Morning “The sweet psalmist of Israel.” / 2 Samuel 23:1

Among all the saints whose lives are recorded in Holy Writ, David possesses an
experience of the most striking, varied, and instructive character. In his
history we meet with trials and temptations not to be discovered, as a whole,
in other saints of ancient times, and hence he is all the more suggestive a
type of our Lord. David knew the trials of all ranks and conditions of men.
Kings have their troubles, and David wore a crown: the peasant has his cares,
and David handled a shepherd’s crook: the wanderer has many hardships, and
David abode in the caves of Engedi: the captain has his difficulties, and
David found the sons of Zeruiah too hard for him. The psalmist was also tried
in his friends, his counsellor Ahithophel forsook him, “He that eateth bread
with me, hath lifted up his heel against me.” His worst foes were they of his
own household: his children were his greatest affliction. The temptations of
poverty and wealth, of honour and reproach, of health and weakness, all tried
their power upon him. He had temptations from without to disturb his peace,
and from within to mar his joy. David no sooner escaped from one trial than he
fell into another; no sooner emerged from one season of despondency and alarm,
than he was again brought into the lowest depths, and all God’s waves and
billows rolled over him. It is probably from this cause that David’s psalms
are so universally the delight of experienced Christians. Whatever our frame
of mind, whether ecstasy or depression, David has exactly described our
emotions. He was an able master of the human heart, because he had been
tutored in the best of all schools–the school of heart-felt, personal
experience. As we are instructed in the same school, as we grow matured in
grace and in years, we increasingly appreciate David’s psalms, and find them
to be “green pastures.” My soul, let David’s experience cheer and counsel thee
this day.

Evening “And they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall.” / Nehemiah 3:8

Cities well fortified have broad walls, and so had Jerusalem in her glory. The
New Jerusalem must, in like manner, be surrounded and preserved by a broad
wall of nonconformity to the world, and separation from its customs and
spirit. The tendency of these days break down the holy barrier, and make the
distinction between the church and the world merely nominal. Professors are no
longer strict and Puritanical, questionable literature is read on all hands,
frivolous pastimes are currently indulged, and a general laxity threatens to
deprive the Lord’s peculiar people of those sacred singularities which
separate them from sinners. It will be an ill day for the church and the world
when the proposed amalgamation shall be complete, and the sons of God and the
daughters of men shall be as one: then shall another deluge of wrath be
ushered in. Beloved reader, be it your aim in heart, in word, in dress, in
action to maintain the broad wall, remembering that the friendship of this
world is enmity against God.

The broad wall afforded a pleasant place of resort for the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, from which they could command prospects of the surrounding country.
This reminds us of the Lord’s exceeding broad commandments, in which we walk
at liberty in communion with Jesus, overlooking the scenes of earth, and
looking out towards the glories of heaven. Separated from the world, and
denying ourselves all ungodliness and fleshly lusts, we are nevertheless not
in prison, nor restricted within narrow bounds; nay, we walk at liberty,
because we keep his precepts. Come, reader, this evening walk with God in his
statutes. As friend met friend upon the city wall, so meet thou thy God in the
way of holy prayer and meditation. The bulwarks of salvation thou hast a right
to traverse, for thou art a freeman of the royal burgh, a citizen of the
metropolis of the universe.