I. ITS PURPOSE.

1. To warn Ephraim; not to taunt and exult over him, but to warn. This psalm seems to belong to the period of the disruption. Ephraim, with the other northern tribes, had broken away from Judah and from the worship of God, and this psalm seems designed, by its recital of their old sins and the consequences thereof, to warn them against like sin in the future (cf. 2 Chronicles 13.).

2. To warn Judah. If they had been greatly exalted of God, and by his presence amongst them were so still, let them take warning by Ephraim's sin, that they fall not in like manner.

II. ITS CONTENTS.

1. After an exordium (vers. 1-4), in which he asks attention, and tells the manner of his speech, its source, and its intent;

2. He begins his history, telling of the covenant, and wherefore God had appointed it, and what a failure on Israel's part it had been (vers. 5-8).

3. Then he gives the details of his story. He charges Ephraim as being most in fault; how they broke the covenant, refused God's Law, and forgot his works - the wonders of the Exodus and of the wilderness, the pillar of fire, and the water out of the rock; how they tempted God in spite of all, and taunted him with their unbelief as to his power to provide them bread.

4. Then the psalm recites how God was wroth with them, and gave them the flesh they lusted after, but the plague along with it, letting them eat of the fruit of their own ways (ver. 31).

5. Next he tells of their miserable repentance (vers. 34-36), and how oft, nevertheless, God forgave them (vers. 38, 39).

6. Then from vers. 42-58 there is a further recital of God's favour, and their ingratitude and disobedience. Then from vers. 59-67 is told the final rejection of Ephraim, and from thence onward the choosing of Judah and of David, and the justification of that choice (ver. 72). But -

III. WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF ALL THIS FOR US TODAY?

1. The fearful strength of the evil heart of unbelief. Religious privilege cannot restrain it; miracles cannot convince it; nor mercies persuade it; nor awful judgments permanently change it.

2. Inquire whence deliverance from such evil heart may come.

(1) Do not encourage it. Sin makes unbelief our interest - we cannot afford to believe.

(2) If we have given such encouragement, by true repentance take it away. (3) Encourage faith. Let it be your real interest to believe, as the real believer knows it is. He loves faith. (4) By constant communion keep close to God. - S.C.

I. CULTIVATING THE HABIT OF LISTENING. Which involves drawing the mind in from other subjects, and fixing it on one. Of some people this praise can be spoken - they are good listeners.

II. HEARING WITH INTELLIGENT ATTENTION. Involving the activity of the mind in relation to what is heard. Thinking as well as listening.

III. HEARING WITH PERSONAL INTEREST. For religious truth is not abstract, but relative to individuals. A man does not bear the right relation to it until he sees how it concerns himself.

IV. HEARING WITH PURPOSE OF OBEDIENCE. For all religious teaching is designed to be, in some way, a guide to conduct. - R.T.

I. ITS AUTHOR - God. The story of the nations often seems to be no better than a wild hurly-burly, and their wars to be no more important than, as one has said, the fightings of so many kites and crows. But such idea is the result of a merely slight and superficial observation. Deeper study would show the

"Divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will." The philosophy of history is the discovery of God.

II. ITS METHODS - the record of events that are ordinary, familiar, human. These are the common groundwork of both parable and history.

III. ITS USEFULNESS - that it conveys instruction in a manner that arrests thought, deepens impression, awakes interest, and is retained in the memory as other forms of teaching are not. It is especially adapted for children.

IV. ITS INTENT AND PURPOSE - to teach men, and to incline them to follow the ways of God. And such are -

V. ITS RESULTS. For just as the result of the parables of our Lord on the minds and hearts of men is simply incalculable in the vast extent of its controlling power, so also is it with the teachings of history. They have created a just judgment and a fixed habit of mind in men, upon which most of the modern life of the nations is based. History - the record of experience - is, after all, the Bible of mankind, and doubtless was intended so to be. We do no honour to the sacred Scriptures by our too common habit of confining our studies of the ways of God in history to its records alone. All history teaches of God, and not that of the Bible only. Happy will it be for both teachers and taught when they, as did the writer of this psalm, regard all national history as a parable of God. - S.C.

I. IT ARRESTS ATTENTION. Just as children are all alive if we propose to tell them a story, so the teacher and the preacher at once brighten up their audiences when they give an illustration. Our Lord always secured attention because he was illustrative. There were no abstract statements in his teachings; they were all changed into pictures. His work "swarmed with figures of speech," and so it was that "the common people heard him gladly."

II. IT DISARMS PREJUDICE. It is difficult for public teachers to warn and reprove wisely. They may easily offend by direct and pointed applications. They can interest in a picture which excites no prejudice, and skilfully bring out applications that awaken consciences, and set them making their reproaches.

