I. THAT DAWN WAS SUCH WE ARE BOUND TO BELIEVE, notwithstanding the flagrant and most grievous sins which are recorded against him. They stagger us when we read of them, and we wonder how such a man could ever have been called "the man after God's own heart." But in this psalm, as so constantly throughout the Holy Scriptures, we come across statements which prove that, in the estimation of the people of his day, and of those who knew him best, he was held most dear. A passionate enthusiasm of honor and affection gathered round his name and memory, the evidence of which is met with simply everywhere. How could this have been if he were only what many in our day say he was, and who hold him up, not for warm approbation, but for severe reprobation? We are bound to judge of a man, not according to the standards of our own age, but of his, and to accept their testimony and not our inferences from statements which it is impossible for us in this age fully to understand. His own people loved and honored him, and that is enough.

II. AS SUCH HE WAS DEAR TO THE HEART OF GOD. For his descendants felt that they might plead his name as an argument in their prayers. They believed that they might call upon God to "remember David." There is no hint here or anywhere that they were wrong in this. Doubtless they were right. There is no saint-worship in this, and no seeking David's intercession with God; but there is the valid plea that God would remember the prayers and sorrows of his faithful servant - sorrows which came to him in consequence of his love and zeal for God. The people of God knew how God had remembered Noah, and saved him and his from the Flood; how he had remembered Abraham, and for his sake had saved Lot out of Sodom; and now they believed he would remember David, and would bless them as David had prayed. Such is the power of a holy soul to bring down blessing upon his children and upon his people.

III. WHAT MADE HIM THUS DEAR TO THE HEART OF GOD?

1. Because dishonor to God was distress to him. It was a grief of mind that the ark and service of God should be so ill cared for (cf. 2 Samuel 7:2). It was to him a public dishonor done to God to allow such a thing to continue. How few there are who feel like this! All people seek their own, not those things that are God's. It was an affliction to David that God was not honored. Oh that it may be so to us!

2. Because he not only grieved for the dishonor, but earnestly sought to remove it. See how intense was his desire that God should have a fit habitation (ver. 5). He would not rest in his house, nor lie down, etc. (vers. 3, 4), until, etc. (ver. 5). Oh for zeal like this! What a witness for God it would be! And how solemnly he bound himself over to this work (ver. 4)! And it was ever his anxious concern; this the meaning of "his affliction" in ver. 1. Now, because of this, though he was a man of so many faults, and though he never did build the Lord's temple, yet was he beloved of the Lord.

IV. THE RESULT THAT FOLLOWED, AND STILL FOLLOWS, FROM WHAT DAVID WAS.

1. His name became a valid plea with God.

2. An inspiring memory for all time, and especially to those who succeeded him.

3. A perpetual encouragement to all who work and suffer for God.

4. A call to us to cherish holy zeal for the honor of God. - S.C.

I. DIVINE HINDRANCES, CAUSING DELAY, MAY BE NECESSARY. It is true that God deals with the individual, and has personal interest in each individual; but he is the Father of a family, and must keep supremely in view the interest of the whole. The wish of one is always considered, but delay may be necessary in order to get things worked round so that the wish may be met without injury to others. Man's purposes are formed without full knowledge, so they often must be qualified.

II. DIVINE HINDRANCES, CAUSING DELAY, MAY BE AFFLICTIVE. That depends greatly on the disposition of those who form the purposes. A king, like David, who was constantly getting his own way, would find it especially hard to be hindered. The exiles, who were full of enthusiasm for God's house, must have found it very hard to have their work arrested. All the harder because their purpose was such a manifestly good one. It may be urged that no severer strain ever comes into a good man's life than enforced delay in accomplishing his pious purposes. In agony a man may say, "God will not let me do the good I would."

III. DIVINE HINDRANCES, CAUSING DELAY, MAY BE EDUCATIVE. They may educate humility, by convincing us that we are not absolutely necessary; and submission, by compelling our wills to wait on God's will; and hope, by assuring us that God being in the delay will surely be in the issue to which it leads. - R.T.

