Observe the prayer in ver. 18, and remember the circumstances. It was a moment of wonderful national enthusiasm at the commencement of a great national work. Their hearts were filled with joy and they were ready for anything. Now, what was the danger? What would be the danger to ourselves in our own day? Would it not be decay, a gradual dying off of our first zeal, a chill in the first love as there was at Ephesus? {84} What David prayed for, therefore, was continuance, or perseverance. In short he prayed against declension from their first love, for look at his words in ver. 18. For “prepare” the marginal reading is “stablish.” And now you see the point of the prayer, “Keep this _for ever_ in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Thy people, and _establish_ their heart unto Thee.” What an insight it gives both as to our danger and our hope. How it shows us our need of being kept alive in our first love, and teaches us that we must not be trusting to the privileges of past experience, or the fact of past consecration, but that we need the perpetual action of the Holy Spirit in keeping His grace for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart. And where are we to look for this preservation? Do we not learn that our hearts are like leaky vessels, and the brightest, holiest and most joyous of believers requires the daily power of the Holy Spirit, not merely to stop the leak, but to fill the vessel? THE FINAL APPEAL The old man finished his prayer. In it he spoke alone. He was, as it were, the mouthpiece of his people. But that was not enough. It was not sufficient that he should speak on their behalf, but they must praise God for themselves. So having been into the very presence chamber of God in prayer, he came out, as it were to the assembled multitude, and said to the vast throng, “Now bless the Lord your God.” Praise was the climax of the transaction, and praise the last act of David’s reign. Now may there be the spirit of that remarkable day amongst ourselves. Trace it all the way through, remember the consecration, the liberality, the joy, the praise, the prayer, and the final outburst of congregational worship. May God breathe on us the same spirit. May there be the same consecration of service, the same willing offerings, the same joyous praise, and the same thankful prayer for a holy perseverance unto the end. And, in conclusion, may I not say to you what David said to the congregation, “Now bless the Lord your God.” FEAR NOT “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee: yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”—ISA. xli. 10.