III. IT EXCITES THOUGHT. Illustrate by the difference between history as a bare record of facts, and the philosophy of history, which concerns the relations of the facts, and the mutual influence of the characters. The psalmist here designs to present the old history in such ways as to compel thought concerning God's ways with man, and man's ways with God.

IV. IT REMAINS IN MEMORY. Only particular dispositions and trained intellects can remember abstract propositions. Everybody can remember stories, pictures, and illustrations; and there is always the possibility that, holding the parable, they will hold - for use on occasion - the truth which it was designed to teach. - R.T.

I. GOD HAS MADE THE FULLEST REVELATION OF HIMSELF AND HIS WILL TO MANKIND IN JESUS CHRIST.

1. He has gloriously revealed his character in Christ: his love. Christ showed the nature of God to be love by his own character and by his teaching.

2. By him also he made the most perfect revelation of his Law. The old Law was interpreted by Christ, and received its most spiritual meaning and its widest sweep and application. Love is the only fulfilment of the Law - love to God and love to man.

II. THAT THIS REVELATION IS ADAPTED TO WORK OUT THE SALVATION OF MEN.

1. By awakening trust or faith in God. (Ver. 7.) That is the natural effect of the revelation he has made.

2. By producing obedience to his will. (Ver. 7.)

3. By awakening a reciprocal love. (Ver. 4.) This celebrates "the praise of God, and. his might, and his wonderful works that he has done."

III. THAT THIS REVELATION WAS GIVEN THAT IT MIGHT BE PROPAGATED. To all that are living now, and to all coming generations.

1. By the public ministry. By preaching, by books, and by living example.

2. By the instruction of our children. In the family and in schools. The power of character as a teacher. - S.

I. ITS AUTHORITY. "He commanded our fathers" (ver. 5; cf. Deuteronomy 6.). That which reason, conscience, and experience would alike teach, the authority of God confirms by direct command. And it is at our peril that we neglect this. The sanctions that accompany the command have not to wait for the future life for their fulfilment; they are visible everywhere in the present, as they have been in all the past.

II. ITS IMPORTANCE. This entire psalm is the sad record of the results of neglecting this command (see vers. 8, 40).

III. ITS METHOD.

1. By entrusting this duty mainly to the parents (see ver. 5) - those who might naturally be expected to feel the chief interest in, and responsibility for, their children.

2. Adopting the most interesting mode of instruction - the parabolic (ver. 2); the historic (ver. 4).

3. Charging the children with the responsibility of transmission (vers. 5, 6).

IV. ITS HIGH AND HOLY PURPOSE. (Vers. 7, 8.) - S.C.

I. TO TEACH THEE GOD'S DOINGS AND GOD'S WILL. This mission is entrusted first to parents. Only as civilization involves parental inabilities and disabilities, can the duty be delegated to servants, or to Sunday school teachers. The things we have to teach our children are:

1. God in history.

2. God in covenant.

3. God in law.

4. God in redemption.

Our power to do our work worthily depends on our own spiritual apprehensions. And they must not be left to pick up religious knowledge. God requires that we teach them.

II. TO HELP THEM TO BEGIN LIVES OF TRUST AND OBEDIENCE. (See ver. 8.) This we can do:

1. By commending such lives in the grace and beauty of our own. It is not enough to "allure to brighter worlds;" we can "lead the way."

2. By teaching them the lessons that we may be able to draw from our own experience.

3. By enforcing the warnings which are suggested by the ancient histories (see ver. 9).

4. By patiently aiding them in the formation of good religious habits.

III. TO MAKE THEM FEEL THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO THE GENERATION FOLLOWING THEM. The object set before us, in teaching our children, is (ver. 7), "to the intent that, when they come up" into their fatherhoods and motherhoods, "they might show their children the same." So our influence should be repeating itself, generation after generation. Our faithfulness to our mission may put a new and nobler impress on the coming generations (see Psalm 145:4). - R.T.

I. THE BATTLE. "All the world's a stage," said our great poet. Had he said, "All the world's a battlefield," he would have been yet more true to fact. The battle is between God and Satan, as to who shall reign over us - God or his adversary. And God has equipped many soldiers for the fight. See -

II. THE ARMOUR he has given them - given to many of us. Christian education; holy example; means of grace; power and capacity for service, imparted by the teaching of his Word; the sanctions and urgings of conscience, the drawings of his Spirit, and much more. Such things constitute the armour which would make us good soldiers if we would avail ourselves of them. But there is -

III. THE TURNING BACK on the part of many, even as Ephraim turned back. Ridicule has, perhaps, to be met; or loss to be borne; or self to be denied; or ease to be foregone; the cross in one or other of its forms has to be taken up; and many go away - go back, sorrowful, perhaps, but, nevertheless, they turn back. Oh, what shame to them! a people nobly born, well armed, and pledged to the service, and yet, etc.! What dishonour to Christ! what discouragement to the faithful Church! what loss to God's kingdom! what triumph for the foe! what ruin for themselves! - S.C.

