. There +we get the bare facts of the assassins prowling by night round David's +house; of Michal's warning; of her ready-witted trick to gain time, and +of his hasty flight to Samuel at Ramah. In the narrative David is, as +usual at this period, passive and silent; but when we turn to the psalm, +we learn the tone of his mind as the peril bursts upon him, and all the +vulgar craft and fear fades from before his lofty enthusiasm of faith. + +The psalm begins abruptly with a passionate cry for help, which is +repeated four times, thus bringing most vividly before us the extremity +of the danger and the persistency of the suppliant's trust. The peculiar +tenderness and closeness of his relation to his heavenly Friend, which +is so characteristic of David's psalms, and which they were almost the +first to express, breathes through the name by which he invokes help, +"my God." The enemies are painted in words which accurately correspond +with the history, and which by their variety reveal how formidable they +were to the psalmist. They "lie in wait (literally weave plots) for my +life." They are "workers of iniquity," "men of blood," insolent or +violent ("mighty" in English version). He asserts his innocence, as ever +in these Sauline psalms, and appeals to God in confirmation, "not for my +transgressions, nor for my sins, O Lord." He sees these eager tools of +royal malice hurrying to their congenial work: "they run and prepare +themselves." And then, rising high above all encompassing evils, he +grasps at the throne of God in a cry, which gains additional force when +we remember that the would-be murderers compassed his house in the +night. "Awake to meet me, and behold;" as if he had said, "In the +darkness do Thou see; at midnight sleep not Thou." The prayer is +continued in words which heap together with unwonted abundance the +Divine names, in each of which lie an appeal to God and a pillar of +faith. As Jehovah, the self-existent Fountain of timeless Being; as the +God of Hosts, the Commander of all the embattled powers of the universe, +whether they be spiritual or material; as the GOD of Israel, who calls +that people His, and has become theirs--he stirs up the strength of God +to "awake to visit all the heathen,"--a prayer which has been supposed +to compel the reference of the whole psalm to the assaults of Gentile +nations, but which may be taken as an anticipation on David's lips of +the truth that, "They are not all Israel which are of Israel." After a +terrible petition--"Be not merciful to any secret plotters of +evil"--there is a pause (Selah) to be filled, as it would appear, by +some chords on the harp, or the blare of the trumpets, thus giving time +to dwell on the previous petitions. + +But still the thought of the foe haunts him, and he falls again to the +lower level of painting their assembling round his house, and their +whispers as they take their stand. It would appear that the watch had +been kept up for more than one night. How he flings his growing scorn of +them into the sarcastic words, "They return at evening; they growl like +a dog, and compass the city" (or "go their rounds in the city"). One +sees them stealing through the darkness, like the troops of vicious curs +that infest Eastern cities, and hears their smothered threatenings as +they crouch in the shadow of the unlighted streets. Then growing bolder, +as the night deepens and sleep falls on the silent houses: "Behold they +pour out with their mouth, swords (are) in their lips, for 'who hears'?" +In magnificent contrast with these skulking murderers fancying +themselves unseen and unheard, David's faith rends the heaven, and, with +a daring image which is copied in a much later psalm (ii. 4), shows God +gazing on them with Divine scorn which breaks in laughter and mockery. A +brief verse, which recurs at the end of the psalm, closes the first +portion of the psalm with a calm expression of untroubled trust, in +beautiful contrast with the peril and tumult of soul, out of which it +rises steadfast and ethereal, like a rainbow spanning a cataract. A +slight error appears to have crept into the Hebrew text, which can be +easily corrected from the parallel verse at the end, and then the quiet +confident words are-- + + "My strength! upon Thee will I wait, + For God is my fortress!" + +The second portion is an intensification of the first; pouring out a +terrible prayer for exemplary retribution on his enemies; asking that no +speedy destruction may befall them, but that God would first of all +"make them reel" by the blow of His might; would then fling them +prostrate; would make their pride and fierce words a net to snare them; +and then, at last, would bring them to nothing in the hot flames of His +wrath--that the world may know that He is king. The picture of the +prowling dogs recurs with deepened scorn and firmer confidence that +they will hunt for their prey in vain. + + "And they return at evening; they growl like a dog, + And compass the city. + They--they prowl about for food + If (or, since) they are not satisfied, they spend the night (in the + search.)" + +There is almost a smile on his face as he thinks of their hunting about +for him, like hungry hounds snuffing for their meal in the kennels, and +growling now in disappointment--while he is safe beyond their reach. And +the psalm ends with a glad burst of confidence, and a vow of praise very +characteristic on his lips-- + + "But I--I will sing Thy power, + And shout aloud, in the morning, Thy mercy, + For Thou hast been a fortress for me. + And a refuge in the day of my trouble. + My strength! unto Thee will I harp, + For God is my fortress--the God of my mercy." + +Thrice he repeats the vow of praise. His harp was his companion in his +flight, and even in the midst of peril the poet's nature appears which +regards all life as materials for song, and the devout spirit appears +which regards all trial as occasions for praise. He has calmed his own +spirit, as he had done Saul's, by his song, and by prayer has swung +himself clear above fightings and fears. The refrain, which occurs twice +in the psalm, witnesses to the growth of his faith even while he sings. +At first he could only say in patient expectance, "My strength! I will +wait upon thee, for God is my fortress." But at the end his mood is +higher, his soul has caught fire as it revolves, and his last words are +a triumphant amplification of his earlier trust: "My strength! unto thee +will I sing with the harp--for God is my fortress--the God of my +mercy." + + + + +V.--THE EXILE--_CONTINUED_. + + +"So David fled, and escaped and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him +all that Saul had done unto him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in +Naioth" (1 Sam. xix. 18)--or, as the word probably means, in the +collection of students' dwellings, inhabited by the sons of the +prophets, where possibly there may have been some kind of right of +sanctuary. Driven thence by Saul's following him, and having had one +last sorrowful hour of Jonathan's companionship--the last but one on +earth--he fled to Nob, whither the ark had been carried after the +destruction of Shiloh. The story of his flight had not reached the +solitary little town among the hills, and he is received with the honour +due to the king's son-in-law. He pleads urgent secret business for Saul +as a reason for his appearance with a slender retinue, and unarmed; and +the priest, after some feeble scruples, supplies the handful of hungry +fugitives with the shewbread. But David's quick eye caught a swarthy +face peering at him from some enclosure of the simple forest sanctuary, +and as he recognised Doeg the Edomite, Saul's savage herdsman, a cold +foreboding of evil crept over his heart, and made him demand arms from +the peaceful priest. The lonely tabernacle was guarded by its own +sanctity, and no weapons were there, except one trophy which was of good +omen to David--Goliath's sword. He eagerly accepts the matchless weapon +which his hand had clutched on that day of danger and deliverance, and +thus armed, lest Doeg should try to bar his flight, he hurries from the +pursuit which he knew that the Edomite's malignant tongue would soon +bring after him. The tragical end of the unsuspecting priest's kindness +brings out the furious irrational suspicion and cruelty of Saul. He +rages at his servants as leagued with David in words which have a most +dreary sound of utter loneliness sighing through all their fierce folly: +"All of you have conspired against me; there is none of you that is +sorry for me" (1 Sam. xxii. 8.) Doeg is forward to curry favour by +telling his tale, and so tells it as to suppress the priest's ignorance +of David's flight, and to represent him as aiding and comforting the +rebel knowingly. Then fierce wrath flames out from the darkened spirit, +and the whole priestly population of Nob are summoned before him, loaded +with bitter reproaches, their professions of innocence disregarded, and +his guard ordered to murder them all then and there. The very soldiers +shrink from the sacrilege, but a willing tool is at hand. The wild blood +of Edom, fired by ancestral hatred, desires no better work, and Doeg +crowns his baseness by slaying--with the help of his herdsmen, no +doubt--"on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear an ephod," +and utterly extirpating every living thing from the defenceless little +city. + +One psalm, the fifty-second, is referred by its inscription to this +period, but the correspondence between the history and the tone of the +psalm is doubtful. It is a vehement rebuke and a prophecy of destruction +directed against an enemy, whose hostility was expressed in "devouring +words." The portrait does not apply very accurately to the Doeg of the +historical books, inasmuch as it describes the psalmist's enemy as "a +mighty man,"--or rather as "a hero," and as trusting "in the abundance +of his riches,"--and makes the point of the reproach against him that +he is a confirmed liar. But the dastardly deed of blood may be covertly +alluded to in the bitterly sarcastic "hero"--as if he had said, "O brave +warrior, who dost display thy prowess in murdering unarmed priests and +women?" And Doeg's story to Saul was a lie in so far as it gave the +impression of the priests' complicity with David, and thereby caused +their deaths on a false charge. The other features of the description +are not contrary to the narrative, and most of them are in obvious +harmony with it. The psalm, then, may be taken as showing how deeply +David's soul was stirred by the tragedy. He pours out broken words of +hot and righteous indignation: + + "Destructions doth thy tongue devise, + Like a razor whetted--O thou worker of deceit." + + * * * * * + + "Thou lovest all words that devour:[F] O thou deceitful tongue!" + +[F] Literally, "words of swallowing up." + +He prophesies the destruction of the cruel liar, and the exultation of +the righteous when he falls, in words which do indeed belong to the old +covenant of retribution, and yet convey an eternal truth which modern +sentimentalism finds very shocking, but which is witnessed over and +over again in the relief that fills the heart of nations and of +individuals when evil men fade: "When the wicked perish, there is +shouting"-- + + "Also God shall smite thee down for ever, + Will draw thee out,[G] and carry thee away from the tent, + And root thee out of the land of the living; + And the righteous shall see and fear, + And over him shall they laugh." + +In confident security he opposes his own happy fellowship with God to +this dark tragedy of retribution: + + "But I--(I am) like a green olive tree in the house of God." + +[G] The full force of the word is, "will pluck out as a glowing ember +from a hearth" (Delitzsch). + +The enemy was to be "rooted out;" the psalmist is to flourish by +derivation of life and vigour from God. If Robinson's conjecture that +Nob was on the Mount of Olives were correct (which is very doubtful), +the allusion here would gain appropriateness. As the olives grew all +round the humble forest sanctuary, and were in some sort hallowed by the +shrine which they encompassed, so the soul grows and is safe in loving +fellowship with God. Be that as it may, the words express the outlaw's +serene confidence that he is safe beneath the sheltering mercy of God, +and re-echo the hopes of his earlier psalm, "I will dwell in the house +of the Lord for ever." The stormy indignation of the earlier verses +passes away into calm peace and patient waiting in praise and trust: + + "I will praise Thee for ever, for Thou hast done (it), + And wait on Thy name in the presence of Thy beloved, for it is good." + +Hunted from Nob, David with a small company struck across the country in +a southwesterly direction, keeping to the safety of the tangled +mountains, till, from the western side of the hills of Judah, he looked +down upon the broad green plain of Philistia. Behind him was a mad +tyrant, in front the uncircumcised enemies of his country and his God. +His condition was desperate, and he had recourse to desperate measures. +That nearest Philistine city, some ten miles off, on which he looked +down from his height, was Gath; the glen where he had killed its +champion was close beside him,--every foot of ground was familiar by +many a foray and many a fight. It was a dangerous resource to trust +himself in Gath, with Goliath's sword dangling in his belt. But he may +have hoped that he was not known by person, or may have thought that +Saul's famous commander would be a welcome guest, as a banished man, at +the Philistine court. So he made the plunge, and took refuge in +Goliath's city. Discovery soon came, and in the most ominous form. It +was an ugly sign that the servants of Achish should be quoting the words +of the chant of victory which extolled him as the slayer of their +countryman. Vengeance for his death was but too likely to come next. The +doubts of his identity seem to have lasted for some little time, and to +have been at first privately communicated to the king. They somehow +reached David, and awoke his watchful attention, as well as his fear. +The depth of his alarm and his ready resource are shown by his degrading +trick of assumed madness--certainly the least heroic action of his life. +What a picture of a furious madman is the description of his conduct +when Achish's servants came to arrest him. He "twisted himself about in +their hands" in the feigned contortions of possession; he drummed on the +leaves of the gate,[H] and "let his spittle run down into his beard." +(1 Sam. xxi. 13.) Israelitish quickness gets the better of Philistine +stupidity, as it had been used to do from Sampson's time onwards, and +the dull-witted king falls into the trap, and laughs away the suspicions +with a clumsy joke at his servants' expense about more madmen being the +last thing he was short of. A hasty flight from Philistine territory +ended this episode. + +[H] The Septuagint appears to have followed a different reading here +from that of our present Hebrew text, and the change adds a very +picturesque clause to the description. A madman would be more likely to +hammer than to "scrabble" on the great double-leaved gate. + +The fifty-sixth psalm, which is referred by its title to this period, +seems at first sight to be in strange contrast with the impressions +drawn from the narrative, but on a closer examination is found to +confirm the correctness of the reference by its contents. The terrified +fugitive, owing his safety to a trick, and slavering like an idiot in +the hands of his rude captors, had an inner life of trust strong enough +to hold his mortal terror in check, though not to annihilate it. The +psalm is far in advance of the conduct--is it so unusual a circumstance +as to occasion surprise, that lofty and sincere utterances of faith and +submission should co-exist with the opposite feelings? Instead of taking +the contrast between the words and the acts as a proof that this psalm +is wrongly ascribed to the period in question, let us rather be thankful +for another instance that imperfect faith may be genuine, and that if we +cannot rise to the height of unwavering fortitude, God accepts a +tremulous trust fighting against mortal terror, and grasping with a +feeble hand the word of God, and the memory of all his past +deliverances. It is precisely this conflict of faith and fear which the +psalm sets before us. It falls into three portions, the first and second +of which are closed by a kind of refrain (vers. 4, 10, 11)--a structure +which is characteristic of several of these Sauline persecution psalms +(_e.g._, lvii. 5, 11; lix. 9, 17). The first part of each of these two +portions is a vivid description of his danger, from which he rises to +the faith expressed in the closing words. The repetition of the same +thoughts in both is not to be regarded as a cold artifice of +composition, but as the true expression of the current of his thoughts. +He sees his enemies about him, ready to swallow him up--"there be many +fighting against me disdainfully"[I] (ver. 2). Whilst the terror creeps +round his heart ("he was sore afraid," 1 Sam. xxi. 12), he rouses +himself to trust, as he says, in words which express most emphatically +the co-existence of the two, and carry a precious lesson of the reality +of even an interrupted faith, streaked with many a black line of doubt +and dread. + +[I] Literally, "loftily." Can there be any allusion to the giant stature +of Goliath's relations in Gath? We hear of four men "born to the giant +in Gath," who were killed in David's wars. (2 Sam. xxi. 22.) + + "(In) the day (that) I am afraid--I trust on Thee." + +And then he breaks into the utterance of praise and confidence--to which +he has climbed by the ladder of prayer. + + "In God I praise His word, + In God I trust, I do not fear:-- + What shall flesh do to me?" + +How profoundly these words set forth the object of his trust, as being +not merely the promise of God--which in David's case may be the specific +promise conveyed by his designation to the throne--but the God who +promises, the inmost nature of that confidence as being a living union +with God, the power of it as grappling with his dread, and enabling him +now to say, "I do _not_ fear." + +But again he falls from this height; another surge of fear breaks over +him, and almost washes him from his rock. His foes, with ceaseless +malice, arrest his words; they skulk in ambush, they dog his heels, they +long for his life. The crowded clauses portray the extremity of the +peril and the singer's agitation. His soul is still heaving with the +ground swell of the storm, though the blasts come more fitfully, and are +dying into calm. He is not so afraid but that he can turn to God; he +turns to Him because he is afraid, like the disciples in later days, who +had so much of terror that they must awake their Master, but so much of +trust that His awaking was enough. He pleads with God, as in former +psalms, against his enemies, in words which go far beyond the occasion, +and connect his own deliverance with the judgments of God over the whole +earth. He plaintively recalls his homelessness and his sorrows in words +which exhibit the characteristic blending of hope and pain, and which +are beautifully in accordance with the date assigned to the psalm. "My +wanderings dost Thou, even Thou, number." He is not alone in these +weary flights from Gibeah to Ramah, from Ramah to Nob, from Nob to Gath, +from Gath he knows not whither. One friend goes with him through them +all. And as the water-skin was a necessary part of a traveller's +equipment, the mention of his wanderings suggests the bold and tender +metaphor of the next clause, "Put my tears in Thy bottle,"--a prayer for +that very remembrance of his sorrows, in the existence of which he +immediately declares his confidence--"Are they not in Thy book?" The +true office of faithful communion with God is to ask for, and to +appropriate, the blessings which in the very act become ours. He knows +that his cry will scatter his foes, for God is for him. And thus once +again he has risen to the height of confidence where for a moment his +feet have been already planted, and again--but this time with even +fuller emphasis, expressed by an amplification which introduces for the +only time in the psalm the mighty covenant name--he breaks into his +triumphant strain-- + + "In God I praise the Word; + In JEHOVAH I praise the Word: + In God I trust, I do not fear:-- + What shall man do to me?" + +And from this mood of trustful expectation he does not again decline. +Prayer has brought its chiefest blessing--the peace that passeth +understanding. The foe is lost to sight, the fear conquered conclusively +by faith; the psalm which begins with a plaintive cry, ends in praise +for deliverance, as if it had been already achieved-- + + "Thou hast delivered my life from death, + (Hast Thou) not (delivered) my feet from falling, + That I may walk before God in the light of the living?" + +He already reckons himself safe; his question is not an expression of +doubt, but of assurance; and he sees the purpose of all God's dealings +with him to be that the activities of life may all be conducted in the +happy consciousness of _His_ eye who is at once Guardian and Judge of +His children. How far above his fears and lies has this hero and saint +risen by the power of supplication and the music of his psalm! + +David naturally fled into Israelitish territory from Gath. The exact +locality of the cave Adullam, where we next find him, is doubtful; but +several strong reasons occur for rejecting the monkish tradition which +places it away to the east, in one of the wild wadies which run down +from Bethlehem to the Dead Sea. We should expect it to be much more +accessible by a hasty march from Gath. Obviously it would be convenient +for him to hang about the frontier of Philistia and Israel, that he +might quickly cross the line from one to the other, as dangers appeared. +Further, the city of Adullam is frequently mentioned, and always in +connections which fix its site as on the margin of the great plain of +Philistia, and not far from Gath. (2 Chron. xi. 7, etc.) There is no +reason to suppose that the cave of Adullam was in a totally different +district from the city. The hills of Dan and Judah, which break sharply +down into the plain within a few miles of Gath, are full of "extensive +excavations," and there, no doubt, we are to look for the rocky hold, +where he felt himself safer from pursuit, and whence he could look down +over the vast sweep of the rich Philistine country. Gath lay at his +feet, close by was the valley where he had killed Goliath, the scenes of +Samson's exploits were all about him. Thither fled to him his whole +family, from fear, no doubt, of Saul's revenge falling on them; and +there he gathers his band of four hundred desperate men, whom poverty +and misery, and probably the king's growing tyranny, drove to flight. +They were wild, rough soldiers, according to the picturesque +description, "whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as +swift as the roes upon the mountains." They were not freebooters, but +seem to have acted as a kind of frontier-guard against southern Bedouins +and western Philistines for the sheep-farmers of the border whom Saul's +government was too weak to protect. In this desultory warfare, and in +eluding the pursuit of Saul, against whom it is to be observed David +never employed any weapon but flight, several years were passed. The +effect of such life on his spiritual nature was to deepen his +unconditional dependence on God; by the alternations of heat and cold, +fear and hope, danger and safety, to temper his soul and make it +flexible, tough and bright as steel. It evolved the qualities of a +leader of men; teaching him command and forbearance, promptitude and +patience, valour and gentleness. It won for him a name as the defender +of the nation, as Nabal's servant said of him and his men, "They were a +wall unto us, both by night and by day" (1 Sam. xxv. 16). And it +gathered round him a force of men devoted to him by the enthusiastic +attachment bred from long years of common dangers, and the hearty +friendships of many a march by day, and nightly encampment round the +glimmering watchfires, beneath the lucid stars. + + + + +VI.--THE EXILE--_CONTINUED_. + + +We have one psalm which the title connects with the beginning of David's +stay at Adullam,--the thirty-fourth. The supposition that it dates from +that period throws great force into many parts of it, and gives a unity +to what is else apparently fragmentary and disconnected. Unlike those +already considered, which were pure soliloquies, this is full of +exhortation and counsel, as would naturally be the case if it were +written when friends and followers began to gather to his standard. It +reads like a long sigh of relief at escape from a danger just past; its +burden is to tell of God's deliverance, and to urge to trust in Him. How +perfectly this tone corresponds to the circumstances immediately after +his escape from Gath to Adullam need not be more than pointed out. The +dangers which he had dreaded and the cry to God which he had sent forth +are still present to his mind, and echo through his song, like a +subtly-touched chord of sadness, which appears for a moment, and is +drowned in the waves of some triumphant music. + + "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, + And from all my alarms He delivered me. + + * * * * * + + This afflicted (man) cried, and Jehovah heard, + And from all his troubles He saved him." + +And the "local colouring" of the psalm corresponds too with the +circumstances of Adullam. How appropriate, for instance, does the form +in which the Divine protection is proclaimed become, when we think of +the little band bivouacking among the cliffs, "The angel of the Lord +encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Like his +great ancestor, he is met in his desert flight by heavenly guards, "and +he calls the name of that place Mahanaim" (that is, "two camps"), as +discerning gathered round his own feeble company the ethereal weapons of +an encircling host of the warriors of God, through whose impenetrable +ranks his foes must pierce before they can reach him. From Samson's time +we read of lions in this district (Judges xiv. 8, 9), and we may +recognise another image as suggested by their growls heard among the +ravines, and their gaunt forms prowling near the cave. "The young lions +do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want +any good" (ver. 10). + +And then he passes to earnest instructions and exhortations, which +derive appositeness from regarding them as a proclamation to his men of +the principles on which his camp is to be governed. "Come, ye children, +hearken unto me." He regards himself as charged with guiding them to +godliness: "I will teach you the fear of the Lord." With some +remembrance, perhaps, of his deception at Gath, he warns them to "keep" +their "tongues from evil" and their "lips from speaking guile." They are +not to be in love with warfare, but, even with their swords in their +hands, are to "seek peace, and pursue it." On these exhortations follow +joyous assurances of God's watchful eye fixed upon the righteous, and +His ear open to their cry; of deliverance for his suppliants, whatsoever +hardship and trouble they may have to wade through; of a guardianship +which "keepeth all the bones" of the righteous, so that neither the +blows of the foe nor the perils of the crags should break them,--all +crowned with the contrast ever present to David's mind, and having a +personal reference to his enemies and to himself: + + "Evil shall slay the wicked, + And the haters of the righteous shall suffer penalty. + Jehovah redeems the life of His servants, + And no penalty shall any suffer who trust in Him." + +Such were the counsels and teachings of the young leader to his little +band,--noble "general orders" from a commander at the beginning of a +campaign! + +We venture to refer the twenty-seventh psalm also to this period. It is +generally supposed, indeed, by those commentators who admit its Davidic +authorship, to belong to the time of Absalom's rebellion. The main +reason for throwing it so late is the reference in ver. 4 to dwelling in +the house of the Lord and inquiring in His temple.[J] This is supposed +to require a date subsequent to David's bringing up of the ark to +Jerusalem, and placing it in a temporary sanctuary. But whilst longing +for the sanctuary is no doubt characteristic of the psalms of the later +wanderings, it is by no means necessary to suppose that in the present +case that desire, which David represents as the longing of his life, was +a desire for mere bodily presence in a material temple. Indeed, the very +language seems to forbid such an interpretation. Surely the desire for +an abode in the house of the Lord--which was his one wish, which he +longed to have continuous throughout all the days of his life, which was +to surround him with a privacy of protection in trouble, and to be as +the munitions of rocks about him--was something else than a morbid +desire for an impossible seclusion in the tabernacle,--a desire fitter +for some sickly mediaeval monarch who buried his foolish head and faint +heart in a monastery than for God's Anointed. We have seen an earlier +germ of the same desire in the twenty-third psalm, the words of which +are referred to here; and the interpretation of the one is the +interpretation of the other. The psalmist breathes his longing for the +Divine fellowship, which shall be at once vision, and guidance, and +hidden life in distress, and stability, and victory, and shall break +into music of perpetual praise. + +[J] "The fourth verse in its present form _must_ have been written after +the temple was built."