herefore,
be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause,
and deliver me out of thy hand."

The unhappy Saul again breaks into a passion of tears. With that sudden
flashing out into vehement emotion so characteristic of him, and so
significant of his enfeebled self-control, he recognises David's
generous forbearance and its contrast to his own conduct. For a moment,
at all events, he sees, as by a lightning flash, the mad hopelessness of
the black road he is treading in resisting the decree that has made his
rival king--and he binds him by an oath to spare his house when he sits
on the throne. The picture moves awful thoughts and gentle pity for the
poor scathed soul writhing in its hopelessness and dwelling in a great
solitude of fear, but out of which stray gleams of ancient nobleness
still break;--and so the doomed man goes back to his gloomy seclusion at
Gibeah, and David to the free life of the mountains and the wilderness.

VII.--THE EXILE--_CONTINUED_.

There are many echoes of this period of Engedi in the Psalms. Perhaps
the most distinctly audible of these are to be found in the seventh
psalm, which is all but universally recognised as David's, even Ewald
concurring in the general consent. It is an irregular ode--for such is
the meaning of Shiggaion in the title, and by its broken rhythms and
abrupt transitions testifies to the emotion of its author. The occasion
of it is said to be "the words of Cush the Benjamite." As this is a
peculiar name for an Israelite, it has been supposed to be an
allegorical designation for some historical person, expressive of his
character. We might render it "the negro." The Jewish commentators have
taken it to refer to Saul himself, but the bitter tone of the psalm, so
unlike David's lingering forbearance to the man whom he never ceased to
love, is against that supposition. Shimei the Benjamite, whose foul
tongue cursed him in rabid rage, as he fled before Absalom, has also
been thought of, but the points of correspondence with the earlier date
are too numerous to make that reference tenable. It seems better to
suppose that Cush "the black" was one of Saul's tribe, who had been
conspicuous among the calumniators of whom we have seen David
complaining to the king. And if so, there is no period in the Sauline
persecution into which the psalm will fit so naturally as the present.
Its main thoughts are precisely those which he poured out so
passionate