I. A BAD EXAMPLE OF WAVERING. Compare Reuben, "unstable as water." This is the common failure of impulsive people, who take up things excitedly, but have no staying power. (See the "stony ground" hearers.) It implies grave weakness of character, which prevents success in life being won, or confidence being felt. We can never be sure of the wavering man, who may respond to the last impulse, and fail us at the most trying time. Constancy, steadfastness, are not recognized sufficiently as elements of character that may be, and should be, developed and educated in the young, who should be made to carry through what they begin.

II. A BAD EXAMPLE OF LACK OF PRINCIPLE. In the case before us, Ephraim evidently acted on mere feeling. Principles of loyalty, and brotherly service to their fellow tribes, would have enabled them to master "feeling" and "fear." They had no adequate "sense of the right;" they allowed themselves to be ruled by the "expedient," which constantly leads men to do mean and shameful things. He only is noble who can act on principle, and suffer for the right.

III. A BAD EXAMPLE OF SUSPICIOUSNESS. Illustrate by the difficulty Gideon had with the Ephraimites (Judges 8:1-4). Some always think they are being neglected, slighted. In this case, probably Gideon had not thought about these Ephraimites, so he could not have designed any evil. When discontented with ourselves, we readily suspect other people's treatment of us.

IV. A BAD EXAMPLE OF SELF-IMPORTANCE. Ephraim was always thinking what was due to itself as the leading tribe. The people who are over full of self are only too likely to fail their friends in the evil day. - R.T.

I. THE DIVINE DELIVERANCES. Reading sacred history for illustrations, we find:

1. Noah delivered from peril of flood.

2. Abraham delivered from Chaldean polytheistic associations.

3. Hebrews delivered from bondage, and from position of peril at the Red Sea.

4. Local deliverances, as in the times of the Judges, early history of David, reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat.

5. National rescue from captivity.

6. Deliverance from sin, by Christ Jesus. Every case is a marvel of Divine wisdom, power, and grace. And God is best known in his redeemings. "He delivereth and rescueth."

II. THE DIVINE PROVIDENCES. Which efficiently provide, and mysteriously guide. By providences we mean the ordinary arrangements of life, as distinct from times of trouble and peril. There is a marvel of the Divine ordering of Israel's way, and of ours. Heaven-sent manna, and streams from smitten rocks, tell of an ever-wonder-working providence. To devout minds, no marvel is greater than God's making "all things work together for good."

III. THE DIVINE FORBEARANCES. Many of these are called to mind in this psalm. God's long suffering towards stiff-necked Israel must always seem a marvel of grace; and his people in every age have exclaimed, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed."

IV. THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. (See ver. 31.) These must be included, but they are put last, because "judgment is his strange work." The marvel of God's judgments is the absence of vindictiveness in them, and the power that makes them work towards ends of moral blessing. - R.T.

I. THE RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN CHRIST AND THE ROCK,

1. In nature. A rock is like Christ; it is stable, solid, fit for a foundation. A rock may be a great defence. "Be thou my strong Rock, a House of defence to cover me." A refreshing shade. "The shadow of a great rock," etc.

2. In the fact that the rock was smitten ere the waters flowed out.

3. Moses, the Law's representative, was the smiter. And to obey the Law, Christ was smitten.

II. THE STREAMS WHICH FLOWED FROM IT. These tell of what from Christ flow to us - pardoning mercy, sanctifying grace, spiritual consolation, eternal life. And as those streams, so these are free, satisfying, copious, constant.

III. THE INQUIRIES SUGGESTED. Have we drunk of them? If not, do so. Are we drinking of them? Invite others. - S.C.

I. OUR REQUESTS CAN NEVER STAND ALONE. We can usually only judge the propriety or impropriety of a request. God never separates the request from the person who makes it. Even we look anxiously for signs of sincerity and earnestness. God finds all the interest of a request in the state of mind it expresses. What prompts the request is the question of supreme importance. God answers the man, not the man's words. Show in how many ways there may be divorce between the man and his request. Illustrate by Augustine's prayer, "Lord, convert me," which sounds well, and can be approved. When he added, "but not yet," he let his heart speak, and spoiled his prayer. When God read his heart, he heard this, "Don't convert me, Lord." If we look at the heart behind the request of the Israelites, we can see the unbelief which would put God to the test, and say, "He can give us this light bread, he cannot give us good meat." Plead for searchings of heart before offering petitions to God, because he will answer the heart, not the petition, so we must see to it that the petition expresses the heart. God is provoked by insincerity to correct through judgments (vers. 30, 31).