--"The Psalms chronologically arranged," p. +68--following Ewald, in whose imperious criticism that same naked "must +have been," works wonders. + +If, then, we are not obliged by the words in question to adopt the +later date, there is much in the psalm which strikingly corresponds with +the earlier, and throws beautiful illustration on the psalmist's mood at +this period. One such allusion we venture to suppose in the words (ver. +2), + + "When the wicked came against me to devour my flesh, + My enemies and my foes,--they stumbled and fell;" + +which have been usually taken as a mere general expression, without any +allusion to a specific event. But there was one incident in David's life +which had been forced upon his remembrance by his recent peril at +Gath--his duel with Goliath, which exactly meets the very peculiar +language here. The psalm employs the same word as the narrative, which +tells how the Philistine "arose, and came, and drew near to David." The +braggart boast, "I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and the +beasts of the fields," is echoed in the singular phrase of the psalm; +and the emphatic, rapid picture, "they stumbled and fell," is at once a +reminiscence of the hour when the stone crashed through the thick +forehead, "and he fell upon his face to the earth;" and also a reference +to an earlier triumph in Israel's history, celebrated with fierce +exultation in the wild chant whom rolls the words like a sweet morsel +under the tongue, as it tells of Sisera-- + + "Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay; + Between her feet he bowed, he fell; + Where he bowed, there he fell down dead." + +Another autobiographical reference in the psalm has been disputed on +insufficient grounds: + + "For my father and my mother forsake me, + And Jehovah takes me up." (Ver. 10.) + +It is, at all events, a remarkable coincidence that the only mention of +his parents after the earliest chapters of his life falls in precisely +with this period of the history, and is such as might have suggested +these words. We read (1 Sam. xxii. 3, 4) that he once ventured all the +way from Adullam to Moab to beg an asylum from Saul's indiscriminate +fury for his father and mother, who were no doubt too old to share his +perils, as the rest of his family did. Having prepared a kindly welcome +for them, perhaps on the strength of the blood of Ruth the Moabitess in +Jesse's veins, he returned to Bethlehem, brought the old couple away, +and guarded them safely to their refuge. It is surely most natural to +suppose that the psalm is the lyrical echo of that event, and most +pathetic to conceive of the psalmist as thinking of the happy home at +Bethlehem now deserted, his brothers lurking with him among the rocks, +and his parents exiles in heathen lands. Tears fill his eyes, but he +lifts them to a Father that is never parted from him, and feels that he +is no more orphaned nor homeless. + +The psalm is remarkable for the abrupt transition of feeling which +cleaves it into two parts; one (vers. 1-6) full of jubilant hope and +enthusiastic faith, the other (vers. 7-14) a lowly cry for help. There +is no need to suppose, with some critics, that we have here two +independent hymns bound together in error. He must have little knowledge +of the fluctuations of the devout life who is surprised to find so swift +a passage from confidence to conscious weakness. Whilst the usual order +in the psalms, as the usual order in good men's experience, is that +prayer for deliverance precedes praise and triumph, true communion with +God is bound to no mechanical order, and may begin with gazing on God, +and realizing the mysteries of beauty in His secret place, ere it drops +to earth. The lark sings as it descends from the "privacy of glorious +light" to its nest in the stony furrows as sweetly, though more +plaintively, than whilst it circles upwards to the sky. It is perhaps a +nobler effect of faith to begin with God and hymn the victory as if +already won, than to begin with trouble and to call for deliverance. But +with whichever we commence, the prayer of earth must include both; and +so long as we are weak, and God our strength, its elements must be +"supplication and thanksgiving." The prayer of our psalm bends round +again to its beginning, and after the plaintive cry for help breaks once +more into confidence (vers. 13, 14). The psalmist shudders as he thinks +what ruin would have befallen him if he had not trusted in God, and +leaves the unfinished sentence,--as a man looking down into some fearful +gulf starts back and covers his eyes, before he has well seen the bottom +of the abyss. + + "If I had not believed to see the goodness of the Lord + in the land of the living!" + +Then rejoicing to remember how even by his feeble trust he has been +saved, he stirs up himself to a firmer faith, in words which are +themselves an exercise of faith, as well as an incitement to it: + + "Wait on Jehovah! + Courage! and let thy heart be strong! + Yea! wait on Jehovah!" + +Here is the true highest type of a troubled soul's fellowship with God, +when the black fear and consciousness of weakness is inclosed in a +golden ring of happy trust. Let the name of our God be first upon our +lips, and the call to our wayward hearts to wait on Him be last, and +then we may between think of our loneliness, and feebleness, and foes, +and fears, without losing our hold of our Father's hand. + +David in his rocky eyrie was joyful, because he began with God. It was a +man in real peril who said, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom +shall I fear?" It was at a critical pause in his fortunes, when he knew +not yet whether Saul's malice was implacable, that he said, "Though war +should rise against me, in this will I be confident." It was in +thankfulness for the safe hiding-place among the dark caverns of the +hills that he celebrated the dwelling of the soul in God with words +coloured by his circumstances, "In the secret of His tabernacle shall +He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock." It was with Philistia at +his feet before and Saul's kingdom in arms behind that his triumphant +confidence was sure that "Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine +enemies round about me." It was in weakness, not expelled even by such +joyous faith, that he plaintively besought God's mercy, and laid before +His mercy-seat as the mightiest plea His own inviting words, "Seek ye My +face," and His servant's humble response, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek." +Together, these made it impossible that that Face, the beams of which +are light and salvation, should be averted. God's past comes to his lips +as a plea for a present consistent with it and with His own mighty name. +"Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my +salvation." His loneliness, his ignorance of his road, and the enemies +who watch him, and, like a later Saul, "breathe out cruelty" (see Acts +ix. 1), become to him in his believing petitions, not grounds of fear, +but arguments with God; and having thus mastered all that was +distressful in his lot, by making it all the basis of his cry for help, +he rises again to hope, and stirs up himself to lay hold on God, to be +strong and bold, because his expectation is from Him. A noble picture of +a steadfast soul; steadfast not because of absence of fears and reasons +for fear, but because of presence of God and faith in Him. + +Having abandoned Adullam, by the advice of the prophet Gad, who from +this time appears to have been a companion till the end of his reign (2 +Sam. xxiv. 11), and who subsequently became his biographer (1 Chron. +xxix. 29), he took refuge, as outlaws have ever been wont to do, in the +woods. In his forest retreat, somewhere among the now treeless hills of +Judah, he heard of a plundering raid made by the Philistines on one of +the unhappy border towns. The marauders had broken in upon the mirth of +the threshing-floors with the shout of battle, and swept away the year's +harvest. The banished man resolved to strike a blow at the ancestral +foes. Perhaps one reason may have been the wish to show that, outlaw as +he was, he, and not the morbid laggard at Gibeah, who was only stirred +to action by mad jealousy, was the sword of Israel. The little band +bursts from the hills on the spoil-encumbered Philistines, recaptures +the cattle which like moss troopers they were driving homewards from +the ruined farmsteads, and routs them with great slaughter. But the +cowardly townspeople of Keilah had less gratitude than fear; and the +king's banished son-in-law was too dangerous a guest, even though he was +of their own tribe, and had delivered them from the enemy. Saul, who had +not stirred from his moody seclusion to beat back invasion, summoned a +hasty muster, in the hope of catching David in the little city, like a +fox in his earth: and the cowardly citizens meditated saving their homes +by surrendering their champion. David and his six hundred saved +themselves by a rapid flight, and, as it would appear, by breaking up +into detachments. "They went whithersoever they could go" (1 Sam. xxiii. +13); whilst David, with some handful, made his way to the inhospitable +wilderness which stretches from the hills of Judah to the shores of the +Dead Sea, and skulked there in "lurking places" among the crags and +tangled underwood. With fierce perseverance "Saul sought him every day, +but God delivered him not into his hand." One breath of love, fragrant +and strength-giving, was wafted to his fainting heart, when Jonathan +found his way where Saul could not come, and the two friends met once +more. In the woodland solitudes they plighted their faith again, and the +beautiful unselfishness of Jonathan is wonderfully set forth in his +words, "Thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee;" +while an awful glimpse is given into that mystery of a godless will +consciously resisting the inevitable, when there is added, "and that +also Saul, my father, knoweth." In such resistance the king's son has no +part, for it is pointedly noticed that he returned to his house. +Treachery, and that from the men of his own tribe, again dogs David's +steps. The people of Ziph, a small place on the edge of the southern +desert, betray his haunt to Saul. The king receives the intelligence +with a burst of thanks, in which furious jealousy and perverted +religion, and a sense of utter loneliness and misery, and a strange +self-pity, are mingled most pathetically and terribly: "Blessed be ye of +the Lord, for ye have compassion on me!" He sends them away to mark down +his prey; and when they have tracked him to his lair, he follows with +his force and posts them round the hill where David and his handful +lurk. The little band try to escape, but they are surrounded and +apparently lost. At the very moment when the trap is just going to +close, a sudden messenger, "fiery red with haste," rushes into Saul's +army with news of a formidable invasion: "Haste thee and come; for the +Philistines have spread themselves upon the land!" So the eager hand, +ready to smite and crush, is plucked back; and the hour of deepest +distress is the hour of deliverance. + +At some period in this lowest ebb of David's fortunes, we have one short +psalm, very simple and sad (liv.) It bears the title, "When the Ziphims +came and said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us?" and may +probably be referred to the former of the two betrayals by the men of +Ziph. The very extremity of peril has made the psalmist still and quiet. +The sore need has shortened his prayer. He is too sure that God hears to +use many words; for it is distrust, not faith, which makes us besiege +His throne with much speaking. He is confident as ever; but one feels +that there is a certain self-restraint and air of depression over the +brief petitions, which indicate the depth of his distress and the +uneasiness of protracted anxiety. Two notes only sound from his harp: +one a plaintive cry for help; the other, thanksgiving for deliverance as +already achieved. The two are bound together by the recurrence in each +of "the name" of GOD, which is at once the source of his salvation and +the theme of his praise. We have only to read the lowly petitions to +feel that they speak of a spirit somewhat weighed down by danger, and +relaxed from the loftier mood of triumphant trust. + + (1) O God, by Thy name save me, + And in Thy strength do judgment for me + + (2) O God, hear my prayer, + Give ear to the words of my mouth. + + (3) For strangers are risen against me, + And tyrants seek my life. + They set not God before them. + +The enemies are called "strangers;" but, as we have seen in the first of +these songs of the exile, it is not necessary, therefore, to suppose +that they were not Israelites. The Ziphites were men of Judah like +himself; and there is bitter emphasis as well as a gleam of insight into +the spiritual character of the true Israel in calling them foreigners. +The other name, oppressors, or violent men, or, as we have rendered it, +tyrants, corresponds too accurately with the character of Saul in his +later years, to leave much doubt that it is pointed at him. If so, the +softening of the harsh description by the use of the plural is in +beautiful accordance with the forgiving leniency which runs through all +David's conduct to him. Hard words about Saul himself do not occur in +the psalms. His counsellors, his spies, the liars who calumniated David +to him, and for their own ends played upon his suspicious nature,--the +tools who took care that the cruel designs suggested by themselves +should be carried out, kindle David's wrath, but it scarcely ever lights +on the unhappy monarch whom he loved with all-enduring charity while he +lived, and mourned with magnificent eulogy when he died. The allusion is +made all the more probable, because of the verbal correspondence with +the narrative which records that "Saul was come out to seek his life" (1 +Sam. xxiii. 15.) + +A chord or two from the harp permits the mind to dwell on the thought of +the foes, and prepares for the second part of this psalm. In it +thanksgiving and confidence flow from the petitions of the former +portion. But the praise is not so jubilant, nor the trust so +victorious, as we have seen them. "The peace of God" has come in answer +to prayer, but it is somewhat subdued: + + "Behold, God is my helper; + The Lord is the supporter of my life." + +The foes sought his life, but, as the historical book gives the +antithesis, "Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into +his hand." The rendering of the English version, "The Lord is with them +that uphold my soul," is literally accurate, but does not convey the +meaning of the Hebrew idiom. God is not regarded as one among many +helpers, but as alone the supporter or upholder of his life. Believing +that, the psalmist, of course, believes as a consequence that his +enemies will be smitten with evil for their evil. The prophetic lip of +faith calls things that are not as though they were. In the midst of his +dangers he looks forward to songs of deliverance and glad sacrifices of +praise; and the psalm closes with words that approach the more fervid +utterances we have already heard, as if his song had raised his own +spirit above its fears: + + (6) With willinghood will I sacrifice unto Thee. + I will praise Thy name for it is good. + + + (7) For from all distress it has delivered me. + And on my enemies will mine eye see (my desire) + +The name--the revealed character of God--was the storehouse of all the +saving energies to which he appealed in verse 1. It is the theme of his +praise when the deliverance shall have come. It is almost regarded here +as equivalent to the Divine personality--it is good, _it_ has delivered +him. Thus, we may say that this brief psalm gives us as the single +thought of a devout soul in trouble, the name of the Lord, and teaches +by its simple pathos how the contemplation of God as He has made Himself +known, should underlie every cry for help and crown every thanksgiving; +whilst it may assure us that whosoever seeks for the salvation of that +mighty name may, even in the midst of trouble, rejoice as in an +accomplished deliverance. And all such thoughts should be held with a +faith at least as firm as the ancient psalmist's, by us to whom the +"name" of the Lord is "declared" by Him who is the full revelation of +God, and the storehouse of all blessings and help to his "brethren." +(Heb. ii. 12.) + +A little plain of some mile or so in breadth slopes gently down towards +the Dead Sea about the centre of its western shore. It is girdled round +by savage cliffs, which, on the northern side, jut out in a bold +headland to the water's edge. At either extremity is a stream flowing +down a deep glen choked with luxurious vegetation; great fig-trees, +canes, and maiden-hair ferns covering the rocks. High up on the hills +forming its western boundary a fountain sparkles into light, and falls +to the flat below in long slender threads. Some grey weathered stones +mark the site of a city that was old when Abraham wandered in the land. +Traces of the palm forests which, as its name indicates, were cleared +for its site (Hazezon Tamar, The palm-tree clearing) have been found, +encrusted with limestone, in the warm, damp gullies, and ruined terraces +for vineyards can be traced on the bare hill-sides. But the fertility of +David's time is gone, and the precious streams nourish only a jungle +haunted by leopard and ibex. This is the fountain and plain of Engedi +(the fount of the wild goat), a spot which wants but industry and care +to make it a little paradise. Here David fled from the neighbouring +wilderness, attracted no doubt by the safety of the deep gorges and +rugged hills, as well as by the abundance of water in the fountain and +the streams. The picturesque and touching episode of his meeting with +Saul has made the place for ever memorable. There are many excavations +in the rocks about the fountain, which may have been the cave--black as +night to one looking inward with eyes fresh from the blinding glare of +sunlight upon limestone, but holding a glimmering twilight to one +looking outwards with eyes accustomed to the gloom--in the innermost +recesses of which David lay hid while Saul tarried in its mouth. The +narrative gives a graphic picture of the hurried colloquy among the +little band, when summary revenge was thus unexpectedly put within their +grasp. The fierce retainers whispered their suggestion that it would be +"tempting providence" to let such an opportunity escape; but the nobler +nature of David knows no personal animosity, and in these earliest days +is flecked by no cruelty nor lust of blood. He cannot, however, resist +the temptation of showing his power and almost parading his forbearance +by stealing through the darkness and cutting away the end of Saul's long +robe. It was little compared with what he could as easily have +done--smite him to the heart as he crouched there defenceless. But it +was a coarse practical jest, conveying a rude insult, and the quickly +returning nobleness of his nature made him ashamed of it, as soon as he +had clambered back with his trophy. He felt that the sanctity of Saul's +office as the anointed of the Lord should have saved him from the gibe. +The king goes his way all unawares, and, as it would seem, had not +regained his men, when David, leaving his band (very much out of temper +no doubt at his foolish nicety), yields to a gush of ancient friendship +and calls loudly after him, risking discovery and capture in his +generous emotion. The pathetic conversation which ensued is eminently +characteristic of both men, so tragically connected and born to work woe +to one another. David's remonstrance (1 Sam. xxiv. 9-15) is full of +nobleness, of wounded affection surviving still, of conscious rectitude, +of solemn devout appeal to the judgment of God. He has no words of +reproach for Saul, no weak upbraidings, no sullen anger, no repaying +hate with hate. He almost pleads with the unhappy king, and yet there is +nothing undignified or feeble in his tone. The whole is full of +correspondences, often of verbal identity, with the psalms which we +assign to this period. The calumnies which he so often complains of in +these are the subject of his first words to Saul, whom he regards as +having had his heart poisoned by lies: "Wherefore hearest thou men's +words, saying, Behold! David seeketh thy hurt." He asserts absolute +innocence of anything that warranted the king's hostility, just as he +does so decisively in the psalms. "There is neither evil nor +transgression in my hand, and I have not sinned against thee." As in +them he so often compares himself to some wild creature pursued like the +goats in the cliffs of Engedi, so he tells Saul, "Thou huntest my life +to take it." And his appeal from earth's slanders, and misconceptions, +and cruelties, to the perfect tribunal of God, is couched in language, +every clause of which may be found in his psalms. "The Lord, therefore, +be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, +and deliver me out of thy hand." + +The unhappy Saul again breaks into a passion of tears. With that sudden +flashing out into vehement emotion so characteristic of him, and so +significant of his enfeebled self-control, he recognises David's +generous forbearance and its contrast to his own conduct. For a moment, +at all events, he sees, as by a lightning flash, the mad hopelessness of +the black road he is treading in resisting the decree that has made his +rival king--and he binds him by an oath to spare his house when he sits +on the throne. The picture moves awful thoughts and gentle pity for the +poor scathed soul writhing in its hopelessness and dwelling in a great +solitude of fear, but out of which stray gleams of ancient nobleness +still break;--and so the doomed man goes back to his gloomy seclusion at +Gibeah, and David to the free life of the mountains and the wilderness. + + + + +VII.--THE EXILE--_CONTINUED_. + + +There are many echoes of this period of Engedi in the Psalms. Perhaps +the most distinctly audible of these are to be found in the seventh +psalm, which is all but universally recognised as David's, even Ewald +concurring in the general consent. It is an irregular ode--for such is +the meaning of Shiggaion in the title, and by its broken rhythms and +abrupt transitions testifies to the emotion of its author. The occasion +of it is said to be "the words of Cush the Benjamite." As this is a +peculiar name for an Israelite, it has been supposed to be an +allegorical designation for some historical person, expressive of his +character. We might render it "the negro." The Jewish commentators have +taken it to refer to Saul himself, but the bitter tone of the psalm, so +unlike David's lingering forbearance to the man whom he never ceased to +love, is against that supposition. Shimei the Benjamite, whose foul +tongue cursed him in rabid rage, as he fled before Absalom, has also +been thought of, but the points of correspondence with the earlier date +are too numerous to make that reference tenable. It seems better to +suppose that Cush "the black" was one of Saul's tribe, who had been +conspicuous among the calumniators of whom we have seen David +complaining to the king. And if so, there is no period in the Sauline +persecution into which the psalm will fit so naturally as the present. +Its main thoughts are precisely those which he poured out so +passionately in his eager appeal when he and Saul stood face to face on +the solitary hill side. They are couched in the higher strain of poetry +indeed, but that is the only difference; whilst there are several verbal +coincidences, and at least one reference to the story, which seem to fix +the date with considerable certainty. + +In it we see the psalmist's soul surging with the ground swell of strong +emotion, which breaks into successive waves of varied feeling--first +(vers. 1, 2) terror blended with trust, the enemy pictured, as so +frequently in these early psalms, as a lion who tears the flesh and +breaks the bones of his prey--and the refuge in God described by a +graphic word very frequent also in the cotemporaneous psalms (xi. 1; +lvii. 1, etc.). Then with a quick turn comes the passionate protestation +of his innocence, in hurried words, broken by feeling, and indignantly +turning away from the slanders which he will not speak of more +definitely than calling them "this." + + (3) Jehovah, my God! if I have done this-- + If there be iniquity in my hands-- + + (4) If I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me-- + Yea, I delivered him that without cause is mine enemy-- + + (5) May the enemy pursue my soul and capture it, + And trample down to the earth my life, + And my glory in the dust may he lay! + +How remarkably all this agrees with his words to Saul, "There is neither +evil nor transgression in my hand, ... yet thou huntest my soul to take +it" (1 Sam. xxiv. 11); and how forcible becomes the singular reiteration +in the narrative, of the phrase "my hand," which occurs six times in +four verses. The peculiarly abrupt introduction in ver. 4 of the clause, +"I delivered him that without cause is mine enemy," which completely +dislocates the grammatical structure, is best accounted for by +supposing that David's mind is still full of the temptation to stain +his hands with Saul's blood, and is vividly conscious of the effort +which he had had to make to overcome it. And the solemn invocation of +destruction which he dares to address to Jehovah his God includes the +familiar figure of himself as a fugitive before the hunters, which is +found in the words already quoted, and which here as there stands in +immediate connection with his assertion of clean hands. + +Then follows, with another abrupt turn, a vehement cry to God to judge +his cause; his own individual case melts into the thought of a +world-wide judgment, which is painted with grand power with three or +four broad rapid strokes. + + (6) Awake for me--Thou hast commanded judgment. + + (7) Let the assembly of the nations stand round Thee, + And above it return Thou up on high. + + (8) Jehovah will judge the nations. + Judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness and mine + integrity in me! + +Each smaller act of God's judgment is connected with the final +world-judgment, is a prophecy of it, is one in principle therewith; and +He, who at the last will be known as the universal Judge of all, +certainly cannot leave His servants' cause unredressed nor their cry +unheard till then. The psalmist is led by his own history to realize +more intensely that truth of a Divine manifestation for judicial +purposes to the whole world, and his prophetic lip paints its +solemnities as the surest pledge of his own deliverance. He sees the +gathered nations standing hushed before the Judge, and the Victor God at +the close of the solemn act ascending up on high where He was before, +above the heads of the mighty crowd (Psalm lxviii. 