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النشر الإلكتروني

LECTURE I.

PSALM LXXXIV.

1 How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!

2. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.

4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be still praising thee. Selah.

5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

7 They go from strength to strength; every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.

9 Behold, O God, our Shield, and look upon the face of thine Anointed.

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10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand: I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

THE Book of Psalms is a portion of Scripture, with which every devout mind is peculiarly delighted. It consists of hymns, mostly composed by David, King of Israel, one of the most pious characters of antiquity. While While yet a stripling with his father's flocks, he rejoiced to contemplate the perfections of God in the history of his ancestors and the works of creation, and to celebrate these perfections in those sweet and enchanting lays which flowed spontaneously from a youthful fancy and a feeling heart. It was then, no doubt, he received those deep and lively impressions of religion that he retained through life, and which, according to the various situations in which he was placed, gave rise to those hymns of praise,

of gratitude, of contrition and pious fervour, which Christians in all ages have so often read, and with which they have been so often affected.

When David had been elevated from the fold to the throne, so far from forgetting to whom he owed his greatness, as happens too frequently with ungrateful man, his piety became more fervent and conspicuous by his exaltation. He who, in the retired vale or extensive plain, sung, when tending his flocks, the praises of his God, reckoned it, after being raised to the throne, his greatest honour to appear in the public worship of the Almighty, and to be the foremost of his subjects in bending the knee to the King of Kings.

The Psalm we have now read shews, in a manner truly affecting, the fervour of David's piety. Driven from Jerusalem by the conspiracy of his beloved son Absalom ;—deprived of the privilege and consolation of pouring out his feelings in the house of God ;-he recalls to his mind the sweet and delightful moments he had enjoyed in that sacred place, what a source of consolation it had always been in the hour of distress, how often it had

composed his soul, alleviated his grief, and revived his confidence in heaven ; and he reflects how happy he would now be, if, in his present forlorn and wretched situation, he were again permitted to taste the exalted pleasures of devotion in the services of the sanctuary. He therefore exclaims in the first verse, "How a"miable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of " hosts !"

He had been dwelling in imagination on the house of God;-he had been praying, as it were, for the wings of a dove, that his soul might fly to it and be at rest ; and the very impossibility of reaching it, only serves to increase his desires, and inflame his love. Often had the Psalmist of Israel rejoiced, when he beheld the tabernacles of the Lord of hosts. Often had every pious feeling of his soul been roused when he approached them. Often had he been elevated, as it were, from earth to heaven, when he entered their doors, and appeared in the presence of his Maker! But never did this seem so precious, so lovely in his estimation, as now when deprived of this delightful privilege. Perhaps he thought that God had

thus afflicted him, and banished him from his sanctuary, for not having sufficiently prized and valued his former advantages; and he wished and resolved to be more warm and fervent in his future devotions. He seems here to have mourned over his situation, as on a former occasion, when he exclaimed, in these plaintive strains, "As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, "O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for "the living God. When shall I come and appear before God in Sion !"

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Corresponding with these expressions of David, will be the sentiments of every devout Christian at all seasons, but especially when, like him, debarred by distress from the house of God, and the ordinances of religion. Distress, my brethren, can melt the hardest heart, and produce lively sentiments of devotion in breasts that were almost, if not utterly devoid of it before. Distress draws us from the world, and brings us near to God. It shews that in ourselves we are mean and weak that without God we are nothing; and that without Christ we are worse than nothing we are wretched. And if, in the

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