II. OUR REQUESTS MAY REALLY BE INSULTS. None of us can come aright to God unless "we believe that he is, and that he is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek him." God asks for trust. "Believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." The supreme offence to God is "doubting him," "suspecting him." These men offered insult to Jehovah when in effect they said, "Give us flesh to eat; we know you cannot do that." - R.T.

I. NATIONS ARE JUDGED AS WELL AS INDIVIDUALS. History is almost entirely occupied with the judgments of God upon nations. Hence it is that we say, "Happy is that nation which has no history!" for if it has, we know the nature of the record for the most part.

II. THEIR JUDGMENT IS JUST. Study the causes of the decline of empires, nations, and peoples, and it will generally be found that, as with the Canaanitish nations, their vice and wickedness had become so rampant and foul that, for the sake of humanity at large, it was necessary that the besom of God's destruction should sweep them away. Gibbon's great work on the 'Decline and Fall of the Empire of Rome' is really - though Gibbon was far enough from intending it to be so - a theodice, a vindication of God and of his righteousness.

III. BUT SUCH JUDGMENTS DO NOT COME UNTIL ALL OTHER MEANS HAVE BEEN FIRST TRIED. It was so with Israel. They had witnessed the plagues upon Egypt. They had experienced the unstinted mercy and long suffering of God. They had seen the glorious miracles which God wrought on their behalf. They had been taught his holy Law. So that the question of Isaiah 5:4 was altogether just. And so in the history of all nations. If God's vengeance cometh surely, it cometh very slowly; so that, perchance, it may not need to come at all.

IV. THEY ARE EXECUTED IN THE PRESENT LIFE. There is no future judgement for nations. When Christ came, as he did at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. , the judgment he predicted should then take place was fulfilled.

V. IN THEM THE INNOCENT SUFFER WITH THE GUILTY. This is inevitable. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children. Hence -

VI. THEY PREDICT THE FUTURE FINAL JUDGMENT. God shall then judge every man according to his works, as is not possible in the judgments of the nations now.

VII. ARE EFFECTUAL BUT FOR A TIME. They do not put an end to sin, but only stay it for a season (ver. 34).

VIII. ARE ACCORDING TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. The leaders in sin shall suffer deepest condemnation. See the doom of Ephraim, Israel's ringleader in iniquity (vers. 9, 57, 67).

IX. THE SINS WHICH PROVOKE THEM DO NOT HINDER THE PURPOSES OF GOD. (Ver. 70.) David was raised up to carry on what should have been Ephraim's work.

X. TRUE PATRIOTISM IS TO HELP FORWARD, BY ALL MEANS IN OUR POWER, THAT RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH ALONE EXALTETH A NATION. - S.C.

I. IN VIEW OF WHAT WE KNOW HE IS. Whatever side of his revelation of himself to us we may study, the impression left on us is that he is infinitely trustworthy. Take his Creatorship, involving the reliance of all existence on his upholding. Take his independence, as indicated in the term, "I am," given to Moses as a substitute for a name. Take his holiness, as the indication of absolute perfection in character. We want, in those on whom we can rely, power - we must know that they can; independence - we must be sure that they are above being biassed; and character - we must be sure of their response, in feeling, to our need. On this line it may be shown that none but God can have the right to claim our perfect trust. We may "trust in the Lord forever."

II. IN VIEW OF THE RELATIONS HE BEARS TO HIS PEOPLE. These have a special character. Beyond what God is to all his creatures, he bears special relations to his people. These gather up into the terms, Redeemer, Saviour, Father. Redeemer from Egypt, and from sin. Saviour from peril, and from self. Father, as hearing on himself the burden of his children's well being. If these relations are unfolded in their Christian developments, the call to full trust will be shown as every way reasonable.

III. IN VIEW OF THE THINGS HE HAS BEEN DOING IN ALL AGES. This brings us to the psalm. We may select illustrations from this historical retrospect. The two things immediately connected with the text are - the failure to trust God to provide needful daily bread. They might have trusted, for he could, he did, provide. With this lesson, the people failed to trust God for needed drink. But they might have trusted fully, for he could, he did, provide. - R.T.

I. IT IS SEEN TODAY AS MUCH AS EVER. In the history of nations; of Churches; of families; of individuals. Of how many may it be said as it was of Amon, "But Amon sinned more and more"! What Christian pastor has not had under his own observation again and again those whose story is told here?

II. THERE ARE NO GRACIOUS RESISTANCES WHICH IT DOES NOT OVERCOME. "For all this," was said of old, and can be now. This "all" includes now, as of old: Divine revelation (ver. 5); early education (ver. 3); warning from ill example of others near to them (ver. 8); unspeakable mercies and deliverances (vers. 11, 12); perpetual providential love; forbearance upon forbearance (ver. 38); terrible judgments (ver. 31); Opportunities of return (vers. 34, 35). All this and more of like gracious nature they disregarded, even as men do still.

