spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, 'O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear; open, Lord, thine eyes, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. Now, therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only."

With Hezekiah it was an hour of anguish and of impending ruin. He had no forces to withstand the Assyrian arms, and the rumour of the advance of Tirhakah to relieve him proved a false report. Jehovah alone could relieve him now. The prosperity of the idolatrous invaders, and the deep distress and humiliation of his own people, notwithstanding all their sincerity in reforming their religion and restoring the true wor ship, were circumstances well calculated to try his faith in the superintending and remunerative providence of God. But in this moment of temptation and peril, Isaiah is commissioned to deliver a consolatory message to the king. "Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him:

'The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee,

And laughed thee to scorn;

The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?

And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice,

And lifted up thine eyes on high?

Even against the Holy One of Israel,

By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said,

"With the multitude of my chariots

I am come up to the height of the mountains,

To the sides of Lebanon,

And will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof,

And the choice fir trees thereof;

And I will enter into the lodgings of his borders,

And into the forest of his Carmel.

I have digged and drunk strange waters,

And with the sole of my feet

Have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places."

Hast thou not heard long ago-how I have done it,

And of ancient times-that I have formed it?

Now have I brought it to pass,

That thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power,

They were dismayed and confounded;

They were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb,

As the grass on the house tops,

And as corn blasted before it be grown up.

But I know thy abode,

And thy going out, and thy coming in,

And thy rage against me.

Because thy rage against me

And thy tumult is come up into mine ears,
Therefore I will put my hook in thy nose,

And my bridle in thy lips,

And I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.'

OIN

"Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.""

The spirit of Hezekiah now revived at the annunciations of the prophet, and while he chides his former disposition to doubt, he declares his present established hope in God, and the opportune judgments of his hand. The transient prosperity, pride, arrogance, oppression, blasphemy, and sudden and total overthrow of Sennacherib, are all portrayed in Psalm lxxiii. The Psalmist seems to have his eye fixed on that haughty monarch and his sad fate, as foretold by the prophet Isaiah in the passage above quoted. Read 2 Kings xix, 8–34. In regard to the date of the composition of Psalm xciii, Hengstenberg says, the contents of the Psalm "presuppose a powerful pressure from the might of the world against the

kingdom of God, and consequently cannot be dated earlier than the Assyrian catastrophe. And that we cannot descend later than this era, is evident from the very apparent dependence of the Psalm upon Psalm xlvi." The same conclusion as to date he also applies to Psalm xcii. "There are strong reasons," says Dr. Alexander, "for believing that Psalm xciii, was designed, with Psalm xcii, to form a pair, or a double Psalm." The language of Psalm xciii implies imminent danger to the theocracy from some great, hostile power, and verse 5 is supposed to imply that the temple was in danger of profanation from violent intrusion. In twelve manuscripts Psalms xcii and xciii are written as one Psalm.

Psalm xcii is called in the title "a song for the Sabbath day," as if it were at first brought into the temple for use on that day, on which the people were to rest from their work and have "a holy convocation." Leviticus xxiii, 3. It is, indeed, a precious meditation upon the works, the providences, the goodness, and the worship and sanctuary of God.

Psalm lxxiii is a meditation on the rewards of Divine Providence, manifested in the diverse allotments of the righteous and the wicked, and is similar in subject to Psalms xxxvii and xlix, and to the book of Job.

PSALM LXXIIL

WHEN ISAIAH HAD FORETOLD THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB'S ARMY TO HEZEKIAH.

The Psalmist having prevailed against temptation, 1, showeth the occasion of it to be the prosperity of the wicked, 2-12; the workings of his mind while labouring under the temptation, 13-15; he is delivered by a knowledge of the final end of the wicked, 16-20; he chides his former readiness to doubt, 21, 22; he declares his present comforting and established confidence, 23-28.

TA Psalm of Asaph.

1 'Truly God is good to Israel,

Even to such as are 'of a clean heart.

2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; My steps had well nigh slipped.

3 For I was envious at the foolish,

When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no bands in their death;
But their strength is 'firm.

5 They are not 'in trouble as other men;
Neither are they plagued 'like other men.

6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; Violence covereth them as a garment.

7 Their eyes stand out with fatness:

"They have more than heart could wish.

8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression:

They speak loftily.

9 They set their mouth against the heavens,

And their tongue walketh through the earth.

10 Therefore his people return hither;

And waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.

11 And they say, "How doth God know?

And is there knowledge in the Most High?"

12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world;

They increase in riches.

13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain,

And washed my hands in innocency.

14 For all the day long have I been plagued,

And 'chastened every morning.

15 If I say, I will speak thus;

Behold, I should offend against the generation of thy

17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God;

Then understood I their end.

18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: Thou castedst them down into destruction.

19 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors!

20 As a dream when one awaketh;

21

So, O LORD! when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

Thus my heart was grieved,

And I was pricked in

my reins.

22 So foolish was I, and 'ignorant;

I was as a beast "before thee.

23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand. 24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, And afterward receive me to glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but thee?

And there is none upon the earth that I desire besides thee.

26 My flesh and my heart faileth;

But God is the "strength of my heart, and my portion forever.

27 For, lo! they that are far from thee shall perish: Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from

thee.

28 But it is good for me to draw near to God;

I have put my trust in the Lord GOD,
That I may declare all thy works.