Psalm CI

1 I WILL sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.

2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come

unto me?
I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes:

I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

4 A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.

5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut oft’. Him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.

6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land.
That they may dwell with me:

He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.

7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.

8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land;

That I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord.

We descend into the valley again. The Righteous One is before us. proposing to himself the rules of rectitude that shall be exhibited in his kingdom. We may suppose him pacing the valley of Jehoshaphat, while still only on his way to the kingdom. The Psalm that follows (cii.) lets us hear his complaints, and shews us his comforts; and the series proceeds, till we reach the end of the cviii., where we rest under the banner of victory.

The first note of the Psalm guides us to Jehovah’s true character, the grace and yet the holiness of his blessed name. “Mercy and judgment I icill suty.’”

This is Israel’s “Arma virumque cano.” Israel’s theme of praise is never man, but always Jehovah, It is “A Psalm of David;” and therefore let us take it as David’s utterance when anticipating the establishment of his throne in Jerusalem — but as typical of David’s Son, when he shall receive that kingdom foretold in Isa. ix, 7, as well as now while he presides over the Church, which is “His house,” (Heb. iii. 6).

The whole Psalm may be used by a believer. When he recalls “that night to be remembered” in his history, his time of escape from bondage, he will sing of “mercy and judgment,” and not less when he reviews the way God has led him since,

A new si’iies.

298 PSALM CI. — THE RIGHTEOUS ONE’s

mingling chastisements with forbearance. And, then, his desires and his resohitions as to the way he is to follow, resemble what is here breathed out by his Head. Still, it is of Christ that every clause speaks most fully. David could use it only in the measure in which a believer can.

“The ‘perfect way,” in verse 2, reminds us of faithful Abraham (Gen. XV. ]), whose seed, Christ, obeys what was then enjoined; nor less are we reminded by nbpti^J^, “/ will deal prudently,” or “walk wisely,” of David, in 1 Sam. xviii. ] 4, 15, exhibiting a type which was more than fulfilled by him of whom Isaiah (liii. 1 3) has sung in lofty strains. If he asks, like one wearying for a friend that seems to tarry, “When wilt thou come unto me?” it is no more than the language which David would be inclined to use in his wanderings, and even at Hebron, when still the kingdom was only half his own — “When wilt thou give me my promised kingdom? when wilt thou come to one with that glory wherewith I am to come to my own?”

He sees that day as if already come, and tells how he shall rule, from verses 3-7. May we not say that the germs of the Book of Proverbs are here — germs unfolded in the sunshine of Solomon s reign? There can be no doubt of the similarity in many characteristic expressions (even such as using the word ‘•iiti’^p, ver. 5, occurring nowhere else again but Pro v. xxx. 10); and, indeed, these verses sketched what that great book of practical wisdom expands, the rules of holy living, by which every subject of Christ’s kingdom shall be guided — the principles of Divine jurisprudence that shall be applied to the details of government in every province and in every house. With truth to which Absalom was a stranger, he could say, “Oh that I were made judge in the land, that any man that hath any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice,” (2 Sam. XV. 4), Rising early and standing beside the way of the gate, Absalom feigned to be eager for the interests of justice and of his fellow-men, even as Antichrist can still pretend; but Christ shall sit on the throne of judgment for ever, the true antitype of every faithful judge who, at morning, sat at the gate —

From morning lo morning will I destroy all the icicked of the land, Cutting off from the city of the Lord all the workers of iniquity.

Terrible words! the words of that same Jesus who, in expounding on the Mount of Beatitudes the law which he came to obey, declared his purpose to cast off all unholy pretenders to his favour, “Ye that work iniquity, depart from me,” (Matt. vii. 23). And thus shall he sit on “the throne of David” (Isa. ix. 7), to order it and to settle it, and to rule earth at large. Then shall it be well known, that to “sing of mercy and judgment” (ver. 1), was to sing of Christ ruling “his own house.” And thus the Psalm presents us with

The Righteous Ones rules of holy government.