The vanity of human trusts.
"Rely not even on pious princes, they are but men, and many princes will be arrayed against you; but trust God. This sentiment was naturally awakened by the circumstances of the period of return from the Captivity, to which these psalms belong." "This psalm was evidently composed for a time of great national depression, when the community, sick of dependence on the favor of foreign princes, turned more and more to the thought of the eternal righteousness and faithfulness of Jehovah."
"Oh, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!"
"The word employed, n'diblm, means primarily free-will givers or benefactors, so that it is not the capriciousness of earthly potentates that is in view, but their inability, willing or not, to render substantial assistance."
I. THIS IS THE LESSON WHICH THE RACE HAS TO LEARN. In the light of it may be read the story of humanity. That story begins with the safety and innocence of free-willed, voluntary dependence. It passes into the peril and disaster of self-reliance. Ages unfold a thousand forms in which man vainly tries to remedy the disaster into which he has brought himself by relying on the aid of his fellow-man. The universal hopelessness of such reliance, however tried, will bring round the race at last to the safety and virtue of full and entire and obedient trust in God.
II. THIS IS THE LESSON WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL HAS TO LEARN. It is the lesson to be learned in every life that is lived; and yet some never seem to learn it. The more marked instances of the untrustworthiness of man, which sometimes bring about our material ruin, are but prominent and impressive illustrations of an insufficiency which belongs to humanity, and is found in some degree affecting every form of human relation and alliance. Measures of trust in men are permissible, and bring much of the restfulness and joy of life; but absolute trust in man is never safe. Even from our dearest and best friends of earth we learn to turn to God, and find in him, and in him alone, our soul's refuge and rest.—R.T.