I. FIERCE TRIALS. They are not personal ones merely; they are such as would be felt mainly by those of God's people who, possessed of a holy yearning for the prosperity of his cause and the honour of his Name, grieved more acutely over the degeneracy of their age than over any private or family sorrow. There were six features of society at the time when this psalm was written.

1. The paucity of good and faithful men (ver. 2).

2. Wicked men being in power (ver. 8).

3. The righteous being oppressed (ver. 5).

4. Falsehood, i.e. faithlessness.

5. Pride.

6. Vain-glorious boasting and self-assertion.

When wickedness gets the upper hand in these ways, times are hard indeed for good and faithful men. In such times Elijah, Jeremiah, and others lived, and wept, and moaned, and prayed. Many a prophet of the Lord has had to look upon such a state of things, when all day long he stretched out his hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. Note:

1. This description of the degeneracy of the writer's age is not a Divine record of the state of the world as a whole. The psalm is made up of words of man to God, not of words of God to man.

2. Still less is the psalm to be regarded as stating or implying that the world as a whole is always getting worse and worse. Let the student take the psalm simply for what it professes to be - a believer's moan over the corruptions of his age - and he will find it far more richly helpful and suggestive than on any forced hypothesis.

3. The special ills of any age may well press on the heart of a believer; yea, they will do so, if a becoming Christian public spirit is cherished by him.

4. There are times when Christian men have to sigh and cry, owing to the abominations of the social life around them; and when Faber's touching words are true -

"He hides himself so wondrously,
As if there were no God;
He is least seen when all the powers
Of ill are most abroad."

5. And trials not less severe are felt when there is a widespread defection from the faith once delivered to the saints, and when men are calling for a "religion without God;" and are even, in some cases, forsaking Christianity for Mohammedanism or Buddhism. Through such trials believers are passing now (A.D. 1894). At such times they must resort to -

II. FERVENT PRAYER. The psalmist gives expression to the conviction that nothing but the immediate and powerful interposition of God will meet the crisis (cf. Isaiah 64:1). In what way this Divine aid shall be vouchsafed it is not for the praying man to say. He must leave that with God, content to have laid the case before him. The answer may come in the form of terrible providential judgments, or in the sending forth of a new band of powerful witnesses to contend with the adversaries, or in a widespread work of grace and of spiritual quickening power. All these methods are hinted at in Scripture, and witnessed to by the history of the Church. Note: Such prayers as this agonizing "Help, Lord!" while they are the outcome of intense concern, are yet not cries of hopeless despair. True, our help is only in God; but it is there, and an all-sufficient help it will prove to be - as to time, method, measure, and effect. In every age the saints of God have thus betaken themselves to him, and. never in vain. For ever have they proved the -

III. FAITHFUL PROMISE.

1. The contents of the promise are given in ver. 5.

2. The value of the promise, as proved and tried, is specified in ver. 6. There is not an atom of dross in any of the promises of God - all are pure gold.

3. Having these promises, the believer can calmly declare the issue in the full assurance of faith.

(1) The false men and proud boasters shall be cut off (ver. 3).

(2) The Divine preserving guard will keep the righteous from being sucked into the vortex of corruption (ver. 7).

Note: The Christian teacher will feel bound to remember that in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the gift of the Spirit, and in all the resulting activities of the Christian Church, the Lord has put forces in operation for the rectification of social wrongs, more effective than any of which the psalmist dreamt, and that these forces have only to be given time to work, and "all things will become new." The disclosures to this effect in the Book of the Apocalypse are an abiding source of comfort to God's people in the worst of times. - C.

I. TROUBLE MOVES MEN TO PRAYER. (Ver. 1.) As the child instinctively cries to its father, so we cry to God. Society may wax worse and worse. The righteous may fail out of the land. It is hard to serve alone. Falsehood and lust prevail. There are fears on every side. In God alone is our help found.

II. PRAYER STRENGTHENS FAITH. (Vers. 3, 4.) There is some relief in telling our griefs. Further, we are cheered by the assurance of God's love. He must ever be on the side of truth and right. More particularly we are encouraged by the record of God's mighty works, and his promises to stand by his people. In communing with God, and casting our cares upon him who careth for us, our faith gains force and grows in ardour and activity.

III. FAITH INSPIRES HOPE. (Vers. 5, 6.) We remember God's word, on which he hath caused us to place our hope. God's promises are good, for he is love; they are certain, for he is faithful; they are sure of accomplishment, for he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think. Thus our hearts are revived. There may be delay, but not denial. There may be silence long, but never refusal. God has his own time and his own way.

IV. HOPE CULMINATES IN ASSURANCE. (Vers. 7, 8.) Light arises. The sky becomes brighter and brighter. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" All things are working to a perfect end. The prosperity of the wicked is vanity, and his triumph endures but for a little while. The end of the righteous is peace. "Thou shalt preserve them for ever." - W.F.

I. A DARK PICTURE OF DEPRAVED SOCIETY.

1. There were few conspicuous for righteousness. (Ver. 1.) Not that they had entirely ceased, but that they were fewer than they used to be. "Say not that the former times were better than these." Guard against this natural tendency - natural especially to men who are growing old.

2. The prevalence of unscrupulous falsehood. (Ver. 2.) Lies and flattery and deceit. A disregard for truth was widely spread, one of the sins most destructive of social life. This spirit of falsehood infested their most intimate relations - "every one with his neighbour " - and would corrupt at last even the family relations.

3. They worshipped that which won for them their evil success. (Vers. 3, 4.) Lying and deceit - the evil power of the tongue - prevailing for the time, made them feel that they were their own lords, that there was no higher power above them.

II. THE PSALMIST CONSOLES HIMSELF WITH THE DIVINE PROMISE OF PROTECTION. (Ver. 5.)

1. That promise inspires him to pray for its fulfilment. (Vers. 1-3.) All true prayer bases itself on the Divine promise. "If we ask according to his will, we know that God heareth us"

2. The Divine promise is pure from the alloy that corrupts the words of men. (Ver. 6.) It has no admixture of flattery and deceit as the words of men have. "God cannot lie."

3. That promise guarantees them protection, even when wickedness walks in high places. (Vers. 7, 8.) Wickedness is most alluring when in high places; but if God helps us to see that it is wickedness, and keeps our consciences clear and active, we are effectually protected from it. The defence against wickedness must be a Divine work within us as well as without us. - S.