The last strophe (vv. 20-23) weaves together in the finale, as a musician does in the last bars of his composition, the main themes of the psalm--the evil deeds of unjust rulers, the trust of the psalmist, his confidence in the final annihilation of the oppressors, and the consequent manifestation of God as the God of Israel. The height of crime is reached when rulers use the forms of justice as masks for injustice, and give legal sanction to "mischief." The ancient world groaned under such travesties of the sanctity of Law; and the modern world is not free from them. The question often tortures faithful hearts, "Can such doings be sanctioned by God, or in any way be allied to Him?" To the psalmist the worst part of these rulers' wickedness was that, in his doubting moments, it raised the terrible suspicion that God was perhaps on the side of the oppressors. But when such thoughts came surging on him, he fell back, as we all have to do, on personal experience and on an act of renewed trust. He remembered what God had been to him in past moments of peril, and he claimed Him for the same now, his own refuge and fortress. Strong in that individual experience and conviction, he won the confidence that all which Jehovah had to do with the throne of destruction was, not to connive at its evil, but to overthrow it and root out the evil-doers, whose own sin will be their ruin. Then Jehovah will be known, not only for the God who belongs to, and works for, the single soul, but who is "our God," the refuge of the community, who will not forsake His inheritance. PSALM XCV. 1 Come, let us raise shrill cries of joy to Jehovah, Let us shout aloud to the Rock of our Salvation. 2 Let us go to meet His face with thanksgiving, With songs let us shout aloud to Him. 3 For Jehovah is a great God, And a great King above all gods. 4 In whose hand are the deep places of the earth, And the peaks of the mountains are His. 5 Whose is the sea, and He made it, And the dry land His hands formed. 6 Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker, 7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. To-day, if ye would listen to His voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as [at] Meribah, As [in] the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tempted Me, Proved Me and saw My work. 10 Forty years loathed I [that] generation, And said, "A people going astray in heart are they, And they know not My ways." 11 So that I sware in My wrath, "Surely they shall not come into My rest."