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replied, "Yes; more precious than ever."

She had often prayed that she might meet death as a true Christian; and for some days before her departure all fear of death seemed to have passed away, and her cry often was, "Lord, receive my soul; take me to thyself, and bless those I leave behind." She died May 27th, 1871, aged 69 years.

The substance of these memoirs was read in Zion Chapel by Mr. H. Atherton, on Sunday evening, August 6th, after an appropriate sermon by Mr. H. Hannam.

DIED.

Aug. 30th.-Henry Woodfine, of Holt, in the Chester circuit. "His end was peace."

WE have received the following memorial card, announcing the death of this widely-known and muchesteemed Christian lady.-EDITOR..

In affectionate remembrance of Sarah Hall, of Jasmine Cottage, Sneinton, who fell asleep in Jesus, August 29th, in the 84th year of her age, and was interred in the General Cemetery at Nottingham, September 6th, 1871. "The memory of the just is blessed."

The Family Treasury.

THE LIFE OF DAVID IN THE

PSALMS.-No. II.

STRIKING indeed is the contrast between David's boyhood and the years which followed it after a short interval; his quiet and generally

monotonous life as a shepherd was but the prelude to a period of suffering and conflict, which, in its own line, has no parallel in Bible history. The period in questionthat of his wanderings in Saul's reign-is, on the whole, far more varied and exciting than the other, but probably in many respects far less pure and happy. Thrown into circumstances of singular trial and danger, his faith in God at times gave way, and he used falsehood and deceit in order to save his life. Let us see whether the Book of Psalms casts any light upon the causes of his persecution by Saul, or the effect which a wandering life had upon him at the time in question. I cannot, in the limits assigned me, always give the full strength of my case, and, in particular, I cannot discuss at length the date and authorship of every Psalm I quote; so for fuller details I refer my

*At least among men like himself. Christ's sufferings I leave out of the question, for he, though a man, was also very much more.

readers to the able papers of the Rev. A. Maclaren in this year's Sunday at Home, merely adding that my plan somewhat differs from his, and that on some minor points I cannot accept his views.

When we inquire into the causes of the sudden change in David's fortunes, the Bible gives us two answers. Saul hated him because he was to be his successor, and thus frustrate his hope of founding a dynasty of his own; and he even feared that, in his own lifetime, David's great popularity might enable him to seize upon the throne. See 1 Sam. xviii. 8, also xxii. 13, where he complains that Ahimelech and the son of Jesse have conspired against him. David's strong protestations of innocence, when he spared Saul's life at Engedi, and in the wilderness of Ziph (xxiv. 1115; xxvi. 18, 19), imply that some serious charge had been made against him; and the latter passage shows us from what quarter it came. "If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inherit.

They are entitled "The Life of Davi as Reflected in his Psalms."

ance of the Lord, saying, Go, serve other gods." He evidently either knew or suspected that Saul's enmity against him was fomented by his enemies at court, who envied his former prosperity, and tried to work his ruin. This view is strongly confirmed by the Psalms which he penned at this period, in which he not only complains of being slandered and misjudged by others, but sometimes speaks of false witnesses rising up against him. In two cases at least he speaks of these things in close connection with Saul's persecutions, as though the one were the cause of the other. Thus is Psalm lix. penned "when Saul sent and they watched the house to kill him.' He writes thus of his enemies, Bring them down O Lord, our shield, for the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips; let them even be taken in their pride, and for cursing and lying which they speak.' We naturally

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infer that he had suffered from their lies, though probably others may have suffered as well. We learn from its title that the 7th Psalm relates to "Cush the Benjamite. Cush means "the black man" and as applied to Saul denotes blackness of heart. Verses 3 to 5 show at once how grievous was the charge made against the Psalmist, and how innocent he was. "O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is my enemy:) let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Mark well the first clause in the passage. "O Lord my God, if I have done this"-he does not say what it was, indeed it was too well known to himself and others to need minute description, but the very fact that this grievous charge had become so familiar to him, shows how much he must have suffered from it. Mr.Maclaren thinks that the Cush is not Saul, but one of his chief men, because the whole one of the Psalm is inconsistent

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with the tenderness with which he speaks of Saul from time to time. Such may have been his habit, but no rule is without its exceptions. Pity for a poor misguided king was a good thing in its place, but it would have sunk into sheer effeminacy had it not been tempered with strong indignation at his godlessness and cruelty. Besides, when David curses his enemies, here or elsewhere, he does it, not as an injured man, but as God's prophet. No doubt he pitied them, perhaps he even wept over them when he thought of their coming doom, but in such a case all private feelings must stand aside, "The word that God put into his mouth, that must he speak.

