THE PARTITION OF THE GARMENTS, AND CASTING OF THE LOT.-18. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. THE IMPORTUNITY.-19. But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. 20. Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. 21. Save me from the lion's mouth. CHRIST ON THE CROSS, IN LIGHT. THE DELIVERANCE.-For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. (Or, Save me from the lion's mouth, and from the horns of the unicorns. Thou hast heard me.)* THE GRATITUDE.-22. I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee. THE INVITATION.-23. Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For the transposition here adopted, see Bishop Horsley. Ainsworth, in his Annotations, says, "Thou hast answered me;" a speech of faith inserted in his prayers, therefore next followeth thanksgiving. "Answering" is here used for safe delivering upon prayer, as the Chaldee translateth, "hast accepted my prayer. The psalm is thus divided into two parts at this verse. The first, in darkness, concluding with the importunate prayer, "Save me," &c.; and the second, in light, commencing with the exulting exclamation, "Thou hast heard me." The one all sorrow, the other all gladness; the one descriptive of the sufferings of Christ, the other of the glory that should follow, 1 Pet. i. 11; the one expressing Christ's endurance of the cross, the other the joy that was set before him, Heb. xii. 2. THE TESTIMONY.-24. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. THE VOW.-25. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. THE SATISFACTION OF THE MEEK.-26. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: THE SEEKERS OF THE LORD PRAISING HIM. -They shall praise the LORD that seek him: THE ETERNAL LIFE.-Your heart shall live for ever. THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD.-27. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. THE ENTHRONEMENT.-28. For the kingdom is the LORD's: and he is the governor among the nations. THE UNIVERSAL WORSHIP.-29. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: THE AUTHOR OF THE FAITH.-All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him; and none can keep alive his own soul. (Or, And no man hath quickened his own soul.-Prayer Book Version.) THE SEED.-30. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. THE GATHERING.-31. They shall come, THE FINISHER OF THE FAITH.-That he hath done this. (Or, For he hath fulfilled it. EXTRACTS FROM THE INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. CHRISTIAN READERS, GRACE and peace be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord! May you be "partakers of his sufferings," only in such measure as shall prepare you to bear "his exceeding weight of glory." The constant aim of the Apostle, should be ours also-to "know the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, and to be made conform able unto his death," Phil. iii. 10. "All Christians have been taught in one school," says an admirable author; "all have known the power of affliction in some of its varied forms of inward conflict, or outward trouble. 'Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now,' is each of them ready to say, 'but now have I kept thy word.' I never prized it before. indeed scarcely be said to know it. I never understood its comfort until affliction expounded it to me. I never till now saw its suitableness in my case. I could The twenty-second psalm sets him (the Saviour) before us in the darkest hour of his earthly history. His loud * Bridges on Psalm cxix. ver. 67. cry of agony attracts our attention to the passage in which it was foretold, and insensibly our minds are led on to the perusal of the whole psalm. It proves to be emphatically one of those passages in which the prophets, by the Spirit of Christ within them, testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, 1 Pet. i. 11. Thus the psalm beguiles the sorrows of the Christian, by exhibiting the untold sorrows of his Lord, and elevates his mind above all earthly trials as he proceeds, by making him a partaker, through hope, of the glory that is yet to be revealed. With his stripes our souls are healed, Isa. liii. 5. We cannot murmur when we contemplate such an unmurmuring Master. Who will love sin any longer, after he has seen how it has pierced his Saviour? How can we |