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that on the Psalms generally the Lord Jesus Christ Himself 
has set His stamp of infallible inspiration. While, to the reality 
and truth of the statements in this particular Psalm, the author 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews has given direct testimony, in 
that he cites from it words setting forth the nature of angels. 
I take it up, therefore, as the production of a man not only of 
high mental power, but endowed with supernatural intelli- 
gence, and possessed of supernatural information. In it he 
expresses in a solemn act of adoration his deep sense of the 
majesty and glory of Jehovah as exhibited in His works 
of creation and providence. Words uttered by such a man 
under such circumstances, and written down under the 
teaching of the Spirit, cannot fairly be regarded as a mere 
poetical effusion. However figurative some of the expres- 
sions, and however beautiful the poetry of the whole, we cannot 
justly suppose the descriptions to be either imaginary or mis- 
taken. He speaks of realities — of things that he knew to be 
true. He glorifies God for what that God had actually done. 
How, having stated in the fifth verse the creation of the 
earth, he, in the four following verses, speaks of two great 
works wrought on this earth so created, or rather of two pro- 
vidential arrangements of its surface. First, at some undefined 
period after its creation, Jehovah covered the earth with the 
deep as with a garment, and that to such an extent that the 
waters stood above the mountains. Then, at a period also 
undefined, but subsequent to the former, the Psalmist, in 
language partly figurative and partly literal, states that at the 
word of Jehovah the earth, previously so covered with water, 
was uncovered, and the dry land appeared. Through the 
elevation of the mountains and the depression of the valleys 
the surplus waters were drawn off to the place which Jehovah 
had founded for them. There a bound was set on them, “ that 
they might not pass over, neither turn again to cover the 
earth.” 
Now, it cannot be gainsaid that the statement here is, 
that at some period of its history the whole earth was covered 
with water, and that these waters were partly disposed of in 
reservoirs within the earth. A reference to other Psalms, 
and to one or two other Scriptures, further develops those 
facts or arrangements, and serves to identify, to a certain 
extent, the period of their occurrence. In Psalms cxxxvi. and 
xxiv. we find the earth spoken of as stretched out above the 
waters ; as founded upon the seas and established on the 
floods. In Psalm xxxiii. 7, Jehovah is said to (< gather the 
waters of the sea together as a heap, and to lay up the depth 
in storehouses.” In Prov. viii. 22—29 are the following re- 
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