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Many of the errors into which David fell at this period, may be excused on the ground, that he was placed in such extreme danger, that he had not time to think what he should do; but this excuse cannot be pleaded on behalf of one of his very first acts during his wanderings. When he met the bloodthirsty Doeg at Nob, he had little time to devise means of escape; but why did he not inquire of God through the high priest, and thus get unerring counsel, which would have saved him from many an after sorrow? Instead of this he tells Ahimelech a lie, and prefers his own counsel to that of a wise and merciful God. So he took a course, rash almost to madness; he went to Gath, the very stronghold of his foes. * But just now we are concerned with Doeg. That he paid some outward attention to religion is shown by the fact, that he was at Nob, "that day, detained before the Lord," but that the true principles of religion held no place in his heart, is clear, not only from his after conduct, but from what is said of him in the 52nd Psalm. In verse 1 he is sarcastically called a "mighty man or "hero," because he fell on and slew defenceless women and priests. He was very rich, it seems, and trusted more in

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* 1 Sam. xxi. 10. +1 Sam. xxi. 7.

his wealth than in God. He delighted in lying and mischief, and by his false accusations had brought many into trouble. He even gloried in his cold-blooded massacre of the priests, as appears from the first verse: "Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, thou "mighty man?" All these facts must be carefully borne in mind in connection with David's conduct at Nob. With so full a knowledge of Doeg's character, how could he be so base as to expose God's own high priest to danger by falsely stating, that Saul had sent him on a special mission? He confesses, "I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul;" and well might he add, "I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house (1 Sam. xxii. 22). It seems by no means impossible, that had he told the high priest the plain truth, the latter might have been able to do him a real service, perhaps by sheltering him in one of the Levitical cities, or by supplying his wants in any other hiding place he might choose, perhaps even by moving the priests and people in his favour, and thus shielding him in some measure from the mad vengeance of Saul; for despotic though Saul might be, we know that on one occasion at least the resolute voice of the people prevented him from putting a subject to death. *

But for his Psalms we should not have very clear or full ideas of how he felt during his years of wandering, for the book of Samuel gives us only glimpses of the truth. Some might hold that the free life of the wilderness and the mountains, with its constant contact with Nature, its romance, its excitement, its hair-breadth escapes, its freedom from ordinary cares and responsibilities, would be just the thing for David, and that on the whole he would heartily enjoy it. Others

would feel that whatever attraction there might be in these things, a long continuance of a wandering life would try his faith and patience

* 1 Sam. xiv. 45.

to the utmost. Thus the matter must have ended more or less in speculation, had we not his own Psalms to fall back upon. These settle the question for us, by showing that the latter view is the sounder of the two. How plaintive for instance is Psalm lvi. 8: "Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?" True, this was written at the beginning of his wanderings, but like sentiments occur in his other Psalms written at this period. From these we gather that though he had light and joy in his wanderings, this was very much in spite of outward circumstances, and that trouble would often have overwhelmed his soul, had it not cast it back on God. I cannot multiply illustrations, but a good one occurs in Psalm lvii., which closes with a glorious outburst of praise, and yet shows us how dark were David's present prospects. Mark well such passages as these— "In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast." "He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up." "My soul is among lions: I lie among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword." This view is also borne out by Psalm xviii., which recapitulates the history of David's wanderings in Saul's time, and perhaps a great deal more.

While the 27th and 69th Psalms shed great light on this portion of David's history, they present certain critical difficulties, which ordinary readers can hardly be expected to solve. Ewald, the German critic, fastens upon Psalm xxvii. 4, and boldly asserts that it must have been written in its present form after the Temple was built. There are various ways of getting out of the difficulty, but perhaps the best is that of Fausset;" the word here rendered "temple,'

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"Commentary, Critical and Explanatory," vol. ii,

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literally means "palace," and, as in Psalm v. 7, applies to the tabernacle, and especially its holy of holies. The other Psalm (the 69th) is by Calmet referred to thetime of the captivity, and, at first sight, the two last verses seem to bear out this view; yet, even if they do, what was to prevent the church of captivity from adding to one of David's Psalms two verses, peculiarly descriptive of its own state, and thus making the whole, in some sense, its own? Faulty as this view is, it is much better than Calmet's. Look closely at the experiences of the Psalm, and you will see that they can never have been those of a whole nation, but are clearly those of an individual. Why not David (as in the title)? for verses 35, 36, apply quite as naturally to his age as to that of the captivity. During Saul's reign the land was in great danger from the Philistines, while, from their nearness to the Philistine frontier, Zion, and the cities of Judah," would be in greater danger than other parts of the country. If the fortunes of the Israelites had sunk so low that, after Saul's defeat and death, "they forsook the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them, "we can well believe, that some of the cities of Judah were destroyed by the foe, at some period in Saul's reign, as the 35th verse of the Psalm perhaps implies. This was a very grave crisis in Israel's history, and the thing to be settled was, whether she should take her rightful place in the world, or whether the long and successful encroachments of the native tribes should still continue. That David's contemporaries were alive to the gravity of the crisis, we infer from 2 Sam. iii. 17-19; how keenly he himself felt it, appears from the closing verses of the Psalm. Well might he patiently abide present persecutions, if thus he might save his country from a foreign yoke! There are, however, other things in the Psalm which bear out the view that it was penned at the beginning

* 1 Sam. xxxi. 7.

of his public career; to say the least, the last clause of verse 4 best applies to the time when he was a persecuted subject, and he was never during his reign so utterly friendless as he describes himself to be in verse 20, not even during Absolom's revolt.

