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PSALM L X X VII

I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times."

The change in the style and subject is so great, that it evidently appears to have been his utterance on a different occasion, and therefore it will be better to mark the distinction by dividing the Psalm. Any other man in considering the days of old, could only do so by the aids of sacred or profane history; but this man, whose "goings forth were of old, even from everlasting," could consider the past, as one who had himself been personally conversant with it his former being was not a blank in his memory, he knew whence he came, and remembered well the glory which he had with the Father before the world was: and as one who had been living in the past, he could and did consider "the days of old, and the years of ancient times."

"I call to remembrance my song in the night."

Our Lord was sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. These apparently conflicting passions were conspicuous in our great Exemplar: for while absorbed in profound grief, because of sin, immediate relief always flowed into his soul, when lifting his eyes to the contemplation of God; thus he says in the 119th Psalm, Unless thy law had been my delights, then had I perished in my affliction." In

WILL THE LORD CAST OFF FOR EVER?

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the 42nd Psalm. the same mixture of sorrow and joy appears, as when he says in the 6th verse, “O my God, my soul is cast down in me;" and almost in the same breath, he adds, "Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." And here, also, "I call to remembrance my song in the night." And again in the 119th Psalm, "Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage."

"I commune with mine own heart; and my spirit made diligent search."

After his song in the night, the great Shepherd of the sheep bethinks him of his long-lost beautiful flock-the house of Israel: he meditates, and his "spirit makes diligent search:" in the following three verses, we have placed before us the subject of his meditations:

"Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?"

"Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?"

"Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath

he in anger shut up his tender mercies?"

"The Lord hath chosen Jacob for himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure;" yet because they provoked him to anger with their strange vanities, he brought upon them his three-fold judgmentthe famine, the sword, and the pestilence: thus he brought them low, for their iniquity; and when these heavy chastisements failed to bring them to repentance, he delivered the ten tribes into the

14 I WILL REMEMBER THE WORKS OF THE LORD.

hands of the Assyrians; and the two tribes he gave first into the hands of the Chaldeans, and afterwards of the Romans; since which they have been dispersed among all nations nearly two thousand years have elapsed, and to this day, the displeasure of God rests upon them: they have been a persecuted, down trodden people, a reproach and a bye-word among the nations. How long is this to continue? Will the Lord cast off for ever? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ?" How many generations of them have come and gone, and still they continue exiles from their land, and from the country into which God had brought them with an high hand, and an outstretched arm. "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" Is Israel no more to be remembered? Will the year of their redemption never come?

"And I said, This is my infirmity;"

I reason as a man reasoneth, who is but of terday, and knoweth nothing.

yes

"But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High."

I will remember, that years are with God but as moments, and that with him "a thousand years are but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night."

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"I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old."

MY MEDITATION OF HIM SHALL BE SWEET.

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I will remember thy holy covenant with Abraham, saying "Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance." I will re

member thy wonders on behalf of thy people in Egypt; how thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; and didst march before them in the wilderness, in a cloud by day, and in the shining of a flaming fire by night; to whom thou didst deliver thy holy oracles, "the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises." I will call to remembrance thy works, and thy wonders of old; and thus will I assure myself, that long continued as our dispersion has been, and though we seem to have been quite forgotten by thee, a time will surely come, when thou wilt take away all thy wrath, and blot out all our transgressions from thy sight; when thou wilt "remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old, the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; and this Mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt."

"I will meditate also of all thy works.”

As he saith in another Psalm, "My meditation of him shall be sweet :" he mused on the work of God's hands, and invites us to do so likewise, saying, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow they toil not neither do they spin; and yet I say unto unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these." Then again of the fowls of the air, for whom God provides their food; all these he considers in connection with their Maker, saying, "Lord, how manifold are thy works; in wisdom thou hast made them all; the earth is full of thy riches."

16 THY WAY O LORD IS IN THE SANCTUARY.

"I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works:" he upheld the honour of God: he glorified him upon the earth and this will form the employment of his endless life when he shall be a High Priest upon his throne, then he will "talk of his doings."

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Thy way, O Lord, is in the sanctuary."

This is the sanctuary of which Christ is a minister: "the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man." It is the habitation of his holiness. It is that sanctuary, or most holy place, into which by faith we have access; of which Christ is the door, through whom we enter in, and are saved. His way is in the sanctuary: there we learn his way, and find out his secret counsels : "for the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." It was not until he entered the sanctuary, that he understood the end of the ungodly, who prosper in the world, and increase in riches. Here mystery often shrouds the dealings of God with men, but "his way is known in the sanctnary," and all his judgments are there made manifest.

"Who is so great a God as our God?"

The gods of the heathen are idols, who speak not, nor see, nor know; "but our God is in the heavens, who hath done whatsoever it hath pleased him" He is the only true, and living God; whose understanding is infinite, whose power is boundless, and all whose works are done in truth.