ess:
and his wife a widow" (cix. 8). God is still "a God of judgment" and a
"consuming fire," and there is a "wrath of the Lamb" revealed, even
though He is "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world."

God has, as it were, put upon our lips, in these Psalms, His own great
condemnation of sin, and made us our own judges. We recite,
remembering that it is His word, and not our own, the denunciation of
the sensual and the covetous, the traitor and the liar, the persecutor,
the slanderer, and the hypocrite. From this point of view the
recitation of such Psalms as the 69th or the 109th should be an
exercise of personal humility, of godly fear for ourselves and others,
and might well bring to our mind often that other great challenge of
the Spirit:

Why dost thou preach My laws, and takest My covenant in thy mouth?
Whereas thou hatest to be reformed:
And hast cast My words behind thee.
(Ps. l. 16, 17.)

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These are considerations which surely ought to be well weighed before
we seek to make the Psalter a book of "smooth things" only, or
eliminate any part of its witness. There are no short or easy methods
applicable to its deeper difficulties. Like all the ultimate problems
of faith, they fade away only before the uncreated Light of the Spirit
of God, when He visits the heart.

I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear:
But now mine eye seeth _Thee_.
(Job xlii. 5.)

[1] "Inasmuch as I know not man's learning, I will enter into the
mighty works of the Lord."

{43}

LECTURE II

CHRIST IN THE PSALTER

Paravi lucernam Christo meo.

Jewish and Christian tradition alike connect the Psalter with the great
name of David. Whether David himself wrote any of the Psalms or not is
a question that may continue to agitate the minds of scholars. But
there can be no question that the permanency of the throne of David and
the Divine promises on which it rested are leading thoughts in the
Psalter. The starting-point must be sought earlier in the Old
Testament, in the great oracle communicated by Nathan to David (2 Sam.
vii., referred to directly in Ps. lxxxix. 20, etc.), "Thy throne shall
be established for ever." In this was recognised from the first
something more than a mere promise of the long continuance of the crown
in the family of the son of Jesse. It carried with it some special
sanction and {44} blessing over and above the ordinary Divine aut