III. ITS SECRET IS EVER THE EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF. Not the unbelief which is the result of the perverted brain, but that which is generated by the evil heart, the sin-loving soul.

IV. ITS WORD OF WARNING IS VERY PLAIN.

1. "Fools make a mock at sin." What else can they be who tamper and trifle with such a deadly thing! It may be in you seemingly weak as a cobweb film; let alone, it will become strong as the cable which holds fast, let the strain on it be what it may.

2. Meet this tenacity of sin by the tenacity of grace. Cling to Christ in strenuous prayer; hold on so to him.

3. Be content with nothing less than the gift of the clean heart; be sanctified as well as justified. "The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin."

4. Remember how the strong one was and ever will be cast out by the Stronger (Luke 11:21, 22), even Christ, who is "mighty to save," if we will give ourselves up to him. - S.C.

I. GOD'S CHASTISEMENT OF SIN. (Vers. 33, 34.) "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness."

1. Their sin was sensual indifference to the wonders of God's redemption. (Ver. 32.) "They believed not his wondrous works" - in connection with their redemption from the miseries of Egypt. The same sin now in reference to the work of Christ.

2. The punishment was trouble and death. (Vers. 33, 34.) Sin always leads to trouble, and sometimes to death.

3. By granting them their sinful desires. (Ver. 29.)

II. SUPERFICIAL REPENTANCE. (Vers. 34-37.)

1. It was inspired by fear. (Ver. 34.) Fear - terror - never produces genuine repentance.

2. They made insincere promises of amendment. (Ver. 36.) "They flattered God with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongues." It was no true repentance.

3. They were still unchanged in heart. (Ver. 37.) And no repentance is true and lasting which does not make the heart right towards God.

III. GOD'S PITIFUL COMPASSION. (Vers. 38, 39.)

1. God's punishment of sin is a moderated punishment. (Ver. 38.) "And did not stir up all his wrath." No punishment goes beyond the desert, and he makes it as light as it can be.

2. God pities as well as condemns our weakness and misery. (Ver. 39.) "He knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust."

3. God's forbearance is exercised with a view to our redemption. (Ver. 38.) "Many a time turned he his anger away." "Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." - S.

I. NOTE ITS STAGES.

1. They start with sin, and on and on they go, with occasional misgivings, which, however, soon grow less along the broad, attractive, much-frequented road.

2. But next they come to where the punishment of God has to be met and endured. This is a dreary place, and they cry out in their pain. But they cannot avoid this stage. However slowly they may seem to travel, they reach it one day, and a dark day that is. They had no business along the road at all, and God will have them know that; and hence this punishment stage is placed right across it, that men may either be deterred from going by the road at all, or else turn speedily back. But if they will still go on in it, they are certain to come to this terrible place.

3. They are in a great hurry to get away, and so they alter their course. They seem to repent of their previous journey altogether. "When he slew them, then they sought him." "The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be." How often Pharaoh, when he had got to this miserable stage, made as if he would amend his way! And it very often seems as if such as he really had done so. The sham repentance is, to our poor bleared eyes, so much like the real, that we are quite deceived, and we help the sinner to deceive himself.

4. Then next is the stage of the hardened heart. The will unsubdued, the mind determined on its own way. Hidden away, deep down underneath the decorous disguise of a temporarily altered conduct, there is the stone-like heart, the will resolute in its own way. It is not going to change, though it may be prudent to seem for a time as if it were. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."

5. Then there is reached, not long after, the first stage whence the wretched round began. The soul is back at its sin again.

II. THE POINT WHERE THE SOUL MAY BREAK AWAY. It is at the repentance stage. Some one has said that what we call the ten plagues might rather be called Pharaoh's ten opportunities of turning from his sin to God. And undoubtedly they were such. The pang of repentance which he felt might have led right away from God's judgments.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." And in the affairs of the soul that tide at flood is the hour when God shows us the wretchedness of our sin, and bids us turn to him.

III. HOW TO DO THIS.

1. It is evidently possible, The road branches where you are: one way leads to God - the way along which God's voice is surely calling you; the other leads to the hardened heart, - it is the way along which you have come.

2. Now call upon God for help to answer his call.

3. Break away in actual conduct. Books, companions, amusements, all that is to you occasion of and temptation to sin; break away resolutely and at once from them; have done with them altogether.

4. All the while keep calling upon God. He has promised to save you. Put in the cheque of his promise, and claim payment of it. Trust him, expect him to make good his word - and he will. Credo experto. - S.C.

