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The Bible Year

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 7, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 44.

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The Bible Year

Assignment for September 10-16

September 10: Ezra 8 to 10.
September 12: Psalms 111 to 114, 116.
September 14: Psalms 84, 66, 129.
September 16: Psalms 147 to 150.

Post-Davidic Psalms—Sixth Group

The psalms in this week's assignment “were written presumably by the sons of Korah, Ezra, and others, on the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, in the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia. They recount the mingled emotions of joy, sorrow, and anxiety which possessed the minds of the returning exiles; they refer also to the building and dedication of the second temple, and to the glorious triumphs connected therewith.”

The Praise of Prayer

“The one hundred and seventh psalm was written, in all probability, just after the close of the captivity, when the Hebrews had come back to their dear country. And if we are seeking a theme for it, we can find none so appropriate as ‘The Praise of Prayer.’ For this is the theme with which it is concerned, and the spirit with which it is filled. One after another the beautiful pictures of praying men and their great deliverances rise in the psalmist’s verse. We see the divine mercy flowing down to meet the human supplications; and the refrain which comes back again and again is this:—
““Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, And he delivered them out of their dis- tresses.’
“The first three verses of the psalm refer especially to the restoration of the Jews from Babylon. If any one ought to have a deep and lively sense of the divine goodness, it was the people whom Jehovah had ‘redeemed from the hand of the adversary, and gathered from the lands’ of their dispersion.
“Then the psalm takes a wider sweep, and begins, in the fourth verse, to describe the power of prayer in the most varied scenes of human life, and the readiness of God to deliver those who call upon him from every form of trouble.”—Henry van Dyke.