XXII.

David's Harp.

IT has been beautifully observed, "In the Book of Psalms we have, if I may reverently say it, the very prayer-book of our divine Lord Himself; which He inspired, which He Himself made use of, and has bequeathed as His own book to the Church." We might also, speaking metaphorically, say,—The sacred harp on which David first played has never since been silent; as the breath of God's Spirit breathed through its chords, its music has been the joy and the comfort of the Church through all generations; its mysterious sound was heard even in the awful hours of the Crucifixion; * and never will it be silent, never will one golden string be broken, till all the redeemed of the Lord join in the chorus of Heaven.

* Compare Matt. xxvii. 46 with Ps. xxii. 1.

Let us recall some of the various periods when the now familiar psalms of David first burst from his lips as he touched his harp. The son of Jesse probably acquired his skill on the instrument by practice, as he sat watching his sheep in the pastures by Bethlehem, when he was a beautiful ruddy-checked boy. David's fleecy charge may have been his only auditors when first the sweet strain arose which has since been echoed by millions of human hearts. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters."

But the first occasion on which we have certain knowledge of David's playing on his favourite instrument, is when his skill soothed the deep depression of the half-mad king. "David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him." Gladly would we know what words were joined to the exquisite music which had such power to lighten deep gloom; perhaps no words were then heard, yet how often has a perturbed spirit been soothed by such breathings as these: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

David appears to have taken his harp with him into the gloomy recesses of Adullam, as the companion and solace of his flight; for this is the strain of his psalm "when he fled from Saul in the cave."

"Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in Thee: yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast . . . Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early."

Under very different circumstances did the monarch of Israel strike the sounding chords of his harp when the Ark of God was carried in triumph from Kirjathjearim: "And David and all Israel played before God with all their might and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets." Then indeed rose a sound of rejoicing. "The singers went before, and the minstrels followed after; in the midst were the damsels playing on the timbrels." According to David's own striking metaphor, he who had "lien among the pots" had become as "the wings of a dove, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold;" and the harp of the king swelled the glorious chorus, "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them also that hate Him flee before Him!"

But dark shadows were to succeed the glorious sunshine. Happier was David as the fugitive in the cave than as the king in the palace. When the guilty but penitent psalmist bent over his harp, the tears of the stricken sinner, the bereaved father, may have fast dropped on its strings as he uttered the cry for pardon and grace:

"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness: according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions!"

Could we be permitted to possess any visible relic of King David, and to choose what that relic might be, it would not be the crown of Rabbah, that was set on his head, the weight of which was a talent of gold; it would not be even the sword of Goliath, though with David we might say of that weapon, "there is none like that;" no, surely it would be the harp of the sweet singer of Israel that we would choose as the most precious relic of him whom God's Holy Spirit inspired. But were that harp visibly before us, would it not appear almost sacrilege to lay a hand on its strings; would the mightiest or most gifted of mortals presume to waken its chords? Far, far better for us to have its divine music preserved for us in the Scriptures, where the little child can make it sound, and yet be not guilty of presumption; where it is accessible to all—to the dying pauper on her sick-bed, as well as to the crowned queen or mitred archbishop. The ragged child's Psalter is truly more precious than the identical harp of King David would be.

And we have a key to the divine harmonies of the psalms which those who first stood listening around David did not possess. The blessed name of Jesus sounds to us thrilling through all the deepest chords of his music. If the Psalmist's strain be mournful, a Saviour's sufferings are its theme. "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? . . . The assembly of the wicked have inclosed Me: they pierced My hands and My feet."

If it burst into a loud song of triumph, its keynote is still the name of our Lord. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: wherefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows."

It would be deeply interesting could we know how far King David himself understood the meaning of his own songs when, guided by the inspiring Spirit, he uttered dark sayings to the sound of his harp.

Let us not quit this subject without alluding to the fact that the harp is the only instrument which is mentioned in Revelation as adding to the music of Heaven. * The elders beheld by St. John around the throne of the Lamb had "every one of them harps," when "they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth."

* The trump of God, which shall awaken the dead, cannot be spoken of under such a term.

And again, recording his bright vision of the blessed above who bear God's name written on their foreheads, thus writes the beloved Apostle: "I heard a voice from Heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps." There again, we believe, will the voice of the son of Jesse blend with the notes of a nobler instrument than that which he played upon earth; there may even we—the weak, the wayward, we whose lips have been so cold in praise and whose hearts in thanksgiving—lift up our voices with his!

"Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, Unworthy though I be, For me a blood-bought, dear reward— A golden harp for me. 'Tis strung and tuned for endless years, And formed by grace divine, To sound in God the Father's ears No other name than Thine!"

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