stances! He will be seen, not "as a root out of a dry ground," but as the Branch of the Lord beautiful and glorious. "In that day shall the Branch of Jehovah be beautiful and glorious." Is. iv. 2. "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is the name whereby he shall be called JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Jer. xxiii. 6.) Then shall this Psalm be seen to be fulfilled in the manifested blessings that shall rest upon Christ, His people, and His Truth. All shall recognise Him to be "as a tree planted by the rivers of waters, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; its leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth, shall prosper.' He will never again have to say, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain. Yet surely my labour is with the Lord, and my work with my God." The committal of His cause and of His labour unto His God, which hath been already answered by His exaltation into the heavens, will then be further answered by results manifested in the earth.

Some have so interpreted this Psalm, as to corroborate the statements of those who teach that it is right for believers to seek after and to expect worldly prosperity. They wish, as respects wealth, honours, and the like, to be as trees planted by the water-courses: and some have even ventured to say, that the being prospered in earthly things should in the case of believers, be taken as a sure token of Divine approval. The Apostle however thought otherwise when he counted it all joy to be esteemed "as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things" for Christ's sake. He knew that now is the time when, not the righteous, but the wicked are "in great power and flourish as the green bay tree." "There is an evil which I have seen under the sun .. folly is set in great dignity, and the rich (the rich in heavenly wisdom) sit in low place. I have seen servants riding upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth."

And thus shall it continue to be, until the hour of the manifested glory of the Righteous One, shall be the hour also of the mani doom of the wicked. When Christ was as "a root out ground"-" as a worm and no man"-a reproach of m

of the people, they were as cedars of Lebanon

their eyes standing out with fatness: they h

For* (seeing that the law of Jehovah is his delight,

And that in his law he continually meditateth, day and night) He shall therefore be like a tree planted on courses of waters That rendereth its fruit in its season;

Its leaf also shall not wither;

And all that he doeth shall prosper.

Not so the wicked;

For they shall be like, verily, unto chaff

Which the wind scattereth.

Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous;
But the way of the wicked shall perish.

• See note in succeeding paper.

Notes on Psalm I.

VERSE I., properly, blessedness, in the sense of happiness or prosperity. It might be translated literally, "O the happiness of;" the plural, as is common in Hebrew, denoting fulness or completeness.

,אשר froin the verb אשר .peaces, ite. fulness of peace,שלומים Thus

to go straight; hence, to prosper, implies the happiness resulting from prosperity bestowed by God. Compare Deut. xxxiii. 29. "Happy art thou O Israel." The word that signifies "bless," is 7. When Jehovah blesses (7), then this fulness of prospering happiness

.results (אשרים)

The man who hath not walked.] These words are evidently intended to individuate the person spoken of. The past tense as here used indicates a past historic fact. Compare the words addressed to Joshua.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth,

But thou shalt meditate therein day and night

That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein,

For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous

And then thou shalt have good success.

Joshua did not do this perfectly-nor Moses-nor David-nor any one among the saints of God. But this Psalm points to some one as having done it; and who is that some one? It was the antitypical Joshua-the person who was really to plant the Israel of God in the everlasting land of their inheritance-Him of whom it is said, "Thou lovedst righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Dry, the wicked (oi avoμoi), a strong expression, denoting a rebelliousness of evil that is ready to spurn every bond and to break every yoke. It is derived from y, to make a noise or tumult, applied to evil in respect of its rebellious restlessness, which, like a

rising flood, spurns resistance, bursts every barrier, and spreads woe and desolation along its course. This rebelliousness of evil is especially to characterise Antichrist, whence he is called in Is. xi. y, the wicked one. ("With the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked one.") In 2 Thess. ii. where this passage from Isaiah is quoted, it is rendered by the Apostle, not as in the Septuagint, Tov aσeßη, but Tov "the lawless one."

ανόμον,

TOV

The application of these words (y and avoμos) to the characteristic lawlessness of the latter days, seem to have led some to regard "sin" åμapтia (ND) as denoting a less and more excusable form of evil than y, avoμia. This causes the Apostle John to say, "all sin (D) is lawlessness” (avoμua); i. e. all sin has in it the principle of rebellious insubordination, and is therefore, virtually, lawlessness. Πας ὁ ποιων ἁμαρτιαν και την ανομίαν ποιει, και ἡ ἁμαρτια εστιν ή ανομία. 1 John, iii. 4. "Every one that is a doer of sin is a doer also of lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." [Avouta should not be rendered, as in our, and the Geneva, version, as if it were Tapaẞaois του νόμου. Wicliff avoided this error and rendered avoua, wickedness: Tyndale and Cranmer, unrighteousness: Rhemish, iniquitie.] St. Paul's description of Antichrist shows the same connection between sin and lawlessness; for after having spoken of him as "the man of sin," or the Sin-Man (one who is, as it were, a living embodiment of sin), he calls him also "the lawless one "-lawlessness being the mode in which, in his case and in those who follow him, sin will develop itself. "He shall think to change times and laws." He will "spurn every band, and break every yoke." This specific meaning of ανομία, however (which in some passages it bears in virtue of its contextual connection, or else contrast with other terms), is not always to be maintained. In some passages it is taken in the general sense of wickedness or iniquity, which is the best translation of y.

The three terms employed in this verse, viz., "the wicked""sinners"-" scorners", are intended to denote contrasted, but not opposed classes; nor are they intended to refer, as some have supposed, to different periods of the exhibition of evil. It is indeed true that there are three great periods in which evil has been, or will be, allowed in a peculiar manner, to develop its power, viz., at the Flood, -at the Cross,-and at the coming of Antichrist. But neither of these periods exhibit one only form of evil. In the days of Noah and of Jesus, the scorner was as truly present as he will be in that future day when he shall glory in the pomp and might of Antichrist, his