I. THAT THE GREATEST WORK A MAN CAN DO IS TO HELP TO BRING GOD NEARER TO MEN. In this case David toiled with unwearied efforts "to find out a place for the Lord," where the ark might at length rest. But there are many ways besides of bringing God nearer to the thoughts of men. Public worship is only one means. A life divinely lived; works; conversation. God is made known best by the living temple.

II. GOD WILL, HOWEVER, IN DUE TIME REWARD THE LABORS OF HIS FAITHFUL SERVANTS. "Lord, remember David, and all his labor and trouble." "Turn not away the face of thine anointed." Do not deny his prayers. Seeming delay on God's part is no real delay.

III. IT IS GOD'S WILL TO REVEAL HIMSELF AND BE FOUND OF MEN. "The Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation," etc. He has created men for the fellowship of himself and of one another. "This is my rest forever;" as the father finds rest at home.

IV. GOD HAS MADE ABUNDANT PROVISION FOR THE WANTS OF OUR SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL NATURE. "I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout for joy, ordained a lamp for mine anointed," etc. "I will bless her provision with increase, and satisfy her poor with bread." - S.

I. A MAN MUST USE THE NAMES THERE ARE FOR GOD UNTIL HE CAN MAKE ONE FOR HIMSELF. Mothers give the first conceptions of God, and teach the first name for him. As the boy unfolds into the man, he will have changing, enlarging, ideas of God, and want other names for him. Israel fixed a variety of names in association with particular incidents. The earlier names chiefly embody the idea of power. Presently they enlarge to express character. But only refined minds need names that express personal relations. It may be well to illustrate what a variety of names there are in the Old Testament for God, and further, to show what differences of conception are embodied in the names for God in different nations and religions. Teut, Allah, Theos, Deus, Buch, As, Istu, Rain, Magatal, Pussa, Goezur, Yannar, etc. It may he that a man can never really get to fill the Divine name Father with its proper meaning until he realizes his own paternity; but this is getting a name out of an experience.

II. A MAN MAY GET HIS OWN NAME FOR GOD OUT OF HIS EXPERIENCES OF LIFE. And a man does not really know God, or come into right personal relations with him, until he gets his own name by which to call him. It may, of course, be an old and familiar name; but the man must make it his own. The experiences of life may bring to a man a great awe of the Divine majesty; or a tear of the Divine power; or a wondering over the Divine mystery; or a tenderness on account of the graciousness of Divine dealing. In each case we want a name; and we put our own special meaning into the name for God that we use. It means more to us than it does to any one else. And when once we have fixed our own name for God, it becomes a sort of test by which we appraise and understand all God's further dealings with us. - R.T.

I. TO SECURE THIS SHOULD BE THE OBJECT OF OUR INTENSE DESIRE AND ENDEAVOR.

1. Because the Lord so desires it. See his name here, "the mighty God of Jacob." What a poor mean wretch Jacob too often was! And yet how God compassionated, pitied, uplifted, and saved him! What does not such a redeeming God deserve and demand!

2. For the sake of our fellow-men. It is the world's great and crying need - that the Lord God should dwell among them. It is heaven where "the tabernacle of the Lord is with men."

3. For our own sake. For God's "loving-kindness is better than life." God is the soul's exceeding Joy.

II. WHERE WE SHOULD MAKE THIS ENDEAVOR.

1. In our own heart. Until he have a place, a habitation, there, it is no good our trying to find him a place elsewhere.

2. In our homes. Let our own family be the scene of our first aggressive work.

3. In the branch of the Church to which we belong. The Church should be God's rest forever; he would have it so (ver. 13). But it too often is not. And until the Church is right, the world will remain wrong. To have a better world we must have a better Church.

4. In our own neighborhood. All who dwell around ought to be the better for our dwelling in their midst. "Let your light so shine," etc.

