s and
sorrows have saddened him, yet he can take up again with deeper meaning
the tones of his old praise, and let the experience of age seal with its
"verily" the hopes of youth. Exhortations to his people to unite
themselves with him in his faith, and assurances that God is a refuge
for them too, with solemn warnings to the rebels, close this psalm of
glad submission. It is remarkable for the absence of all petitions. He
needs nothing beyond what he has. As the companion psalm says, his soul
"is satisfied." Communion with God has its moments of restful
blessedness, when desire is stilled, and expires in peaceful fruition.

The other psalms of this period must be left unnoticed. The same general
tone pervades them all. In many particulars they closely resemble those
of the Sauline period. But the resemblance fails very significantly at
one point. The emphatic assertion of his innocence is gone for ever.
Pardoned indeed he is, cleansed, conscious of God's favour, and able to
rejoice in it; but carrying to the end the remembrance of his sore fall,
and feeling it all the more penitently, the more he is sure of God's
forgiveness. Let us remember that there are sins which, once done, leave
their traces on memory and conscience, painting indelible forms on the
walls of our "chambers of imagery," and transmitting results which
remission and sanctifying do not, on earth at least, wholly obliterate.
Let David's youthful prayer be ours, "Keep back Thy servant from
presumptuous sins: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from
much transgression."

It does not fall within the scope of this volume to deal with the
suppression of Absalom's revolt, nor with the ten years of rule that
remained to David after his restoration. The psalter does not appear to
contain psalms which throw light upon the somewhat clouded closing
years of his reign. One psalm, indeed, there is attributed to him, which
is, at any rate, the work of an old man--a sweet song into which mellow
wisdom has condensed its final lessons--and a snatch of it may stand
instead of any summing-up of the life by us:

"Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and enjoy security;
Delight thyself also in the Lord,
And He shall give thee the desires of thy heart.
Commit thy way unto the Lord.

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

I have been young and now am old,
Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken.

I have s