LECTURE V.

His foundation is in the holy mountains.

Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.

WE were occupied last Sunday morning with the predelineation of the Christian Character in the Book of Psalms.

But the Bible does not only speak of individual souls. Our Lord came to gather His elect into a community. That community, as I shall contemplate it through this Lecture, is one that is marked out by the characteristics which have been so firmly drawn by the hand of Pearson.1 (1) One Lord, (2) one Spirit, (3) one Faith, (4) one Baptism of the New Birth, (5) one Sacramental Bread and Cup, (6) one Hope, (7) the lines of one great Organisation. These are the notes of that community which is known historically as the Catholic Church.

When some great and noble Church was to be built in the Middle Ages, the simple legends of the time often tell us that, after long meditation, the plan was projected before some gifted sleeper's vision in lines of light, or found traced in dew upon the sward from which the fabric was to rise. Can we trace such anticipated outlines in the songs of Israel? Do we find the spiritual fabric, the Church of Christ, thus prepared for in the Psalter ?

Exposition of the Creed, Art. ix.

I.

The images under which the Church is described in the Psalms are principally three: (i.) It is a City; Sion, or Jerusalem. (i.) It is a Kingdom. (iii.) It is a Bride.'

(i.) The Church is a City.

And here we may well begin by studying the Psalm from which the text is taken, We may justly say with Augustine, that it is brevis numero verborum, magnus pondere sententiarum,' and exclaim when we have read it, In small bulk great heart.'

There is a curious contrast between the spirit in which this Psalm is criticised by an eminent modern scholar, and the deep insight with which an ancient Father pierced into its meaning. This little piece,' writes the critic, is only a fragment-the beginning and end are wanting. In fact, the first line in our translation does not join on very well to that which follows. Its literal signification is

His foundation on the holy hills.

Critics have been authorised in concluding that it is only the second part of a distich, in which the Psalmist had been speaking of the Holy City which God had founded.' 2 We may be tempted to think that there are critical scholars to whom

I do not consider the image of the Vine among the principal Church images of the Psalms, because this symbol in Psalm lxxx. 8 is rather

the typical designation of Israel to be the vine of the nations."' Lange, Life of Christ, iii. 158.

2 Reuss, in loc.

A fine and microscopic sight was given

To inspect a mite-not comprehend a heaven.

How much more justly and truly, with all his ignorance of Hebrew, the great Augustine-""Fundamenta ejus in montibus sanctis." Whose foundations? No doubt they are the foundations of some city. Therefore that citizen, filled with the Holy Spirit, and revolving inly much of the true love and deep heart-desire of that City, as if meditating more in his soul, broke out thus-" Fundamenta ejus,' as if he had already said somewhat of her. How had he said nothing of her, who in the deep language of his heart had never kept silence of her? . But, as I have said, having given birth to many a thought concerning that City in silence within his soul, now as he cried to God, he burst forth also to the ears of men-Fundamenta ejus in montibus sanctis.'1 This view of the first verse, given by Augustine, is not without its defenders among eminent Hebrew scholars.2

But, even if Augustine's construction be based upon a grammatical inaccuracy, he grasps the real idea of the Psalm. For here (as in the 46th and 48th Psalms) we have (viyr) a City of God, enclosed and fenced, situated on the mountains, with strong foundations. This implies elevation, glory, strength, organisation. The gates point to a place of justice, a forum for strangers or guests,

St. August. Enarrationes in Pss., in loc.

2 Rosenmüller translates it, 'Her foundation,' i.e. Zion's. He explains the masc. suffix by saying that Zion, though fem. in signification, is masc.

יְסוּדָתוֹ

in termination. Thus the suffix as in many other instances, points, not to God, as the antecedent understood, but to the subsequent noun, Zion.

courts for trial and conversation. Let it be noted how

over against this strong City' stands another strong City' in the Psalms :

Who will bring me into the City of strength?1

how in the later strains of prophecy down to the Apocalypse, the destruction of a strong City is one great theme of joy; 2-how' of every revelation since Abraham's time, a City is part.'3 Promises weighty and glorious1 are spoken of the City of God. Rahab, Babylon, Tyre, Philistia, Cush, are mentioned by God, as among the number of those who know Him and His Christ. A mysterious voice cries out, as a registration of nations goes on in long succession This man was born there.' Then the Poet himself takes up the strain :

And to Zion it shall be said, 'A man and a man were born in her:'

And He shall stablish her-the Most High.

The Lord shall count in writing down the nations,

'This one was born there.'

'A man and a man,' i.e. many a man, was born in her; men of every race, all written in the catalogue of citizens, each citizen enrolled by an act of new birth. The least poetical of commentators exclaims, 'læta et hilaria omnia in hâc urbe.'

5

Here then the City of God stands out in her strength, elevation, and glory, spoken to (or possibly

bespoken')

ni (nikh'bādhōth). Niphil

= to be pressed, heavy. Probably the origin of St. Paul's Bápos dóns, 2 Cor. iv. 17.

• Rosenmüller, in loc.

with promises of exceeding weight. She becomes the centre of some strange and resistless attraction. The most hostile and remote nations seek to be enrolled

among her citizens. A thrill of exultation runs through the Psalmist's style. The words become obscure from the transport which possesses them, but their general meaning is obvious. His heart overflows with joy, and warbles like those fountain-springs whose name in Hebrew is derived from their being 'the glistening eyes of solitude.' ' This Psalm establishes Sion as the word for the Church in the language of Prophets and Psalmists.

Along with the image of the Church, one of her attributes is here powerfully described. This Psalm represents Sion from a point of view which is in startling contrast to Jewish isolation. Lo, the people shall dwell alone,' said the Seer of old, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.' Israel inhabited a sacred country, the spiritual centre of the world. Well might our Lord say of the Vineyard, that the Householder payμòv avtậ TEρLÉOηKеv, drew a hedge round about it. It was 'hedged off' from the rest of the world, morally, spiritually, socially, by its peculiar institutions, by the incommunicable hope of its people, by much that was worst, and much that was best in them. A thought which is now familiar to us, the kinship of all the sons of men, the brotherhood of the nations, wakened an outburst of applause even in the Roman Theatre.

the Jewish people.

But this thought was long unfamiliar to
There existed no command for them

2 Appendix. Note A.

1

¡y (yǎyin).

Numbers, xxiii. 9.

4 St. Matt. xxi. 33.