5. Throughout the world. The missionary cause should be dear to our heart.

III. HOW WE SHOULD GO TO WORK.

1. By personal self-surrender to Christ. This stands at the threshold of all our work. Nothing can be done till this is done.

2. By believing prayer, importunate and persevering, and by holy example and faithful testimony.

3. By consecration of our substance to this work.

4. By continual self-denial.

5. By perpetual trust in Christ.

6. By firm, holy, and abiding resolve. (Vers. 2-4.) - S.C.

I. THE PITTING PLACE FOR DIVINE SYMBOLS. David had to deal with a sacred ark, which was the symbol of Jehovah's presence as the supreme King of the nation. Clearly what was befitting to the King was a dwelling-place. But David had restored that ark to a nation that had at last gained settled permanency. The sense of security led to the idea of building a palace for David. How natural that David should thing of building a palace for his supreme and sovereign Lord! A movable tent was no longer in harmony with the national life. The houses built for God, the churches and chapels of today, ought to represent that sense of God and of God's presence which they have for whom they are built. If the house holds the symbols which God gives, it is the symbol of God which man creates. It represents his thought of God.

II. THE FITTING PLACE FOR THE REALITY REPRESENTED BY SYMBOLS. For symbols are never realities, and never must be thought of as such, or treated as such. They are only symbols. The Divine presence is a spiritual reality. And that must have its shrine. That shrine is a human heart. "To that man will I look, and with him will I dwell, who is humble and contrite in heart." The heart-temple must be worthy of its real presence. - R.T.

I. THAT GOD PREPARES THE HEART THAT IS TO RECEIVE HIS GRACE. See how it was with David, how his soul was stirred in connection with the object he had in view. And so God ever deals with men. By one means and another he gets them ready for what he is going to give them.

II. THEN HIS GRACE IS HEARD OF. The Ephratah stage is reached. When the soul has been got ready, the seed is sown, the Word is heard, and it has fallen into good ground.

III. THEN IT IS SOUGHT AFTER AND FOUND. The search may be a long one, and the discovery made at last in some seemingly very unlikely place - some fields of the wood, as it were, where no one would have thought of going to look for it. In what unthought-of places and ways God is found!

IV. THEN COME THE OPEN CONFESSION OF IT, AND FELLOWSHIP WITH THEM WHO ARE LIKE-MINDED AND HAVE ALSO FOUND GOD. "We will go into his tabernacles." They have found what their soul desired, and they will proclaim it before all by going to the house of God with the people of God.

V. THIS FOLLOWED BY THE LIFE OF WAITING UPON GOD. "We will worship at his footstool." So the Divine life in us is matured and sustained. At what stage in this progress are we? - S.C.

I. THE ARK REPRESENTING THE NATION'S TRAINING-TIME. It was for a time in the making, according to Divine instructions, and during the wilderness-period, a ritual and religious associations were growing up around it. It is not always clearly seen that the religious system was being developed, as well as a national and governmental system, during the years of the desert-wanderings; and the system grew round the ark.

II. THE ARK REPRESENTING THE NATION'S SELF-WILLED TIME. Every nation, during its formation, has a self-willed time, such as is represented by the period of the Judges; and the fate of the ark during that period singularly answers to the up-and-down experience of the people. We have the ark dishonored; used for wrong purposes; lost; preserved by God; and partially restored. And these are evident suggestions of the national life of the period.

III. THE ARK REPRESENTING THE NATION'S PROSPEROUS TIME. Under David it was brought to represent the nation before God, and the light shone again on its cover, signifying full-restored relations. And under Solomon the ark and the glory gained permanent location, signifying the nations' religiously founded prosperity.

IV. THE ARK REPRESENTING THE NATION'S DECAYING TIME. It ceased to represent the whole nation - ten tribes neglected it. Then it became ill used, and at last it was carried away and lost, as the nation was ill used by encroaching Baalism, and carried away by Babylonian force. - R.T.