I. IT IS ALL TOO COMMON. This psalm is all taken up with the record of such worship. And it did not begin with the people told of here. What was Cain's worship but so much flattery and lying unto God? And all through the prophetic history, the like worship is perpetually denounced. The one class of people whose presence and contact even the wonted gentleness of our Lord could not abide were such as these - hypocrites. We know with what scathing words he was wont to address them. And the apostles of our Lord, after his ascension, were continually meeting with it and condemning it. And it is rife and rampant still. How terrible the contrast, so widely seen, between what men profess and what they really are and do! But -

II. HOW IS IT TO BE ACCOUNTED FOR?

1. Sometimes the visible anger of God will lead to it. It is the too common product of a religion begotten of terror and abject fear (see ver. 34; and cf. Isaiah 25:9). Such times will make men profess anything that they think will get them relief.

2. Sometimes it is from the contagion of common custom. Everybody makes a profession of religion; in many circles it is held to be bad form not to do something of the kind. But it makes no sort of difference to the real character or the ordinary conduct. It leaves the heart untouched, and too often worse than that.

3. There is a secret, undefined trust that there is some good in it, after all. People do not flatter their fellow men, nor tell lies to them when they are perfectly sure that no advantage will result; still less if they are sure that harm will follow. But they think they will be advantaged by it, perhaps greatly. And so in regard to God. Men think that their attention to religious observances, and the loud profession they make, must count for something to their advantage when the great reckoning-day comes. And hence the flattering and lying told of here go on.

4. And such people encourage one another. Religious teachers, judging only by what they see - and they cannot do much more - assume that all is right, and hope for the best, and so insensibly soothe those who really need to be aroused from their condition as with the trump of doom. Even under a generally faithful ministry a man who will not give up his sin can manage to suck a poisonous satisfaction from these flatteries and lies, whereby he has probably first of all deceived himself, and hopes to deceive God, as he has his ministers and his Church generally. But -

III. WHAT COMES OF IT?

1. If there be amendment of conduct, it is very short-lived (vers. 34-40).

2. A heart made harder than before.

3. Repeated Divine chastisements, so that their life is a wretched one.

4. Final and utter rejection (vers. 59, 60).

IV. WHAT DOES ALL THIS SAY TO US?

1. Examine yourselves. Do you give time to regular secret prayer? Are you really consecrated to God? If so, then:

2. Trust Christ to keep you hour by hour and day by day. - S.C.

I. INSINCERITY IS OFFENSIVE IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. The infinitely True One loves truth. The infinitely Pure One loves sincerity. Insincerity never deceives him, who "searcheth the heart and trieth the reins," and "needeth not that any should testify of man, for he knows what is in man." The clothes of a man should genuinely express the man. Much more should the words of a man, and the ways of a man, express the man.

II. INSINCERITY IS AN ANXIETY IN THE MIND OF GOD. Because it is the most effective hindrance to his work in men's souls. The man puts a false front on, to prevent God's dealing with him as he is. Because it reveals a depraved condition. And because cherished insincerity exercises a most debasing influence on character. A man cannot become noble who keeps up a sham. The inevitable result is the formation of a habit of mind and thought which makes a serious and truthful life impossible. - R.T.

I. MANY PEOPLE DO THE LIKE STILL. God speaks plainly, loudly, persistently, by his Spirit, his providence, his Word, his judgments, and yet, etc.

II. AND THEY WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO UNLESS

(1) they be willing to give up their sin; and

(2) set themselves to seek the Lord.

III. HAVE WE DONE SO? Then:

1. Truly repent.

2. Trust Christ.

3. Be filled with the Spirit. - S.C.

I. ANSWER THE QUESTION. This long psalm supplies a sample of Israel's sin. Their provokings were so frequent that the whole history of the people, stretching over many generations and long centuries, seemed to be all of a piece, and is called "the day of provocation."

II. INQUIRE HOW THEY PROVOKED GOD? By the perpetual repetition of the wretched round of sin, and then repentance. If they had done nothing else but sin, they would quickly have perished; it' they had sinned once, and done with it, their history would have been a far happier one; but it was this perpetual backsliding which provoked God.

III. WHY WAS IT? There was:

1. The force of example; all the nations round, the greatest and most glorious of them included, worshipped idols.

2. Then the indulgence which idolatry gave to sin; it was such an easy religion.

3. The difficulty of realizing the unseen, of living by faith.

4. The cravings of a corrupt nature.

IV. WHAT MADE THEIR CONDUCT SO WICKED?

1. It was such madness. Nothing but evil had ever come of their sin, and yet they went after it again.

2. Such ingratitude to God. What had he not done for them?

3. The terrible harm they did to their children and to the whole world.

V. WHAT CAME OF IT? What always must come - repeated and terrible chastisement, and rejection at the last. - S.C.

I. MAN CAN LIMIT GOD.

1. But this may be questioned. It should seem impossible when we think of the greatness and power of God, of his universal sway, of his infinite wisdom, of the hurt and harm that must come of such conduct. All such considerations seem to render impossible the limiting of God.

