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31 chapters
THE HART AND THE WATER-BROOKS;
THE HART AND THE WATER-BROOKS;
A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION OF THE FORTY-SECOND PSALM . BY THE REV. JOHN R. MACDUFF , AUTHOR OF "MORNING AND NIGHT WATCHES," "MEMORIES OF GENNESARET," "WORDS Of JESUS," ETC. ETC. "The portion of God's Word that is specially precious to me, more so than I am able to express, is Psalm forty-second."— Harrington Evans' Life , p. 399. "What a precious, soul-comforting Psalm is that forty-second!"— Life Of Captain Hammond , p. 289. LONDON: JAMES NISBET AND CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. M.DCCC.LX. EDINBURGH: PRI
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THE FORTY-SECOND PSALM.
THE FORTY-SECOND PSALM.
¶ To the Chief Musician , Maschil , for the Sons of Korah. 1 As the hart panteth after the water-brooks,—so panteth my soul after thee, O God. 2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:—when shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my meat day and night, While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise,—with
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I. The Scene of the Psalm.
I. The Scene of the Psalm.
"The spot was so attractive to me, as well as the view of the surrounding country so charming, that I had great difficulty in tearing myself away from it. In the foreground, at my feet, was the Jordan flowing through its woods of tamarisks. On the other side rose gently the plain of Beisan surmounted by the high tell of that name. In the distance were the mountains of Gilboa—the whole stretch of which is seen, even as far as ancient Jezreel."— Van de Velde's Travels in Syria and Palestine , vol.
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THE SCENE OF THE PSALM.
THE SCENE OF THE PSALM.
All recent explorers of Palestine speak in glowing terms of that "solemn eastern background," with its mellow tints of blue and purple, rising conspicuous, as if a wall built by giants, from the deep gorge or valley of the Jordan. This mountain range, and especially the hills of Gilead, with their rugged ravines and forests of sycamore and terebinth, are full of blended memories of joy and sadness. From one of these slopes, the Father of the Faithful obtained his first view of his children's her
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II. The General Scope of the Psalm.
II. The General Scope of the Psalm.
"The Scriptures have laid a flat opposition between faith and sense. We live by faith and not by sense. They are two buckets—the life of faith and the life of sense; when one goes up, the other goes down."— Bridge , 1637. "There are twins striving within me; a Jacob and an Esau. I can, through Thy grace, imitate Thy choice, and say with Thee, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated . Blessed God! make Thou that word of Thine good in me, that the elder shall serve the younger ."— Bishop Hall ,
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THE GENERAL SCOPE OF THE PSALM.
THE GENERAL SCOPE OF THE PSALM.
"If the Book of Psalms be, as some have styled it, a mirror or looking-glass of pious and devout affections, this Psalm, in particular, deserves as much as any one Psalm to be so entitled, and is as proper as any other to kindle and excite such in us. Gracious desires are here strong and fervent; gracious hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, are here struggling. Or we may take it for a conflict between sense and faith; sense objecting, and faith answering." [6] In these few words, the Father of co
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III. A Peculiar Experience.
III. A Peculiar Experience.
"If we listen to David's harp, we shall hear as many hearse-like harmonies as carols."— Lord Bacon. "If we be either in outward affliction or in inward distress, we may accommodate to ourselves the melancholy expressions we find here. If not, we must sympathise with those whose case they speak too plainly, and thank God it is not our own case."— Matthew Henry....
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A PECULIAR EXPERIENCE.
A PECULIAR EXPERIENCE.
Although this Psalm, in bold and striking figure, presents a faithful miniature picture of the Believer's life, we must regard it as depicting an extraordinary experience at a peculiar passage of David's history, and which has its counterpart still in that of many of God's children. The writer of the Psalm was evidently undergoing "spiritual depression"—what is sometimes spoken of as "spiritual desertion,"—that sorrow, awful in its reality—too deep for utterance—deeper than the yawning chasm mad
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I. The Hart Panting.
I. The Hart Panting.
"O mysterious Jesus, teach us Thy works and Thy plans. Let our hearts pant after Thee as the hart after the water-brooks. Create a thirst which nothing shall satisfy but the fountain of eternal love. See the velocity with which the needle flees to the magnet when it gets within distance ; so shall we hasten to our Magnet—our Beloved—as we approach Him."— Lady Powerscourt's Letters. "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." — Verse 1....
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THE HART PANTING.
THE HART PANTING.