I. WORSHIPPING AT GOD'S FOOTSTOOL SUGGESTS THE DIVINE CONDESCENSION. He lets us come into his presence, and even to come so near to him, so directly into personal communion with him, as is indicated by approaching his footstool. But he permits no presumption, no irreverence. And it is well to remember that, if Christianity permits of familiarity with God, it must never be other than a holy familiarity. The Christian must keep at the footstool. The surprise at the Divine condescension in permitting us to come so near as this is well indicated in 1 Kings 8:27; Isaiah 66:1, 2.

II. WORSHIPPING AT GOD'S FOOTSTOOL SUGGESTS THE MOOD OF THE WORSHIPPERS, A royal presence is always affecting, and a man who enters it is always set upon securing the best preparations and attitudes. There is lacking from much of our worship and prayer that sense of coming to a King who is so glorious that we may not get nearer to him than his footstool. The proper mood for the Divine presence may be elaborately unfolded and illustrated. We only suggest that the proper mood is a holy blending of humility and confidence - the humility that says, "I dare not," with the confidence that says, "I may." - R.T.

I. THE CHURCH THE LORD'S RESTING-PLACE. (See Numbers 10:33-36.) When the ark set forward, it was "to search out a resting-place for them." And where they were, God would be (ver. 13). It is not the magnificence of the shrine, the numbers or the rank or wealth of the attendants, but it is the spiritual character of the people, that God looks at. His Church consists of those who believe, love, and obey him. They are the objects of his love and care and choice. They shall have his presence, and his delight shall be with them.

II. THE CHURCH CANNOT PROSPER WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN CHRIST. This is the meaning of the words, "Thou and the ark of thy strength." For though we had the presence of God, we could not know it apart from Christ. "No man cometh unto the Father but by me;" "This is life eternal, to know thee, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Our knowledge of God is dependent on our knowledge of Christ. The ark was the ark of God's strength. Before it the waters of Jordan parted asunder; the walls of Jericho fell down; the idol-god of the Philistines, Dagon, was shattered. It was the symbol and pledge of strength from God for all Israel's need. Hence the consternation of Eli when he heard that the ark of God was taken. But so is our Lord Jesus Christ the strength of God. For through him God wins us, keeps us, inspires us, strengthens us. God can do anything with us and through us when Christ is our Life. Revealed to our hearts in Christ, we are utterly his.

III. THE CHURCH IS BLESSED INDEED WHEN THIS PRAYER IS ANSWERED.

1. Her priests are clothed with righteousness - endued with the spirit of holiness. The being clothed tells of manifested character, the habit and garment of the soul. And what a joy and a power to the Church is a holy ministry! Nothing can compare with it, nothing can compensate for its absence.

2. Her saints are filled with joy. Gladness and sanctity go together, as they ever should. Let us ever pray, "Endue thy ministers with righteousness, and make thy chosen people joyful."

IV. THE CHURCH, WOULD SHE BE THUS BLESSED, MUST SEEK FOR THE BLESSING IN PRAYER. "Arise, O Lord," etc. Then the Lord will dwell in her; she will be his rest (vers. 14-18). - S.C.

I. THE HOLY CLOTHING OF THE PRIESTS SYMBOLIZES SALVATION. The white garments on the cleansed body were associated with the great sacrificial acts, which bore the closest relation to the recovery, restoration, ceremonial redemption, of the people. At the great Day of Atonement, the symbol of all the Divine salvations, the High priest was required to "put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen miter shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on" (Leviticus 16:4).