19). In the faith of +this vision, and because God will judge the nations, he invokes for +himself the anticipation of that final triumph of good over evil, and +asks to be dealt with according to his righteousness. Nothing but the +most hopeless determination to find difficulties could make a difficulty +of such words. David is not speaking of his whole character or life, but +of his conduct in one specific matter, namely, in his relation to Saul. +The righteous integrity which he calls God to vindicate is not general +sinlessness nor inward conformity with the law of God, but his +blamelessness in all his conduct to his gratuitous foe. His prayer that +God would judge him is distinctly equivalent to his often repeated cry +for deliverance, which should, as by a Divine arbitration, decide the +debate between Saul and him. The whole passage in the psalm, with all +its lyrical abruptness and lofty imagery, is the expression of the very +same thought which we find so prominent in his words to Saul, already +quoted, concerning God's judging between them and delivering David out +of Saul's hand. The parallel is instructive, not only as the prose +rendering of the poetry in the psalm, explaining it beyond the +possibility of misunderstanding, but also as strongly confirmatory of +the date which we have assigned to the latter. It is so improbable as to +be almost inconceivable that the abrupt disconnected themes of the psalm +should echo so precisely the _whole_ of the arguments used in the +remonstrance of the historical books, and should besides present verbal +resemblances and historical allusions to these, unless it be of the same +period, and therefore an inlet into the mind of the fugitive as he +lurked among the rugged cliffs by "the fountain of the wild goat." + +In that aspect the remainder of the psalm is very striking and +significant. We have two main thoughts in it--that of God as punishing +evil in this life, and that of the self-destruction inherent in all sin; +and these are expressed with such extraordinary energy as to attest at +once the profound emotion of the psalmist, and his familiarity with such +ideas during his days of persecution. It is noticeable, too, that the +language is carefully divested of all personal reference; he has risen +to the contemplation of a great law of the Divine government, and at +that elevation the enemies whose calumnies and cruelties had driven him +to God fade into insignificance. + +With what magnificent boldness he paints God the Judge arraying Himself +in His armour of destruction! + + (11) God is a righteous Judge, + And a God (who is) angry every day. + + (12) If he (_i.e._, the evil-doer) turn not, He whets His sword, + His bow He has bent, and made it ready. + + (13) And for him He has prepared weapons of death, + His arrows He has made blazing darts. + +Surely there is nothing grander in any poetry than this tremendous +image, smitten out with so few strokes of the chisel, and as true as it +is grand. The representation applies to the facts of life, of which as +directed by a present Providence, and not of any future retribution, +David is here thinking. Among these facts is chastisement falling upon +obstinate antagonism to God. Modern ways of thinking shrink from such +representations; but the whole history of the world teems with +confirmation of their truth--only what David calls the flaming arrows of +God, men call "the natural consequences of evil." The later revelation +of God in Christ brings into greater prominence the disciplinary +character of all punishment here, but bates no jot of the intensity with +which the earlier revelation grasped the truth of God as a righteous +Judge in eternal opposition to, and aversion from, evil. + +With that solemn picture flaming before his inward eye, the +prophet-psalmist turns to gaze on the evil-doer who has to bear the +brunt of these weapons of light. Summoning us to look with him by a +"Behold!" he tells his fate in an image of frequent occurrence in the +psalms of this period, and very natural in the lips of a man wandering +in the desert among wild creatures, and stumbling sometimes into the +traps dug for them: "He has dug a hole and hollowed it out, and he falls +into the pitfall he is making." The crumbling soil in which he digs +makes his footing on the edge more precarious with every spadeful that +he throws out, and at last, while he is hard at work, in he tumbles. It +is the conviction spoken in the proverbs of all nations, expressed here +by David in a figure drawn from life--the conviction that all sin digs +its own grave and is self-destructive. The psalm does not proclaim the +yet deeper truth that this automatic action, by which sin sets in motion +its own punishment, has a disciplinary purpose, so that the arrows of +God wound for healing, and His armour is really girded on for, even +while it seems to be against, the sufferer. But it would not be +difficult to show that that truth underlies the whole Old Testament +doctrine of retribution, and is obvious in many of David's psalms. In +the present one the deliverance of the hunted prey is contemplated as +the end of the baffled trapper's fall into his own snare, and beyond +that the psalmist's thoughts do not travel. His own safety, the +certainty that his appeal to God's judgment will not be in vain, fill +his mind; and without following the fate of his enemy further, he closes +this song of tumultuous and varied emotion with calm confidence and a +vow of thanksgiving for a deliverance which is already as good as +accomplished: + + (17) I will give thanks to Jehovah according to His righteousness, + And I will sing the name of Jehovah, Most High. + +We have still another psalm (lvii.) which is perhaps best referred to +this period. According to the title, it belongs to the time when David +"fled from Saul in the cave." This may, of course, apply to either +Adullam or Engedi, and there is nothing decisive to be alleged for +either; yet one or two resemblances to psalm vii. incline the balance to +the latter period. + +These resemblances are the designation of his enemies as lions (vii. 2; +lvii. 4); the image of their falling into their own trap (vii. 15; lvii. +6); the use of the phrase "my honour" or "glory" for "my soul" (vii. 5; +lvii. 8--the same word in the original); the name of God as "Most High" +(vii. 17; lvii. 2), an expression which only occurs twice besides in the +Davidic psalms (ix. 2; xxi. 7); the parallelism in sense between the +petition which forms the centre and the close of the one, "Be Thou +exalted, O God, above the heavens" (lvii. 5, 11), and that which is the +most emphatic desire of the other, "Arise, O Lord, awake, ... lift up +Thyself for me" (vii. 6). Another correspondence, not preserved in our +English version, is the employment in both of a rare poetical word, +which originally means "to complete," and so comes naturally to have the +secondary significations of "to perfect" and "to put an end to." The +word in question only occurs five times in the Old Testament, and always +in psalms. Four of these are in hymns ascribed to David, of which two +are (lvii. 2), "The God that _performeth_ all things for me," and (vii. +9), "Let the wickedness of the wicked _come to an end_." The use of the +same peculiar word in two such dissimilar connections seems to show that +it was, as we say, "running in his head" at the time, and is, perhaps, a +stronger presumption of the cotemporaneousness of both psalms than its +employment in both with the same application would have been. + +Characteristic of these early psalms is the occurrence of a refrain +(compare lvi. and lix.) which in the present instance closes both of +the portions of which the hymn consists. The former of these (1-5) +breathes prayerful trust, from which it passes to describe the +encompassing dangers; the second reverses this order, and beginning with +the dangers and distress, rises to ringing gladness and triumph, as +though the victory were already won. The psalmist's confident cleaving +of soul to God is expressed (ver. 1) by an image that may be connected +with his circumstances at Engedi: "In Thee has my soul taken refuge." +The English version is correct as regards the sense, though it +obliterates the beautiful metaphor by its rendering "trusteth." The +literal meaning of the verb is "to flee to a refuge," and its employment +here may be due to the poetical play of the imagination, which likens +his secure retreat among the everlasting hills to the safe hiding-place +which his spirit found in God his habitation. A similar analogy appears +in the earliest use of the expression, which may have been floating in +the psalmist's memory, and which occurs in the ancient song of Moses +(Deut. xxxii.). The scenery of the forty years' wanderings remarkably +colours that ode, and explains the frequent recurrence in it of the name +of God as "the Rock." We have false gods, too, spoken of in it, as, +"Their rock in whom they took refuge," where the metaphor appears in its +completeness (ver. 37). Our psalm goes on with words which contain a +further allusion to another part of the same venerable hymn, "And in the +shadow of Thy wings will I take refuge," which remind us of the grand +image in it of God's care over Israel, as of the eagle bearing her +eaglets on her mighty pinions (ver. 11), and point onwards to the still +more wonderful saying in which all that was terrible and stern in the +older figure is softened into tenderness, and instead of the fierce +affection of the mother eagle, the hen gathering her chickens under her +wings becomes the type of the brooding love and more than maternal +solicitude of God in Christ. Nor can we forget that the only other +instance of the figure before David's psalms is in the exquisite idyl +which tells of the sweet heroism of David's ancestress, Ruth, on whose +gentle and homeless head was pronounced the benediction, "A full reward +be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come +to trust" (Ruth ii. 12). We may perhaps also see in this clause an +extension of the simile which unquestionably lies in the verb, and may +think of the strong "sides of the cave," arching above the fugitive like +a gigantic pair of wings beneath which he nestles warm and dry, while +the short-lived storm roars among the rocks--a type of that broad pinion +which is his true defence till threatening evils be overpast. In the +past he has sheltered his soul in God, but no past act of faith can +avail for present distresses. It must be perpetually renewed. The past +deliverances should make the present confidence more easy; and the true +use of all earlier exercises of trust is to prepare for the resolve that +we will still rely on the help we have so often proved. "I have trusted +in Thee" should ever be followed by "And in the shadow of Thy wings will +I trust." + +The psalmist goes on to fulfil his resolve. He takes refuge by prayer in +God, whose absolute elevation above all creatures and circumstances is +the ground of his hope, whose faithful might will accomplish its design, +and complete His servant's lot. "I will call to God Most High; to God +who perfects (His purpose) for me." And then assured hope gleams upon +his soul, and though the storm-clouds hang low and black as ever, they +are touched with light. "He will send from heaven and save me." But even +while this happy certainty dawns upon him, the contending fears, which +ever lurk hard by faith, reassert their power, and burst in, breaking +the flow of the sentence, which by its harsh construction indicates the +sudden irruption of disturbing thoughts. "He that would swallow me up +reproaches (me)." With this two-worded cry of pain--prolonged by the +very unusual occurrence, in the middle of a verse, of the "Selah," which +is probably a musical direction for the accompaniment--a billow of +terror breaks over his soul; but its force is soon spent, and the hope, +above which for a moment it had rolled, rises from the broken spray like +some pillared light round which the surges dash in vain. "God shall send +forth His mercy and His truth"--those two white-robed messengers who +draw nigh to all who call on Him. Then follows in broken words, the true +rendering of which is matter of considerable doubt, a renewed picture of +his danger: + + (4) (With) my soul--among lions will I lie down. + Devourers are the sons of men; + Their teeth a spear and arrows, + And their tongue a sharp sword + +The psalmist seems to have broken off the construction, and instead of +finishing the sentence as he began it, to have substituted the first +person for the third, which ought to have followed "my soul." This +fragmentary construction expresses agitation of spirit. It may be a +question whether the "lions" in the first clause are to be regarded as a +description of his enemies, who are next spoken of without metaphor as +sons of men who devour (or who "breathe out fire"), and whose words are +cutting and wounding as spear and sword. The analogy of the other psalms +of this period favours such an understanding of the words. But, on the +other hand, the reference preferred by Delitzsch and others gives great +beauty. According to that interpretation, the fugitive among the savage +cliffs prepares himself for his nightly slumbers in calm confidence, and +lays himself down there in the cave, while the wild beasts, whose haunt +it may have been, prowl without, feeling himself safer among them than +among the more ferocious "sons of men," whose hatred has a sharper tooth +than even theirs. And then this portion of the psalm closes with the +refrain, "Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let Thy glory be +above all the earth." A prayer that God would show forth His power, and +exalt His name by delivering His servant. What lofty conviction that his +cause was God's cause, that the Divine honour was concerned in his +safety, that he was a chosen instrument to make known God's praise over +all the world!--and what self-forgetfulness in that, even whilst he +prays for his own deliverance, he thinks of it rather as the magnifying +of God, than as it affects himself personally! + +The second part continues the closing strain of the former, and +describes the plots of his foes in the familiar metaphor of the pit, +into which they fall themselves. The contemplation of this divine +Nemesis on evil-doers leads up to the grand burst of thanksgiving with +which the psalm closes-- + + (7) Fixed is my heart, O God! fixed my heart! + I will sing and strike the harp.[K] + + (8) Awake, my glory! awake psaltery and harp![L] + I will awake the dawn. + +[K] Properly, "sing with a musical accompaniment." + +[L] Two kinds of stringed instrument, the difference between which is +very obscure. + +If the former part may be regarded as the evening song of confidence, +this is the morning hymn of thankfulness. He lay down in peace among +lions; he awakes to praise. He calls upon his soul to shake off slumber; +he invokes the chords of his harp to arouse from its chamber the +sleeping dawn. Like a mightier than himself, he will rise a great while +before day, and the clear notes of the rude lyre, his companion in all +his wanderings, will summon the morning to add its silent speech to His +praise. But a still loftier thought inspires him. This hunted solitary +not only knows that his deliverance is certain, but he has already the +consciousness of a world-wide vocation, and anticipates that the story +of his sorrow and his trust, with the music of his psalms, belong to the +world, and will flow over the barriers of his own generation and of his +own land into the whole earth-- + + (9) I will praise Thee among the peoples, O Lord, + I will strike the harp to Thee among the nations. + + (10) For great unto the heavens is Thy mercy, + And to the clouds Thy truth. + +These two mighty messengers of God, whose coming he was sure of (ver. +3), will show themselves in his deliverance, boundless and filling all +the creation. They shall be the theme of his world-wide praise. And +then with the repetition of the refrain the psalm comes round again to +supplication, and dies into silent waiting before God till He shall be +pleased to answer. Thus triumphant were the hopes of the lonely fugitive +skulking in the wilderness; such bright visions peopled the waste +places, and made the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. + +The cxlii. is also, according to the title, one of the cave-psalms. But +considerable doubt attaches to the whole group of so-called Davidic +compositions in the last book of the psalter (p. 138-144), from their +place, and from the fact that there are just seven of them, as well as +in some cases from their style and character. They are more probably +later hymns in David's manner. The one in question corresponds in tone +with the psalms which we have been considering. It breathes the same +profound consciousness of desolation and loneliness: "My spirit is +darkened within me;" "Refuge fails me, no man cares for my soul." It +glows with the same ardour of personal trust in and love to God which +spring from his very loneliness and helplessness: "I cry unto Thee, O +Jehovah! I say Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the +living." It triumphs with the same confidence, and with the same +conviction that his deliverance concerns all the righteous: "They shall +_crown themselves in me_, for Thou hast dealt bountifully with me;" for +such would appear to be the true meaning of the word rendered in our +version "compass me about;" the idea being that the mercy of God to the +psalmist would become a source of festal gladness to all His servants, +who would bind the story of God's bounty to him upon their brows like a +coronal for a banquet. + + + + +VIII.--THE EXILE--_CONTINUED_. + + +As our purpose in this volume is not a complete biography, it will not +be necessary to dwell on the subsequent portions of the exile, inasmuch +as there is little reference to these in the psalms. We must pass over +even that exquisite episode of Abigail, whose graceful presence and +"most subtle flow of silver-paced counsel" soothed David's ruffled +spirit, and led him captive at once as in a silken leash. The glimpse of +old-world ways in the story, the rough mirth of the shearers, the hint +of the kind of black mail by which David's little force was provided, +the snarling humour and garrulous crustiness of Nabal, David's fierce +blaze of hot wrath, the tribute of the shepherds to the kindliness and +honour of the outlaws, the rustic procession, with the gracious lady +last of all, the stately courtesy of the meeting, her calm wise +words--not flattery, yet full of predictions of prosperity most pleasant +to hear from such lips; not rebuke, yet setting in the strongest light +how unworthy of God's anointed personal vengeance was; not servile, but +yet recognising in delicate touches his absolute power over her; not +abject, and yet full of supplication,--the quick response of David's +frank nature and susceptible heart, which sweeps away all his wrath; the +budding germ of love, which makes him break into benedictions on her and +her wisdom, and thankfulness that he had been kept back from "hurting +_thee_," and the dramatic close in their happy union,--all make up one +of the most charming of the many wonderful idyls of Scripture, all +fragrant with the breath of love, and fresh with undying youth. The +story lives--alas! how much longer do words endure than the poor earthly +affections which they record! + +After a second betrayal by the men of Ziph, and a second meeting with +Saul--their last--in which the doomed man parts from him with blessing +and predictions of victory on his unwilling lips, David seems to have +been driven to desperation by his endless skulking in dens and caves, +and to have seen no hope of continuing much longer to maintain himself +on the frontier and to elude Saul's vigilance. Possibly others than +Nabal grudged to pay him for the volunteer police which he kept up on +behalf of the pastoral districts exposed to the wild desert tribes. At +all events he once more made a plunge into Philistine territory, and +offers himself and his men to the service of the King of Gath. On the +offer being accepted, the little town of Ziklag was allotted to them, +and became their home for a year and four months. + +To this period of comparative security one psalm has been supposed to +belong--the xxxi., which, in tone and in certain expressions, +corresponds very well with the circumstances. There are many +similarities in it with the others of the same period which we have +already considered--such, for instance, as the figure of God his rock +(ver. 3), the net which his enemies have laid for him (ver. 4), the +allusions to their calumnies and slanders (vers. 13, 18), his safe +concealment in God (ver. 20: compare xxvii. 5; lvii. 1; xvii. 8, etc.), +and the close verbal resemblance of ver. 24 with the closing words of +psalm xxvii. The reference, however, which has been taken as pointing to +David's position in Ziklag is that contained in the somewhat remarkable +words (ver. 21): "Blessed be the Lord, for He hath showed me His +marvellous loving-kindness in a strong city." Of course, the expression +may be purely a graphic figure for the walls and defences of the Divine +protection, as, indeed, it is usually understood to be. But the general +idea of the encompassing shelter of God has just been set forth in the +magnificent imagery of the previous verse as the tabernacle, the secret +of His presence in which He hides and guards His servants. And the +further language of the phrase in question, introduced as it is by a +rapturous burst of blessing and praise, seems so emphatic and peculiar +as to make not unnatural the supposition of a historical basis in some +event which had recently happened to the psalmist. + +No period of the life will so well correspond to such a requirement as +the sixteen months of his stay in Ziklag, during which he was completely +free from fear of Saul, and stood high in favour with the King of Gath, +in whose territory he had found a refuge. We may well believe that to +the hunted exile, so long accustomed to a life of constant alarms and +hurried flight, the quiet of a settled home was very sweet, and that +behind the rude fortifications of the little town in the southern +wilderness there seemed security, which made a wonderful contrast to +their defenceless lairs and lurking-places among the rocks. Their eyes +would lose their watchful restlessness, and it would be possible to lay +aside their weapons, to gather their households about them, and, though +they were in a foreign land, still to feel something of the bliss of +peaceful habitudes and tranquil use and wont healing their broken lives. +No wonder, then, that such thankful praise should break from the +leader's lips! No wonder that he should regard this abode in a fortified +city as the result of a miracle of Divine mercy! He describes the +tremulous despondency which had preceded this marvel of loving-kindness +in language which at once recalls the wave of hopelessness which swept +across his soul after his final interview with Saul, and which led to +his flight into Philistine territory, "And David said in his heart, I +shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul" (1 Sam. xxvii. 1). How +completely this corresponds with the psalm, allowance being made for the +difference between poetry and prose, when he describes the thoughts +which had shaded his soul just before the happy peace of the strong +city--"I said in my haste,[M] I am cut off from before Thine eyes; +nevertheless Thou heardest the voice of my supplication" (ver. 22). And +rising, as was ever his manner, from his own individual experience to +the great truths concerning God's care of His children, the discovery of +which was to him even more precious than his personal safety, he breaks +forth in jubilant invocation, which, as always, is full of his +consciousness that his life and his story belong to the whole household +of God-- + + (23) O love Jehovah, all ye beloved of Him! + The faithful doth Jehovah preserve, + And plentifully repayeth the proud-doer. + + (24) Courage! and let your heart be strong, + All ye that wait for Jehovah! + +[M] Confusion (Perowne), distrust (Delitzsch), anguish (Ewald), +trepidation (Calvin). The word literally means to sway backwards and +forwards, and hence to be agitated by any emotion, principally by fear; +and then, perhaps, to flee in terror. + +The glow of personal attachment to Jehovah which kindles in the trustful +words is eminently characteristic. It anticipates the final teaching of +the New Testament in bringing all the relations between God and the +devout soul down to the one bond of love. "We love Him because He first +loved us," says John. And David has the same discernment that the basis +of all must be the outgoing of love from the heart of God, and that the +only response which that seeking love requires is the awaking of the +echo of its own Divine voice in our hearts. Love begets love; love seeks +love; love rests in love. Our faith _corresponds_ to His faithfulness, +our obedience to His command, our reverence to His majesty; but our love +_resembles_ His, from which it draws its life. So the one exhortation is +"love the Lord," and the ground of it lies in that name--"His +beloved"--those to whom He shows His loving-kindness (ver. 21). + +The closing words remind us of the last verse of psalm xxvii. They are +distinctly quoted from it, with the variation that there the heartening +to courage was addressed to his own soul, and here to "all who wait on +the Lord." The resemblance confirms the reference of both psalms to the +same epoch, while the difference suits the change in his circumstances +from a period of comparative danger, such as his stay at Adullam, to one +of greater security, like his residence in Ziklag. The same persons who +were called to love the Lord because they were participant of His +loving-kindness, are now called to courage and manly firmness of soul +because their hope is fixed on Jehovah. The progress of thought is +significant and obvious. Love to God, resting on consciousness of His +love to us, is the true armour. "There is no fear in love." The heart +filled with it is strong to resist the pressure of outward disasters, +while the empty heart is crushed like a deserted hulk by the grinding +collision of the icebergs that drift rudderless on the wild wintry sea +of life. Love, too, is the condition of hope. The patience and +expectation of the latter must come from the present fruition of the +sweetness of the former. Of these fair sisters, Love is the elder as the +greater; it is she who bears in her hands the rich metal from which Hope +forges her anchor, and the strong cords that hold it; her experience +supplies all the colours with which her sister paints the dim distance; +and she it is who makes the other bold to be sure of the future, and +clear-sighted to see the things that are not as though they were. To +love the Lord is the path, and the only path, to hoping in the Lord. So +had the psalmist found it for himself. In his changeful, perilous years +of exile he had learned that the brightness with which hope glowed on +his lonely path depended not on the accident of greater or less external +security, but on the energy of the clear flame of love in his heart. Not +in vain had his trials been to him, which cast that rich treasure to his +feet from their stormy waves. Not in vain will ours be to us, if we +learn the lesson which he here would divide with all those "that wait on +the Lord." + +Our limits prevent the further examination of the remaining psalms of +this period. It is the less necessary, inasmuch as those which have been +already considered fairly represent the whole. The xi., xiii., xvii., +xxii., xxv., and lxiv. may, with varying probability, be considered as +belonging to the Sauline persecution. To this list some critics would +add the xl. and lxix., but on very uncertain grounds. But if we exclude +them, the others have a strong family likeness, not only with each +other, but with those which have been presented to the reader. The +imagery of the wilderness, which has become so familiar to us, +continually reappears; the prowling wild beasts, the nets and snares, +the hunted psalmist like a timid bird among the hills; the protestation +of innocence, the passionate invocation of retribution on the wicked, +the confidence that their own devices will come down on their heads, the +intense yearning of soul after God--are all repeated in these psalms. +Single metaphors and peculiar phrases which we have already met with +recur--as, for instance, "the shadow of Thy wings" (xvii. 8, lvii. 1), +and the singular phrase rendered in our version, "show Thy marvellous +loving-kindness" (xvii. 7, xxxi. 21), which is found only here. In one +of these psalms (xxxv. 13) there seems to be a reference to his earliest +days at the court, and to the depth of loving sympathy with Saul's +darkened spirit, which he learned to cherish, as he stood before him to +soothe him with the ordered harmonies of harp and voice. The words are +so definite that they appear to refer to some historic occasion: + + And as for me--in their sickness my clothing was sackcloth, + With fasting I humbled my soul, + And my prayer into my own bosom returned. + +So truly did he feel for him who is now his foe. The outward marks of +mourning became the natural expression of his feelings. Such is plainly +the meaning of the two former clauses, as well as of the following +verse. As the whole is a description of the outward signs of grief, it +seems better to understand the last of these three clauses as a picture +of the bent head sunk on the bosom even while he prayed,[N] than to +break the connection by referring it either to the requital of hate for +his sympathy,[O] or to the purity of his prayer, which was such that he +could desire nothing more for himself.