(2 Sam. 23:1-7.)

The last words of men are always of interest. Frequently they reveal the true man. The heart of his whole career is then ofttimes summed up in a few short final utterances. The vain show in which the world walks is passing away. The realities of death, judgment, and eternity are before the mind. Then the truth will out, and the heart express itself as never before.

How well it is to hear the triumphant words of faith, and hope and love on the lips of the dying Christian, and to see how that which has been his stay in life is his comfort and refuge as he faces the end of all his pathway here. Then all of man and his world is seen at its true value, and all of Christ and the verities of the things which are really life assume their true importance.

So it was with David.

His "last words" summarize his history. And these last words are among his best words. The Spirit of God caused him to utter and to pen them for our learning, and we may occupy ourselves profitably in the consideration of their teaching.

The fourfold presentation of the speaker himself is important.

1. "David the son of Jesse." Here he is viewed in his natural state. He was the younger son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem-Judah; and evidently of little account among his brothers. They were men who could go to war while he was left to keep the "few sheep in the wilderness." Here is pictured what we are in our natural state as part of a fallen race. Of this we shall speak further.

2. What we are in nature is of small account if God be pleased to take us up. So now we get a view of David as chosen of God for His service-"The man who was raised up on high." Exalted from his low estate he becomes the deliverer of his people, and in due . course their king, with all their enemies subdued under them. And what we are in grace as taken up of God may cause us to cry with joy, "What hath God wrought!" Our sins are gone from the sight and memory of our Saviour-God. We are brought into a nearness unknown even to angels. We behold the manner of the Father's love in that we are called the children of God. We share with Christ in everything that it is possible for Him to share with us, His joy, His peace, His given glory, the knowledge of the Father's communications to Him and of the Father's love in which He delights. All these are ours, and we are "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." We are "lifted up on high" indeed.

3. "The anointed of the God of Jacob." David was anointed of Samuel for the kingship. "Anointed unto" Jehovah as named of Him to be leader of His people (see 1 Sam. 16:3). And anointed unto Jehovah for the comfort and blessing of the Lord's own down all the centuries of time. "The God of Jacob" had chosen to take him up in spite of all that he was and all that he might be or might do. And we who believe find a refuge in this, that the same One who took up Jacob and David has taken us up and is "our God for ever and ever."

The infidel may scoff about "the man after God's own heart," because he will not own what his own heart is, or what he himself has done or is capable of doing. But the believer who knows "the plague of his own heart" rejoices that David's God knows all concerning every Lone of His own, and delights that they should flee away from self and find their nestling-place in the eternal God as their refuge.

And was it not for this that David was "the man after God's own heart," that he ever fled for shelter to God (1 Sam. 30:6)? He did this when his city had been burned, when his loved ones had been carried captive, and when his followers spoke of stoning him, for his God still remained. And he did this when in the sore straits following upon his numbering of unredeemed Israel, saying, "Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord .. .let me not fall into the hand of man." He could say of God, "for His mercies are great," and could trust Him even in government, while the great penitential Psalm (51) makes plain the broken heart and the contrite spirit of the sinner after his "blood-guiltiness."

It is David who sings, "How great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men" (Psa. 31:19). Our God delights in those who confide in Him, and who in their sorrows or in their sins seek Him continually. And He it is who anoints us that we may know our present and permanent blessing, and that power may be ours to serve Him.

4. Finally, "The sweet psalmist of Israel." Here we find the gift peculiar to himself; the gift the results of which are in our hands to-day, and oftentimes express the deep sentiments of our souls in prayer and praise. And in his gift-as is the case in all those who are true "gifts" of God for the succor of His own-he pointed on to Christ, as psalms 1, 2, 8, 22, 40, 45, 69, 102, and others, abundantly witness. The sinner saved from his sins becomes the singer, and the singer sings of the Saviour who saved him, and sings thus for the help and encouragement of saints in every time and clime.

Thus we see David in nature, in grace, in power, and in gift, set up of God to sing of Christ and to express the heart's delight in Him and in God Himself, his own "exceeding joy." Inglis Fleming

(To be continued, D. V.)