2. But undoubtedly man can do this. For else he would be a mere machine, not a man; he would have no more volition than a tree or a bird. If he is to be able to say "Yes" to God, he must be able also to say "No." And he can and does. Scripture asserts it - see this whole psalm. God stood ready to bless, but Israel would have none of his counsel, and set at nought all his reproof. Reason asserts it, for it steadily affirms that we are free, and can will and choose as we please. Experience asserts it. Concerning nations, Churches, individuals, has not God again and again said, as Jesus did when he wept over Jerusalem, "How often would I have gathered thee... but ye would not!"? We read how in some places Christ could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief.

II. AND MEN DO THIS STILL.

1. Very often in their prayers and desires. They insist too much upon definite blessings being given. They ask some temporal blessing - rain, or health, or the sparing of life, or it may be a spiritual blessing; but they limit God to definite time, manner, and means. And such prayers come to nothing, for they have asked amiss. And then men make a mock at prayer. We need to remember our Lord's words in Gethsemane, "Father, not my will, but," etc.

2. Yet more do we limit God in our thoughts. (See vers. 19, 20.) And all anxious care and foreboding is really a limiting of God. Hence Christ so forbade it (see Matthew 6.). How Jacob limited God when he cried, "All these things are against me"! We shall get help against this by heeding Paul's counsel (Philippians 4.), "Be careful for nothing, but," etc. But if foreboding care is guilty of this, yet more is despair, whether for ourselves or for others.

3. But most of all, and worst, our sins limit God. The Church at Laodicea kept the Lord outside her door. And how often we stand in our children's way, when God would bless them, by our worldliness and unbelief! We will not let God bless us or them. God would, but we would not. May the Lord pardon us every one, and save us from this sin! - S.C.

I. WHAT GOD REQUIRES IN HIS SERVANTS.

1. That they should be as a bow. That is a weapon, and for him. Christians are to be aggressive, a power in the hands of God against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

2. That they should be powerful. In the case of the bow, that depended on the elasticity of the wood, or the temper of the steel, of which the bow was made, also on the skill shown in its construction. Fault in either so much lessened the value of the bow. And God would have us a power in his hands; he can use weak things, but he would have us strong for himself.

3. True. The bow made of the right material and in right manner would send the arrow straight to the mark and up to the mark, so that it would not fall short or swerve aside. But how many of us, in serving God, are guilty of this! We fall short, are not thorough, or are by one cause or another turned aside.

4. And that their strength should abide. It was said of Joseph, "His bow abode in strength." As a good bow would retain its tenacity and elasticity, so that it could be permanently relied upon. Here is the real test of our fidelity; it is not so much our having strength - at the beginning we all have this more or less - but it is the keeping it, the standing the year-in-and-year-out strain. This is what God desires in us.

II. WHAT BY HIS GRACE THEY VERY OFTEN ARE.

1. The bow was a very effective weapon. Hence no army was sent forth without a large body of trained archers. Its silent, swift, distant, deadly effect made it a weapon not only very valued, but indispensible. And God has such servants. Was not Peter one such, and Paul, and many other of less distinguished name - men who so wrought for God as to render service of most effectual kind? And there are such still, men and women too, so endued with power by God that their presence and ministry are the signal at once for great victories to be won for God.

2. And it was therefore reckoned as very formidable, a force not to be trifled with by any foe. And because faithful ministers of God are such weapons for God, therefore it is that Satan strives with all his power to disarm them or to render their ministry of none effect. He knew full well what destruction the Lord Jesus would bring upon his dominion, and therefore, immediately after his baptism, he wrought during those dread forty days, by repeated and terrible temptation, to make his mission ineffectual and to baffle its design. But our Lord, as we all know, gained signal victory, as we also through him may gala like victory.

III. HOW, THEREFORE, GOD REGARDS THEM.

1. The bow was a trusted weapon. "I will not trust in my bow," said the psalmist (Psalm 44:6), implying how usual was the trust men had in it. The sword and the bow are constantly coupled together in Scripture as the two chief weapons of the soldier on which he was to rely. And so God trusts his servants, commits the treasures of his grace to them, entrusts them to guard and keep the souls Christ died to redeem.

2. And hence a favourite weapon. David commanded that the children of Judah should be taught the use of the bow, because it was his beloved Jonathan's favourite weapon. And it is not too much to say that the chosen means whereby God accomplishes his victories in his spiritual kingdom is through his faithful servants. Not to angels, not to the might, learning, or wisdom of this world, has God given this great charge. But to those who may be, and often are, weak and despised in the eyes of the world, but God makes them mighty.