[P] He goes on with the +enumeration of the signs of sorrow: "As if (he had been) a friend, a +brother to me, I went,"--walking slowly, like a man absorbed in sorrow: +"as one who laments a mother, in mourning garments I bowed +down,"--walking with a weary, heavy stoop, like one crushed by a +mother's death, with the garb of woe. Thus faithfully had he loved, and +truly wept for the noble ruined soul which, blinded by passion and +poisoned by lies, had turned to be his enemy. And that same love clung +by him to the last, as it ever does with great and good men, who learn +of God to suffer long and be kind, to bear all things, and hope all +things. + +[N] So Ewald and Delitzsch. + +[O] Hupfeld. + +[P] Perowne. + +Of these psalms the xxii. is remarkable. In it David's personal +experience seems to afford only the starting-point for a purely +Messianic prophecy, which embraces many particulars that far transcend +anything recorded of his sorrows. The impossibility of finding +occurrences in his life corresponding to such traits as tortured limbs +and burning thirst, pierced hands and parted garments, has driven some +critics to the hypothesis that we have here a psalm of the exile +describing either actual sufferings inflicted on some unknown confessor +in Babylon, or in figurative language the calamities of Israel there. +But the Davidic origin is confirmed by many obvious points of +resemblance with the psalms which are indisputably his, and especially +with those of the Sauline period, while the difficulty of finding +historical facts answering to the emphatic language is evaded, not met, +by either assuming that such facts existed in some life which has left +no trace, or by forcing a metaphorical sense on words which sound +wonderfully like the sad language of a real sufferer. Of course, if we +believe that prediction is an absurdity, any difficulty will be lighter +than the acknowledgment that we have prediction here. But, unless we +have a foregone conclusion of that sort to blind us, we shall see in +this psalm a clear example of the prophecy of a suffering Messiah. In +most of the other psalms where David speaks of his sorrows we have only +a typical foreshadowing of Christ. But in this, and in such others as +lxix. and cix. (if these are David's), we have type changing into +prophecy, and the person of the psalmist fading away before the image +which, by occasion of his own griefs, rose vast, and solemn, and distant +before his prophet gaze,--the image of One who should be perfectly all +which he was in partial measure, the anointed of God, the utterer of His +name to His brethren, the King of Israel,--and whose path to His +dominion should be thickly strewn with solitary sorrow, and reproach, +and agony, to whose far more exceeding weight of woe all his affliction +was light as a feather, and transitory as a moment. And when the +psalmist had learned that lesson, besides all the others of trust and +patience which his wanderings taught him, his schooling was nearly over, +he was almost ready for a new discipline; and the slowly-evolving +revelation of God's purposes, which by his sorrows had unfolded more +distinctly than before "the sufferings of the Messiah," was ripening for +the unveiling, in his Kinghood, of "the glory that should follow." + + + + +IX.--THE KING. + + +We have now to turn and see the sudden change of fortune which lifted +the exile to a throne. The heavy cloud which had brooded so long over +the doomed king broke in lightning crash on the disastrous field of +Gilboa. Where is there a sadder and more solemn story of the fate of a +soul which makes shipwreck "of faith and of a good conscience," than +that awful page which tells how, godless, wretched, mad with despair and +measureless pride, he flung himself on his bloody sword, and died a +suicide's death, with sons and armour-bearer and all his men, a ghastly +court of corpses, laid round him? He had once been brave, modest, and +kind, full of noble purposes and generous affections--and he ended so. +Into what doleful regions of hate and darkness may self-will drag a +soul, when once the reins fall loose from a slackened hand! And what a +pathetic beam of struggling light gleams through heavy clouds, in the +grateful exploit of the men of Jabesh, who remembered how he had once +saved them, while yet he could care and dare for his kingdom, and +perilled their lives to bear the poor headless corpse to its rude +resting-place! + +The news is received by the fugitive at Ziklag in striking and +characteristic fashion. He first flames out in fierce wrath upon the +lying Amalekite, who had hurried with the tidings and sought favour by +falsely representing that he had killed the king on the field. A short +shrift and a bloody end were his. And then the wrath melts into +mourning. Forgetting the mad hatred and wild struggles of that poor +soul, and his own wrongs, remembering only the friendship and nobleness +of his earlier days, he casts over the mangled corpses of Saul and +Jonathan the mantle of his sweet elegy, and bathes them with the healing +waters of his unstinted praise and undying love. Not till these two +offices of justice and affection had been performed, does he remember +himself and the change in his own position which had been effected. He +had never thought of Saul as standing between him and the kingdom; the +first feeling on his death was not, as it would have been with a less +devout and less generous heart, a flush of gladness at the thought of +the empty throne, but a sharp pang of pain from the sense of an empty +heart. And even when he begins to look forward to his own new course, +there is that same remarkable passiveness which we have observed +already. His first step is to "inquire of the Lord, saying, Shall I go +up to any of the cities of Judah?" (2 Sam. ii. 1). He will do nothing in +this crisis of his fortunes, when all which had been so long a hope +seemed to be rapidly becoming a fact, until his Shepherd shall lead him. +Rapid and impetuous as he was by nature, schooled to swift decisions, +followed by still swifter action, knowing that a blow struck at once, +while all was chaos and despair at home, might set him on the throne, he +holds nature and policy and the impatience of his people in check to +hear what God will say. So fully did he fulfil the vow of his early +psalm, "My strength! upon thee will I wait" (lix. 9). + +We can fancy the glad march to the ancient Hebron, where the great +fathers of the nation lay in their rock-hewn tombs. Even before the +death of Saul, David's strength had been rapidly increasing, by a +constant stream of fugitives from the confusion and misery into which +the kingdom had fallen. Even Benjamin, Saul's own tribe, sent him some +of its famous archers--a sinister omen of the king's waning fortunes; +the hardy half-independent men of Manasseh and Gad, from the pastoral +uplands on the east of Jordan, "whose faces," according to the vivid +description of the chronicler (1 Chron. xii. 8), "were like the faces of +lions, and were as swift as roes upon the mountains," sought his +standard; and from his own kinsmen of Judah recruits "day by day came to +David to help him, until it was a great host like the host of God." With +such forces, it would have been child's play to have subdued any +scattered troops of the former dynasty which might still have been in a +condition to keep the field. But he made no attempt of the sort; and +even when he came to Hebron he took no measures to advance any claims to +the crown. The language of the history seems rather to imply a +disbanding of his army, or at least their settling down to domestic life +in the villages round Hebron, without a thought of winning the kingdom +by arms. And his elevation to the partial monarchy which he at first +possessed was the spontaneous act of "the men of Judah," who come to him +and anoint him king over Judah. + +The limits of his territory are substantially those of the kingdom over +which his descendants ruled after Jeroboam's revolt, thus indicating the +existence of a natural "line of cleavage" between north and south. The +geographical position of Benjamin finally attached it to the latter +monarchy; but for the present, the wish to retain the supremacy which it +had had while the king was one of the tribe, made it the nucleus of a +feeble and lingering opposition to David, headed by Saul's cousin Abner, +and rallying round his incompetent son Ishbosheth.[Q] The chronology of +this period is obscure. David reigned in Hebron seven years and a half, +and as Ishbosheth's phantom sovereignty only occupied two of these +years, and those evidently the last, it would appear almost as if the +Philistines had held the country, with the exception of Judah, in such +force that no rival cared to claim the dangerous dignity, and that five +years passed before the invaders were so far cleared out as to leave +leisure for civil war. + +[Q] The Canaanitish worship of Baal seems to have lingered in Saul's +family. One of his grand-uncles was named Baal (1 Chron. ix. 36); his +son was really called Eshbaal (Fire of Baal), which was contemptuously +converted into Ishbosheth (Man of Shame). So also Mephibosheth was +properly Meribbaal (Fighter for Baal). + +The summary narrative of these seven years presents the still youthful +king in a very lovable light. The same temper which had marked his first +acts after Saul's death is strikingly brought out (2 Sam. ii.-iv.) He +seems to have left the conduct of the war altogether to Joab, as if he +shrank from striking a single blow for his own advancement. When he does +interfere, it is on the side of peace, to curb and chastise ferocious +vengeance and dastardly assassination. The incidents recorded all go to +make up a picture of rare generosity, of patient waiting for God to +fulfil His purposes, of longing that the miserable strife between the +tribes of God's inheritance should end. He sends grateful messages to +Jabesh-Gilead; he will not begin the conflict with the insurgents. The +only actual fight recorded is provoked by Abner, and managed with +unwonted mildness by Joab. The list of his children born in Hebron is +inserted in the very heart of the story of the insurrection, a token of +the quiet domestic life of peaceful joys and cares which he lived while +the storm was raging without. Eagerly, and without suspicion, he +welcomes Abner's advances towards reconciliation. He falls for a moment +to the level of his times, and yields to a strong temptation, in making +the restoration of his long-lost wife Michal the condition of further +negotiations--a demand which was strictly just, no doubt, but for which +little more can be said. The generosity of his nature and the ideal +purity of his love, which that incident shadows, shine out again in his +indignation at Joab's murder of Abner, though he was too meek to avenge +it. There is no more beautiful picture in his life than that of his +following the bier where lay the bloody corpse of the man who had been +his enemy ever since he had known him, and sealing the reconciliation +which Death ever makes in noble souls, by the pathetic dirge he chanted +over Abner's grave. We have a glimpse of his people's unbounded +confidence in him, given incidentally when we are told that his sorrow +pleased them, "as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people." We +have a glimpse of the feebleness of his new monarchy as against the +fierce soldier who had done so much to make it, in his acknowledgment +that he was yet weak, being but recently anointed king, and that these +vehement sons of Zeruiah were too strong for him; and we have a +remarkable trace of connection with the psalms, in the closing words +with which he invokes on Joab the vengeance which he as yet felt himself +unable to execute: "The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to +his wickedness." + +The only other incident recorded of his reign in Hebron is his execution +of summary justice upon the murderers of the poor puppet-king +Ishbosheth, upon whose death, following so closely that of Abner, the +whole resistance to David's power collapses. There had never been any +real popular opposition. His enemies are emphatically named as "the +house of Saul," and we find Abner himself admitting that "the elders of +Israel" wanted David as king (2 Sam. iii. 17), so that when he was gone, +it is two Benjamites who give the _coup-de-grace_ to Ishbosheth, and end +the whole shadowy rival power. Immediately the rulers of all the tribes +come up to Hebron, with the tender of the crown. They offer it on the +triple grounds of kinship, of his military service even in Saul's reign, +and of the Divine promise of the throne. A solemn pact was made, and +David was anointed in Hebron, a king by Divine right, but also a +constitutional monarch chosen by popular election, and limited in his +powers. + +The first result of his new strength is the capture of the old +hill-fortress of the Jebusites, the city of Melchizedek, which had +frowned down upon Israel unsubdued till now, and whose inhabitants +trusted so absolutely in its natural strength that their answer to the +demand for surrender was the jeer, "Thou wilt not come hither, but the +blind and lame will drive thee away." This time David does not leave the +war to others. For the first time for seven years we read, "_The king_ +and his men went to Jerusalem." Established there as his capital, he +reigns for some ten years with unbroken prosperity over a loyal and +loving people, with this for the summary of the whole period, "David +went on and grew great, and the Lord God of Hosts was with him" (2 Sam. +v. 10). These years are marked by three principal events--the bringing +up of the ark to the city of David, the promise by Nathan of the +perpetual dominion of his house, and the unbroken flow of victories over +the surrounding nations. These are the salient points of the narrative +in the Book of Samuel (2 Sam. v.-viii.), and are all abundantly +illustrated by the psalms. We shall have next then to consider "The +Songs of the King." + +How did the fugitive bear his sudden change of fortune? What were his +thoughts when at last the dignity which he had ever expected and never +sought was his? The answer is ready to our hand in that grand psalm (Ps. +xviii.) which he "spake in the day that the Lord delivered him from all +his enemies, and from the hand of Saul." The language of this +superscription seems to connect the psalm with the period of internal +and external repose which preceded and prompted David's "purpose to +build an house for the Lord" (2 Sam. vii.) The same thankfulness which +glows so brightly in the psalm stimulated that desire, and the emphatic +reference to the mercy promised by God to "his seed for evermore," which +closes the hymn, points perhaps to the definite promise of the +perpetuity of the kingdom to his descendants, which was God's answer to +the same desire. But whether the psalm belongs to the years of the +partial sovereignty at Hebron, or to those of the complete dominion at +Jerusalem, it cannot be later than the second of these two dates; and +whatever may have been the time of its composition, the feelings which +it expresses are those of the first freshness of thankful praise when he +was firmly settled in the kingdom. Some critics would throw it onwards +to the very close of his life. But this has little in its favour beyond +the fact that the author of the Book of Samuel has placed his version of +the psalm among the records of David's last days. There is, however, +nothing to show that that position is due to chronological +considerations. The victories over heathen nations which are supposed to +be referred to in the psalm, and are relied on by the advocates of later +date, really point to the earlier, which was the time of his most +brilliant conquests. And the marked assertions of his own purity, as +well as the triumphant tone of the whole, neither of which +characteristics corresponds to the sad and shaded years after his great +fall, point in the same direction. On the whole, then, we may fairly +take this psalm as belonging to the bright beginning of the monarchy, +and as showing us how well the king remembered the vows which the exile +had mingled with his tears. + +It is one long outpouring of rapturous thankfulness and triumphant +adoration, which streams from a full heart in buoyant waves of song. +Nowhere else, even in the psalms--and if not there, certainly nowhere +else--is there such a continuous tide of unmingled praise, such +magnificence of imagery, such passion of love to the delivering God, +such joyous energy of conquering trust. It throbs throughout with the +life blood of devotion. The strong flame, white with its very ardour, +quivers with its own intensity as it steadily rises heavenward. All the +terrors, and pains, and dangers of the weary years--the black fuel for +the ruddy glow--melt into warmth too great for smoke, too equable to +blaze. The plaintive notes that had so often wailed from his harp, sad +as if the night wind had been wandering among its chords, have all led +up to this rushing burst of full-toned gladness. The very blessedness of +heaven is anticipated, when sorrows gone by are understood and seen in +their connection with the joy to which they have led, and are felt to +be the theme for deepest thankfulness. Thank God that, for the +consolation of the whole world, we have this hymn of praise from the +same lips which said, "My life is spent with grief, and my years with +sighing." "We have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very +pitiful and of tender mercy." The tremulous minors of trustful sorrow +shall swell into rapturous praise; and he who, compassed with foes, +cries upon God, will, here or yonder, sing this song "unto the Lord, in +the day that the Lord delivers him from the hand of all his enemies." + + + + +X.--THE KING--_CONTINUED_. + + +In our last chapter we have seen that the key-note of "The Songs of the +King" may be said to be struck in Psalm xviii. Its complete analysis +would carry us far beyond our limits. We can but glance at some of the +more prominent points of the psalm. + +The first clause strikes the key-note. "I love Thee, O Jehovah, my +strength." That personal attachment to God, which is so characteristic +of David's religion, can no longer be pent up in silence, but gushes +forth like some imprisoned stream, broad and full even from its +well-head. The common word for "love" is too weak for him, and he bends +to his use another, never elsewhere employed to express man's emotions +towards God, the intensity of which is but feebly expressed by some such +periphrasis as, "From my heart do I love Thee." The same exalted feeling +is wonderfully set forth by the loving accumulation of Divine names +which follow, as if he would heap together in one great pile all the +rich experiences of that God, unnamed after all names, which he had +garnered up in his distresses and deliverances. They tell so much as the +poor vehicle of words can tell, what his Shepherd in the heavens had +been to him. They are the treasures which he has brought back from his +exile; and they most pathetically point to the songs of that time. He +had called on God by these names when it was hard to believe in their +reality, and now he repeats them all in his glad hour of fruition, for +token that they who in their extremity trust in the name of the Lord +will one day have the truth of faith transformed into truth of +experience. "Jehovah, my rock and my fortress," reminds us of his cry in +Ziklag, "Thou art my rock and my fortress" (xxxi. 3), and of the "hold" +(the same word) of Adullam in which he had lain secure. "My deliverer" +echoes many a sigh in the past, now changed into music of praise. "My +rock" (a different word from that in a preceding clause), "in whom I +take refuge," recalls the prayer, "Be Thou my rock of strength" (xxxi. +2), and his former effort of confidence, when, in the midst of +calamities, he said, "My soul takes refuge in Thee" (lvii. 1.) "My +shield" carries us back to the ancient promise, fresh after so many +centuries, and fulfilled anew in every age, "Fear not, Abram, I am thy +shield," and to his own trustful words at a time when trust was +difficult, "My shield is upon God" (vii. 10). "My high tower," the last +of this glowing series, links on to the hope breathed in the first song +of his exile, "God is my defence" (the same expression); "Thou hast been +my defence in the day of trouble" (lix. 9, 16). And then he sums up his +whole past in one general sentence, which tells his habitual resource in +his troubles, and the blessed help which he has ever found, "I call on +Jehovah, who is worthy to be praised;[R] and from my enemies am I saved" +(verse 3). + +[R] The old English word "the worshipful" comes near the form and +meaning of the phrase. + +No comment can heighten, and no translation can adequately represent, +while none can altogether destroy the unapproachable magnificence of the +description which follows, of the majestic coming forth of God in answer +to his cry. It stands at the very highest point, even when compared with +the other sublime passages of a like kind in Scripture. How +pathetically he paints his sore need in metaphors which again bring to +mind the songs of the outlaw:-- + + The snares of death compassed me, + And floods of destruction made me afraid; + The snares of Sheol surrounded me, + The toils of death surprised me. + +As he so often likened himself to some wild creature in the nets, so +here Death, the hunter, has cast his fatal cords about him, and they are +ready suddenly to close on the unsuspecting prey. Or, varying the image, +he is sinking in black waters, which are designated by a difficult +phrase (literally, "streams of Belial," or worthlessness), which is most +probably rendered as above (so Ewald, Hupfeld). In this dire extremity +one thing alone is left him. He is snared, but he has his voice free to +cry with, and a God to cry to. He is all but sinking, but he can still +shriek (so one of the words might be rendered) "like some strong swimmer +in his agony." And it is enough. That one loud call for help rises, like +some slender pillar of incense-smoke, straight into the palace temple of +God--and, as he says, with a meaning which our version obscures, "My cry +before Him came into His ears." The prayer that springs from a living +consciousness of being in God's presence, even when nearest to +perishing, is the prayer that He hears. The cry is a poor, thin, +solitary voice, unheard on earth, though shrill enough to rise to +heaven; the answer shakes creation. One man in his extremity can put in +motion all the magnificence of God. Overwhelming is the contrast between +the cause and the effect. And marvellous as the greatness, so also is +the swiftness of the answer. A moment suffices--and then! Even whilst he +cries, the rocking earth and the quivering foundations of the hills are +conscious that the Lord comes from afar for his help. The majestic +self-revelation of God as the deliverer has for its occasion the +psalmist's cry of distress, and for its issue, "He drew me out of many +waters." All the splendour flames out because a poor man prays, and all +the upheaval of earth and the artillery of heaven has simply this for +its end, that a poor man may be delivered. The paradox of prayer never +found a more bold expression than in this triumphant utterance, of the +insignificant occasion for, and the equally insignificant result sought +by, the exercise of the energy of Omnipotence. + +The Divine deliverance is set forth under the familiar image of the +coming of God in a tempest. Before it bursts, and simultaneous with the +prayer, the "earth rocks and quivers," the sunless "pillars of the hills +reel and rock to and fro," as if conscious of the gathering wrath which +begins to flame far off in the highest heavens. There has been no +forth-putting yet of the Divine power. It is but accumulating its fiery +energy, and already the solid framework of the world trembles, +anticipating the coming crash. The firmest things shake, the loftiest +bow before His wrath. "There went up smoke out of his nostrils, and fire +out of his mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it." This kindling +anger, expressed by these tremendous metaphors, is conceived of as the +preparation in "His temple" for the earthly manifestation of delivering +vengeance. It is like some distant thunder-cloud which grows on the +horizon into ominous blackness, and seems to be filling its +ashen-coloured depths with store of lightnings. Then the piled-up terror +begins to move, and, drawing nearer, pours out an avalanche of gloom +seamed with fire. First the storm-cloud descends, hanging lower and +lower in the sky. And whose foot is that which is planted upon its heavy +mass, thick and frowning enough to be the veil of God? + + "He bowed the heavens, and came down, + And blackness of cloud was under His feet." + +Then the sudden rush of wind which heralds the lightning breaks the +awful silence:-- + + And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly, + Yea, He swept along upon the wings of the wind. + +The cherubs bear, as in a chariot, the throned God, and the swift +pinions of the storm bear the cherubs. But He that sits upon the throne, +above material forces and the highest creatures, is unseen. The +psalmist's imagination stops at its base, nor dares to gaze into that +light above; and the silence is more impressive than all words. Instead +of pagan attempts at a likeness of God, we have next painted, with equal +descriptive accuracy, poetic force, and theological truth, the pitchy +blackness which hides Him. In the gloom of its depths He makes His +"secret place" His "tent." It is "darkness of waters," that is, darkness +from which streams out the thunder-rain; it is "thick clouds of the +skies;" or perhaps the expression should be rendered, "heavy masses of +clouds." Then comes the crash of the tempest. The brightness that lies +closer around Him, and lives in the heart of the blackness, flames +forth, parting the thick clouds--and through the awful rent hail and +coals of fire are flung down on the trembling earth. The grand +description may be rendered in two ways: either that adopted in our +version, "At the brightness that was before Him His thick clouds +passed--hailstones and coals of fire;" or, "Through His thick clouds +there passed hailstones and coals of fire." The former of these is the +more dramatic; the broken construction expresses more vividly the fierce +suddenness of the lightning blaze and of the down-rush of the hail, and +is confirmed by the repetition of the same words in the same +construction in the next verse. That verse describes another burst of +the tempest--the deep roll of the thunder along the skies is the voice +of Jehovah, and again the lightning tears through the clouds, and the +hail streams down. With what profound truth all this destructive power +is represented as coming from the brightness of God--that "glory" which +in its own nature is light, but in its contact with finite and sinful +creatures must needs become darkness, rent asunder by lightning! What +lessons as to the root and the essential nature of all punitive acts of +God cluster round such words! and how calm and blessed the faith which +can pierce even the thickest mass "that veileth Love!"