There is just the same connection between praise and safety in the description of the restored Zion: “Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.” {8d} Praise is there represented as part of the defence. The enemy cannot enter because the gateway is filled by praise. The song of deliverance is so hearty and so loud that the voice of the tempter is not heard. And thus it is that the forgiven man, hidden in Christ Jesus, praises God, because he has been saved, and confirms his safety by the very act of praising Him. Does not this teach us a lesson as to our own communion with God? Whatever it is that weighs on the heart and disturbs the spirit, whatever the storm be that beats upon us, whether it be care from without or conscience within, whether it be the pain of trouble or the still greater pain of the sense of sin, the forgiven man may go straight to Him and say, “I flee unto Thee to hide me.” {9a} And if hidden in Him, can anything really hurt us? Is not His salvation a sufficient wall? Shall anything that can really hurt us enter in by those gates which He has closed with praise? In holy peace, then let the songs of deliverance rise before Him. Let the unspeakable blessedness of the divine safety call forth the notes of thanksgiving. If the sweet note of praise was heard by the prisoners from the inner dungeon at Philippi, {9b} shall it not be heard by the whole church of God from those who have found a hiding-place in their Lord? II. THE LORD’S REPLY TO THE FORGIVEN MAN. Such, then, was the language of the forgiven man to the God who had forgiven him. What reply did he receive? “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye.” You will observe that what is here promised is His own divine guidance and instruction, and you will see at once how appropriate such a promise was under the peculiar circumstances of the case. David had grievously fallen. He had been walking, in former times, in God’s way, but had turned aside in a most awful manner. We do not know what was the preparatory process in his mind. Perhaps he had forgotten his weakness; perhaps he had grown self-confident and fell. But we see what God promised now that he was restored. He undertook in future to keep him Himself, by His own instruction and His own guidance. The Lord Himself undertook to guide him, and so keep him safe from the danger of another fall. There are two points in this promise. It was _in_ the way, not _about_ the way, that God promised to guide him. When he was walking in the narrow way God under took to walk with him there, and to hold him fast in His own right hand till the journey should be complete, and the rest reached at the end. Let us all learn the lesson that God’s teaching is only found in the path of God’s commandments. If we choose to walk in some way of our own choosing, we must not expect the guidance of the Lord.