Psalm 25:1

Verse 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul: unto thee in the fulness of thy merits, unto thee in the riches of thy grace; unto thee in the embraces of thy love and comforts of thy Spirit; unto thee, that thy thorns may be my crown, thy blood my balsam, thy curse my blessing, thy death my life, thy cross my triumph. Thus is my "life hid with Christ in God;" and if so, then where should be my soul, but where is my life? And, therefore, unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. ... O make good thy name of Lord unto me; as Lord, rebuke Satan and restrain all earthly and carnal affections, that they do not once dare to whisper a temptation to my soul, a distraction to my thoughts, whilst I am in communion with thee, in prayer at thy holy ordinance. Do thou as Lord, rule me by thy grace, govern me by thy Spirit, defend me by thy power, and crown me with thy salvation. Thou, Lord, the preserver of heaven and earth, "thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." Psalms 145:16 . O open now thine hand, thy bosom, thy bounty, thy love, and satisfy the desires of my longing soul, which I here "lift up unto thee." Robert Mossom, 1657.

Verse 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Cyprian saith, that in the primitive times the minister was wont to prepare the people's minds to pray, by prefacing, Sursum corda, lift up your hearts. The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their synagogues these words, Tephillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah; that is, A prayer without the intention of the affection is like a body without a soul. And yet their devotion is a mere outside, saith one -- a brainless head and a soulless body: "This people draw nigh to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Isaiah 29:13 . A carnal man can as little lift up his heart in prayer, as a mole can fly. A David finds it a hard task; since the best heart is lumpish, and naturally beareth downwards, as the poise of a clock, as the lead of a net. Let us therefore "lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us;" and pray to God to draw us up to himself, as the lodestone doth the iron. John Trapp.

Verse 1. Unto thee, I lift up my soul. This follows by a natural consequence after the sublime appeal in the foregoing Psalm to the gates of heaven to lift up their heads to receive Christ, the Lord of hosts and the King of glory, ascending into heaven. As the Collect for Ascension day expresses it, "Grant O Lord, that like as we do believe thy only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens, so we may also, in heart and mind thither ascend;" and for the Sunday after Ascension, "O God, who hast exalted thine only Son with great triumph to thy kingdom in heaven, send thy Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us to the same place, whither our Saviour Christ is gone before." Christopher Wordsworth, in loc.

Verse 1. I lift up my soul, alluding to the sacrifices, which were wont to be lifted up. Hence prayers not answered, not accepted, are said to be stopped from ascending. Lamentations 3:44 . When you meet with such expressions in the Old Testament concerning prayer, you must still understand them to be allusions to the sacrifices, because the sacrifices were lifted up and did ascend. Joseph Caryl.

Verse 1. My soul. But how shall I call it mine, seeing it is thine, thine by purchase, thine, having bought it with thy blood? Yea, is it not thy spouse, whom thou hast wedded to thyself by the Spirit through faith? And is not this holy sacrament the marriage feast? If so, sure then, my Jesus, I was lost in myself, till found in thee; and therefore my soul is now, and not till now, truly mine, in being wholly thine; so that I can say with confidence, "I lift up my soul unto thee." Robert Mossom.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 1. Heavenly machinery for uplifting an earthbound soul.

Verse 1. Genuine devotion described and commended.

WORKS ON THE TWENTY-FIFTH PSALM

A Godly and Fruitful Exposition on the Twenty-fifth Psalme, the second of the Penitentials; (in "A Sacred Septenarie.") By ARCHIBALD SYMSON. 1638. (See page 74.)

The Preacher's Tripartie, in Three Books. The First, to raise Devotion in Divine Meditations upon Psalm XXV. By R. MOSSOM, Preacher of God's Word, late at St. Peter's, Paul's Wharf, London, 1657. Folio.

Six Sermons in "Expository Discourses," by the late Rev. WILLIAM RICHARDSON, Subchanter of York Cathedral. 1825.