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had very different experiences at different times in the way of God's dealing with him. He knew well what it was to wait long for the answer to his prayers. But he also knew the blessedness of receiving answers from his loving Father, as he so beautifully expresses it in the 116th Psalm, 'I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications.' This blessed result was the reward for his continued pleading with God. And the same reward is given still, beloved friends, for earnest, importunate prayer. And in what wonderful and varied ways does the assurance come that our prayers are heard! It may be when we are on our knees before God: the heart has for some time been cold and lifeless; suddenly, the breath of the Divine Spirit passes over it, and it becomes aglow with fervent love and yearning desire for God, and we are ready to exclaim, 'O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest.' Then we are able to say with David, 'I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications.' God is felt to be very near to us once more, and we to Him; so near that we can feel the throbbings of His heart against our own, so full is that heart of tenderest sympathy and love. Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplication.' He has both heard and answered us. Now we know that He has. We feel that we are no longer alone. What return shall we make to God for His mercy? Shall we not say with David in another Psalm, 'Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His Name together'? It needs more grace to confess openly before men what great things the Lord has done for us, than to declare with our hearts, I love the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplication.' Many a child of God, who when on his knees before God has the joy of feeling this, is yet very slow to confess it before men, to call upon all around to 'Magnify the Lord together.' Beloved friends, are we always ready to do

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this? When God has graciously and lovingly answered our prayer, are we always willing and ready to go and declare it among our fellow-men? Let who will be present, let who will despise or mock us, are we yet ready to exclaim in the fulness of a grateful heart, ‘O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His Name together'?

See in the next verse how grace grows and brightens. David, at the opening of the Psalm, is imploring that God's silence to him may be broken; then, next, he blesses God that He has heard the voice of his supplication; and from that he goes on still further to rejoice in Him. He says, 'The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped.' The help which the believer gets from God is unlike the help which he gets from his fellow-men. It is the most unqualified assurance of unlimited power and perfect willingness on the part of God to help His child who loves and trusts Him. Trusts Him! Yes, there is blessed trust to be witnessed oftentime, even in such a world as this; as, for example, between husband and wife, between brother and sister, between parent and child, between friend and friend: between such is found true heart-felt trust. But none of these, nor all of these together, can be compared even for a moment with that loving tender trust which the believer's heart feels towards God, as a reconciled Father in Christ Jesus.

'And I am helped.' Here is faith indeed. The darkness is gone and the light is returned, and with it the consciousness of his Master's presence and help. O for such a calm, unshrinking faith as this! A faith to say as the Psalmist did, not, I shall be helped, I may be helped, but I am helped! Ah, where could that light have come from but from Him? Therefore,' he adds, my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise Him.' David took God simply at His word,' and the joy of the

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Lord became his strength, and His word a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path. This Word, beloved friends, takes the place to us of the oracle of old. We bow before the Word, saying, 'I will hear what God the Lord shall speak.' In all true communion between God and the soul there is implied the privilege of speaking to Him and the certainty of His hearing us when we speak; and it is as we realise this that we are able to say with David, 'I am helped, therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise Him.' Yes, from the depth of his experience of God's silence he hears once more the beloved voice, weeps tears of joy, and bursts into a song. It is the song of deliverance. The 'prisoners of hope' are set free; the gates are thrown open; their fetters are burst; the dungeon is left behind. Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope;' come up out of the wilderness leaning upon the arm of beloved; for, oh, most truly He has compassed you about with songs of deliverance: the captive ones are free. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your deliverance. Sing praises unto Him, for He is glorious.

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Thy statutes,' says the Psalmist elsewhere, 'have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.' Thy statutes, Thy appointments concerning each of us here below: the joy or sorrow, the sunshine or the shade, which He sends to each one of us here below; sometimes it may be fightings without and fears within: these are my songs in the house of my pilgrimage, and with my song will I praise Him.

The song itself we find in the two last verses-Jehovah, the strength of His people, the saving strength or the stronghold of salvation; full, and finished, and perfected; nothing lacking, completed for ever; the saving strength of His anointed. And this salvation not for one only, or another, but for you all and each one of all and each one of you. Safe for ever will you be through Him; for My sheep 'shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.'

The song rises as it goes on: Save Thy people.' Higher yet: Bless Thine inheritance.' His own, His purchased possession. This must be all His own of all His crowns, the brightest and the best! They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.' The purchase money paid; the ransom laid down ; His people redeemed from sin. Feed them also, and lift them up unto eternity: into their home, Thy blessed fold, where Thou shalt Thyself feed them, and lead them to living pastures, and lift them up unto eternity: in Heaven, where all shall be gathered home at last to enjoy the fair sunshine and the cloudless bliss of the Father's house!

This is the very desire of my heart for you, beloved friends, from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. Christ, so rich, so blessed, so inexhaustible are the blessings these words contain.

I pray for you, each one of you, 'Lord, save Thy people.' Save them from the snares and pitfalls, the dark and the deadly things of sin and Satan; save them from the evil of an evil world; save them from the darkness, and degradation, and ruin; save them from the power of death and hell; save them through Him who hath loved them and given Himself for them, and Who now waits to be gracious unto them.

'Bless thine inheritance.' Bless them with the richest blessings of Thy Father's love; bless them with the fulness of Thy love and mercy in Christ; bless them on their pilgrim way; bless them in the light, and bless them in the darkness; bless them in time, and bless them in eternity; bless them with Thine own most blessed presence, and bless them all and each one from this time forth and for evermore.

Feed them also. Feed them with the sweet assurance of Thy love; feed them with the heavenly things which Thou alone canst give; feed them as Thou makest them

to lie down in green pastures, and as Thou leadest them by the still waters; feed them and lift them up for ever. Lift them up above the sorrows and the cares, the thorns and the briars of this wilderness world. Lift them up above its sin and its misery; lift them up above its darkness and its death. Aye, lift them up for ever into Thine own most blessed presence, far above the waves and the billows that are dashing below. Lift them up upon the Rock of Ages, keep them safely there for ever. And when at last Thou comest in Thy kingdom, when at last the struggle is over, and the rest has begun, then fetch them home, blessed Lord, to Thy fold; and as Thou hast saved, and blessed, and fed them through all this wilderness world, do Thou receive them at last unto Thyself, and lift them up for ever to those glorious mansions which Thou hast gone to prepare for them, to praise Thee with undivided hearts, to serve Thee without weariness in the temple above, and to swell the heavenly hallelujah, Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.'

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PSALM XXIX.

THE VOICE OF POWER.

'Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.

'Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

'The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.

"The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

'The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.

'He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

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