We have pictured, in a preceding chapter, the uncrowned Monarch of Israel seated, pensive and sad, amid "the willows by the water-courses;" or wandering forth, amid the deepening twilight-shadows, with the roll of Jordan at his side, perhaps, like his great ancestor, to "wrestle with God until the breaking of the day." We have already adverted to the simple incident which arrested his attention. A breathless tenant of the forest bounded past him to quench its thirst in the neighbouring river. Th
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II. The Hart Wounded.
II. The Hart Wounded.
"It was in this extremity it occurred to her that, in the deficiency of all hope in creatures, there might be hope and help in God . Borne down by the burdens of a hidden providence (a providence which she did not then love, because she did not then understand it) she yielded to the pressure that was upon her, and began to look to Him in whom alone there is true assistance."— Madame Guyon's Life , p. 38. "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." — Verse
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The Hart Wounded.
The Hart Wounded.
Are we not warranted to infer that it was the wounded stag which David now saw, or pictured he saw, seeking the brooks?—the hart hit by the archers, with blood-drops standing on its flanks, and its eye glazed with faintness, exhaustion, and death? But for these wounds it would never have come to the Valley. It would have been nestling still up in its native heath—the thick furze and cover of the mountain heights of Gilead. But the shaft of the archer had sped with unerring aim; and, with distend
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III. The Living God.
III. The Living God.
"Oh, it is His own self I pant after. Fellowship—living, constant, intimate fellowship with Him, is the cry He often hears from the desolate void of my unloving heart. How do I loathe the sin which makes the atmosphere so misty—the clouds so thick and dark!"— Life of Adelaide Newton , p. 246. "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" — Verse 2....
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THE LIVING GOD.
THE LIVING GOD.
In the two former chapters, we listened to the first sigh of the exile—the first strain of his plaintive song. It was the groping and yearning of his soul after God, as the alone object of happiness. You may have watched the efforts of the plant, tossed amid rack and weed in some dark cellar, to climb to the light. Like the captive in the dungeon longing to cool his fevered brow in the air of heaven, its sickly leaves seem to struggle and gasp for breath. They grope, with their blanched colours,
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IV. The Taunt.
IV. The Taunt.
"There is a persecution sharper than that of the axe. There is an iron that goes into the heart deeper than the knife. Cruel sneers, and sarcasms, and pitiless judgments, and cold-hearted calumnies—these are persecution." "My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?" — Verse 3. We are called, in this chapter, to contemplate a new experience—David in tears! These, his tears, brought sin to his remembrance. As, in looking through the powerful len
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THE TAUNT.
THE TAUNT.
We are called, in this chapter, to contemplate a new experience—David in tears! These, his tears, brought sin to his remembrance. As, in looking through the powerful lens of a microscope, the apparently pellucid drop of water is found to be the swarming haunt of noxious things,—fierce animalculæ devouring one another; so the tears of the Exile formed a spiritual lens, enabling him to see into the depths of his own soul, and disclosing, with microscopic power, transgressions that had long been co
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V. THE TAUNT.
V. THE TAUNT.
"Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none."— Ps. lxix. 7, 8, 20. "My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?" — Verse 3....
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THE TAUNT.
THE TAUNT.
The Great Accuser of the brethren in a variety of ways attempts to insinuate the same dark doubts in the minds of believers, which we have spoken of in the preceding pages. He tries to shake their confidence in God,—in the veracity of His word, and the faithfulness of His dealings. He would lead them to discover in His providential dispensations what is inconsistent with His revealed character and will. In seasons particularly of outward calamity and trouble, when the body is racked with pain, i
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VI. Sabbath Memories.
VI. Sabbath Memories.
"And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and his habitation."— 2 Sam. xv. 25. "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy-day." — Verse 4....
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SABBATH MEMORIES.
SABBATH MEMORIES.
We always commiserate those who have seen better days. Poverty, indeed, under any form, appeals with irresistible power to the sympathies of our better nature. The most heartless and indifferent cannot refuse the tribute of pity to the ragged beggar shivering on the street, or seated in his hovel by the ashes of a spent fire, brooding over a wretched past, with the grim spectral forms of want hovering over a miserable future. Sad, however, as the condition of such may be, habit, in one sense, ma
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VII. Hope.
VII. Hope.
"When I ask the question, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' I am ashamed of the answer that must be returned. What if property, credit, health, friends and relatives were all lost; thou hast a Father, a friend, an advocate, a comforter, a mansion, a treasure in heaven."— Bishop Hall. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." — Verse 5....
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HOPE.
HOPE.
