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SERMON IV.

THE CITY AND RIVER OF GOD.

PSALM xlvi, 4—7.

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved : he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

THERE are two remarkable events in the history of

Israel, one or the other of which most probably supplied the historical basis upon which this psalm rests. One is that singular deliverance of the armies of Jehoshaphat from the attacking forces of the bordering nations, which is recorded in the twentieth chapter of the Book of Chronicles. There you will find that, by a singular arrangement, the sons of Korah, members of the priestly order, were not only in the van of the battle, but cele brated the victory by hymns of gladness. It is possible that this may be one of those hymns; but I think rather that the more ordinary reference is the correct one, which sees in this psalm and in the two succeeding, the echoes

of that supernatural deliverance of Israel in the time of Hezekiah, when

"The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,"

and Sennacherib and all his army were, by the blast from the breath of His nostrils, swept into swift destruction.

The reasons of that historical application may be briefly stated. We find, for instance, a number of remarkable correspondences between each psalm and portions of the Book of the prophet Isaiah, who, as we know, lived in the period of that deliverance. The comparison, for example, which is here drawn with such lofty, poetic force between the quiet river which makes glad the city of God, and the tumultuous billows of the troubled sea, which shakes the mountain and moves the earth, is drawn by Isaiah in regard to the Assyrian invasion, when he speaks of " Israel refusing the waters of Shiloah," which go softly, and, therefore, having brought upon them the waters of the river-the power of Assyria-" which shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel."

Notice, too, that the very same consolation which was given to Isaiah, by the revelation of that significant appellation, "Immanuel, God with us," appears in this psalm as a kind of refrain, and is the foundation of all its confident gladness, "The Lord of Hosts is with us."

Besides these obvious parallelisms, there are others to which I need not refer, which, taken altogether, seem to render it at least probable that we have in this psalm the devotional echo of the great deliverance of Israel from Assyria in the time of Hezekiah.

Now, these verses are the cardinal central portion of the

song. We may call them The Hymn of the Defence and Deliverance of the City of God. We cannot expect to find in poetry the same kind of logical accuracy in the process of thought which we require in treatises; but the lofty emotion of devout song obeys laws of its own: and it is well to surrender ourselves to the flow, and to try to see with the psalmist's eyes for a moment his sources of consolation and strength.

I take the four points which seem to be the main turning points of these verses-first, the gladdening river; second, the indwelling helper; third, the conquering voice; and fourth, the alliance of ourselves by faith with the safe dwellers in the city of God.

I. First, we have the gladdening River—an emblem of many great and joyous truths.

The figure is occasioned by, or at all events derives much of its significance from a geographical peculiarity of Jerusalem. Alone among the great cities and historical centres of the world, it stood upon no broad river. One little perennial stream, or rather rill of living water, was all which it had; but Siloam was mightier and more blessed for the dwellers in the rocky fortress of the Jebusites than the Euphrates, Nile, or Tiber for the historical cities which stood upon their banks. One can see the psalmist looking over the plain eastward, and beholding in vision the mighty forces which came against them, symbolized and expressed by the breadth and depth and swiftness of the great river upon which Nineveh sat as a queen, and then thinking upon the little tiny thread of living water that flowed past the base of the rock upon

which the temple was perched. It seems small and unconspicuous-nothing compared to the dash of the waves and the rise of the floods of those mighty secular empires, still, "There is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." Its waters shall never fail, and thirst shall flee whithersoever this river

comes.

It is also to be remembered that the psalm is running in the track of a certain constant symbolism that pervades all Scripture. From the first book of Genesis down to the last chapter of Revelation, you can hear the dashing of the waters of the river. "It went out from the garden and parted into four heads." "Thou makest them drink of the river of thy pleasures." "Behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward," and everything shall live whithersoever the river cometh. "He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Isaiah, who has already afforded some remarkable parallels to the words of our psalm, gives another very striking one to the image now under consideration, when he says, "The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars." The picture in that metaphor is of a stream lying round Jerusalem, like the moated rivers which girdle some of the cities in the plains of Italy, and are the defence of those who dwell enclosed in their flashing links.

Guided, then, by the physical peculiarity of situation

which I have referred to, and by the constant meaning of scriptural symbolism, I think we must conclude that this river, "the streams whereof make glad the city of God," is God himself in the outflow and self-communication of His own grace to the soul. The stream is the fountain in flow. The gift of God, which is living water, is God himself, considered as the ever-imparting source of all refreshment, of all strength, of all blessedness. spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe should receive."

"This

We must dwell for a moment or two still further upon these words, and mark how this metaphor, in a most simple and natural way, sets forth very grand and blessed spiritual truths with regard to this communication of God's grace to them that love Him and trust Him. First, I think we may see here a very beautiful suggestion of the manner, and then of the variety, and then of the effects of that communication of the Divine love and grace.

The manner. We have only to read the previous verses to see what I mean. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." There you can hear the wild waves dashing round the base of the firm hills, sapping their strength, and toppling their crests down in the bubbling, yeasty foam. Remember how, not only in Scripture but in all poetry, the sea has been