When the king had organized a choir of musicians, had provided them with their instruments, had assigned them their duties and their maintenance, it remained for him to decide what they were to sing. He was himself "the sweet psalmist of Israel." It is difficult for us to imagine what psalmody must have been before the time of David. It is a grand vocation - that of putting words of praise into the lips of worshippers. And it was a glorious burst of sacred song which pealed from the heights of Jerusalem when the sublime odes of David were first rolled to heaven upon the wings of the wind. What a revelation of God, what an inspiration for man, what new life to the world, when the psalms were first wrought into shape by the glowing heart and the glorious eloquence of David! The later Levitical psalms are perhaps more reflective and elaborate, but those composed by the lyrical sovereign of Israel have at once the simplest piety, the profoundest feeling, and the most vigorous eloquence. The occasion of the composition, or, at all events, the first public rendering of David's odes, was one worthy of such efforts. When the ark found a resting-place in the city of David, when Jerusalem was consecrated by the public and regal recognition of the Divine Law, when the Levites solemnly addressed Jehovah in the name of Israel, - then this magnificent psalm was sung, now in melodious recitative, and again in resounding chorus, to the accompaniment of cymbal, of trumpet, and of harp. It was a fitting inauguration of a series of sublime solemnities. When we examine the structure of the psalm, we are surprised and filled with admiration at the appropriateness, the beauty, the comprehensiveness of the composition. The psalm, as it is recorded in this place, agrees with what we find in the hundred and fifth, ninety-sixth, hundred and seventh, and hundred and sixth psalms. Taken as we here find it, it contains -

I. AN ADMONITION AND SUMMONS TO PRAISE THE LORD. This is addressed to nature (vers. 30-33), to mankind in general (ver. 28), especially to Israel (ver. 13).

II. A RECORD OF GOD'S GOODNESS. And this both to the patriarchs (vers. 15-18), and to Israel as a nation, to whom that goodness had been displayed in the most critical period of their history (vers. 19-22).

III. PRAISE OF GOD'S ATTRIBUTES AND CHARACTER. (Vers. 24-29, 34.) Never had these been so devoutly and at the same time so poetically celebrated as now and here.

IV. PRAYER FOR SALVATION. This petition (ver. 35) flows most naturally out of what precedes. In the register of Divine acts, in the recounting of Divine attributes, a foundation had Been laid for this devout and urgent entreaty.

V. BLESSING AND AMEN. A glorious closing (ver. 36) to a glorious psalm. "All the people" here concurred with, adopted as their own, the worship of the Levites. The reval psalmist's heart must have beat high with sacred joy when his plans proved successful, when his ministers rendered his compositions in a manner worthy of their substance, and when the soul of a nation was raised into fellowship with God. - T.

This, a composite psalm, represents a form of service rather than a psalm. The whole of it, with slight variations, found in Psalm 96., 105:1-15, 106:47, 48. It celebrates redemption as unfolded in the history of Israel, proclaimed to the world, and triumphant in judgment. This part sets forth. —

I. AN EXHORTATION TO THE NOBLEST WORK — praising God. In three ways, chiefly, is this duty recommended.

1. In giving thanks to God.

(1)By singing psalms (ver. 9).

(2)By social conversation.

(3)By glorying in His name (ver. 10).

2. In seeking God.

(1)Earnestly.

(2)Joyfully.

(3)Continually.

3. In commemorating God's works (ver. 12).

II. MOTIVES TO INFLUENCE US IN THIS NOBLEST WORK.

1. God's great love.

2. God's great manifestations of love.

3. God's great dominion.

4. God's great claims.

5. God's vindication of these claims.

(J. Wolfendale.)