But we come into the sunshine again at the close, and hear the contrasted prayer, which thrills with gladness and hope. "When the wicked perish there is shouting." The servants of God, relieved from the incubus and beholding the fall of evil, lift up their praises. The order in which the designations of these servants occur is very noteworthy. It is surely not accidental that we have them first described as "those that trust in Thee," then as "all them that love Thy name," and finally as "the righteous." What is this sequence but an anticipation of the evangelical order? The root of all is trust, then love, then righteousness. Love follows trust. "We have known and believed the love which God hath to us." Righteousness follows trust and love, inasmuch as by faith the new life enters the heart and inasmuch as love supplies the great motive for keeping the commandments. So root, stem, and flower are here, wrapped up, as it were, in a seed, which unfolds into full growth in the New Testament. The literal meaning of the word rendered "put their trust" is "flee as to a refuge," and that beautifully expresses the very essence of the act of faith; while the same metaphor is carried on in "defendest," which literally means _coverest_. The fugitive who shelters in God is covered by the shadow of His wing. Faith, love, and righteousness are the conditions of the purest joy. Trust is joy; love is joy; obedience to a loved law is joy. And round him who thus, in his deepest self, dwells in God's house and in his daily life walks, with these angels for his companions, on God's path, which by choice he has made his own, there is ever cast the broad buckler of God's favour. He is safe from all evil on whom God looks with love, and he on whom God so looks is he whose heart dwells in God's house and whose feet "travel on life's common way in cheerful godliness." PSALM VI. 1 Jehovah, not in Thine anger do Thou correct me, And not in Thy hot wrath do Thou chastise me. 2 Be gracious to me, Jehovah, for I am withered away; Heal me, Jehovah, for my bones are dismayed: 3 And my soul is sorely dismayed; And Thou, Jehovah--how long? 4 Return, Jehovah, deliver my soul; Save me for the sake of Thy loving-kindness. 5 For in death there is no remembrance of Thee; In Sheol who gives thee thanks? 6 I am wearied out with my groaning; Every night I make my bed swim; With my tears I melt away my couch. 7 My eye is wasted with trouble; It is aged because of all my oppressors. 8 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity, For Jehovah has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 Jehovah has heard my supplication; Jehovah will accept my prayer. 10 Ashamed and sore dismayed shall be all my enemies; They shall turn back, shall be ashamed in a moment.