Take the wings from a bird, and it is the most helpless of animals. Bring the eagle from his eyrie, and rob him of his plumage, and he who an hour before was soaring monarch of the sky, is more powerless than the worm crawling at his side, or than the bleating lamb that trembled and cowered under his shadow. Such was David now. The wounded bird of Paradise flutters in the dust. The taunting cry everywhere assails him, " Where is thy God? " The future is a mournful blank, and the past is crowded
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VIII. The Hill Mizar.
VIII. The Hill Mizar.
"It is profitable for Christians to be often calling to mind the dealings of God with their souls. It was Paul's accustomed manner, and that when tried for his life, even to open before his judges the manner of his conversion. He would think of that day and that hour in the which he did first meet with grace, for he found it support onto him. There was nothing to David like Goliath's sword. The very sight and remembrance of that did preach forth God's deliverance to him. Oh, the remembrance of m
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THE HILL MIZAR.
THE HILL MIZAR.
In the preceding verse, we found the Psalmist chiding his soul for the unreasonableness of its depression—calling upon it to exercise hope and trust in God, under the assurance that he would "yet praise Him for the help of His countenance." But " what will ye see in the Shulamite ?" Another experience testifies afresh, " As it were the company of two armies. " [53] Hope has no sooner risen to the surface than despondency returns. The struggling believer threatens to sink. The wave is again beat
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THE CLIMAX.
THE CLIMAX.
The storm-struggle in the soul of the Psalmist is now at its height. In the previous verse, he had penetrated through the mists of unbelief that were surrounding him, and rested his eye on the Mizar hills of the Divine faithfulness in a brighter past. But the sunshine-glimpse was momentary. It has again passed away. His sky is anew darkened—rain-clouds sweep the horizon—" Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts. " Amid the environing floods he exclaims, " All thy waves and thy bi
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X. Lessons.
X. Lessons.
"Here deep calls to deep. Yet in the midst of those deeps faith is not drowned. You see it lifts its head above water."— Bishop Hall. "We perceive the Psalmist full of perplexed thought, and that betwixt strong desires and griefs, and yet in the midst of them intermixing strains of hope with his sad complaints.... What is the whole thread of our life but a chequered twist, black and white, of delights and dangers interwoven? And the happiest passing of it is, constantly to enjoy and to observe t
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LESSONS.
LESSONS.
In the previous chapter we spoke of the two verses which form the turning-point in the Psalm,—the climax of the conflict therein so strikingly described between belief and unbelief. We referred to the boldness and expressiveness of the figure: the troubles of the believer, like the billows of the ocean calling on one another to unite their strength that they might effect his overthrow, but faith rising triumphant above them all. At times, when all human comfort gives way, God himself appears. "
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XI. Faith and Prayer.
XI. Faith and Prayer.
"The soul of man serves the purpose, as it were, of a workshop to Satan, in which to forge a thousand methods of despair. And therefore it is not without reason that David, after a severe conflict with himself, has recourse to prayer, and calls upon God as the witness of his sorrow."— Calvin on the Psalms. "I will say unto God my rock, Why has thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily u
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FAITH AND PRAYER.
FAITH AND PRAYER.
Touching was that scene which occurred three thousand years ago on the borders of Palestine: aged Naomi, in returning to the land of her own kindred from her sojurn in Moab, pausing to take a last farewell of her two loving daughters-in-law! One of these refuses to part from her. Strong may be the inducement to Ruth to return to the home of her childhood, and, above all, to the spot where hallowed dust reposes (the buried treasure of her young affections). But ties stronger than death link her s
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XII. The Quiet Haven.
XII. The Quiet Haven.
"David utters again strains of hope; not that faint and common hope of possibility or probability, that after stormy days it may be better with him, but a certain hope that shall never make ashamed; such a Hope as springs from Faith, yea, in effect, is one with it.... Faith rests upon the goodness and truth of Him that hath promised; and Hope, raising itself upon Faith so established, stands up, and looks out to the future accomplishment of the promise."— Leighton. "In that day, the light shall
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THE QUIET HAVEN.
THE QUIET HAVEN.
We have now reached the close of this instructive Psalm—the last entry in the experience of the Royal Exile. Here is the grand summing up—"the conclusion of the whole matter." The curtain falls over the scene of conflict, leaving the believer triumphant. As he began with prayer, he now ends with praise; as he began with weeping, he now ends with rejoicing; as he began mourning over the loss of his God, he ends exulting in Him as " the health of his countenance ." We are reminded of the Great Apo
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