‘"I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.'"

‘"I will keep thy statutes.'" A calm resolve. When praise calms down :into solid resolution it is well with the soul. Zeal which spends itself in singing, and leaves no practical residuum of holy living, is little worth: ‘"I will praise'" should be coupled with'" I will keep.'" This firm resolve is by no means boastful, like Peter's ‘"though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee'"; for it is followed by a humble prayer for divine help: ‘"O forsake me not utterly.'" Feeling his own incapacity, he trembles lest he should be left to himself, and this fear is increased by the horror ‘which he has of falling into sin. The ‘"I will keep'" :sounds rightly enough now that the humble cry is heard with it. This is a happy amalgam: resolution and dependence We meet with those who to all appearance humbly pray, but there is no force of character, no decision in them, and consequently the pleading of the closet is not embodied in the life: on ‘the other hand, we meet with abundance of resolve attended with an entire absence ,of dependence upon God, and this makes as poor a character as the former. ‘The Lord grant us to have such a blending of excellences that we may be ‘"perfect and entire, wanting nothing.'"

This prayer is one which is certain to be heard; for .assuredly it must be highly pleasing to God to see a :man set upon obeying his will, and therefore it must be most agreeable to him to be: present with such a :person, and to help him in his endeavors. How can he forsake one who does not forsake his law?

The peculiar dread which tinges this prayer with a somber hue is the fear of utter forsaking. Well may' the soul cry out against such a calamity. To be left, that we may discover our weakness, is a sufficient trial: to be altogether forsaken would be ruin and death. Hiding the face in a little wrath for a moment brings us very low: an absolute desertion would plunge us ultimately in the lowest hell. But the Lord never has utterly forsaken his servants, and he never will, blessed be his name. If we long to keep his statutes he will keep us; yea, his grace will keep us keeping his law.

There is rather a sharp descent from the mount of benediction, with which the first verse began, to the almost wail of this eighth verse, yet this is spiritually and experimentally a decided and gracious growth; for from admiration of goodness we have come to a burning longing after' God, pining after communion with him, and an intense horror lest it should not be enjoyed. The sigh of verse 5 is now supplanted by an actual prayer from the depths of a heart conscious of its undesert, and sensible of its entire dependence upon divine love. ‘The two ‘"I wills'" — ‘" I will praise thee,'" and ‘"I will keep thy statutes'" — needed to be seasoned with some such lowly petition, or it might have been thought that the good man's dependence was in some degree fixed upon his own determination. He presents his resolutions like a sacrifice, but he cries to heaven for the fire, To will is present with him, but he cannot perform that which he would unless the Lord will abide with him.

This last verse of the first octave has a link with the first of the next in this fashion: Lord, do not forsake me, for wherewith shall I cleanse my way if thou be gone from me, and thy law ceases to have power over me.