ed their chances of success, as that
politic adviser saw so plainly. Whatever may have been the reason, it is
clear that by the time David had reached Mahanaim he had resolved not to
yield without a struggle. He girds on his sword once more with some of
the animation of early days, and the light of trustful valour blazes
again in his old eyes.

XV. THE SONGS OF THE FUGITIVE.

The psalms which probably belong to the period of Absalom's rebellion
correspond well with the impression of his spirit gathered from the
historical books. Confidence in God, submission to His will, are
strongly expressed in them, and we may almost discern a progress in the
former respect as the rebellion grows. They flame brighter and brighter
in the deepening darkness. From the lowest abyss the stars are seen most
clearly. He is far more buoyant when he is an exile once more in the
wilderness, and when the masks of plot and trickery are fallen, and the
danger stands clear before him. Like some good ship issuing from the
shelter of the pier heads, the first blow of the waves throws her over
on her side and makes her quiver like a living thing recoiling from a
terror, but she rises above the tossing surges and keeps her course. We
may allocate with a fair amount of likelihood the following psalms to
this period--iii.; iv.; xxv. (?); xxviii. (?); lviii. (?); lxi.; lxii.;
lxiii.; cix. (?); cxliii.

The first two of these form a pair; they are a morning and an evening
hymn. The little band are encamped on their road to Mahanaim, with no
roof but the stars, and no walls but the arm of God. In the former the
discrowned king sings, as he rises from his nightly bivouac. He pours
out first his plaint of the foes, who are described as "many," and as
saying that, "There is no help for him in God," words which fully
correspond to the formidable dimensions of the revolt, and to the belief
which actuated the conspirators, and had appeared as possible even to
himself, that his sin had turned away the aid of heaven from his cause.
To such utterances of malice and confident hatred he opposes the
conviction which had again filled his soul, that even in the midst of
real peril and the shock of battle Jehovah is his "shield." With bowed
and covered head he had fled from Jerusalem, but "Thou art the lifter up
of mine head." He was an exile from the tabernacle on Zion, and he had
sent back the ark to its rest; but though he has to cry to God from
beyond Jord