the previous prayer, but from
the Lord in the heavens, will the strength come. Then again the chorus
of the host exclaims, as they look across the field to the chariots and
cavalry of the foe--forces which Israel seldom used--"These (boast[V])
of chariots, and those of horses, and we, of the name of Jehovah, our
God, do we boast." Ere a sword has been drawn, they see the enemy
scattered. "They are brought down and fallen; and we, we are risen and
stand upright." Then one earnest cry to God, one more thought of the
true monarch of Israel, whom David would teach them to feel he only
shadowed; and with the prayer, "Jehovah! save! Let the King hear us in
the day when we cry," ringing like the long trumpet blast that sounds
for the charge, they dash forth to victory!

[V] Lit. "make mention of" or "commemorate."

XIII.--THE TEARS OF THE PENITENT.

Adversity had taught David self-restraint, had braced his soul, had
driven him to grasp firmly the hand of God. And prosperity had seemed
for nearly twenty years but to perfect the lessons. Gratitude had
followed deliverance, and the sunshine after the rain had brought out
the fragrance of devotion and the blossoms of glad songs. A good man,
and still more a man of David's age at the date of his great crime,
seldom falls so low, unless there has been previous, perhaps
unconscious, relaxation of the girded loins, and negligence of the
untrimmed lamp. The sensitive nature of the psalmist was indeed not
unlikely to yield to the sudden force of such a temptation as conquered
him, but we can scarcely conceive of its having done so without a
previous decay of his religious life, hidden most likely from himself.
And the source of that decay may probably be found in self-indulgence,
fostered by ease, and by long years of command. The actual fall into
sin seems to have been begun by slothful abdication of his functions as
captain of Israel. It is perhaps not without bitter emphasis that the
narrative introduces it by telling us that, "at the time when kings go
forth to battle," David contented himself with sending his troops
against Ammon, and "tarried still at Jerusalem." At all events, the
story brings into sharp contrast the levy _en masse_, encamped round
Rabbath, and their natural head, who had once been so ready to take his
share of blows and privations, loitering behind, taking his quiet siesta
in the hot hours after noon, as if there had been no soldiers of his
sweltering