lence, while
the musical accompaniment (as directed by the "selah") touches some
plaintive minor or grating discord! How noble and eloquent the brief
words (echo of the historical narrative) that tell the full and swift
forgiveness that followed simple confession--and how effectively the
music again comes in, prolonging the thought and rejoicing in the
pardon! How sure he is that his experience is of priceless value to the
world for all time, when he sees in his absolution a motive that will
draw all the godly nearer to their Helper in heaven! How full his heart
is of praise, that he cannot but go back again to his own story, and
rejoice in God his hiding-place--whose past wondrous love assures him
that in the future songs of deliverance will ring him round, and all his
path be encompassed with music of praise.

So ends the more personal part of the psalm. A more didactic portion
follows, the generalization of that. Possibly the voice which now speaks
is a higher than David's. "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the
way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye," scarcely
sounds like words meant to be understood as spoken by him. They are the
promise from heaven of a gentle teaching to the pardoned man, which will
instruct by no severity, but by patient schooling; which will direct by
no harsh authority, but by that loving glance that is enough for those
who love, and is all too subtle and delicate to be perceived by any
other. Such gracious direction is not for the psalmist alone, but it
needs a spirit in harmony with God to understand it. For others there
can be nothing higher than mere force, the discipline of sorrow, the
bridle in the hard mouth, the whip for the stiff back. The choice for
all men is through penitence and forgiveness to rise to the true
position of men, capable of receiving and obeying a spiritual guidance,
which appeals to the heart, and gently subdues the will, or by stubborn
impenitence to fall to the level of brutes, that can only be held in by
a halter and driven by a lash. And because this is the alternative,
therefore "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in
the Lord, mercy shall compass him about."

And then the psalm ends with a great cry of gladness, three times
reiterated, like the voice of a herald on some festal day of a nation:
"Rejoice in Jehovah! and leap for joy, O righteous! and gladly shout,
all ye upright in heart!"

Such is the end of the s