condly, proofs of the reality of this faith in separation from the practices of the world. In the rest of the Psalm there are expressed deep thankfulness to God, joy in his presence, and consciousness of his guidance.

Christ is the first-fruits of them that are in their graves. If the head arose victorious over death and the grave, the members also will be enabled to sing-" O death, where is thy sting?-O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

[STROUDWATER.]

1 LORD, keep me; for I trust in thee:
2 To God thus was my speech,
Thou art my Lord, and unto thee
my goodness doth not reach:

3 To saints on earth, to th' excellent,
where my delight's all placed.
4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied
to other gods that haste:

Of their drink-offerings of blood
I will no off'ring make;
Yea, neither I their very names
up in my lips will take.
5 God is of mine inheritance
and cup the portion:
The lot that fallen is to me

thou dost maintain alone.

6 Unto me happily the lines in pleasant places fell; Yea, the inheritance I got in beauty doth excel.

7 I bless the Lord, because he doth
by counsel me conduct;

And, in the seasons of the night,
my reins do me instruct.

8 Before me still the Lord I set :
sith it is so, that he

Doth ever stand at my right hand,
I shall not moved be.

9 Because of this my heart is glad,
and joy shall be exprest

E'en by my glory and my flesh
in confidence shall rest.

10 Because my soul in grave to dwell
shall not be left by thee;

Nor wilt thou give thine Holy One
corruption to see.

11 Thou wilt me shew the path of life:
of joys there is full store
Before thy face; at thy right hand
are pleasures evermore.

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

Ver. 3-Job xxxv. 7, 8.

Ver. 8-Jude 24.

Ver. 11-Ps. xxxvi. 8.

PSALM XVII.

DAVID feeling that his cause, which is the cause of God, is a righteous one, implores, in verses 1 to 4, the interposition of the justice of God; and in verses 5, 6, he prays that through grace he may be preserved in the paths of pleasantness and peace. In verses 7 to 12, he prays that God would preserve him and every believer from their spiritual enemies. How beautiful the language in which the protection of God is represented! A believer is dear to God as the apple of the delicate eye to its possessor, over which there is continual care, and protected by him as the chicken under the wing of the parent hen. In the last verse, the desire of a true believer's heart is expressed. He seeks not sensual pleasure on earth, and looks not for it in heaven. He will be satisfied with the likeness of God, with conformity to his image, and with nothing less. How suitable for public praise is that portion from verse 5 to verse 10.

[HARRINGTON.]

1 LORD, hear the right, attend my cry,

unto my pray'r give heed,

That doth not in hypocrisy from feigned lips proceed. 2 And from before thy presence forth my sentence do thou send : Toward these things that equal are do thou thine eyes intend.

3 Thou prov'st mine heart, thou visit❜dst me by night, thou did'st me try,

Yet nothing found'st: for that my mouth. shall not sin, purpos'd I.

4 As for men's works, I, by the word
that from thy lips doth flow,

Did me preserve out of the paths
wherein destroyers go.

5 Hold up my goings, Lord, me guide
in those thy paths divine,
So that my footsteps may not slide
out of these ways of thine.

6 I called have on thee, O God,
because thou wilt me hear;

That thou may'st hearken to my speech,

to me incline thine ear.

7 Thy wondrous loving-kindness shew, thou that by thy right hand

Sav'st them that trust in thee, from those that up against them stand.

8 As th' apple of the eye me keep; in thy wings shade me close:

9 From lewd oppressors, compassing me round, as deadly foes.

10 In their own fat they are inclos'd: their mouth speaks loftily.

11 Our steps they compass'd; and to ground down bowing set their eye.

L

12 He like unto a lion is,
that's greedy of his prey,

Or lion young, which lurking doth
in secret places stay.

13 Arise, and disappoint my foe,
and cast him down, O Lord:
My soul save from the wicked man,
the man which is thy sword.

14 From men which are thy hand, O Lord,
from worldly men me save,
Which only in this present life
their part and portion have:
Whose belly with thy treasure hid
thou fill'st: they children have
In plenty; of their goods the rest
they to their children leave.
15 But as for me, I thine own face
in righteousness will see:

And with thy likeness, when I wake,
I satisfied shall be.

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

Ver. 3-Prov. xiii. 3.

8-Deut. xxxii. 10.

Ver. 14-Luke xvi. 25.
15-1 John iii. 2.

PSALM XVIII.

In this Psalm, David speaks as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, seated far above all principality and power, looks back upon the spiritual conflicts he has encountered and the victory he has achieved. From verse 4 to verse 19, there is laid before us a portrait of the interposition and majesty of Jehovah, unparalleled in any human composition. From verse 20 to verse 30, Christ describes his triumph over death and the grave as the necessary results and rewards of his "pure innocence" and righteousness." From verse 30 to the end, our Lord declares that "his God and our God" is a buckler and defence to all them that exercise living and evangelical faith in him; and that his

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kingdom shall include "strangers and a people not known before," that is, the Gentile nations, and reach forth" from the river to the ends of the earth."

Let us sing this Psalm rejoicing in the victory of Jesus, and fearing neither death nor life, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, because we know that we also shall be more than conquerors through him that loved us. The last verse may be thus literally translated-"To his Christ, even his beloved Son."

[ST. DAVID'S.]

1 THEE will I love, O Lord, my strength. My fortress is the Lord,

2

My rock, and he that doth to me

deliverance afford:

My God, my strength, whom I will trust,

a buckler unto me,

The horn of my salvation,

and my high tower is he.

3 Upon the Lord, who worthy is
of praises, will I cry :
And then shall I preserved be
safe from mine enemy.

4 Floods of ill men affrighted me;
death's pangs about me went;
5 Hell's sorrows me environed;

death's snares did me prevent.

6 In my distress I call'd on God,
cry to my God did I :

He from his temple heard my voice,
to his ears came my cry.

7 Th' earth, as affrighted, then did shake,
trembling upon it seiz'd;

The hills' foundations moved were,
because he was displeas'd.

8 Up from his nostrils came a smoke,
and from his mouth there came