--to see the light +at the centre, even though the circumference be brooding thunder-clouds +torn by sudden fires. Then comes the purpose of all this apocalypse of +Divine magnificence. The fiery arrows scatter the psalmist's enemies. +The waters in which he had well nigh drowned are dried up before the hot +breath of His anger. "That dread voice" speaks "which shrinks their +streams." And amid the blaze of tempest, the rocking earth, and the +failing floods, His arm is thrust forth from above, and draws His +servant from many waters. As one in later times, "he was afraid, and +beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me; and immediately He +stretched forth His hand and caught him." + +A calmer tone follows, as the psalmist recounts without metaphor his +deliverance, and reiterates the same assertion of his innocence which +we have already found so frequently in the previous psalms (vers. +17-24). Rising from his personal experience to the broad and lofty +thoughts of God which that experience had taught him, as it does all who +prize life chiefly as a means of knowing Him, he proclaims the solemn +truth, that in the exercise of a righteous retribution, and by the very +necessity of our moral nature, God appears to man what man is to God: +loving to the loving, upright to the upright, pure to the pure, and +froward to the froward. Our thoughts of God are shaped by our moral +character; the capacity of perceiving depends on sympathy. "Unless the +eye were light, how could it see the sun?" The self-revelation of God in +His providence, of which only the psalm speaks, is modified according to +our moral character, being full of love to those who love, being harsh +and antagonistic to those who set themselves in opposition to it. There +is a higher law of grace, whereby the sinfulness of man but draws forth +the tenderness of a father's pardoning pity; and the brightest +revelation of His love is made to froward prodigals. But that is not in +the psalmist's view here, nor does it interfere with the law of +retribution in its own sphere. + +The purely personal tone is again resumed, and continued unbroken to the +close. In the former portion David was passive, except for the voice of +prayer, and God's arm alone was his deliverance. In the latter half he +is active, the conquering king, whose arm is strengthened for victory by +God. This difference may possibly suggest the reference of the former +half to the Sauline persecution, when, as we have seen, the exile ever +shrunk from avenging himself; and of the latter to the early years of +his monarchy, which, as we shall see, were characterized by much +successful military activity; and if so, the date of the psalm would +most naturally be taken to be the close of his victorious campaigns, +when "the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies round about" (2 +Sam. vii. 1). Be that as it may, the latter portion of the psalm shows +us the soldier king tracing all his past victories to God alone, and +building upon them the confidence of a world-wide dominion. The point at +which memory passes into hope is difficult to determine, and great +variety of opinion prevails on the matter among commentators. It is +perhaps best to follow many of the older versions, and the valuable +exposition of Hupfeld, in regarding the whole section from ver. 37 of +our translation as the expression of the trust which past experience had +wrought. We shall then have two periods in the second half of the +psalm--the past victories won by God's help (vers. 31-36), the coming +triumphs of which these are the pledge (vers. 37-end). + +In the former there shine out not only David's habitual consciousness of +dependence on and aid from God, but also a very striking picture of his +physical qualifications for a military leader. He is girded with bodily +strength, swift and sure of foot like a deer, able to scale the crags +where his foes fortified themselves like the wild antelopes he had so +often seen bounding among the dizzy ledges of the cliffs in the +wilderness; his hands are trained for war, and his sinewy arms can bend +the great bow of brass. But these capacities are gifts, and not they, +but their Giver, have made him victorious. Looking back upon all his +past, this is its summing up:-- + + "Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation, + And Thy right hand hath holden me up, + And Thy lowliness hath made me great." + +God's strength, God's buckler, God's supporting hand, God's +condescension, by which He bows down to look upon and help the feeble, +with the humble showing Himself humble--these have been his weapons, and +from these has come his victory. + +And because of these, he looks forward to a future like the past, but +more glorious still, thereby teaching us how the unchanging faithfulness +of our God should encourage us to take all the blessings which we have +received as but the earnest of what is yet to come. He sees himself +pursuing his enemies, and smiting them to the ground. The fierce light +of battle blazes through the rapid sentences which paint the panic +flight, and the swift pursuit, the vain shrieks to man and God for +succour, and the utter annihilation of the foe:-- + + (42) "And I will pound them like dust before the wind, + Like street-filth will I empty them out." + +Then he gives utterance to the consciousness that his kingdom is +destined to extend far beyond the limits of Israel, in words which, like +so many of the prophecies, may be translated in the present tense, but +are obviously future in signification--the prophet placing himself in +imagination in the midst of the time of which he speaks:-- + + (43) "Thou deliverest me from the strivings of the people (_i.e._, + Israel), + Thou makest me head of the heathen; + People whom I knew not serve me. + + (44) At the hearing of the ear they obey me. + The sons of the stranger feign obedience to me. + + (45) The sons of the stranger fade away, + They come trembling from their hiding-places." + +The rebellion which weakened his early reign is subdued, and beyond the +bounds of his own people his dominion spreads. Strange tribes submit to +the very sound of his name, and crouch before him in extorted and +pretended submission. The words are literally "lie unto me," descriptive +of the profuse professions of loyalty characteristic of conquered +orientals. Their power withers before him like a gathered flower before +a hot wind, and the fugitives creep trembling out of their holes where +they have hid themselves. + +Again he recurs to the one thought which flows like a river of light +through all the psalm--that all his help is in God. The names which he +lovingly heaped together at the beginning are in part echoed in the +close. "The Lord liveth, and blessed is my rock, and the God of my +salvation is exalted." His deliverances have taught him to know a living +God, swift to hear, active to help, in whom he lives, who has magnified +His own name in that He has saved His servant. And as that blessed +conviction is the sum of all his experience, so one glad vow expresses +all his resolves, and thrills with the expectation which he had +cherished even in his lonely exile, that the music of his psalm would +one day echo through all the world. With lofty consciousness of his new +dignity, and with lowly sense that it is God's gift, he emphatically +names himself _His_ king, _His_ anointed, taking, as it were, his crown +from his brows and laying it on the altar. With prophetic eye he looks +onward, and sees the throne to which he had been led by a series of +miracles enduring for ever, and the mercy of God sustaining the dominion +of his house through all generations:-- + + (49) "Therefore will I give thanks to Thee among the nations, O + Jehovah, + And to Thy name will I strike the harp: + + (50) Who maketh great the deliverances of His king + And executeth mercy for His anointed, + For David and his seed for evermore." + +And what were his purposes for the future? Here is his answer, in a +psalm which has been with considerable appropriateness regarded as a +kind of manifesto of the principles which he intended should +characterize his reign (Psa. ci.): "I will walk within my house with a +perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes." For +himself, he begins his reign with noble self-restraint, not meaning to +make it a region of indulgence, but feeling that there is a law above +his will, of which he is only the servant, and knowing that if his +people and his public life are to be what they should be, his own +personal and domestic life must be pure. As for his court and his +ministers, he will make a clean sweep of the vermin who swarm and sting +and buzz about a throne. The froward, the wicked, privy slanderers, +proud hearts, crafty plotters, liars, and evil-doers he will not +suffer--but "mine eyes shall be upon the faithful in the land; he that +walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me." He is fired with ambition, +such as has brightened the beginning of many a reign which has darkened +to cruelty and crime, to make his kingdom some faint image of God's, and +to bring the actual Israel into conformity with its ancient Magna +Charta, "Ye shall be to me a holy nation." And so, not knowing perhaps +how hard a task he planned, and little dreaming of his own sore fall, he +grasps the sword, resolved to use it for the terror of evil-doers, and +vows, "I will early destroy all the wicked in the land, that I may cut +off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord." Such was his +"proclamation against vice and immorality" on his accession to his +throne. + + + + +XI.--THE KING--_CONTINUED_. + + +The years thus well begun are, in the historical books, characterized +mainly by three events, namely, the bringing up of the ark to the newly +won city of David, Nathan's prophecy of the perpetual dominion of his +house, and his victories over the surrounding nations. These three +hinges of the narrative are all abundantly illustrated in the psalms. + +As to the first, we have relics of the joyful ceremonial connected with +it in two psalms, the fifteenth and twenty-fourth, which are singularly +alike not only in substance but in manner, both being thrown into a +highly dramatic form by question and answer. This peculiarity, as we +shall see, is one of the links of connection which unite them with the +history as given in the Book of Samuel (2 Sam. vi.). From that record we +learn that David's first thought after he was firmly seated as king over +all Israel, was the enthronement in his recently-captured city of the +long-forgotten ark. That venerable symbol of the presence of the true +King had passed through many vicissitudes since the days when it had +been carried round the walls of Jericho. Superstitiously borne into +battle, as if it were a mere magic palladium, by men whose hearts were +not right with God, the presence which they had invoked became their +ruin, and Israel was shattered, and "the ark of God taken," on the fatal +field of Aphek. It had been carried in triumph through Philistine +cities, and sent back in dismay. It had been welcomed with gladness by +the villagers of Bethshemesh, who lifted their eyes from their harvest +work, and saw it borne up the glen from the Philistine plain. Their rude +curiosity was signally punished, "and the men of Bethshemesh said, Who +is able to stand before this holy Lord God, and to whom shall He go up +from us?" It had been removed to the forest seclusion of Kirjath-jearim +(the city of the woods), and there bestowed in the house of Abinadab +"upon the hill," where it lay neglected and forgotten for about seventy +years. During Saul's reign they "inquired not at it," and, indeed, the +whole worship of Jehovah seems to have been decaying. David set himself +to reorganize the public service of God, arranged a staff of priests and +Levites, with disciplined choir and orchestra (1 Chron. xv.), and then +proceeded with representatives of the whole nation to bring up the ark +from its woodland hiding-place. But again death turned gladness into +dread, and Uzzah's fate silenced the joyous songs, "and David was afraid +of the Lord that day, and said, How shall the ark of God come unto me?" +The dangerous honour fell on the house of Obed-edom; and only after the +blessing which followed its three months' stay there, did he venture to +carry out his purpose. The story of the actual removal of the ark to the +city of David with glad ceremonial need not be repeated here; nor the +mocking gibes of Michal who had once loved him so fondly. Probably she +bitterly resented her violent separation from the household joys that +had grown up about her in her second home; probably the woman who had +had teraphim among her furniture cared nothing for the ark of God; +probably, as she grew older, her character had hardened in its lines, +and become like her father's in its measureless pride, and in its +half-dread, half-hatred of David--and all these motives together pour +their venom into her sarcasm. Taunts provoke taunts; the husband feels +that the wife is in heart a partisan of the fallen house of her father, +and a despiser of the Lord and of His worship; her words hiss with +scorn, his flame with anger and rebuke--and so these two that had been +so tender in the old days part for ever. The one doubtful act that +stained his accession was quickly avenged. Better for both that she had +never been rent from that feeble, loving husband that followed her +weeping, and was driven back by a single word, flung at him by Abner as +if he had been a dog at their heels! (2 Sam. iii. 16). + +The gladness and triumph, the awe, and the memories of victory which +clustered round the dread symbol of the presence of the Lord of Hosts, +are wonderfully expressed in the choral twenty-fourth psalm. It is +divided into two portions, which Ewald regards as being originally two +independent compositions. They are, however, obviously connected both in +form and substance. In each we have question and answer, as in psalm +xv., which belongs to the same period. The first half replies to the +question, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand +in His holy place?"--an echo of the terror-struck exclamation of the +people of Bethshemesh, already quoted. The answer is a description of +the _men who dwell with God_. The second half deals with the correlative +inquiry, "Who is the King of Glory?" and describes the _God who comes to +dwell with men_. It corresponds in substance, though not in form, with +David's thought when Uzzah died, in so far as it regards God as drawing +near to the worshippers, rather than the worshippers drawing near to +Him. Both portions are united by a real internal connection, in that +they set forth the mutual approach of God and man which leads to +communion, and thus constitute the two halves of an inseparable whole. + +Most expositors recognise a choral structure in the psalm, as in several +others of this date, as would be natural at the time of the +reorganization of the public musical service. Probably we may gain the +key to its form by supposing it to be a processional hymn, of which the +first half was to be sung during the ascent to the city of David, and +the second while standing before the gates. We have then to fancy the +long line of worshippers climbing the rocky steep hill-side to the +ancient fortress so recently won, the Levites bearing the ark, and the +glad multitude streaming along behind them. + +First there swells forth from all the singers the triumphant +proclamation of God's universal sovereignty, "The earth is the Lord's +and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. For He +hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods." It is +very noteworthy that such a thought should precede the declaration of +His special dwelling in Zion. It guards that belief from the abuses to +which it was of course liable--the superstitions, the narrowness, the +contempt of all the rest of the world as God-deserted, which are its +perversion in sensuous natures. If Israel came to fancy that God +belonged to them, and that there was only one sacred place in all the +world, it was not for want of clear utterances to the contrary, which +became more emphatic with each fresh step in the development of the +specializing system under which they lived. The very ground of their +peculiar relation to God had been declared, in the hour of constituting +it to be--"all the earth is Mine" (Exod. xix. 5). So now, when the +symbol of His presence is to have a local habitation in the centre of +the national life, the psalmist lays for the foundation of his song the +great truth, that the Divine presence is concentrated in Israel, but not +confined there, and concentrated in order that it may be diffused. The +glory that lights the bare top of Zion lies on all the hills; and He who +dwells between the cherubim dwells in all the world, which His continual +presence fills with its fulness, and upholds above the floods. + +Then, as they climb, a single voice perhaps chants the solemn question, +"Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in the place +of His holiness?" + +And the full-toned answer portrays the men who shall dwell with God, in +words which begin indeed with stringent demands for absolute purity, but +wonderfully change in tone as they advance, into gracious assurances, +and the clearest vision that the moral nature which fits for God's +presence is God's gift. "The clean-handed, and pure-hearted, who has not +lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully;" there is the +eternal law which nothing can ever alter, that to abide with God a man +must be like God--the law of the new covenant as of the old, "Blessed +are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." But this requirement, +impossible of fulfilment, is not all. If it were, the climbing +procession might stop. But up and up they rise, and once again the song +bursts forth in deeper and more hopeful words, "He shall _receive_ the +blessing from Jehovah, and righteousness from the God of his salvation." +Then that righteousness, which he who honestly attempts to comply with +such requirements will soon find that he does not possess, is to be +received from above, not elaborated from within; is a gift from God, not +a product of man's toils. God will make us pure, that we may dwell with +Him. Nor is this all. The condition of receiving such a gift has been +already partially set forth in the preceding clause, which seems to +require righteousness to be possessed as the preliminary to receiving +it. The paradox which thus results is inseparable from the stage of +religious knowledge attained under the Mosaic Law. But the last words of +the answer go far beyond it, and proclaim the special truth of the +gospel, that the righteousness which fits for dwelling with God is given +on the simple condition of _seeking_ Him. To this designation of the +true worshippers is appended somewhat abruptly the one word "Jacob," +which need neither be rendered as in the English version as an +invocation, nor as in the margin, with an unnecessary and improbable +supplement, "O God of Jacob;" but is best regarded as in apposition with +the other descriptive clauses, and declaring, as we have found David +doing already in previous psalms, that the characters portrayed in them, +and these only, constituted the true Israel. + + This is the generation of them that seek Him, + That seek Thy face--(this is) Jacob. + +And so the first question is answered, "Who are the men who dwell with +God?"--The pure, who receive righteousness, who seek Him, the true +Israel. + +And now the procession has reached the front of the ancient city on the +hill, and stands before the very walls and weather-beaten gates which +Melchizedek may have passed through, and which had been barred against +Israel till David's might had burst them. National triumph and glad +worship are wonderfully blended in the summons which rings from the lips +of the Levites without: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates! and be ye lift +up, ye doors (that have been from) of old!" as if even their towering +portals were too low, "and the King of glory shall come in." What force +in that name here, in this early song of the King! How clearly he +recognises his own derived power, and the real Monarch of whom he is but +the shadowy representative! The newly-conquered city is summoned to +admit its true conqueror and sovereign, whose throne is the ark, which +was emphatically named "the glory,"[S] and in whose train the earthly +king follows as a subject and a worshipper. Then, with wonderful +dramatic force, a single voice from within the barred gates asks, like +some suspicious warder, "Who then is the King of glory?" With what a +shout of proud confidence and triumphant memories of a hundred fields +comes, ready and full, the crash of many voices in the answer, "Jehovah +strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle!" How vividly the reluctance +of an antagonistic world to yield to Israel and Israel's King, is +represented in the repetition of the question in a form slightly more +expressive of ignorance and doubt, in answer to the reiterated summons, +"Who is He, then, the King of glory?" With what deepened intensity of +triumph there peals, hoarse and deep, the choral shout, "The Lord of +Hosts, He is the King of glory." That name which sets Him forth as +Sovereign of the personal and impersonal forces of the universe--angels, +and stars, and terrene creatures, all gathered in ordered ranks, +embattled for His service--was a comparatively new name in Israel,[T] +and brought with it thoughts of irresistible might in earth and heaven. +It crashes like a catapult against the ancient gates; and at that +proclamation of the omnipotent name of the God who dwells with men, they +grate back on their brazen hinges, and the ark of the Lord enters into +its rest. + +[S] "And she named the child I-chabod (Where is the glory?) saying, The +glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken."--1 +_Sam._ iv. 21. + +[T] It has been asserted that this is the first introduction of the +name. ("Psalms Chronologically Arranged by Four Friends," p. 14). But it +occurs in Hannah's vow (1 Sam. i. 11); in Samuel's words to Saul (xv. +2); in David's reply to Goliath (xvii. 45). We have it also in Psalm +lix. 5, which we regard as his earliest during his exile. Do the authors +referred to consider these speeches in 1 Sam. as not authentic? + + + + +XII.--THE KING--_CONTINUED_. + + +The second event recorded as important in the bright early years is the +great promise of the perpetuity of the kingdom in David's house. As soon +as the king was firmly established and free from war, he remembered the +ancient word which said, "When He giveth you rest from all your enemies +round about, so that ye dwell in safety, then there shall be a place +which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there" +(Deut. xii. 10, 11). His own ease rebukes him; he regards his +tranquillity not as a season for selfish indolence, but as a call to new +forms of service. He might well have found in the many troubles and +vicissitudes of his past life an excuse for luxurious repose now. But +devout souls will consecrate their leisure as their toil to God, and +will serve Him with thankful offerings in peace whom they invoked with +earnest cries in battle. Prosperity is harmless only when it is +accepted as an opportunity for fresh forms of devotion, not as an +occasion for idle self-indulgence. So we read, with distinct verbal +reference to the words already quoted, that "when the Lord had given him +rest round about from all his enemies, the king said unto Nathan the +prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God +dwelleth in curtains." The impulse of generous devotion, which cannot +bear to lavish more upon self than it gives to God, at first commended +itself to the prophet; but in the solitude of his nightly thoughts the +higher wisdom speaks in his spirit, and the word of God gives him a +message for the king. The narrative in 2 Sam. makes no mention of +David's warlike life as unfitting him for the task, which we find from 2 +Chron. was one reason why his purpose was set aside, but brings into +prominence the thought that David's generous impulse was outrunning +God's commandment, and that his ardour to serve was in some danger of +forgetting his entire dependence on God, and of fancying that God would +be the better for him. So the prophetic message reminds him that the +Lord had never, through all the centuries, asked for a house of cedar, +and recalls the past life of David as having been wholly shaped and +blessed by Him, while it pointedly inverts the king's proposal in its +own grand promise, "The Lord telleth thee that He will make thee an +house." Then follows the prediction of a son of David who should build +the house, whose kingdom should be perpetual, whose transgressions +should be corrected indeed, but never punished as those of the unhappy +Saul; and then, in emphatic and unmistakable words, the perpetuity of +David's house, his kingdom, and his throne, is reiterated as the close +of the whole. + +The wonderful burst of praise which sprang from David's heart in answer +cannot be dealt with here; but clearly from that time onwards a new +element had been added to his hopes, and a new object presented to his +faith. The prophecy of the Messiah enters upon a new stage, bearing a +relation, as its successive stages, always unmistakably did, to the +history which supplies a framework for it. Now for the first time can he +be set forth as the king of Israel; now the width of the promise which +at first had embraced the seed of the woman, and then had been narrowed +to the seed of Abraham, and thereafter probably to the tribe of Judah, +is still further defined as to be fulfilled in the line of the house of +David; now the personal Messiah Himself begins to be discerned through +the words which are to have a preparatory fulfilment, in itself +prophetic, in the collective Davidic monarchs whose very office is +itself also a prophecy. + +Many echoes of this new message ring through the later psalms of the +king. His own dominion, his conquests, and his office, gradually became +to himself a solemn prophecy of a mysterious descendant who should be +really and fully all that he was in shadow and in part. As the +experience of the exile, so that of the victorious monarch supplied the +colours with which the spirit of prophecy in him painted "beforehand the +sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." In both classes +of psalms we have two forms of the Messianic reference, the typical and +the purely prophetic. In the former the events of David's own biography +and the feelings of his own soul are so portrayed and expressed as to +suggest his greater Son. In the latter, the personality of the psalmist +retreats into the background, and is at most only the starting-point for +wails of sorrow or gleams of glory which far transcend anything in the +life of the singer. There are portions, for instance, of the xxii. and +lxix. psalms which no torturing can force into correspondence with any +of David's trials; and in like manner there are paeans of victory and +predictions of dominion which demand a grander interpretation than his +own royalty or his hopes for his house can yield. Of course, if prophecy +is impossible, there is no more to be said, but that in that case a +considerable part of the Old Testament, including many of David's +psalms, is unintelligible. + +Perhaps the clearest instance of distinct prophecy of the victorious +dominion of the personal Messiah is the 110th psalm. In it we do see, no +doubt, the influence of the psalmist's own history, shaping the image +which rises before his soul. But the attributes of that king whom he +beholds are not his attributes, nor those of any son of his who wore the +crown in Israel. And whilst his own history gives the form, it is "the +Spirit of Christ that was in" him which gives the substance, and +transfigures the earthly monarchy into a heavenly dominion. We do not +enter upon the question of the Davidic authorship of this psalm. Here we +have not to depend upon Jewish superscriptions, but on the words of Him +whose bare assertion should be "an end of all strife." Christ says that +David wrote it. Some of us are far enough behind the age to believe that +what He said He meant, and that what He meant is truth. + +This psalm, then, being David's, can hardly be earlier than the time of +Nathan's prophecy. There are traces in it of the influence of the +history of the psalmist, giving, as we have said, form to the +predictions. Perhaps we may see these in Zion being named as the seat of +Messiah's sovereignty and in the reference to Melchizedek, both of which +points assume new force if we suppose that the ancient city over which +that half-forgotten name once ruled had recently become his own. +Possibly, too, his joy in exchanging his armour and kingly robe for the +priest's ephod, when he brought up the ark to its rest, and his +consciousness that in himself the regal and the sacerdotal offices did +not blend, may have led him to meditations on the meaning of both, on +the miseries that seemed to flow equally from their separation and from +their union, which were the precursors of his hearing the Divine oath +that, in the far-off future, they would be fused together in that mighty +figure who was to repeat in higher fashion the union of functions which +invested that dim King of Righteousness and Priest of God in the far-off +past. He discerns that _his_ support from the right hand of God, _his_ +sceptre which he swayed in Zion, _his_ loyal people fused together into +a unity at last, _his_ triumphant warfare on the nations around, are all +but faint shadows of One who is to come. That solemn form on the horizon +of hope is his Lord, the true King whose viceroy he was, the "bright +consummate flower" for the sake of which the root has its being. And, as +he sees the majestic lineaments shimmering through the facts of his own +history, like some hidden fire toiling in a narrow space ere it leaps +into ruddy spires that burst their bonds and flame heaven high, he is +borne onwards by the prophetic impulse, and the Spirit of God speaks +through his tongue words which have no meaning unless their theme be a +Divine ruler and priest for all the world. + +He begins with the solemn words with which a prophetic message is wont +to be announced, thus at the outset stamping on the psalm its true +character. The "oracle" or "word of Jehovah unto my Lord," which he +heard, is a new revelation made to him from the heavens. He is taken up +and listens to the Divine voice calling to His right hand, to the most +intimate communion with Himself, and to wielding the energies of +omnipotence--Him whom David knew to be his lord. And when that Divine +voice ceases, its mandate having been fulfilled, the prophetic spirit in +the seer hymns the coronation anthem of the monarch enthroned by the +side of the majesty in the heavens. "The sceptre of Thy strength will +Jehovah send out of Zion. Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies." In +singular juxtaposition are the throne at God's right hand and the +sceptre--the emblem of sovereignty--issuing from Zion, a dominion +realised on earth by a monarch in the heavens, a dominion the centre of +which is Zion, and the undefined extent universal. It is a monarchy, +too, established in the midst of enemies, sustained in spite of +antagonism not only by the power of Jehovah, but by the activity of the +sovereign's own "rule." It is a dominion for the maintenance of which +devout souls will burst into prayer, and the most powerful can bring +but their aspirations. But the vision includes more than the warrior +king and his foes. Imbedded, as it were, in the very heart of the +description of the former comes the portraiture of his subjects, for a +witness how close is the union between Him and them, and how inseparable +from His glories are those who serve Him. They are characterised in a +threefold manner. "Thy people (shall be) willing in the day of Thine +array." The army is being mustered.[U] They are not mercenaries, nor +pressed men. They flock gladly to the standard, like the warriors +celebrated of old in Deborah's chant of victory, who "willingly offered +themselves." The word of our psalm might be translated "freewill +offerings," and the whole clause carries us into the very heart of that +great truth, that glad consecration and grateful self-surrender is the +one bond which knits us to the Captain of our salvation who gave +Himself for us, to the meek Monarch whose crown is of thorns and His +sceptre a reed, for tokens that His dominion rests on suffering and is +wielded in gentleness. The next words should be punctuated as a separate +clause, co-ordinate with the former, and adding another feature to the +description of the army. "In the beauties of holiness" is a common name +for the dress of the priests: the idea conveyed is that the army is an +army of priests, as the king himself is a priest. They are clothed, not +in mail and warlike attire, but in "fine linen clean and white," like +the armies which a later prophet saw following the Lord of lords. Their +warfare is not to be by force and cruelty, nor their conquests bloody; +but while soldiers they are to be priests, their weapons purity and +devotion, their merciful struggle to bring men to God, and to mirror God +to men. Round the one image gather all ideas of discipline, courage, +consecration to a cause, loyalty to a leader; round the other, all +thoughts of gentleness, of an atmosphere of devotion calm and still as +the holy place, of stainless character. Christ's servants must be both +soldiers and priests, like some of those knightly orders who bore the +cross on helmet and shield, and shaped the very hilts of their swords +into its likeness. And these soldier-priests are described by yet +another image, "From the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy +youth," where we are to regard the last word as used in a collective +sense, and equivalent to "Thy young warriors." They are like the dew +sparkling in infinite globelets on every blade of grass, hanging gems on +every bit of dead wood, formed in secret silence, reflecting the +sunlight, and, though the single drops be small and feeble, yet together +freshening the thirsty world. So, formed by an unseen and mysterious +power, one by one insignificant, but in the whole mighty, mirroring God +and quickening and beautifying the worn world, the servants of the +priest-king are to be "in the midst of many people like the dew from the +Lord." + +[U] The word translated "power" in our version, has the same double +meaning as that has in old English, or as "force" has now, sometimes +signifying "strength" and sometimes an "army." The latter is the more +appropriate here. "The day of Thine army" will then be equivalent to the +day of mustering the troops. + +Another solemn word from the lips of God begins the second half of the +psalm. "Jehovah swears," gives the sanction and guarantee of His own +nature, puts in pledge His own being for the fulfilment of the promise. +And that which He swears is a new thing in the earth. The blending of +the royal and priestly offices in the Messiah, and the eternal duration +in Him of both, is a distinct advancement in the development of +Messianic prophecy. The historical occasion for it may indeed be +connected with David's kingship and conquest of Melchizedek's city; but +the real source of it is a direct predictive inspiration. We have here +not merely the devout psalmist meditating on the truths revealed before +his day, but the prophet receiving a new word from God unheard by mortal +ears, and far transcending even the promises made to him by Nathan. +There is but one person to whom it can apply, who sits as a priest upon +his throne, who builds the temple of the Lord (Zech. vi. 12, 13). + +As the former Divine word, so this is followed by the prophet's +rapturous answer, which carries on the portraiture of the priest-king. +There is some doubt as to the person addressed in these later verses. +"The Lord at thy right hand crushes kings in the day of His wrath." +Whose right hand? The answer generally given is, "The Messiah's." Who is +the Lord that smites the petty kinglets of earth? The answer generally +given is, "God." But it is far more dramatic, avoids an awkward +abruptness in the change of persons in the last verse, and brings out a +striking contrast with the previous half, if we take the opposite view, +and suppose Jehovah addressed and the Messiah spoken of throughout. Then +the first Divine word is followed by the prophetic invocation of the +exalted Messiah throned at the right hand and expecting till His enemies +be made His footstool. The second is followed by the prophetic +invocation of Jehovah, and describes the Lord Messiah at God's right +hand as before, but instead of longer waiting He now flames forth in all +the resistless energy of a conqueror. The day of His array is succeeded +by the day of His wrath. He crushes earth's monarchies. The psalmist's +eye sees the whole earth one great battle-field. "(It is) full of +corpses. He wounds the head over wide lands," where there may possibly +be a reference to the first vague dawning of a hope which God's mercy +had let lighten on man's horizon--"He shall bruise thy head," or the +word may be used as a collective expression for rulers, as the +parallelism with the previous verse requires. Thus striding on to +victory across the prostrate foe, and pursuing the flying relics of +their power, "He drinks of the brook in the way, therefore shall He lift +up the head," words which are somewhat difficult, however interpreted. +If, with the majority of modern commentators, we take them as a +picturesque embodiment of eager haste in the pursuit, the conqueror +"faint, yet pursuing," and stooping for a moment to drink, then hurrying +on with renewed strength after the fugitives, one can scarcely help +feeling that such a close to such a psalm is trivial and liker the +artificial play of fancy than the work of the prophetic spirit, to say +nothing of the fact that there is nothing about pursuit in the psalm. If +we fall back on the older interpretation, which sees in the words a +prophecy of the sufferings of the Messiah who tastes death and drinks of +the cup of sorrows, and therefore is highly exalted, we get a meaning +which worthily crowns the psalm, but seems to break somewhat abruptly +the sequence of thought, and to force the metaphor of drinking of the +brook into somewhat strained parallelism with the very different New +Testament images just named. But the doubt we must leave over these +final words does not diminish the preciousness of this psalm as a clear, +articulate prophecy from David's lips of David's Son, whom he had +learned to know through the experiences and facts of his own life. He +had climbed through sufferings to his throne. God had exalted him and +given him victory, and surrounded him with a loyal people. But he was +only a shadow; limitations and imperfections surrounded his office and +weakened himself; half of the Divine counsel of peace could not be +mirrored in his functions at all, and death lay ahead of him. So his +glory and his feebleness alike taught him that "one mightier than" he +must be coming behind him, "the latchet of whose shoes he was not worthy +to unloose"--the true King of Israel, to bear witness to whom was his +highest honour. + +The third characteristic of the first seventeen years of David's reign +is his successful wars with surrounding nations. The gloomy days of +defeat and subjugation which had darkened the closing years of Saul are +over now, and blow after blow falls with stunning rapidity on the amazed +enemies. The narrative almost pants for breath as it tells with hurry +and pride how, south, and east, and north, the "lion of the tribe of +Judah" sprang from his fastness, and smote Philistia, Edom, Moab, Ammon, +Amalek, Damascus, and the Syrians beyond, even to the Euphrates; and +the bounding courage of king and people, and the unity of heart and hand +with which they stood shoulder to shoulder in many a bloody field, ring +through the psalms of this period. Whatever higher meaning may be +attached to them, their roots are firm in the soil of actual history, +and they are first of all the war-songs of a nation. That being so, that +they should also be inspired hymns for the church in all ages will +present no difficulty nor afford any consecration to modern warfare, if +the progressive character of revelation be duly kept in mind. There is a +whole series of such psalms, such as xx., xxi., lx., and probably +lxviii. We cannot venture in our limited space on any analysis of the +last of these. It is a splendid burst of national triumph and devout +praise, full of martial ardour, throbbing with lofty consciousness of +God's dwelling in Israel, abounding with allusions to the ancient +victories of the people, and world-wide in its anticipations of future +triumph. How strange the history of its opening words has been! Through +the battle smoke of how many a field they have rung! On the plains of +the Palatinate, from the lips of Cromwell's Ironsides, and from the poor +peasants that went to death on many a bleak moor for Christ's crown and +covenant, to the Doric music of their rude chant-- + + "Let God arise, and scattered + Let all His enemies be; + And let all those that do Him hate, + Before His presence flee." + +The sixtieth psalm is assigned to David after Joab's signal victory over +the Edomites (2 Sam. viii.). It agrees very well with that date, though +the earlier verses have a wailing tone so deep over recent disasters, so +great that one is almost inclined to suppose that they come from a later +hand than his. But after the first verses all is warlike energy and +triumph. How the glad thought of ruling over a united people dances in +the swift words, "I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out +the valley of Succoth;" he has, as it were, repeated Joshua's conquest +and division of the land, and the ancient historical sites that fill a +conspicuous place in the history of his great ancestor are in his power. +"Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine, Ephraim also is the defence of my +head, Judah my staff of command." He looks eastward to the woods and +pastoral uplands across the Jordan, whose inhabitants had been but +loosely attached to the western portion of the nation, and triumphs in +knowing that Gilead and Manasseh own his sway. The foremost tribes on +this side the river are to him like the armour and equipments of a +conqueror; he wears the might of Ephraim, the natural head of the +northern region, as his helmet, and he grasps the power of Judah as his +baton of command or sceptre of kingly rule (Gen. xlix. 10). + +Thus, strong in the possession of a united kingdom, his flashing eye +turns to his enemies, and a stern joy, mingled with contempt, blazes up +as he sees them reduced to menial offices and trembling before him. +"Moab (is) my washing-basin; to Edom will I fling my shoe; because of +me, Philistia, cry out" (in fear). The three ancestral foes that hung on +Israel's southern border from east to west are subdued. He will make of +one "a vessel of dishonour" to wash his feet, soiled with battle; he +will throw his shoes to another the while, as one would to a slave to +take care of; and the third, expecting a like fate, shrieks out in fear +of the impending vengeance. He pants for new victories, "Who will bring +me into (the) strong city?" probably the yet unsubdued Petra, hidden +away in its tortuous ravine, with but one perilous path through the +gorge. And at last all the triumph of victory rises to a higher region +of thought in the closing words, which lay bare the secret of his +strength, and breathe the true spirit of the soldier of Jehovah. "In God +we shall do valiantly; and He, even He, shall tread down our enemies." + +The twentieth psalm, another of these stirring war-songs, is in that +choral manner which we have already seen in psalm xxiv., and the +adoption of which was probably connected with David's careful +organization of "the service of song." It is all ablaze with the light +of battle and the glow of loyal love. + +The army, ready drawn up for action, as we may fancy, prays for the +king, who, according to custom, brings sacrifices and offerings before +the fight. "Jehovah hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God +of Jacob defend thee, send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen +thee out of Zion, remember all thine offerings, and accept thy burnt +sacrifice." Then, as they wave their standards in the sunshine, or plant +before the ranks of each tribe its cognizance, to be defended to the +death, the hoarse shout rises from the files, "In the name of our God we +will set up (or wave) our banners." Then the single voice of the king +speaks, rejoicing in his soldiers' devotion, which he accepts as an omen +that his sacrifice has not been in vain: "Now know I that Jehovah saveth +His anointed. He will hear him from the heaven of His holiness with the +strength of the salvation of His right hand;" not merely from a God +dwelling in Zion, according to language of the previous prayer, but from +the Lord in the heavens, will the strength come. Then again the chorus +of the host exclaims, as they look across the field to the chariots and +cavalry of the foe--forces which Israel seldom used--"These (boast[V]) +of chariots, and those of horses, and we, of the name of Jehovah, our +God, do we boast." Ere a sword has been drawn, they see the enemy +scattered. "They are brought down and fallen; and we, we are risen and +stand upright." Then one earnest cry to God, one more thought of the +true monarch of Israel, whom David would teach them to feel he only +shadowed; and with the prayer, "Jehovah! save! Let the King hear us in +the day when we cry," ringing like the long trumpet blast that sounds +for the charge, they dash forth to victory! + +[V] Lit. "make mention of" or "commemorate." + + + + +XIII.--THE TEARS OF THE PENITENT. + + +Adversity had taught David self-restraint, had braced his soul, had +driven him to grasp firmly the hand of God. And prosperity had seemed +for nearly twenty years but to perfect the lessons. Gratitude had +followed deliverance, and the sunshine after the rain had brought out +the fragrance of devotion and the blossoms of glad songs. A good man, +and still more a man of David's age at the date of his great crime, +seldom falls so low, unless there has been previous, perhaps +unconscious, relaxation of the girded loins, and negligence of the +untrimmed lamp. The sensitive nature of the psalmist was indeed not +unlikely to yield to the sudden force of such a temptation as conquered +him, but we can scarcely conceive of its having done so without a +previous decay of his religious life, hidden most likely from himself. +And the source of that decay may probably be found in self-indulgence, +fostered by ease, and by long years of command. The actual fall into +sin seems to have been begun by slothful abdication of his functions as +captain of Israel. It is perhaps not without bitter emphasis that the +narrative introduces it by telling us that, "at the time when kings go +forth to battle," David contented himself with sending his troops +against Ammon, and "tarried still at Jerusalem." At all events, the +story brings into sharp contrast the levy _en masse_, encamped round +Rabbath, and their natural head, who had once been so ready to take his +share of blows and privations, loitering behind, taking his quiet siesta +in the hot hours after noon, as if there had been no soldiers of his +sweltering in their armour, and rising from his bed to stroll on his +palace roof, and peer into the household privacies below, as if his +heart had no interest in the grim tussle going on behind the hills that +he could almost see from his height, as they grew purple in the evening +twilight. He has fallen to the level of an Eastern despot, and has lost +his sense of the responsibilities of his office. Such loosening of the +tension of his moral nature as is indicated in his absence from the +field, during what was evidently a very severe as well as a long +struggle, prepared the way for the dismal headlong plunge into sin. + +The story is told in all its hideousness, without palliation or reserve, +without comment or heightening, in that stern judicial fashion so +characteristic of the Bible records of its greatest characters. Every +step is narrated without a trace of softening, and without a word of +emotion. Not a single ugly detail is spared. The portraiture is as vivid +as ever. Bathsheba's willing complicity, her punctilious observance of +ceremonial propriety while she is trampling under foot her holiest +obligations; the fatal necessity which drags sin after sin, and summons +up murder to hide, if it be possible, the foul form of adultery; the +stinging rebuke in the conduct of Uriah, who, Hittite as he was, has a +more chivalrous, not to say devout, shrinking from personal ease while +his comrades and the ark are in the field, than the king has; the mean +treason, the degradation implied in getting into Joab's power; the +cynical plainness of the murderous letter, in which a hardened +conscience names his purposed evil by its true name; the contemptuous +measure of his master which Joab takes in his message, the king's +indifference to the loss of his men so long as Uriah is out of the way; +the solemn platitudes with which he pretends to console his tool for the +check of his troops; and the hideous haste with which, after her +scrupulous "mourning" for one week, Bathsheba threw herself again into +David's arms;--all these particulars, and every particular an +aggravation, stand out for ever, as men's most hidden evil will one day +do, in the clear, unpitying, unmistakable light of the Divine record. +What a story it is! + +This saint of nearly fifty years of age, bound to God by ties which he +rapturously felt and acknowledged, whose words have been the very breath +of devotion for every devout heart, forgets his longings after +righteousness, flings away the joys of Divine communion, darkens his +soul, ends his prosperity, brings down upon his head for all his +remaining years a cataract of calamities, and makes his name and his +religion a target for the barbed sarcasms of each succeeding generation +of scoffers. "All the fences and their whole array," which God's mercies +and his own past had reared, "one cunning sin sweeps quite away." Every +obligation of his office, as every grace of his character, is trodden +under foot by the wild beast roused in his breast. As man, as king, as +soldier, he is found wanting. Lust and treason, and craft and murder, +are goodly companions for him who had said, "I will walk within my house +with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes." Why +should we dwell on the wretched story? Because it teaches us, as no +other page in the history of God's church does, how the alchemy of +Divine love can extract sweet perfumes of penitence and praise out of +the filth of sin; and therefore, though we turn with loathing from +David's sin, we have to bless God for the record of it, and for the +lessons of hope that come from David's pardon. + +To many a sin-tortured soul since then, the two psalms (li., xxxii.), +all blotted with tears, in which he has sobbed out his penitence, have +been as footsteps in a great and terrible wilderness. They are too +familiar to need, and too sacred to bear, many words here, but we may +briefly note some points connected with them--especially those which +assist us in forming some image of the psalmist's state of mind after +his transgression. It may be observed that of these two psalms, the +fifty-first is evidently earlier than the thirty-second. In the former +we see the fallen man struggling up out of the "horrible pit and miry +clay;" in the latter he stands upon the rock, with a new song in his +mouth, even the blessedness of him "whose sin is covered." It appears +also that both must be dated after the sharp thrust of God's lancet +which Nathan drove into his conscience, and the healing balsam of God's +assurance of forgiveness which Nathan laid upon his heart. The +passionate cries of the psalm are the echo of the Divine promise--the +effort of his faith to grasp and keep the merciful gift of pardon. The +consciousness of forgiveness is the basis of the prayer for forgiveness. + +Somewhere about a year passed between the crime and the message of +Nathan. And what sort of a year it was the psalms tell us. The coarse +satisfactions of his sin could not long content him, as they might have +done a lower type of man. Nobody buys a little passing pleasure in evil +at so dear a rate, or keeps it for so short a time as a good man. He +cannot make himself as others. "That which cometh into your mind shall +not be at all, in that ye say, We will be as the families of the +nations, which serve wood and stone." Old habits quickly reassert their +force, conscience soon lifts again its solemn voice; and while worse men +are enjoying the strong-flavoured meats on sin's table, the servant of +God, who has been seduced to prefer them for a moment to the "light +bread" from heaven, tastes them already bitter in his mouth. He may be +far from true repentance, but he will very soon know remorse. Months may +pass before he can feel again the calm joys of God, but disgust with +himself and with his sin will quickly fill his soul. No more vivid +picture of such a state has ever been drawn, than is found in the psalms +of this period. They tell of sullen "silence;" dust had settled on the +strings of his harp, as on helmet and sword. He will not speak to God of +his sin, and there is nothing else that he can speak of. They tell of +his "roaring all the day long"--the groan of anguish forced from his yet +unsoftened spirit. Day and night God's heavy hand weighed him down; the +consciousness of that power, whose gentleness had once holden him up, +crushed, but did not melt him. Like some heated iron, its heaviness +scorched as well as bruised, and his moisture--all the dew and +freshness of his life--was dried up at its touch and turned into dusty, +cracking drought, that chaps the hard earth, and shrinks the streamlets, +and burns to brown powder the tender herbage (Ps. xxxii.). Body and mind +seem both to be included in this wonderful description, in which +obstinate dumbness, constant torture, dread of God, and not one +softening drop of penitence fill the dry and dusty heart, while "bones +waxing old," or, as the word might be rendered, "rotting," sleepless +nights, and perhaps the burning heat of disease, are hinted at as the +accompaniments of the soul-agony. It is possible that similar allusions +to actual bodily illness are to be found in another psalm, probably +referring to the same period, and presenting striking parallelisms of +expression (Ps. vi.), "Have mercy upon me, Jehovah, for I languish (fade +away); heal me, for my bones are affrighted. My soul is also sore vexed. +I am weary with my groaning; every night make I my bed to swim. I water +my couch with my tears." The similar phrase, too, in psalm fifty-one, +"The bones which Thou hast broken," may have a similar application. +Thus, sick in body and soul, he dragged through a weary year--ashamed +of his guilty dalliance, wretched in his self-accusations, afraid of +God, and skulking in the recesses of his palace from the sight of his +people. A goodly price he had sold integrity for. The bread had been +sweet for a moment, but how quickly his "mouth is filled with gravel" +(Proverbs xx. 17). David learned, what we all learn (and the holier a +man is, the more speedily and sharply does the lesson follow on the +heels of his sin), that every transgression is a blunder, that we never +get the satisfaction which we expect from any sin, or if we do, we get +something with it which spoils it all. A nauseous drug is added to the +exciting, intoxicating drink which temptation offers, and though its +flavour is at first disguised by the pleasanter taste of the sin, its +bitterness is persistent though slow, and clings to the palate long +after that has faded utterly. + +Into this dreary life Nathan's message comes with merciful rebuke. The +prompt severity of David's judgment against the selfish sinner of the +inimitable apologue may be a subtle indication of his troubled +conscience, which fancies some atonement for his own sin in stern +repression of that of others; for consciousness of evil may sometimes +sting into harshness as well as soften to lenity, and sinful man is a +sterner judge than the righteous God. The answer of Nathan is a perfect +example of the Divine way of convincing of sin. There is first the plain +charge pressed home on the individual conscience, "Thou art the man." +Then follows, not reproach nor further deepening of the blackness of the +deed, but a tender enumeration of God's great benefits, whereon is built +the solemn question, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of +the Lord, to do evil in His sight?" The contemplation of God's faithful +love, and of the all-sufficient gifts which it bestows, makes every +transgression irrational as well as ungrateful, and turns remorse, which +consumes like the hot wind of the wilderness, into tearful repentance +which refreshes the soul. When God has been seen loving and bestowing +ere He commands and requires, it is profitable to hold the image of the +man's evil in all its ugliness close up to his eyes; and so the bald +facts are repeated next in the fewest, strongest words. Nor can the +message close until a rigid law of retribution has been proclaimed, the +slow operation of which will filter bitterness and shame through all +his life. "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord." +Two words (in the Hebrew) make the transition from sullen misery to real +though shaded peace. No lengthened outpouring, no accumulation of +self-reproach; he is too deeply moved for many words, which he knows God +does not need. More would have been less. All is contained in that one +sob, in which the whole frostwork of these weary months breaks up and +rolls away, swept before the strong flood. And as brief and simple as +the confession, is the response, "And Nathan said unto David, The Lord +also hath put away thy sin." How full and unconditional the blessing +bestowed in these few words; how swift and sufficient the answer! So the +long estrangement is ended. Thus simple and Divine is the manner of +pardon. In such short compass may the turning point of a life lie! But +while confession and forgiveness heal the breach between God and David, +pardon is not impunity, and the same sentence which bestows the +remission of sin announces the exaction of a penalty. The judgments +threatened a moment before--a moment so far removed now to David's +consciousness that it would look as if an age had passed--are not +withdrawn, and another is added, the death of Bathsheba's infant. God +loves His servants too well to "suffer sin upon them," and the freest +forgiveness and the happiest consciousness of it may consist with the +loving infliction and the submissive bearing of pains, which are no +longer the strokes of an avenging judge, but the chastisements of a +gracious father. + +The fifty-first psalm must, we think, be conceived of as following soon +after Nathan's mission. There may be echoes of the prophet's stern +question, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to +do evil in His sight?" and of the confession, "I have sinned against the +Lord," in the words, "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done +evil in Thy sight" (ver. 4), though perhaps the expressions are not so +peculiar as to make the allusion certain. But, at all events, the +penitence and prayers of the psalm can scarcely be supposed to have +preceded the date of the historical narrative, which clearly implies +that the rebuke of the seer was the first thing that broke up the dumb +misery of unrepented sin. + +Although the psalm is one long cry for pardon and restoration, one can +discern an order and progress in its petitions--the order, not of an +artificial reproduction of a past mood of mind, but the instinctive +order in which the emotion of contrite desire will ever pour itself +forth. In the psalm all begins, as all begins in fact, with the +grounding of the cry for favour on "Thy loving-kindness," "the multitude +of Thy tender mercies;" the