IV. BUT, NEVERTHELESS, THERE ARE THOSE WHO ARE DECEITFUL. In the bow itself, it is owing to fault in material or structure. In those whom the bow represents, it is because they are spiritually weak and untrue. The Prophet Hosea (8) uses this same figure, and shows how applicable it was to the people of his day. And there are such now.

V. THE RESULTS OF SUCH DECEIT ARE ALL SAD. God is dishonoured; the faithful Church is reviled; the enemy triumphs; the bow itself is cast away.

VI. HOW THIS MAY BE PREVENTED. By abiding in Christ, who is our Life, our Strength, our All. - S.C.

I. THIS AN AWFUL POSSIBILITY. We have an instance here told of. And the history of nations, Churches, individuals, furnish many more.

II. BUT GREATLY DISBELIEVED. The devil will do his bad best to make men not believe it. Therefore uses:

1. False theology, wresting the Scriptures. There were people in St. John's day (see 1 John 1.) who said they had no sin. Some trusted in their Abrahamic descent; others did not believe in sin at all, they counted it to be but infirmity; others talked of the imputed righteousness of Christ, and affirmed that whatever sin they might commit, they, being in Christ, were guiltless; others, as today, believed that God was too merciful to condemn any one.

2. The deceitfulness of sin.

3. The ill example of others.

III. MUCH NEEDING, THEREFORE, TO BE INSISTED ON. Slight views of sin lie at the root of well nigh all departures from God, but such views are impossible when it is seen to what they lead.

IV. BUT NEVER TO BE FEARED BY THOSE WHO WILL LIVE IN THE LOVE OF GOD. - S.C.

I. OFTEN NOT FOUND AMONGST THE GREAT. (Ver. 67.) Ephraim was the lordly tribe, the aristocracy of Israel. They had a long roll call of illustrious names. But God "refused the tabernacle of Joseph" (cf. 1 Corinthians 1.).

II. BUT, NEVERTHELESS, THEY MAY BE. (Ver. 68.) For the tribe of Judah was but little less exalted than Ephraim. God puts no ban upon any rank, or people, or tribe. How stern are the utterances of our Lord about the rich! And yet there have been many saints of God who have been rich.

III. ARE FOUND GENERALLY AMONGST THE LOWLY. (Vers. 70, 71.) "Blessed are ye poor," said our Lord. From amongst them the pioneers of the kingdom of God have nearly all come - "unlearned and ignorant men," poor, but rich in faith.

IV. AND WHERE NO APPARENT FITNESS EXISTS for the work that has to be done. David, a rustic shepherd lad, and yet, etc. (ver. 71).

V. BUT GOD'S CHOICE IS ALWAYS JUSTIFIED. (Ver. 72.) Of what great servant of God could it have been foretold that he would be what he came to be?

VI. OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE SUPREME EXAMPLE OF THIS. Despised of men. My soul, what is he to thee? - S.C.

I. DIVINE GRACE TOWARD DAVID HIMSELF. A careful study of David's early life brings out the fact that he was, in some sense, the despised one of the family. He was evidently much younger than his brothers; probably the child of another mother, who was brought into the family under somewhat peculiar circumstances. While all the brothers went to the war, David was kept at home. When Jesse called all his sons before Samuel, he left David out, as if he hardly came into the family reckoning. It was, then, the despised one, who had been sent to the sheepfolds with the women, who was selected by God for the highest place in the new state. God constantly makes the "poor of this world to confound the wise." But not arbitrarily. Only because he seeks to fit men to places, on the ground of their endowments and character and fitness for their positions. There is "no respect of persons with God." David was selected as the fitting man.

II. DIVINE GRACE PROVIDING SUCH A KING FOR THE PEOPLE. He was selected on the Divine judgment as to what was best for the people. Compare Saul, selected as meeting the people's idea of what was best for them. Kingsley says, "I look on David as an all but ideal king, educated for his office by an all but ideal training. Among the dumb animals he learnt experience which he afterwards put into practice among human beings. The shepherd of the sheep became the shepherd of men. He who had slain the lion and the bear became the champion of his native land. He who followed the ewes great with young fed God's oppressed and weary people with a faithful and true heart, till he raised them into a great and strong nation. So both sides of the true kingly character, the masculine and the feminine, are brought out in David." It may be pointed out that, in David, were qualities of kingship which would have made him a blessing to any nation, in any age. And it may further be shown that, in him, there were characteristic abilities, which made him specially the man for his time. Lead on to show that the one thing which made David's reign a supreme blessing to the people was his personal and governmental loyalty to the theocratic idea. He never failed through any disloyalty to his Overlord, Jehovah. - R.T.