he abrupt disconnected themes of the psalm
should echo so precisely the _whole_ of the arguments used in the
remonstrance of the historical books, and should besides present verbal
resemblances and historical allusions to these, unless it be of the same
period, and therefore an inlet into the mind of the fugitive as he
lurked among the rugged cliffs by "the fountain of the wild goat."

In that aspect the remainder of the psalm is very striking and
significant. We have two main thoughts in it--that of God as punishing
evil in this life, and that of the self-destruction inherent in all sin;
and these are expressed with such extraordinary energy as to attest at
once the profound emotion of the psalmist, and his familiarity with such
ideas during his days of persecution. It is noticeable, too, that the
language is carefully divested of all personal reference; he has risen
to the contemplation of a great law of the Divine government, and at
that elevation the enemies whose calumnies and cruelties had driven him
to God fade into insignificance.

With what magnificent boldness he paints God the Judge arraying Himself
in His armour of destruction!

(11) God is a righteous Judge,
And a God (who is) angry every day.

(12) If he (_i.e._, the evil-doer) turn not, He whets His sword,
His bow He has bent, and made it ready.

(13) And for him He has prepared weapons of death,
His arrows He has made blazing darts.

Surely there is nothing grander in any poetry than this tremendous
image, smitten out with so few strokes of the chisel, and as true as it
is grand. The representation applies to the facts of life, of which as
directed by a present Providence, and not of any future retribution,
David is here thinking. Among these facts is chastisement falling upon
obstinate antagonism to God. Modern ways of thinking shrink from such
representations; but the whole history of the world teems with
confirmation of their truth--only what David calls the flaming arrows of
God, men call "the natural consequences of evil." The later revelation
of God in Christ brings into greater prominence the disciplinary
character of all punishment here, but bates no jot of the intensity with
which the earlier revelation grasped the truth of God as a righteous
Judge in eternal opposition to, and aversion from, evil.

With that solemn picture flaming before his inward eye, the
prophet-psalmist turns to gaze on the evil-doer who h