And his throne as the days of heaven.

If his children forsake my law,

And walk not in my judgments;

If they break my statutes,

And keep not my commandments;

Then will I visit their transgressions with the rod,

And their iniquity with stripes.

Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him,
Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

My covenant will I not break,

Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
His seed shall endure for ever,

And his throne as the sun before me.

It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.

LESSON XCVIII.

DAVID'S VICTORIES.

B.C. 1047.-2 SAM. vii. 18-29; I CHRON. Xviii.

Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD, and he said, Who am I, O LORD God? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto ?

And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O LORD God; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come.

the manner of man, O LORD God?

And is this

And what can David say more unto thee? for thou, LORD God, knowest thy servant.

For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them.

Wherefore thou art great, O LORD God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?

For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever; and thou LORD, art become their God.

And now, O LORD God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said.

And let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is the

God over Israel: and let the house of thy servant David be established before thee.

For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house :* therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.

And now, O LORD God, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant:

Therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue for ever before thee: for thou, O LORD God, hast spoken it: and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.

Now after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them, and took Gath and her towns out of the hand of the Philistines. And he smote Moab; and the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts.

And David smote Hadarezer king of Zobah unto Hamath, as he went to stablish his dominion by the river Euphrates.

And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadarezer king of Zobah, David slew of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men.

Then David put garrisons in Syria-damascus; and the Syrians became David's servants, and brought gifts. Thus the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.

Them also king David dedicated unto the LORD, with the silver and the gold that he brought from all these nations; from Edom, and from Moab, and from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines, and from Amalek. Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah slew of the Edomites in the valley of Salt eighteen thousand.

And he put garrisons in Edom; and all the Edomites became David's servants. Thus the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.

So David reigned over all Israel, and executed judgment and justice among all his people.

COMMENT.-How did David take the rejection of his favourite scheme? Instead of being grieved to anger, he was overpowered with joy and thankfulness. He went to the ark, and uttered a most fervent and beautiful thanksgiving, full of faith and joy for what was long after called "the sure mercies of David." Here we see that sweetness of love and heart-whole faith, devoid of all selfishness, which helps us to understand why David was the man after God's own heart.

But David's time of triumph was only a brief rest. His enemies were many, but now that Israel was a compact kingdom instead of a mere confederation of tribes, the neighbouring nations became jealous, tried their strength, and were each in turn overthrown. *Raise up thy family. + Soldiers in their fortresses.

VOL. II.

T

The Philistines were first subdued, then the Moabites and Syrians to the north-west, who were divided into the kingdoms of Zobah and Damascus-beautiful Damascus upon its rivers—whence Abraham's faithful Eliezer had come. He took possession of their fortresses, and obtained tribute and gifts from them—in especial shields covered with plates of gold and silver, which he dedicated unto the Lord. This spread his borders to the Euphrates; thus fulfilling the promise to Abraham at the covenant made by the sign of the burning lamp—“ Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Gen. xv. 18). As surely was the threat of Balaam fulfilled, that the sceptre of Judah should "smite all the corners of Moab” (Num. xxiii. 17). The Edomites, descendants of Esau, in their hills of Seir, likewise attacked David, and were defeated by Abishai in the valley of Salt-namely, that around the Dead Sea; and thus was it brought about that the elder served the younger, as foretold by Isaac.

In the 60th Psalm we have the war-song of Israel when going out to the battle. From it we gather that the Edomites must have used them cruelly--no doubt while the wars of Saul were going on; but now God had given them a banner beneath which to fight, and would deliver their foes into the hand of His beloved. This is perhaps a play on the name of David, which means "beloved." David speaks of his possession of the land of Canaan from the hills of Shechem to Succoth, named from Jacob's booths, in the outmost border; from Gilead far beyond Jordan to Manasseh in the heart of the land; Ephraim for strength, Judah as the capital; while the deep cauldron-like vale of Moab, steaming with the vapours of the Dead Sea, was like a bath for his feet, and Edom should be beneath his tread, Philistia receive him with triumph. For it was God who enabled David and his brave men to do valiantly! Some have thought that this Psalm was sung by the troops going out to battle, and the 108th, which repeats many of the verses, on their return; but the best informed think the latter was composed in much later times, after the captivity in Babylon, as an encouragement to the returned Jews.

O God, thou hast cast us off,

Thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased;
O turn thyself to us again.

Thou hast made the earth to tremble;

Thou hast broken it: heal the branches thereof; for it shaketh.

Thou hast showed thy people hard things:

Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment.

Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee,

That it may be displayed because of the truth.

That thy beloved may be delivered:

Save with thy right hand, and hear me.
God hath spoken in his holiness;

I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem,
And mete out the valley of Succoth.
Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine:
Ephraim also is the strength of mine head;
Judah is my lawgiver;

Moab is my washpot;

Over Edom will I cast out my shoe:

Philistia, triumph thou because of me.

Who will bring me into the strong city?

Who will lead me into Edom?

Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off?

And thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies?
Give us help from trouble:

For vain is the help of man.

Through God we shall do valiantly :

For he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

LESSON XCIX.

DAVID'S KINDNESS TO MEPHIBOSHETH.

2 SAMUEL ix.

And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

And there was of the house of Saul, a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he.

And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may shew the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet.

And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar.

Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lo-debar.

Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was

come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant!

And David said,

And David said unto him, Fear not : for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul tây father: and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.

And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?

Then the king called to Ziba, Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's son all that pertained to Saul and to all his house. Thou therefore, and thy sons, and thy servants, shall till the land for him, and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master's son may have food to eat but Mephibosheth thy master's son shall eat bread alway at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Micha. And all that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he did eat continually at the king's table; and was lame on both his feet.

COMMENT.-The time to which this chapter refers is not clear. Most likely it was as soon as David was established at Jerusalem that he sought for the remnants of the family of the fallen monarch. Most princes who have been raised on the fall of a former royal line, have made such a search in cruel jealousy and suspicion, but there was no room for such a thought in David's generous heart. What he was thinking of was the oath he had made to Jonathan when they wept so bitterly together at the boundary stone of Gibeah, and of Saul's entreaty in that softened moment in the valley of Hachilah. He sought out a retainer of the family of Saul, one Ziba, a prosperous man, who seems to have been a time-server, and who freely answered him that there still remained that child of Jonathan's who had been crippled by a fall from his nurse's arms in the course of the disastrous flight beyond Jordan after the battle of Gilboa. He was the only true heir, and had apparently been hidden away on the death of Ishbosheth, by friends who did not know how generous and merciful David was, in the house of Machir, a great chief of the half-tribe of Manasseh, near Mahanaim, the seat of Ishbosheth's short-lived kingdom. Whether Ziba betrayed him or meant to do him a service does not appear, but the poor cripple came in evident dread and terror before the king, and tried by his intense humility to convince