is flame with anger and rebuke--and so these two that had been
so tender in the old days part for ever. The one doubtful act that
stained his accession was quickly avenged. Better for both that she had
never been rent from that feeble, loving husband that followed her
weeping, and was driven back by a single word, flung at him by Abner as
if he had been a dog at their heels! (2 Sam. iii. 16).

The gladness and triumph, the awe, and the memories of victory which
clustered round the dread symbol of the presence of the Lord of Hosts,
are wonderfully expressed in the choral twenty-fourth psalm. It is
divided into two portions, which Ewald regards as being originally two
independent compositions. They are, however, obviously connected both in
form and substance. In each we have question and answer, as in psalm
xv., which belongs to the same period. The first half replies to the
question, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand
in His holy place?"--an echo of the terror-struck exclamation of the
people of Bethshemesh, already quoted. The answer is a description of
the _men who dwell with God_. The second half deals with the correlative
inquiry, "Who is the King of Glory?" and describes the _God who comes to
dwell with men_. It corresponds in substance, though not in form, with
David's thought when Uzzah died, in so far as it regards God as drawing
near to the worshippers, rather than the worshippers drawing near to
Him. Both portions are united by a real internal connection, in that
they set forth the mutual approach of God and man which leads to
communion, and thus constitute the two halves of an inseparable whole.

Most expositors recognise a choral structure in the psalm, as in several
others of this date, as would be natural at the time of the
reorganization of the public musical service. Probably we may gain the
key to its form by supposing it to be a processional hymn, of which the
first half was to be sung during the ascent to the city of David, and
the second while standing before the gates. We have then to fancy the
long line of worshippers climbing the rocky steep hill-side to the
ancient fortress so recently won, the Levites bearing the ark, and the
glad multitude streaming along behind them.

First there swells forth from all the singers the triumphant
proclamation of God's universal sovereignty, "The earth is the Lord's
and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. For He
h