N meditating upon redeeming love, well might the Psalmist exclaim, "My heart

is inditing a good matter." Redemption fills heaven with hallelujahs, and lights up the darkest regions of earth. Never are the songs of the angels louder and sweeter than when they cry, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing;" and never are the tears of pilgrims so quickly dried as when gleams of mercy from the cross of Christ break forth upon their path.

Amidst the discordant sounds which sin occasioned, there fell upon the ears of Adam a tone of joy; it was that of an offended God promising healing and pardon; and as time rolled on, that gentle sound, at first scarcely discernible, grew fuller, and deeper, and louder: it has vibrated through many a soul, it has been caught up by unnumbered voices of the

heavenly host, and it will ere long resound throughout the utmost limits of creation. Did not David, then, rightly call it a "good matter"? Was it not a theme worthy of being sung by the sweet Psalmist of Israel? "My heart," said he, “is inditing a good matter." Mark, it is his heart which is engaged; it is his affections which are deeply stirred up his whole soul is concentrating her powers, while about to touch his harp and sing of the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep.

"My heart is inditing a good matter," or, as the margin reads it, my heart "boileth" or "bubbleth up" with a good matter. Like a fountain whose gushing waters cannot be restrained, his fervent thoughts break forth in words and songs. "He cannot but speak of the things which he hath seen and heard." If, having tasted of the blessings of redemption, he should refuse to celebrate them, "the very stones would cry out." Ah! if there linger not on the lips the name of Jesus, it is because the love of Jesus is not in the heart; if the beauty, and love, and valour of the royal Bridegroom be unnoticed, it is because it has been unfelt; if the wondrous union of Christ and His Church do not employ the

tongue, it is because faith has not laid hold of it. Let but a view of the "King in His beauty," and her whom He has raised up to be a partaker of His glory, break in upon the soul, the glowing affections cannot be restrained; the heart that ind.tes so "good a matter" soon prompts the lips to utter forth the lovingkindness of the Lord.

The glad tidings of great joy, on which the Psalmist's heart here dwells, have ever been as the sweetest music to the ears of the trembling believer; they have bound. up the broken heart, they have cleansed the defiled soul-across the heavy and dark clouds that lower over a fallen world they have thrown a bow of mercy.

It was faith in this "good matter" that of old "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and stopped the mouths of lions;" it was these blessed tidings that enabled the martyrs to endure the most cruel deaths. "They were stoned," says St. Paul, "they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented." And in later years the same gracious truth bore up our Reformers at the fires of Smithfield, and

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enabled them to kindle a spark in England which no blast of air can ever extinguish. Yes, the news is good; and the tidings are as joyful as when the angel-choirs chanted their lays over the plains of Bethlehem.

"I speak," adds David, "of the things which I have made touching the King." The King is a title always applied to Messiah, and Jewish commentators refer the expression to their long-desired Monarch. It is, then, rather of Christ triumphing than of Christ suffering that David here speaks; it is on the power and royalty of David's son that the Psalmist here loves to dwell. We are carried onward in thought by this psalm to that blessed day when "the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with ten thousand of His saints," "to sit upon the throne of His father David," and to "possess the kingdom" prepared for Him from the foundation of the world. "Then shall the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." The King in His beauty shall be in that day the admiration of countless throngs of adoring worshippers. Earthly thrones shall have passed away, and the power of the sceptres of this world shall

have departed. One universal Monarch, "the prince of the kings of the earth," shall ascend that throne which has been erected upon the ruins of all other soveregnties, and the whole universe shall proclaim Him "King of kings, and Lord of lords."

Then shall be brought to pass the saying of the prophet, "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, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." (Jer. xxiii. 5, 6.) Yes, as the second Adam, He shall reign; and "this knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea."

"My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." With such a theme, and with a heart so full, David is at no loss for words; for "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Taught by the Spirit to comprehend something of the length and breadth, and depth and height, of the love of God in Jesus Christ our Saviour, he readily