one plea that avails with God, whose love is +its own motive and its own measure, whose past acts are the standard for +all His future, whose compassions, in their innumerable numbers, are +more than the sum of our transgressions, though these be "more than the +hairs of our head." Beginning with God's mercy, the penitent soul can +learn to look next upon its own sin in all its aspects of evil. The +depth and intensity of the psalmist's loathing of self is wonderfully +expressed in his words for his crime. He speaks of his "transgressions" +and of his "sin." Looked at in one way, he sees the separate acts of +which he had been guilty--lust, fraud, treachery, murder: looked at in +another, he sees them all knotted together, in one inextricable tangle +of forked, hissing tongues, like the serpent locks that coil and twist +round a Gorgon head. No sin dwells alone; the separate acts have a +common root, and the whole is matted together like the green growth on a +stagnant pond, so that, by whatever filament it is grasped, the whole +mass is drawn towards you. And a profound insight into the essence and +character of sin lies in the accumulated synonyms. It is +"transgression," or, as the word might be rendered, "rebellion"--not the +mere breach of an impersonal law, not merely an infraction of "the +constitution of our nature"--but the rising of a subject will against +its true king, disobedience to a person as well as contravention of a +standard. It is "iniquity"--perversion or distortion--a word which +expresses the same metaphor as is found in many languages, namely, +crookedness as descriptive of deeds which depart from the perfect line +of right. It is "sin," _i.e._, "missing one's aim;" in which profound +word is contained the truth that all sin is a blunder, shooting wide of +the true goal, if regard be had to the end of our being, and not less +wide if regard be had to our happiness. It ever misses the mark; and the +epitaph might be written over every sinner who seeks pleasure at the +price of righteousness, "Thou fool." + +Nor less pregnant with meaning is the psalmist's emphatic +acknowledgment, "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned." He is not +content with looking upon his evil in itself, or in relation only to the +people who had suffered by it; he thinks of it in relation to God. He +had been guilty of crimes against Bathsheba and Uriah, and even the +rough soldier whom he made his tool, as well as against his whole +subjects; but, dark as these were, they assumed their true character +only when they were discerned as done against God. "Sin," in its full +sense, implies "God" as its correlative. We transgress against each +other, but we sin against Him. + +Nor does the psalmist stop here. He has acknowledged the tangled +multiplicity and dreadful unity of his evil, he has seen its inmost +character, he has learned to bring his deed into connection with God; +what remains still to be confessed? He laments, and that not as +extenuation (though it be explanation), but as aggravation, the sinful +nature in which he had been born. The deeds had come from a source--a +bitter fountain had welled out this blackness. He himself is evil, +therefore he has done evil. The sin is his; he will not contest his full +responsibility; and its foul characteristics declare the inward foulness +from which it has flowed--and that foulness is himself. Does he +therefore think that he is less to blame? By no means. His +acknowledgment of an evil nature is the very deepest of his confessions, +and leads not to a palliation of his guilt, but to a cry to Him who +alone can heal the inward wound; and as He can purge away the +transgressions, can likewise stanch their source, and give him to feel +within "that he is healed from that plague." + +The same intensity of feeling expressed by the use of so many words for +sin is revealed also in the reiterated synonyms for pardon. The prayer +comes from his lips over and over again, not because he thinks that he +shall be heard for his much speaking, but because of the earnestness of +his longing. Such repetitions are signs of the persistence of faith, +while others, though they last like the prayers of Baal's priests, "from +morning till the time of the evening sacrifice," indicate only the +suppliant's doubt. David prays that his sins may be "blotted out," in +which petition they are conceived as recorded against him in the +archives of the heavens; that he may be "washed" from them, in which +they are conceived as foul stains upon himself, needing for their +removal hard rubbing and beating (for such is, according to some +commentators, the force of the word); that he may be "cleansed"--the +technical word for the priestly cleansing of the leper, and declaring +him clear of the taint. He also, with similar recurrence to the Mosaic +symbols, prays that he may be "purged with hyssop." There is a pathetic +appropriateness in the petition, for not only lepers, but those who had +become defiled by contact with a dead body, were thus purified; and on +whom did the taint of corruption cleave as on the murderer of Uriah? The +prayer, too, is even more remarkable in the original, which employs a +verb formed from the word for "sin;" "and if in our language that were a +word in use, it might be translated, 'Thou shalt un-sin me.'"[W] + +[W] Donne's Sermons, quoted in Perowne, _in. loc._ + +In the midst of these abased confessions and cries for pardon there +comes with wonderful force and beauty the bold prayer for restoration +to "joy and gladness"--an indication surely of more than ordinary +confidence in the full mercy of God, which would efface all the +consequences of his sin. + +And following upon them are petitions for sanctifying, reiterated and +many-sided, like those that have preceded. Three pairs of clauses +contain these, in each of which the second member of the clause asks for +the infusion into his spirit of some grace from God--that he may possess +a "steadfast spirit," "Thy Holy Spirit," "a willing spirit." It is +perhaps not an accident that the central petition of the three is the +one which most clearly expresses the thought which all imply--that the +human spirit can only be renewed and hallowed by the entrance into it of +the Divine. We are not to commit the theological anachronism which has +been applied with such evil effect to the whole Old Testament, and +suppose that David meant by that central clause in his prayer for +renewal all that we mean by it; but he meant, at least, that his +spiritual nature could be made to love righteousness and hate iniquity +by none other power than God's breathing on it. If we may venture to +regard this as the heart of the series, the other two on either side of +it may be conceived as its consequences. It will then be "a right +spirit," or, as the word means, a steadfast spirit, strong to resist, +not swept away by surges of passion, nor shaken by terrors of remorse, +but calm, tenacious, and resolved, pressing on in the path of holiness, +and immovable with the immobility of those who are rooted in God and +goodness. It will be a free, or "a willing spirit," ready for all joyful +service of thankfulness, and so penetrated with the love of his God that +he will delight to do His will, and carry the law charactered in the +spontaneous impulses of his renewed nature. Not without profound meaning +does the psalmist seem to recur in his hour of penitence to the tragic +fate of his predecessor in the monarchy, to whom, as to himself, had +been given by the same anointing, the same gift of "the Spirit of God." +Remembering how the holy chrism had faded from the raven locks of Saul +long before his bloody head had been sent round Philistine cities to +glut their revenge, and knowing that if God were "strict to mark +iniquity," the gift which had been withdrawn from Saul would not be +continued to himself, he prays, not as anointed monarch only, but as +sinful man, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." As before he had +ventured to ask for the joy of forgiveness, so now he pleads once more +for "the joy of Thy salvation," which comes from cleansing, from +conscious fellowship--which he had so long and deeply felt, which for so +many months had been hid from him by the mists of his own sin. The +psalmist's natural buoyancy, the gladness which was an inseparable part +of his religion, and had rung from his harp in many an hour of peril, +the bold width of his desires, grounded on the clear breadth of his +faith in God's perfect forgiveness, are all expressed in such a prayer +from such lips at such a time, and may well be pondered and imitated by +us. + +The lowly prayer which we have been tracing rises ere its close to a vow +of renewed praise. It is very beautiful to note how the poet nature, as +well as the consciousness of a Divine function, unite in the resolve +that crowns the psalm. To David no tribute that he could bring to God +seemed so little unworthy--none to himself so joyous--as the music of +his harp, and the melody of his songs; nor was any part of his kingly +office so lofty in his estimation as his calling to proclaim in glowing +words the name of the Lord, that men might learn to love. His earliest +song in exile had closed with a like vow. It had been well fulfilled for +many a year; but these last doleful months had silenced all his praise. +Now, as hope begins to shine upon him once more, the frost which had +stilled the stream of his devotion is melting, and as he remembers his +glad songs of old, and this miserable dumbness, his final prayer is, "O +Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise." + +The same consciousness of sin, which we have found in a previous verse +discerning the true significance of ceremonial purification, leads also +to the recognition of the insufficiency of outward sacrifices--a thought +which is not, as some modern critics would fain make it, the product of +the latest age of Judaism, but appears occasionally through the whole of +the history, and indicates not the date, but the spiritual elevation of +its utterer. David sets it on the very summit of his psalm, to sparkle +there like some stone of price. The rich jewel which he has brought up +from the abyss of degradation is that truth which has shone out from its +setting here over three millenniums: "The sacrifices of God are a +broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not +despise." + +The words which follow, containing a prayer for the building up of Zion, +and a prediction of the continuous offering of sacrifice, present some +difficulty. They do not necessarily presuppose that Jerusalem is in +ruins; for "build Thou the walls" would be no less appropriate a +petition if the fortifications were unfinished (as we know they were in +David's time) than if they had been broken down. Nor do the words +contradict the view of sacrifice just given, for the use of the symbol +and the conviction of its insufficiency co-existed, in fact, in every +devout life, and may well be expressed side by side. But the transition +from so intensely personal emotions to intercession for Zion seems +almost too sudden even for a nature as wide and warm as David's. If the +closing verses are his, we may, indeed, see in them the king re-awaking +to a sense of his responsibilities, which he had so long neglected, +first, in the selfishness of his heart, and then in the morbid +self-absorption of his remorse; and the lesson may be a precious one +that the first thought of a pardoned man should be for others. But +there is much to be said, on the other hand, in favour of the conjecture +that these verses are a later addition, probably after the return from +captivity, when the walls of Zion were in ruins, and the altar of the +temple had been long cold. If so, then our psalm, as it came from +David's full heart, would be all of a piece--one great gush of penitence +and faith, beginning with, "Have mercy upon me, O God," ending with the +assurance of acceptance, and so remaining for all ages the chart of the +thorny and yet blessed path that leads "from death unto life." In that +aspect, what it does not contain is as noteworthy as what it does. Not +one word asks for exemption from such penalties of his great fall as can +be inflicted by a loving Father on a soul that lives in His love. He +cries for pardon, but he gives his back to the smiters whom God may +please to send. + +The other psalm of the penitent (xxxii.) has been already referred to in +connection with the autobiographical materials which it contains. It is +evidently of a later period than the fifty-first. There is no struggle +in it; the prayer has been heard, and this is the beginning of the +fulfilment of the vow to show forth God's praise. In the earlier he had +said, "Then will I teach transgressors the way;" here he says, "I will +instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go." There he +began with the plaintive cry for mercy; here with a burst of praise +celebrating the happiness of the pardoned penitent. There we heard the +sobs of a man in the very agony of abasement; here we have the story of +their blessed issue. There we had multiplied synonyms for sin, and for +the forgiveness which was desired; here it is the many-sided +preciousness of forgiveness possessed which runs over in various yet +equivalent phrases. There the highest point to which he could climb was +the assurance that a bruised heart was accepted, and the bones broken +might still rejoice. Here the very first word is of blessedness, and the +close summons the righteous to exuberant joy. The one is a psalm of +wailing; the other, to use its own words, a "song of deliverance." + +What glad consciousness that he himself is the happy man whom he +describes rings in the melodious variations of the one thought of +forgiveness in the opening words! How gratefully he draws on the +treasures of that recent experience, while he sets it forth as being +the "taking away" of sin, as if it were the removal of a solid +something, or the lifting of a burden off his back; and as the +"covering" of sin, as if it were the wrapping of its ugliness in thick +folds that hide it for ever even from the all-seeing Eye; and as the +"non-reckoning" of sin, as if it were the discharge of a debt! What +vivid memory of past misery in the awful portrait of his impenitent +self, already referred to--on which the mind dwells in silence, while +the musical accompaniment (as directed by the "selah") touches some +plaintive minor or grating discord! How noble and eloquent the brief +words (echo of the historical narrative) that tell the full and swift +forgiveness that followed simple confession--and how effectively the +music again comes in, prolonging the thought and rejoicing in the +pardon! How sure he is that his experience is of priceless value to the +world for all time, when he sees in his absolution a motive that will +draw all the godly nearer to their Helper in heaven! How full his heart +is of praise, that he cannot but go back again to his own story, and +rejoice in God his hiding-place--whose past wondrous love assures him +that in the future songs of deliverance will ring him round, and all his +path be encompassed with music of praise. + +So ends the more personal part of the psalm. A more didactic portion +follows, the generalization of that. Possibly the voice which now speaks +is a higher than David's. "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the +way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye," scarcely +sounds like words meant to be understood as spoken by him. They are the +promise from heaven of a gentle teaching to the pardoned man, which will +instruct by no severity, but by patient schooling; which will direct by +no harsh authority, but by that loving glance that is enough for those +who love, and is all too subtle and delicate to be perceived by any +other. Such gracious direction is not for the psalmist alone, but it +needs a spirit in harmony with God to understand it. For others there +can be nothing higher than mere force, the discipline of sorrow, the +bridle in the hard mouth, the whip for the stiff back. The choice for +all men is through penitence and forgiveness to rise to the true +position of men, capable of receiving and obeying a spiritual guidance, +which appeals to the heart, and gently subdues the will, or by stubborn +impenitence to fall to the level of brutes, that can only be held in by +a halter and driven by a lash. And because this is the alternative, +therefore "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in +the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." + +And then the psalm ends with a great cry of gladness, three times +reiterated, like the voice of a herald on some festal day of a nation: +"Rejoice in Jehovah! and leap for joy, O righteous! and gladly shout, +all ye upright in heart!" + +Such is the end of the sobs of the penitent. + + + + +XIV.--CHASTISEMENTS. + + +The chastisements, which were the natural fruits of David's sin, soon +began to show themselves, though apparently ten years at least passed +before Absalom's revolt, at which time he was probably a man of sixty. +But these ten years were very weary and sad. There is no more joyous +activity, no more conquering energy, no more consciousness of his +people's love. Disasters thicken round him, and may all be traced to his +great sin. His children learned the lesson it had taught them, and lust +and fratricide desolated his family. A parent can have no sharper pang +than the sight of his own sins reappearing in his child. David saw the +ghastly reflection of his unbridled passion in his eldest son's foul +crime (and even a gleam of it in his unhappy daughter), and of his +murderous craft in his second son's bloody revenge. Whilst all this hell +of crime is boiling round him, a strange passiveness seems to have +crept over the king, and to have continued till his flight before +Absalom. The narrative is singularly silent about him. He seems +paralysed by the consciousness of his past sin; he originates nothing. +He dares not punish Ammon; he can only weep when he hears of Absalom's +crime. He weakly longs for the return of the latter from his exile, but +cannot nerve himself to send for him till Joab urges it. A flash of his +old kingliness blazes out for a moment in his refusal to see his son; +but even that slight satisfaction to justice vanishes as soon as Joab +chooses to insist that Absalom shall return to court. He seems to have +no will of his own. He has become a mere tool in the hands of his fierce +general--and Joab's hold upon him was his complicity in Uriah's murder. +Thus at every step he was dogged by the consequences of his crime, even +though it was pardoned sin. And if, as is probable, Ahithophel was +Bathsheba's grandfather, the most formidable person in Absalom's +conspiracy, whose defection wounded him so deeply, was no doubt driven +to the usurper's side out of revenge for the insult to his house in her +person. Thus "of our pleasant vices doth heaven make whips to scourge +us." "Be not deceived; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also +reap." + +It is not probable that many psalms were made in those dreary days. But +the forty-first and fifty-fifth are, with reasonable probability, +referred to this period by many commentators. They give a very touching +picture of the old king during the four years in which Absalom's +conspiracy was being hatched. It seems, from the forty-first, that the +pain and sorrow of his heart had brought on some serious illness, which +his enemies had used for their own purposes, and embittered by +hypocritical condolences and ill-concealed glee. The sensitive +nature of the psalmist winces under their heartless desertion of him, +and pours out its plaint in this pathetic lament. He begins with a +blessing on those who "consider the afflicted"--having reference, +perhaps, to the few who were faithful to him in his languishing +sickness. He passes thence to his own case, and, after humble confession +of his sin,--almost in the words of the fifty-first psalm,--he tells how +his sickbed had been surrounded by very different visitors. His disease +drew no pity, but only fierce impatience that he lingered in life so +long. "Mine enemies speak evil of me--when will he die, and his name +have perished?" One of them, in especial, who must have been a man in +high position to gain access to the sick chamber, has been conspicuous +by his lying words of condolence: "If he come to see me he speaketh +vanity." The sight of the sick king touched no chord of affection, but +only increased the traitor's animosity--"his heart gathereth evil to +itself"--and then, having watched his pale face for wished-for +unfavourable symptoms, the false friend hurries from the bedside to talk +of his hopeless illness--"he goeth abroad, he telleth it." The tidings +spread, and are stealthily passed from one conspirator to another. "All +that hate me whisper together against me." They exaggerate the gravity +of his condition, and are glad because, making the wish the father to +the thought, they believe him dying. "A thing of Belial" (_i.e._, a +destructive disease), "say they, is poured out upon him, and now that he +lieth, he shall rise up no more." And, sharpest pang of all, that among +these traitors, and probably the same person as he whose heartless +presence in the sick chamber was so hard to bear, should be Ahithophel, +whose counsel had been like an oracle from God. Even he, "the man of my +friendship, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread"--he, like an +ignoble, vicious mule--"has lifted high his heel" against the sick lion. + +We should be disposed to refer the thirty-ninth psalm also to this +period. It, too, is the meditation of one in sickness, which he knows to +be a Divine judgment for his sin. There is little trace of enemies in +it; but his attitude is that of silent submission, while wicked men are +disquieted around him--which is precisely the characteristic peculiarity +of his conduct at this period. It consists of two parts (vers. 1-6 and +7-13), in both of which the subjects of his meditations are the same, +but the tone of them different. His own sickness and mortality, and +man's fleeting, shadowy life, are his themes. The former has led him to +think of the latter. The first effect of his sorrow was to close his +lips in a silence that was not altogether submission. "I held my peace, +even from good, and my sorrow was stirred." As in his sin, when he kept +silence, his "bones waxed old," so now in his sorrow and sickness the +pain that could not find expression raged the more violently. The +tearless eyes were hot and aching; but he conquered the dumb spirit, and +could carry his heavy thoughts to God. They are very heavy at first. He +only desires that the sad truth may be driven deeper into his soul. With +the engrossment so characteristic of melancholy, he asks, what might +have been thought the thing he needed least, "Make me to know mine end;" +and then he dilates on the gloomy reflections which he had been +cherishing in silence. Not only he himself, with his handbreadth of +days, that shrink into absolute nothingness when brought into contrast +with the life of God, but "every man," even when apparently "standing" +most "firm, is only a breath." As a shadow every man moves spectral +among shadows. The tumult that fills their lives is madness; "only for a +breath are they disquieted." So bitterly, with an anticipation of the +sad, clear-eyed pity and scorn of "The Preacher," does the sick and +wearied king speak, in tones very unlike the joyous music of his earlier +utterances. + +But, true and wholesome as such thoughts are, they are not all the +truth. So the prayer changes in tone, even while its substance is the +same. He rises from the shows of earth to his true home, driven thither +by their hollowness. "My hope is in Thee." The conviction of earth's +vanity is all different when it has "tossed him to Thy breast." The +pardoned sinner, who never thereafter forgot his grievous fall, asks for +deliverance "from all his transgressions." The sullen silence has +changed into full acquiescence: "I opened not my mouth, because Thou +didst it,"--a silence differing from the other as the calm after the +storm, when all the winds sleep and the sun shines out on a freshened +world, differs from the boding stillness while the slow thunder-clouds +grow lurid on the horizon. He cries for healing, for he knows his +sickness to be the buffet and assault of God's hand; and its bitterness +is assuaged, even while its force continues, by the conviction that it +is God's fatherly chastisement for sin which gnaws away his manly vigour +as the moth frets his kingly robe. The very thought which had been so +bitter--that every man is vanity--reappears in a new connection as the +basis of the prayer that God would hear, and is modified so as to become +infinitely blessed and hopeful. "I am a stranger with Thee, and a +sojourner, as all my fathers were." A wanderer indeed, and a transient +guest on earth; but what of that, if he be God's guest? All that is +sorrowful is drawn off from the thought when we realise our connection +with God. We are in God's house; the host, not the guest, is responsible +for the housekeeping. We need not feel life lonely if He be with us, nor +its shortness sad. It is not a shadow, a dream, a breath, if it be +rooted in Him. And thus the sick man has conquered his gloomy thoughts, +even though he sees little before him but the end; and he is not cast +down even though his desires are all summed up in one for a little +respite and healing, ere the brief trouble of earth be done with: "O +spare me, that I may recover strength before I go hence, and be no +more." + +It may be observed that this supposition of a protracted illness, which +is based upon these psalms, throws light upon the singular passiveness +of David during the maturing of Absalom's conspiracy, and may naturally +be supposed to have favoured his schemes, an essential part of which was +to ingratiate himself with suitors who came to the king for judgment by +affecting great regret that no man was deputed of the king to hear them. +The accumulation of untried causes, and the apparent disorganization of +the judicial machinery, are well accounted for by David's sickness. + +The fifty-fifth psalm gives some very pathetic additional particulars. +It is in three parts--a plaintive prayer and portraiture of the +psalmist's mental distress (vers. 1-8); a vehement supplication against +his foes, and indignant recounting of their treachery (vers. 9-16); and, +finally, a prophecy of the retribution that is to fall upon them (vers. +17-23). In the first and second portions we have some points which help +to complete our picture of the man. For instance, his heart "writhes" +within him, the "terrors of death" are on him, "fear and trembling" are +come on him, and "horror" has covered him. All this points, like +subsequent verses, to his knowledge of the conspiracy before it came to +a head. The state of the city, which is practically in the hands of +Absalom and his tools, is described with bold imagery. Violence and +Strife in possession of it, spies prowling about the walls day and +night, Evil and Trouble in its midst, and Destruction, Oppression, and +Deceit--a goodly company--flaunting in its open spaces. And the spirit, +the brain of the whole, is the trusted friend whom he had made his own +equal, who had shared his secretest thoughts in private, who had walked +next him in solemn processions to the temple. Seeing all this, what does +the king do, who was once so fertile in resource, so decisive in +counsel, so prompt in action? Nothing. His only weapon is prayer. "As +for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord will save me. Evening, and +morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my +voice." He lets it all grow as it list, and only longs to be out of all +the weary coil of troubles. "Oh that I had wings like a dove, then would +I fly away and be at rest. Lo, I would flee far off, I would lodge in +the wilderness. I would swiftly fly to my refuge from the raging wind, +from the tempest." The langour of his disease, love for his worthless +son, consciousness of sin, and submission to the chastisement through +"one of his own house," which Nathan had foretold, kept him quiet, +though he saw the plot winding its meshes round him. And in this +submission patient confidence is not wanting, though subdued and +saddened, which finds expression in the last words of this psalm of the +heavy laden, "Cast thy burden upon Jehovah. He, He will sustain +thee.... I will trust in Thee." + +When the blow at last fell, the same passive acquiescence in what he +felt to be God's chastisement is very noticeable. Absalom escapes to +Hebron, and sets up the standard of revolt. When the news comes to +Jerusalem the king's only thought is immediate flight. He is almost +cowardly in his eagerness to escape, and is prepared to give up +everything without a blow. It seems as if only a touch was needed to +overthrow his throne. He hurries on the preparations for flight with +nervous