八月二十日
作以色列的美歌者。（撒下23：1）
聖經所記一切聖徒的經驗，以大衛的經驗最動人，最宏富，最有教訓了。他還有許多苦難和試煉是我們所不知道的，在古聖徒中比較起來，他更能代表我們的主。大衛飽嘗了各階層、各種類之人的苦難。君王有困苦，大衛也曾戴王冠；農夫有顧慮，大衛也曾執牧杖；逃亡之人有艱難，大衛也曾居住在隱基底的山洞中；元帥有拔扈的將軍，大衛也有強橫的洗魯雅的兒子們。詩人也受朋友們的苦害，他的謀士亞希多弗背弃他，“同我吃飯的人，用脚踢我。”他的最大的仇敵是他自已家裏的人；他的兒子們使他受了很多、很大的折磨。貧富、貴賤、強弱都來欺侮他。他有外來的試探攪擾他的平安，內心的試探損害他的喜樂。大衛的災害是接踵而至的，真是一波未平一波又起；剛一定心便又告警，于是他又落到深淵，任憑神的巨浪漫過他身。或許爲此許多有經驗的基督徒才喜愛大衛的詩。不論我們的心境如何，或順心或失意，大衛都能確切地道出我們的心情。他最能瞭解人心，因爲他曾受過最好的學校—心領神會、躬自體驗的學校的教誨。我們若在這學校受造，我們必在恩典中逐年長進，我們也更能領會大衛的詩，把他的詩當作“青草地”。我的心哪！願大衛的詩今天賜你快樂，幷指引你。
“耶和華我的力量啊！我愛你。耶和華是我的岩石，我的山寨，我的救主，我的神，我的磐石，我所投靠的；他是我的盾牌，是拯救的角，是我的高臺。”
August
20
“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.
