he hurls anathemas on his
enemies. His wrath is as supernal as his love; he is inspired with the
fiercest resentments; he exhibits the mighty anger of Homer's heroes; he
never could forgive Joab for the slaughter of Abner and Absalom. But the
abiding sentiments of his heart are gentleness and magnanimity. How
affectionately his soul clung to Jonathan! What a power of self-denial,
when he was faint and thirsty, in refusing the water which his brave
companions brought him at the risk of their lives! How generously he
spared the life of Saul! How patiently he bore the rebukes of Nathan!
How nobly he treated the aged Barzillai! His impulses were all generous.
He was affectionate to weakness. He had no egotistic ends. He forgot his
own sorrows in the sufferings of his people. He had no pride in all the
pomp of power, although he never forgot that he was the Lord's anointed.

When we pass from David's personal character to the services he
rendered, how exalted his record! He laid the foundation of the
prosperity of his nation. Where would have been the glories of Solomon
but for the genius and deeds of David? But more than any material
greatness are the imperishable lyrics he bequeathed to all ages and
nations, in which are unfolded the varied experiences of a good man in
his warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil,--those priceless
utterances which portray every passion that can move the human soul. He
has left bare to the contemplation of all ages all that a lofty soul can
suffer or enjoy, all that can be learned from folly and sin, all that
can stimulate religious life, all that can console in sorrow and
affliction. These experiences and aspirations he has embodied in lyric
poetry, on the whole the most exquisite in the Hebrew language, creating
a new world of religious thought and feeling, and furnishing the
foundation for Christian psalmody, to be sung from age to age throughout
the world. His kingdom passed away, but his Psalms remain,--a realm
which no civilization can afford to lose. As Moses lives in his
jurisprudence, Solomon in his proverbs, Isaiah in his prophecies, and
Paul in his epistles, so David lives in those poems that are still the
most expressive of all the forms in which the public worship of God is
still continued. Such poetry could not have been written, had not the
author experienced in his own life every variety of suffering and joy.

The literary excellence of the Psalms cannot be measured