Sermonic Saplings. A SONG OF DEGREES (1) A GOOD MAN [REMARKS ON THE FIFTEEN PSALMS ENTITLED, "THE SONGS OF DEGREES."-This Psalm is called a Song of Degrees, and so are all the Psalms from this to Ps. cxxxiv. inclusive. They are thought by some to have been chanted by pilgrims returning from exile at Babylon; by others to have been written at various periods, for pilgrims making the periodical journeys with song and music (Isa. xxx. 29; Genesis xxxi. 27), to Jerusalem commanded by the law (Deut. xvi. 16), and by early tradition to have been written for chanting upon the fifteen steps which led from the court of the women to the court of the men in the Temple. They were probably put into their present form after the exile, to which, as of recent occurrence, there are many allusions. As a collection, they served like Ps. xc., c., ci., cvii., cviii., cxviii., for special occasions and uses. The following are characteristics of nearly all these Psalms: sweetness and tenderness; a sad, pathetic tone; brevity; an absence generally of the ordinary parallelism; and something of a quick, trochaic rhythm."-Canon Cook. We insert Sketches on Psalms in this place as we are anxious to conclude our work on the Psalms this year.] "IN MY DISTRESS I CRIED UNTO THE LORD," &c. Ps. cxx. 1-7. OME suppose that this Psalm was occasioned by the rebuilding of the Temple, and the establishment of the people at Jerusalem (Ezra iii.; Neh. ii. 4-6). Others suppose that it has no such national reference, but is purely an individual experience. However, it scarcely mat distress I The experi and is ex"Deliver my ters. We will make a few exegetical remarks on the verses at the outset. "In my cried unto the Lord, and He heard me." ence of Jonah (ii. 2), answers to this, pressed almost in identical language. soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue." The "lying lips," perhaps, was the cause of his distress. Some say the reference is here to Doeg's spitefulness (1 Sam. xxix. 9). Others to the slanderous conduct of the Samaritans in relation to the Jews in their letter to Artaxerxes (Ezra iv. 11-16). Others to the treacherous conduct of Sanballat and Tobiah (Neh. vi. 1-19). "What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?" "What shall He give to thee, and what shall He further give to thee, thou crafty tongue?"-Delitszch. Perhaps the meaning is, What recompense can you expect from the God of righteousness for your malignant calumnies? "Sharp arrows of the mighty." The punishment corresponds to the nature of the tongue, which is described as a sharp sword (Psalm lvii.; Jer. ix. 7), and described by James as a fire (James iii. 6). "With coals of Juniper"-coals of broom. These coals retained their heat for a long time, thus the punishment of the slanderous tongue is most appropriate. It is a sword, and shall be punished by the sword; it is a fire and shall be punished by the fire. "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar." "Mesech is here placed in conjunction with Kedar, and is probably the Mash of Genesis x. 23, who is, in 1 Chron. i. 17, called Meshech. As Meshech is a son of Aram, and Kedar a son of Ishmael, it is natural they should come into contact somewhere on the borders of Israel. To dwell among these Arab wanderers therefore, would be a great trial to one who loved Zion." -Dr. Murphy. "My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war. His neighbours were quarrelsome, but he was pacific. This Psalm presents to us a good man with bad neighbours. Whoever is the author of the Psalm he represents himself as a good man. He had prayed, and his prayer had been answered, and in the last verse he says that whilst his neighbours were for war he was for peace. But his neighbours were distinguished by two great evils-slandering tongues and querulous tempers. I. SLANDERING TONGUES. "Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue." Slander is a common common and a very pernicious evil. "How frequently," says Sterne, "is the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or a shrug! How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look, or stamped with the imputations of proceeding from bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper. Look into the companies of those whose gentle natures should disarm them, we shall find no better account. How large a portion of chastity is sent out of the world by distant hints, nodded away, and cruelly winked into suspicion, by the envy of those who are past temptation of it themselves. How often does the reputation of a helpless creature bleed by a report, which the party who is at the pains to propagate it, beholds with much pity and fellowfeeling—that he is heartily sorry for it—hopes in God it is not true; however, as Archbishop Tillotson wittily observes upon it, is resolved in the meantime to give the report her pass, that at least it may have fair play to take its fortune in the world-to be believed or not, according to the charity of those into whose hands it shall happen to fall." It is implied here First: That the slanderous tongue was terribly painful to the author of the Psalm. "What shall be given unto thee, or, What shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?" (1) He speaks of it as "sharp arrows of the mighty." Shakespeare well describes slander ""Tis slander Whose edge is sharper than the sword. Whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie All corners of the world, kings, queens, and states, (2) He speaks of it as a fire. "Coals of Juniper." So St. James speaks of it. "The tongue of the slanderer," says Massillon, "is a devouring fire, which tarnishes whatever it touches; which exercises its fury on the good grain, equally as on the chaff; on the profane as on the sacred; which wherever it passes, leaves only desolation and ruin; digs even into the bowels of the earth, and fixes itself on things most hidden; turns into vile ashes what only a moment before appeared to us so precious and brilliant; acts with more violence and danger than ever in the time when it was apparently smothered up and almost extinct, which blackens what it cannot consume, and sometimes sparkles and brightens before it destroys.' It is implied here, Secondly: That the slanderer deserves appropriate punishment. "Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of Juniper." This is supposed by some to be an answer which he puts to the question-" What shall be given unto thee?" It seems to me that thou shalt have what thou hast given-the poignant anguish of the "arrows of the mighty;" the torturing agonies of the fire; "the coals of Juniper," of fire that shall burn intensely and long. "With what measure ye mete it, shall be measured to you again." Slander is a terrible evil, and it shall be met with terrible punishment. Alas, every good man must have lived in a neighbourhood where there are neighbours who have slanderous tongues. "The world with calumny abounds, The whitest virtue slander wounds; Eager from rout to rout they haste, Proclaim their triumphs through the town." The other evil by which the writer's neighbours were distinguished was II. QUERULOUS TEMPERS. My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace; 1 am for peace; but when I speak they are for war.' There are in most neighbourhoods those of irascible, choleric, petulant tempers, always ready for angry wrangling and disputation. Like a tinder box they only require a spark to produce an explosion. Shenstone says, "I consider you very testy and quarrelsome people in the same light as I do a loaded gun, which may, by accident, go off and kill one." Dr. Johnson has said in relation to a man of this temper that, "If he has two ideas in his head they would fall out with another." What are you to do with people of this irascible make? Do not contend with them, do |