SILENCE TO GOD
NEARNESS TO GOD THE KEY TO LIFE'S PUZZLE
'THE BRIDAL OF THE EARTH AND SKY'
THE CRY OF THE MORTAL TO THE UNDYING
INVIOLABLE MESSIAHS AND PROPHETS
THE CHARGE OF THE WATCHERS IN THE TEMPLE
VOLUME I: PSALMS I to XLIX
BLESSEDNESS AND PRAISE
'Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord.'—PSALM i. 1, 2.
'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the
Lord.'—PSALM cl. 6.
The Psalter is the echo in devout hearts of the other portions of divine revelation. There are in it, indeed, further disclosures of God's mind and purposes, but its especial characteristic is—the reflection of the light of God from brightened faces and believing hearts. As we hold it to be inspired, we cannot simply say that it is man's response to God's voice. But if the rest of Scripture may be called the speech of the Spirit of God to men, this book is the answer of the Spirit of God in men.
These two verses which I venture to lay side by side present in a very remarkable way this characteristic. It is not by accident that they stand where they do, the first and last verses of the whole collection, enclosing all, as it were, within a golden ring, and bending round to meet each other. They are the summing up of the whole purpose and issue of God's revelation to men.
The first and second psalms echo the two main portions of the old revelation—the Law and the Prophets. The first of them is taken up with the celebration of the blessedness and fruitful, stable being of the man who loves the Law of the Lord, as contrasted with the rootless and barren life of the ungodly, who is like the chaff. The second is occupied with the contemplation of the divine 'decree' by which the coming King is set in God's 'holy hill of Zion,' and of the blessedness