Whenever David penned the 27th Psalm, the 10th verse far more naturally applies to his years of wandering during Saul's reign than to any other period in his life. Unhappily this verse is wrongly rendered in our version; according to Dr. Kitto it should run, "My father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up." Knowing that David's mother was probably a pious woman, we cannot take these words in their extreme sense. She could never become his enemy, although she might cease to help or countenance her son, in order to save the lives of herself and family from the mad fury of Saul. When this took place we cannot be certain, but Mr. Maclaren, who thinks that there is a reference to 1 Sam. xxii. 3, 4, remarks, that elderly people, like David's parents, could ill stand the hardships of a wandering life, and that their going to Moab was the right thing for them to do. Perhaps so, and yet they may have done it in a wrong way; at any rate David seems to complain of their conduct, for the verse, taken along with its context, amounts to this. Lord, forsake me not, for even my parents have forsaken me. God will not desert me as they have done." If we accept Mr. Maclaren's view, they must have left their son in such a spirit as to make the parting a real forsaking. David himself, not long after, showed but scanty faith in God's promise, that he should sit upon the throne of Israel; what wonder if his parents shared in his unbelief, and even felt angry with him for endangering the lives and fortunes of his family, by what they might deem & mad ambition? But to David's cup of sorrow, already very full and

* 1 Sam. xxvii. 1.

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bitter, another element was added in the alienation of his brothers; for, "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children" (Psalm lxix. 8). Here, says Dr. Kitto, according to Hebrew custom, the second part of the verse to some extent repeats the first part, and so explains it. David's brethren were his own mother's children, not mere stepbrothers, a fact which he proceeds to confirm by another argument. This fact deepens the force of the verse, by showing how the near relation of the parties must have embittered the sorrows of alienation.

Some of those Psalms which shed light on David's history have a double meaning, and relate both to Christ and to David. Without adVocating anything like extreme and forced interpretation, or bewildering my readers with the details of a long controversy, I may express my belief that commentators have not always brought out David's share of the meaning so fully as they might have done. Mr. Maclaren, for instance, thinks it is impossible to find any parallel in David's life to those sufferings described in the middle verses. Now, without discussing whether ALL things there mentioned are true of David, we need not go heedlessly to the other extreme and say that NONE of them are true of him. He was never crucified like Christ, and hence never suffered those things in the same way, does it follow, he never suffered them or part of them in some other way? Take, for instance, the statement "they pierced my hands and my feet" (v. 16). David, we know, was for a long time hunted by Saul, and was often in great danger of death; is it not quite possible that during all this time he received sword or arrow wounds in the hands and feet? He figuratively describes his foes as beasts, and the general sense of the to be: "These passage seems strong bulls of Bashan have put me in fearful peril, while fierce

*See The Journal of Sacred Literature, 1848.

cowardly dogs have assailed me with all the rage of petty malice, and yet God so restrained the power of the latter, that they could not hurt me in any vital part, such as the heart or head, they could only pierce my hands and feet." Those who know anything of battles will admit that the danger of one engaged in them may be very great, even when the injuries received are very slight; the missile which merely grazes the locks of the hair, might well have caused death had it passed a little lower down. This principle is strikingly exemplified in the career of a veteran named Fletcher, as recorded in the Leisure Hour for October, 1854. In verse 18 we read, They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. Why could not this have happened to David, say, "when Saul sent messengers to his house to watch him, and to slay him in the morning"? Men bent on such an errand, when they found their prey had escaped them, would not scruple in their rage to take away his property, down to his very clothes, and share the latter among them. There is nothing in the Psalms to forbid this view, and much to bear it out, for instance, his own statement in Psalm lxix. 4, "Then I restored that which I took

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not away. We have already seen reason to believe that false charges were constantly made against him at this period, and need not be startled to find one of them was that he had defrauded another man. We are not told whether the charge was made before or after his flight; if after, it would be easy to try and condemn him in his absence, and then to seize upon his property in order to satisfy the unprincipled demands of the suitor. It is, I believe, Lord Macaulay who says that when a man is out of favour in India, it is easy to get up any amount of false witness against him; and something of the kind may well have happened to David, for the people of the East are not very truthful.

* 1 Sam. xix. 11.

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