八月二十日
作以色列的美歌者。（撒下23：1）
圣经所记一切圣徒的经验，以大卫的经验最动人，最宏富，最有教训了。他还有许多苦难和试炼是我们所不知道的，在古圣徒中比较起来，他更能代表我们的主。大卫饱尝了各阶层、各种类之人的苦难。君王有困苦，大卫也曾戴王冠；农夫有顾虑，大卫也曾执牧杖；逃亡之人有艰难，大卫也曾居住在隐基底的山洞中；元帅有拔扈的将军，大卫也有强横的洗鲁雅的儿子们。诗人也受朋友们的苦害，他的谋士亚希多弗背弃他，“同我吃饭的人，用脚踢我。”他的最大的仇敌是他自已家里的人；他的儿子们使他受了很多、很大的折磨。贫富、贵贱、强弱都来欺侮他。他有外来的试探搅扰他的平安，内心的试探损害他的喜乐。大卫的灾害是接踵而至的，真是一波未平一波又起；刚一定心便又告警，于是他又落到深渊，任凭神的巨浪漫过他身。或许爲此许多有经验的基督徒才喜爱大卫的诗。不论我们的心境如何，或顺心或失意，大卫都能确切地道出我们的心情。他最能了解人心，因爲他曾受过最好的学校—心领神会、躬自体验的学校的教诲。我们若在这学校受造，我们必在恩典中逐年长进，我们也更能领会大卫的诗，把他的诗当作“青草地”。我的心哪！愿大卫的诗今天赐你快乐，幷指引你。
“耶和华我的力量啊！我爱你。耶和华是我的岩石，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，是我的高台。”
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.
