I. MAN IS SURROUNDED WITH THE ACTIVITIES OF EVIL. More than surrounded, for there is the more serious activity of evil within him. What has to be taken into full account is that evil is a ceaselessly and energetically active force. That truth is embodied for us in the description of evil as "a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour." It is on account of that activity that we are bidden to "watch" When men sleep, the enemy is active, and goes sowing tares in their fields. One thing often surprises men. Temptation takes them at unawares; sometimes in their times of conscious strength, sometimes when they are unconscious of their weakness. Morning, noon, and night we have to take account of ever-active evil.

II. MAN NEEDS THE ASSURANCE OF THE SUPERIOR ACTIVITY OF GOD, illustrated by the way in which this need was felt by Persians, and met by Zoroaster, who taught the superior activity of Ormuzd over Ahriman - a superior activity which assured a continuous as well as a final triumph. This psalm brings on us an answering impression of the activity of our good God. And it is an activity

(1) in the sphere of the things that affect man, and

(2) in man himself. For it is the chief charm of the activity of God that we may think of it as the sanctifying activity of the Holy Spirit, who "dwelleth with us and in us," - R.T.

I. EMANCIPATOR. He looseth those in mental, moral, and spiritual bondage.

II. ILLUMINATOR. The Lord has opened the eyes of many a man who could not see himself, and so proved how blind he was; and could not see the Lord, and so showed still more how blind he was. The Lord has given the inner sight to many a man who was without spiritual understanding, to whom the Gospel seemed a great mystery, of which he could make neither head nor tail.

III. COMFORTER. He "raiseth them that are bowed down" with —

1. Bereavement.

2. The burdens of life.

3. Inward distress.

4. A sense of sin.

IV. REWARDER. He "loveth the righteous" — with a love of complacency, communion, favour, and honour.

V. PRESERVER.

1. He "preserveth the strangers." Father is dead, mother is dead, friends are all gone, and even in the very village where you were born you are a stranger; come along, your God is not dead, your Saviour liveth: "The Lord preserveth the stangers."

2. "He relieveth the fatherless and widow." If you turn to the first books of the Bible, you will see there God's great care of the fatherless and the widow. Who had the tithes? Well, the Levites; but also the poor, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow (Deuteronomy 14:28; Deuteronomy 26:12). Now, then, you who feel like widows, you who have lost your joy and earthly comfort, you who feel like the fatherless, and cry, "No man careth for my soul," oh, may the sweet Spirit of the Lord entice you to come to Him.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)