Psalm LXI

To the chief Musician. Upon Neginuh. A rsalni of

1 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.

2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is o crwhelmed: Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

3 for ihou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert uf thy

wings. Selah.
6 For thou, O God, hast heard my vows:

Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.

6 Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations.

7 He shall abide before God forever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may

preserve him.

8 So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may dail^ perform my

vows.

“On Neginah,” (like Neginoth, unknown), and “by David,” and perhaps sung at Mahanaim, (Tholuck). In this life, every member of the Church has a varied lot — now at rest, then troubled; now hopeful, then fearful; now a conqueror, then a combatant. Seated as he is on the Rock of Ages, immoveably seated, he sees at one time a fair sky and a bright sun; then, the thick cloud spreads gloom over nature; soon, the beam struggles through again, but soon all is mist once more. Such being the sure complexion of our sojourning here, we rejoice to find sympathy therewith evinced by our God who knoweth our frame, and evinced by the fact that he so often turns in the Songs of Zion from one state of mind to another, and from one aspect of our case to another.

The tone.

contents. Here is the Head and his members in a state of loneliness. As if suggested by the case of dispersed Israel, language (in verse 2) is adopted such as we find in Deut. xxx. 41 and Neh. i. 9. Our Lord could use such a Psalm in the days of his humiliation, looking to the Father, as in John xiv. 28, “the Rock higher than 1,” higher than the ‘ynan Christ Jesus, higher than all his members. This Rock casts its shadow over those beneath it. The “Selah’ at verse 4 gives us time to look upon the believing one’s quiet repose under the wings of God, and then we hear the calm acknowledgment of verse 5, which may remind us of Psalm xxii. 25. The tone of the Song changes; all thereafter is hope, sure anticipation, a future of bliss realised as already at hand.” He shall sit (on the throne) before God for ever, (ver. 7).

Two things let us specially notice. “Mercy and truth” (ver. 7) are the attributives which preserve him. Now, “mercy and truth” are the prominent features of Redemption-blessing; God able to say, “Live,” and yet to do this without retracting the sentence, “Thou shalt die.” Christ’s pillar-cloud was “mercy and truth;” the Christian’s pillar-cloud is the same. Christ, by harmonising, magnified these perfections of Godhead; the Christian magnifies them by pointing the Father to them as harmonised. Thus this prayer is answered,

“0 prepare mercy and truth;
Let iliem preserve Mm /”

Perhaps the unusual word fp, “appoint,” “prepare,” may have been chosen as suggesting a reference to manna, the wilderness-provision. Give a manna-like provision of mercy and truth. This be our everlasting food while we dwell before God!

Another thing worthy of brief notice is verse 6, “The King.” David’s title was, “King,” though a wanderer in Judah’s deserts; David’s Son, too, had the same name and title; and in the right of their Head, disciples of Christ claim kingship under him, and look forwarc? with hope and expectation to the days of his visible manifestation as King in the kingdom that has no end. Here, then, we have

The Righteous One, luhen an outcast, looking for the day of his Restoration.