II. THE HOLY CLOTHING OF THE PRIESTS SYMBOLIZES RIGHTEOUSNESS. Which is the basis, ground, and condition of salvation on man's side. A man who seeks salvation must want to be what is represented by the priests' white garments. A man who seeks Christ's salvation can never have it unless he wants to be as pure, as righteous, as Christ. The priest can atone for nobody and nothing unless he is, representatively at least, righteous. And nobody can be atoned for unless he is representatively-and in resolute will and purpose - righteous. Man's righteousness is no ground of acceptance with God, but man's wish to be righteous is the condition on which alone a sacrifice can be made for him. So when the restored exiles longed and prayed for the renewal of the glories of David's time, they wanted their priests who represent them clothed with salvation and clothed with righteousness; clothed with righteousness because clothed with salvation, or in order to effect salvation. It will easily be seen how the formal teaching of the "holy clothing" found its spiritual realization in our great High Priest, who, in his righteousness, represents what we would be to the eternal Father, and gains the power and right, through his obedience, sacrifice, and exaltation, to come into our spheres of character, and make us what we would be, and what he is. - R.T.

I. CONDITIONS TEST OBEDIENCE. While we are here on earth we never transcend the dependent child-spheres. We are under what is represented by family rule; and that always tests obedience by putting conditions to promises. "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land."

II. CONDITIONS CULTURE TRUST. Because they keep up relations with the promise-maker, and preserve our sense of dependence on his good will. If a promise were absolute, it would tend to separate us from the promiser. It would be something distinct from him. And it would be fatal to our trust in God if we could rely upon his word as distinct from himself. We must trust the "Faithful Promiser."

III. CONDITIONS ACT AS WARNINGS. Illustrate from the constancy with which the nation Israel was warned of the covenant-conditions of its promises. The Divine "if" stands ever before us. We lose all claim on the promises if we fail to meet the conditions; and the loss is our own. - R.T.

I. SHE IS THE OBJECT OF THE LORD'S CHOICE.

1. We cannot get rid of the truth of God's election. Many would like to do so. It calls up in their minds thoughts of a very painful kind. It clouds for them and to them the face of God.

2. But we see it everywhere. Are not we ourselves a chosen people? With whom hath God dealt, in the way of privilege, as with us?

3. And we act upon the principle ourselves. If we want some work to be done, we elect the best instruments we can find for it. We do not send just anybody, but we choose whom we shall send.

4. And this fact shows us how to regard the doctrine of election. The election is to service for the sake of others, not to their exclusion, as is so commonly thought; for their good, and not for their ill. Thus God chose Abraham and Israel, that his "way may be known upon earth, and his," etc. (Psalm 67.). Not that others may be left out of the Divine blessing, but brought into it. If we are rendering no service to our brethren, then we are not of God's elect, for all his elect serve.

II. SHE IS HIS REST AND DESIRED HABITATION FOREVER.

1. Allusion is, no doubt, made to the ark of the covenant. Its shiftings and migrations had been many ere it was finally fixed at Jerusalem. It went from Shiloh to Bethel (Judges 20:27); then to Mizpeh (Judges 21:5); then, for twenty years, it was at Kirjath-jearim, in "the fields of the wood;" then, for three months, in the house of Obed-Edom; and finally at Zion, where the psalmist thought it would rest for evermore.

2. But what was not strictly true of the ark and Zion is true of God and his Church. He ever dwells there; for his people have been chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world. He has already done so much for them, both in providence and in grace. Amongst ourselves nothing so hinds us over to render further help as help we have already given. And certainly it is so with God. He begins his good work, and therefore he goes on (Philippians 1:6). Then, God has promised to be ever with his people (see John 14:16-23; Ephesians 2:21, 22). Amid his people only is he honored, loved, and obeyed; other men grieve, dishonor, and despise him and his Law; but his people count him their "exceeding Joy." And then he is beginning already to reap his blessed harvest in them. Our Lord himself was the Sower who went "forth weeping, bearing," etc. (Psalm 126:6); and already he is beginning to "come again with rejoicing," etc. For amid his people he finds even here and now - how much more by-and-by! - sympathy, love, holiness, devotion, those things in which he delights because they are of and like himself.

3. And what is true of the Church at large is true of the individual soul. Are we, then, members of God's Zion, enrolled in the fellowship of his Church?