haste. He forms no plans beyond those of his earlier wish to fly +away and be at rest. He tries to denude himself of followers. When the +six hundred men of Gath--who had been with him ever since his early days +in Philistia, and had grown grey in his service--make themselves the van +of his little army, he urges the heroic Ittai, their leader, to leave +him a fugitive, and to worship the rising sun, "Return to thy place, and +abide with _the king_"--so thoroughly does he regard the crown as passed +already from his brows. The priests with the ark are sent back; he is +not worthy to have the symbol of the Divine presence identified with +his doubtful cause, and is prepared to submit without a murmur if God +"thus say, I have no delight in thee." With covered head and naked feet +he goes up the slope of Olivet, and turning perhaps at that same bend in +the rocky mountain path where the true King, coming to the city, wept as +he saw its shining walls and soaring pinnacles across the narrow valley, +the discrowned king and all his followers broke into passionate weeping +as they gazed their last on the lost capital, and then with choking sobs +rounded the shoulder of the hill and set their faces to their forlorn +flight. Passing through the territory of Saul's tribe--dangerous ground +for him to tread--the rank hatred of Shimei's heart blossoms into +speech. With Eastern vehemence, he curses and flings stones and dust in +the transports of his fury, stumbling along among the rocks high up on +the side of the glen, as he keeps abreast of the little band below. Did +David remember how the husband from whom he had torn Michal had followed +her to this very place, and there had turned back weeping to his lonely +home? The remembrance, at any rate, of later and more evil deeds +prompted his meek answer, "Let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden +him." + +The first force of the disaster spent itself, and by the time he was +safe across Jordan, on the free uplands of Bashan, his spirit rises. He +makes a stand at Mahanaim, the place where his great ancestor, in +circumstances somewhat analogous to his own, had seen the vision of +"bright-harnessed angels" ranked in battle array for the defence of +himself and his own little band, and called the name of the place the +"two camps." Perhaps that old story helped to hearten him, as the +defection of Ahithophel from the conspiracy certainly would do. As the +time went on, too, it became increasingly obvious that the leaders of +the rebellion were "infirm of purpose," and that every day of respite +from actual fighting diminished their chances of success, as that +politic adviser saw so plainly. Whatever may have been the reason, it is +clear that by the time David had reached Mahanaim he had resolved not to +yield without a struggle. He girds on his sword once more with some of +the animation of early days, and the light of trustful valour blazes +again in his old eyes. + + + + +XV. THE SONGS OF THE FUGITIVE. + + +The psalms which probably belong to the period of Absalom's rebellion +correspond well with the impression of his spirit gathered from the +historical books. Confidence in God, submission to His will, are +strongly expressed in them, and we may almost discern a progress in the +former respect as the rebellion grows. They flame brighter and brighter +in the deepening darkness. From the lowest abyss the stars are seen most +clearly. He is far more buoyant when he is an exile once more in the +wilderness, and when the masks of plot and trickery are fallen, and the +danger stands clear before him. Like some good ship issuing from the +shelter of the pier heads, the first blow of the waves throws her over +on her side and makes her quiver like a living thing recoiling from a +terror, but she rises above the tossing surges and keeps her course. We +may allocate with a fair amount of likelihood the following psalms to +this period--iii.; iv.; xxv. (?); xxviii. (?); lviii. (?); lxi.; lxii.; +lxiii.; cix. (?); cxliii. + +The first two of these form a pair; they are a morning and an evening +hymn. The little band are encamped on their road to Mahanaim, with no +roof but the stars, and no walls but the arm of God. In the former the +discrowned king sings, as he rises from his nightly bivouac. He pours +out first his plaint of the foes, who are described as "many," and as +saying that, "There is no help for him in God," words which fully +correspond to the formidable dimensions of the revolt, and to the belief +which actuated the conspirators, and had appeared as possible even to +himself, that his sin had turned away the aid of heaven from his cause. +To such utterances of malice and confident hatred he opposes the +conviction which had again filled his soul, that even in the midst of +real peril and the shock of battle Jehovah is his "shield." With bowed +and covered head he had fled from Jerusalem, but "Thou art the lifter up +of mine head." He was an exile from the tabernacle on Zion, and he had +sent back the ark to its rest; but though he has to cry to God from +beyond Jordan, He answers "from His holy hill." He and his men camped +amidst dangers, but one unslumbering Helper mounted guard over their +undefended slumbers. "I laid me down and slept" there among the echoes +of the hills. "I awaked, for Jehovah sustained me;" and another night +has passed without the sudden shout of the rebels breaking the silence, +or the gleam of their swords in the starlight. The experience of +protection thus far heartens him to front even the threatening circle of +his foes around him, whom it is his pain to think of as "the people" of +God, and yet as his foes. And then he betakes himself in renewed energy +of faith to his one weapon of prayer, and even before the battle sees +the victory, and the Divine power fracturing the jaws and breaking the +teeth of the wild beasts who hunt him. But his last thought is not of +retribution nor of fear; for himself he rises to the height of serene +trust, "Salvation is of the Lord;" and for his foes and for all the +nation that had risen against him his thoughts are worthy of a true +king, freed from all personal animosity, and his words are a prayer +conceived in the spirit of Him whose dying breath was intercession for +His rebellious subjects who crucified their King, "Thy blessing be upon +Thy people." + +The fourth psalm is the companion evening hymn. Its former portion +(vers. 2-4) seems to be a remonstrance addressed as if to the leaders of +the revolt ("sons of men" being equivalent to "persons of rank and +dignity"). It is the expression in vivid form, most natural to such a +nature, of his painful feeling under their slanders; and also of his +hopes and desires for them, that calm thought in these still evening +hours which are falling on the world may lead them to purer service and +to reliance on God. So forgivingly, so lovingly does he think of them, +ere he lays himself down to rest, wishing that "on their beds," as on +his, the peace of meditative contemplation may rest, and the day of +war's alarms be shut in by holy "communion with their own hearts" and +with God. + +The second portion turns to himself and his followers, among whom we may +suppose some faint hearts were beginning to despond; and to them, as to +the very enemy, David would fain be the bringer of a better mind. "Many +say, Who will show us good?" He will turn them from their vain search +round the horizon on a level with their own eyes for the appearance of +succour. They must look upwards, not round about. They must turn their +question, which only expects a negative answer, into a prayer, fashioned +like that triple priestly benediction of old (Numbers vi. 24-26). His +own experience bursts forth irrepressible. He had prayed in his hour of +penitence, "Make me to hear joy and gladness" (Psa. li.); and the prayer +had been answered, if not before, yet now when peril had brought him +nearer to God, and trust had drawn God nearer to him. In his calamity, +as is ever the case with devout souls, his joy increased, as Greek fire +burns more brightly under water. Therefore this pauper sovereign, +discrowned and fed by the charity of the Gileadite pastoral chief, +sings, "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that +their corn and wine increased." And how tranquilly the psalm closes, and +seems to lull itself to rest, "In peace I will at once lie down and +sleep, for Thou, O Jehovah, only makest me dwell safely." The growing +security which experience of God's care should ever bring, is +beautifully marked by the variation on the similar phrase in the +previous psalm. There he gratefully recorded that he had laid himself +down and slept; here he promises himself that he will lie down "in +peace;" and not only so, but that at once on his lying down he will +sleep--kept awake by no anxieties, by no bitter thoughts, but, homeless +and in danger as he is, will close his eyes, like a tired child, without +a care or a fear, and forthwith sleep, with the pressure and the +protection of his Father's arm about him. + +This psalm sounds again the glad trustful strain which has slumbered in +his harp-strings ever since the happy old days of his early trials, and +is re-awakened as the rude blast of calamity sweeps through them once +more. + +The sixty-third psalm is by the superscription referred to the time when +David was "in the wilderness of Judah," which has led many readers to +think of his long stay there during Saul's persecution. But the psalm +certainly belongs to the period of his reign, as is obvious from its +words, "_The king_ shall rejoice in God." It must therefore belong to +his brief sojourn in the same wilderness on his flight to Mahanaim, +when, as we read in 2 Sam., "The people were weary and hungry and +thirsty in the wilderness." There is a beautiful progress of thought in +it, which is very obvious if we notice the triple occurrence of the +words "my soul," and their various connections--"my soul thirsteth," "my +soul is satisfied," "my soul followeth hard after Thee;" or, in other +words, the psalm is a transcript of the passage of a believing soul from +longing through fruition to firm trust, in which it is sustained by the +right hand of God. + +The first of these emotions, which is so natural to the fugitive in his +sorrows, is expressed with singular poetic beauty in language borrowed +from the ashen grey monotony of the waterless land in which he was. One +of our most accurate and least imaginative travellers describes it thus: +"There were no signs of vegetation, with the exception of a few reeds +and rushes, and here and there a tamarisk." This lonely land, cracked +with drought, as if gaping with chapped lips for the rain that comes +not, is the image of his painful yearning for the Fountain of living +waters. As his men plodded along over the burning marl, fainting for +thirst and finding nothing in the dry torrent beds, so he longed for the +refreshment of that gracious presence. Then he remembers how in happier +days he had had the same desires, and they had been satisfied in the +tabernacle. Probably the words should read, "Thus in the sanctuary have +I gazed upon Thee, to see Thy power and Thy glory." In the desert and in +the sanctuary his longing had been the same, but then he had been able +to behold the symbol which bore the name, "the glory,"--and now he +wanders far from it. How beautifully this regretful sense of absence +from and pining after the ark is illustrated by those inimitably +pathetic words of the fugitive's answer to the priests who desired to +share his exile. "And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of +God into the city. If I find favour in the eyes of the Lord, He will +bring me again, and show me both it and His habitation." + +The fulfilment is cotemporaneous with the desire. The swiftness of the +answer is beautifully indicated in the quick turn with which the psalm +passes from plaintive longing to exuberant rapture of fruition. In the +one breath "my soul thirsteth;" in the next, "my soul is satisfied"--as +when in tropical lands the rain comes, and in a day or two what had been +baked earth is rich meadow, and the dry torrent-beds, where the white +stones glistered in the sunshine, foam with rushing waters and are edged +with budding willows. The fulness of satisfaction when God fills the +soul is vividly expressed in the familiar image of the feast of "marrow +and fatness," on which he banquets even while hungry in the desert. The +abundant delights of fellowship with God make him insensible to external +privations, are drink for him thirsty, food for his hunger, a home in +his wanderings, a source of joy and music in the midst of much that is +depressing: "My mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips." The little +camp had to keep keen look-out for nightly attacks; and it is a slight +link of connection, very natural under the circumstances, between the +psalms of this period, that they all have some references to the +perilous hours of darkness. We have found him laying himself down to +sleep in peace; here he wakes, not to guard from hostile surprises, but +in the silence there below the stars to think of God and feel again the +fulness of His all-sufficiency. Happy thoughts, not fears, hold his eyes +waking. "I remember Thee upon my bed." + +The fruition heartens for renewed exercise of confidence, in which +David feels himself upheld by God, and foresees his enemies' defeat and +his own triumph. "My soul cleaveth after Thee"--a remarkable phrase, in +which the two metaphors of tenacious adherence and eager following are +mingled to express the two "phases of faith," which are really one--of +union with and quest after God, the possession which pursues, the +pursuit which possesses Him who is at once grasped and felt after by the +finite creature whose straitest narrowness is not too narrow to be +blessed by some indwelling of God, but whose widest expansion of +capacity and desire can but contain a fragment of His fulness. From such +elevation of high communion he looks down and onward into the dim +future, his enemies sunken, like Korah and his rebels, into the gaping +earth, or scattered in fight, and the jackals that were snuffing +hungrily about his camp in the wilderness gorging themselves on corpses, +while he himself, once more "king," shall rejoice in God, and with his +faithful companions, whose lips and hearts were true to God and His +anointed, shall glory in the deliverance that by the arbitrament of +victory has flung back the slanders of the rebels in their teeth, and +choked them with their own lies. + +Our space forbids more than a brief reference to psalm lxii., which +seems also to belong to this time. It has several points of contact with +those already considered, _e.g._, the phrase, "sons of men," in the +sense of "nobles" (ver. 9); "my soul," as equivalent to "myself," and +yet as a kind of quasi-separate personality which he can study and +exhort; the significant use of the term "people," and the double +exhortations to his own devout followers and to the arrogant enemy. The +whole tone is that of patient resignation, which we have found +characterising David now. The first words are the key-note of the whole, +"Truly unto God my soul is silence"--is all one great stillness of +submissive waiting upon Him. It was in the very crisis of his fate, in +the suspense of the uncertain issue of the rebellion, that these words, +the very sound of which has calmed many a heart since, welled to his +lips. The expression of unwavering faith and unbroken peace is much +heightened by the frequent recurrence of the word which is variously +translated "truly," "surely," and "only." It carries the force of +confident affirmation, like the "verily" of the New Testament, and is +here most significantly prefixed to the assertions of his patient +resignation (ver. 1); of God's defence (ver. 2); of the enemies' +whispered counsels (ver. 4); to his exhortation of his soul to the +resignation which it already exercises (ver. 5); and to the triumphant +reiteration of God's all-sufficient protection. How beautifully, too, +does that reiteration--almost verbal repetition--of the opening words +strengthen the impression of his habitual trust. His soul in its silence +murmurs to itself, as it were, the blessed thoughts over and over again. +Their echoes haunt his spirit "lingering and wandering on, as loth to +die;" and if for a moment the vision of his enemies disturbs their flow, +one indignant question flung at them suffices, "How long will ye rush +upon a man? (how long) will ye all of you thrust him down as (if he +were) a bowing wall, a tottering fence?" and with a rapid glance at +their plots and bitter words, he comes back again to his calm gaze on +God. Lovingly he accumulates happy names for Him, which, in their +imagery, as well as in their repetition, remind us of the former songs +of the fugitive. "My rock," in whom I hide; "He is my salvation," which +is even more than "from Him cometh my salvation;" my "fortress," my +"glory," "the rock of my strength," "my refuge." So many phases of his +need and of God's sufficiency thus gathered together, tell how familiar +to the thoughts and real to the experience of the aged fugitive was his +security in Jehovah. The thirty years since last he had wandered there +have confirmed the faith of his earlier songs; and though the ruddy +locks of the young chieftain are silvered with grey now, and sins and +sorrows have saddened him, yet he can take up again with deeper meaning +the tones of his old praise, and let the experience of age seal with its +"verily" the hopes of youth. Exhortations to his people to unite +themselves with him in his faith, and assurances that God is a refuge +for them too, with solemn warnings to the rebels, close this psalm of +glad submission. It is remarkable for the absence of all petitions. He +needs nothing beyond what he has. As the companion psalm says, his soul +"is satisfied." Communion with God has its moments of restful +blessedness, when desire is stilled, and expires in peaceful fruition. + +The other psalms of this period must be left unnoticed. The same general +tone pervades them all. In many particulars they closely resemble those +of the Sauline period. But the resemblance fails very significantly at +one point. The emphatic assertion of his innocence is gone for ever. +Pardoned indeed he is, cleansed, conscious of God's favour, and able to +rejoice in it; but carrying to the end the remembrance of his sore fall, +and feeling it all the more penitently, the more he is sure of God's +forgiveness. Let us remember that there are sins which, once done, leave +their traces on memory and conscience, painting indelible forms on the +walls of our "chambers of imagery," and transmitting results which +remission and sanctifying do not, on earth at least, wholly obliterate. +Let David's youthful prayer be ours, "Keep back Thy servant from +presumptuous sins: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from +much transgression." + +It does not fall within the scope of this volume to deal with the +suppression of Absalom's revolt, nor with the ten years of rule that +remained to David after his restoration. The psalter does not appear to +contain psalms which throw light upon the somewhat clouded closing +years of his reign. One psalm, indeed, there is attributed to him, which +is, at any rate, the work of an old man--a sweet song into which mellow +wisdom has condensed its final lessons--and a snatch of it may stand +instead of any summing-up of the life by us: + + "Trust in the Lord, and do good; + Dwell in the land, and enjoy security; + Delight thyself also in the Lord, + And He shall give thee the desires of thy heart. + Commit thy way unto the Lord. + + Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. + + I have been young and now am old, + Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken. + + I have seen the wicked in great power, + And spreading himself like a green tree.... + Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not." + +May we not apply the next words to the psalmist himself, and hear him +calling us to look on him as he lies on his dying bed--disturbed though +it were by ignoble intrigues of hungry heirs--after so many storms +nearing the port; after so many vicissitudes, close to the unchanging +home; after so many struggles, resting quietly on the breast of God: +"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man +is peace?" Into this opal calmness, as of the liquid light of sunset, +all the flaming splendours of the hot day have melted. The music of his +songs die away into "peace;" as when some master holds our ears captive +with tones so faint that we scarce can tell sound from silence, until +the jar of common noises, which that low sweetness had deadened, rushes +in. + +One strain of a higher mood is preserved for us in the historical books +that prophesy of the true King, whom his own failures and sins, no less +than his consecration and victories, had taught him to expect. The dying +eyes see on the horizon of the far-off future the form of Him who is to +be a just and perfect ruler; before the brightness of whose presence, +and the refreshing of whose influence, verdure and beauty shall clothe +the world. As the shades gather, that radiant glory to come brightens. +He departs in peace, having seen the salvation from afar. It was fitting +that this fullest of his prophecies should be the last of his strains, +as if the rapture which thrilled the trembling strings had snapped them +in twain. + +And then, for earth, the richest voice which God ever tuned for His +praise was hushed, and the harp of Jesse's son hangs untouched above his +grave. But for him death was God's last, best answer to his prayer, "O +Lord, open Thou my lips;" and as that cold but most loving hand +unclothes him from the weakness of flesh, and leads him in among the +choirs of heaven, we can almost hear again his former thanksgiving +breaking from his immortal lips, "Thou hast put a new song into my +mouth," whose melodies, unsaddened by plaintive minors of penitence and +pain, are yet nobler and sweeter than the psalms which he sang here, and +left to be the solace and treasure of all generations! + + + + +INDEX. + + +PSALM PAGE + + iii. 246 + + iv. 248 + + vii. 110 + + viii. 28 + + xi. 138 + + xiii. 138 + + xv. 177 + + xvii. 138 + + xviii. 153 and 157 + + xix. 24 + + xx. 203 + + xxii. 141 + + xxiii. 37 + + xxiv. 177 + + xxv. 138 + + xxvii. 89 + + xxix. 31 + + xxxi. 132 + + xxxii. 227 + + xxxiv. 86 + + xxxv. 139 + +xxxvii. 259 + + xxxix. 236 + + xli. 234 + + li. 209 + + lii. 72 + + liv. 100 + + lv. 240 + + lvi. 77 + + lvii. 119 + + lix. 63 + + lx. 201 + + lxii. 255 + + lxiii. 250 + + lxiv. 138 + +lxviii. 208 + + cx. 189 + +cxliii. 128 + + + + +_WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ + +_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each._ + + +THE PSALMS. + +VOL. I.--PSALMS I.-XXXVIII. + " II.--PSALMS XXXIX.-LXXXIX. + " III.--PSALMS XC-CL. + +IN THE "EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE." + + "The work of a brilliant and effective teacher. He writes with + real power and insight."--_Saturday Review._ + + "Dr. Maclaren has evidently mastered his subject with the aid of + the best authorities, and has put the results of his studies + before his readers in a most attractive form, and if we add that + this commentary really helps to the better understanding of the + Psalms, that, far from degrading, it vivifies and illuminates + these sublime stories, and that it is written in a charming style, + very seldom falling below the dignity of the subject, we believe + we only give it the praise which is its due."--_Scotsman._ + + "It is scholarly, honest, thoughtful, and suggestive."--_Daily + Chronicle._ + + "Striking thoughts, strongly expressed, are to be found on every + page."--_Manchester Guardian._ + + "There is certainly room for the work which Dr. Maclaren does + here--largely because it is he who does it. The book is most + heartily to be commended. Preachers will find it to be a mine of + wealth, and to Christians of all kinds it may serve as a manual of + devotion."--_Christian World._ + + "Dr. Maclaren's charming pages furnish a most fruitful field of + study, alike for those whose chief aim is personal edification, + and for those who are in quest of suggestions in the line of + ministerial service. Altogether a most valuable book."--_United + Presbyterian Magazine._ + + "Most heartily do we welcome this new volume of Dr. Maclaren's + 'Exposition of the Psalms.' It fully sustains the traditions of + insight, scholarly instinct, and spiritual force which gather + around that beloved name. Notwithstanding the rich treasures of + devout literature which the Psalter has called forth, there is a + special niche for this book, and it makes a distinct advance in + tone and method upon all other commentaries on the Psalms. We + greatly err if this does not prove the most popular and useful + commentary in the English language, both among preachers and the + commonality of Christ's Church."--_Evangelical Magazine._ + +LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON. + + + + +BIBLE CLASS EXPOSITIONS. + +_Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. each volume._ + + +THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. + +TWO VOLS. + + "They are all written in clear, forcible language, and bring + abundant illustration from science, the facts of life and history + and Scripture. All through they manifest a true philosophical + spirit, and a deep knowledge of human nature. None can read them + without profit."--_Leeds Mercury._ + + +THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. + + "As clear, luminous, and pellucid as is everything that comes from + the pen of the great Manchester preacher. Even in treating the + simplest incident he surprises his readers, and that without once + forcing the note, or seeking sensationalism."--_Christian World._ + + +THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. + + "Dr. Maclaren is a prince of expositors, and his expositions are + as wholesome as they are able, and as interesting as they are + instructive and edifying. Every paragraph is luminous with vivid + expression."--_The London Quarterly Review._ + + +THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. + + "There is much freshness and suggestiveness in these papers. Dr. + Maclaren has studied the art of compression with great success, + and no teacher of a class could desire anything better for his + purpose than these lessons. They may be heartily recommended to + all teachers as about the best things of the kind to be + had."--_Glasgow Herald._ + + +THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. + + "The more this volume is read and studied the more do we admire + the humility that ranks such a book as for Bible Classes only. It + is for them beyond all question, and better fare has nowhere been + provided for them. Whether they be Bible Classes or preachers who + study this volume they will be enriched and strengthened by + it."--_Presbyterian._ + + +LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON. + + + + +{Transcriber's Note: The following list of books has been moved from + the front to the back of the book to make the beginning more + reader-friendly.} + + + + +THE HOUSEHOLD LIBRARY OF EXPOSITION + + +=The Life of David as Reflected in his Psalms.= By ALEXANDER MACLAREN, + D.D. Ninth Edition. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +=Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.= By MARCUS DODS, D.D. Sixth Thousand. 3_s._ + 6_d._ + +=The Last Supper of our Lord, and His Words of Consolation to the + Disciples.= By Principal J. MARSHALL LANG, D.D. Third Edition. 3_s._ + 6_d._ + +=The Speeches of the Holy Apostles.= By the Rev. DONALD FRASER, D.D., + London. Second Edition. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +=The Galilean Gospel.= By the Rev. Professor A.B. BRUCE, D.D. Fourth + Edition. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +=The Lamb of God: Expositions in the Writings of St. John.= By W.R. + NICOLL, M.A., LL.D. Second Thousand. 2_s._ 6_d._ + +=The Lord's Prayer.= By CHARLES STANFORD, D.D. Fourth Thousand. 3_s._ + 6_d._ + +=The Parables of our Lord. First Series.= As Recorded by St. Matthew. By + MARCUS DODS, D.D. Twelfth Thousand. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +=The Parables of our Lord. Second Series.= As Recorded by St. Luke. By + the same Author. Tenth Thousand. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +=The Law of the Ten Words.= By Principal J. OSWALD DYKES, D.D. Fourth + Thousand. 3_s._ 6_d._ + + +LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON, +27, PATERNOSTER ROW. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of David, by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF DAVID *** + +***** This file should be named 21872.txt or 21872.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/7/21872/ + +Produced by Colin Bell, Thomas Strong and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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