And the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.

The 18th describes the Almighty riding on His chariot of whirlwind and
storm, coming down from heaven itself in His condescension, to pluck
His anointed out of "many waters," "to deliver him from the strivings
of the people, and to make him the head of the heathen." The 45th
tells, with "the pen of a ready writer," of this everlasting sceptre
and throne, founded on truth and righteousness, of a king to whom
Divine titles are given, "anointed with the oil of gladness above his
fellows," and sees in the marriage of this king with a foreign princess
the earnest of a kingdom over all the earth. The 72nd describes not
only the prosperity, but the moral greatness of this empire stretching
from sea to sea, "from the river to the ends of the earth." Not like
the giant empires of the East, founded on aggression and cruelty, with
no motive but the monstrous pride of their founders and rulers, the
Davidic king is to be the champion of the poor, the needy, and the
helpless:

He shall deliver their souls from falsehood and wrong:

{47}

And dear shall their blood be in his sight.

The 89th, while it tells how God has found David His servant and
anointed him with holy oil, and made him "His first-born, higher than
the kings of the earth," is bold to face in those later days the
agonising problem of the apparent failure of all this lofty promise:

But Thou hast abhorred and forsaken Thine anointed:
And art displeased at him.
Thou hast broken the covenant of Thy servant,
And cast his crown to the ground.

"Lord, how long? ... Lord, where are Thy old loving-kindnesses? ...
Remember, Lord!"

The 132nd, also apparently a Psalm of a later age, though ascribed to
David, dwells with joy on David's love of the sanctuary of God, pleads
for the fulfilment of the promise, asks that the lamp may not be put
out, nor the face of God's anointed "turned away" in confusion.

Rightly are such Psalms as these called "Messianic." We feel that even
those who {48} originally wrote them looked for more than "transitory
promises." They were learning to look for the redemption of Israel and
of the world itself through Israel and her kings. They were bold to
believe, even when the crown was gone and the purple faded, and Israel
was no longer a sovereign state, that the ancient word of God to David
could never be exhausted. So when at last the great message of the
Archa