III. THE PROVISION SHALL BE ABUNDANTLY BLESSED. Her praises, her prayers, her instructions, her ministers, her sacraments, her assemblies, - these are her provisions; and God shall, does, abundantly bless them to the securing of those happy results for which they were designed.

IV. THE POOR SHALL BE SATISFIED WITH BREAD. In his Church the poor are the rich, and the rich the poor. For the poor are those who know it and long for the Bread of life, and so get it and are rich. But the rich desire not, and so have not and are poor. And Zion's poor shall be satisfied. Oh to be of these poor! - S.C.

1. The Bible is largely poetry, and the poetry is of the Eastern type, in which there is always an element of intensity and exaggeration. In dealing with all poetry we have to use an answering imagination to that of the writer of it, and so get at what he suggests rather than what he says.

2. It is to be borne in mind that, strictly speaking, the idea of absolute permanency can never be applied to anything created, for every created thing must be dependent on the good will of its Creator. To these considerations a third may be added. The introduction of sin, as human self-will, into the world, has introduced frailty and brevity into everything related to the sinner. The promise of permanence for David's royal house, or for the temple which his son built, was certainly not formally realized. David's dynasty ceased; the Babylonians destroyed the temple. And it was not that the promises were conditional; it was that they were never intended to be permanent. It would not have been the best blessing for the world for David's dynasty or the Solomonic temple to have continued forever, in a literal sense.

I. A THING IS REALLY PERMANENT THAT CONTINUES SO LONG AS IT IS REALLY NEEDED. A thousand things are better passed away when they are done with. Mere length of endurance in time is no necessary blessing to anybody. True permanency is fitting to use. "A man is immortal until his work is done." Then it is best for him to be mortal.

II. A THING IS REALLY PERMANENT THAT PASSES INTO WHAT IT PREPARED FOR. For everything is a matrix, forth from which something comes which is to live and be a matrix in its turn. In one sense everything is destroyed; in another sense nothing is destroyed. We live forever in the great succession of things. Our living force goes into the stream of time, flows on to the ocean of eternity, and can never be lost. - R.T.

I. THE SHAME OF CHRIST'S ENEMIES.

1. It is strange that he should have any enemies, so good and gracious as he was.

2. But some of these enemies do not think themselves to be such. Those that are openly and flagrantly against Christ all can recognize; but there are a number of others who, though not with Christ, would protest against being regarded as his enemies. But such protest will not avail. To be not with Christ is to be against him - his enemy.

3. And for his enemies there awaits open shame. They shall be clothed with it.

(1) There will be the shame of defeat. They cannot, shall not, have their way. The Church they would despoil the Lord will keep.

(2) And of contempt. For think what it is they oppose; not some tyrannous oppression, but a just, holy, and most beneficent rule. And how inexcusable such opposition, for God's Word was all against them, and the testimony of the best and wisest of men, and conscience, when suffered to speak, condemned them! but, nevertheless, they persisted in their sin and folly. What but the shame of contempt can come to them? What else should come?

(3) And of the profound moral condemnation of all the good. For these opponents of Christ have violated all their better nature, have incurred the guilt of deep ingratitude, and have wrought widespread evil; they have dragged down with them many precious souls, and they have done foul dishonor to God. May he keep us from all such shame!

II. THE GLORIES OF THE SAVIOR'S CROWN. "Upon himself," etc. None of us are capable of adequately speaking of these glories, but we are able to see some of the sources whence these glories spring. As:

1. From the nature of Christ's rule. It is supreme, universal, eternal, attained at vast cost and in infinite wisdom, righteousness, and love.

2. From the universal and glad response which it shall receive. "His saints shall shout aloud for joy." His rule is their delight.

3. From the results of his rule. See the numbers of his subjects, their happy condition, their spotless purity. These are some of the results of our Savior's rule.

CONCLUSION. In which shall you and I share - in these glories, or in the shame with which his enemies shall be clothed? One or the other it must be. Before God let us settle this question. - S.C.