"Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment."-- PSALM civ. 2.

THE Psalms of David have two different descriptions
of the way in which God offers Himself to the knowl-
edge of man. They are both figurative. Each of them
is drawn from one of the two great aspects in which the
world of nature stands before men's eyes. They seem
at first to be quite contradictory of one another. But,
as so often is the case, the more we think of them the
more we see that both are true, and going back to their
meeting-point we find, lying there, the deepest and the
fullest truth concerning God. In the eighteenth Psalm
David sings of God, "He made darkness His secret
place; His pavilion round about Him were dark water
and thick clouds of the skies." And again in the nine-
ty-seventh Psalm, "Clouds and darkness are round
about Him." And then in this verse of the one hun-
dred and fourth Psalm, which I have quoted for my
text, "Who coverest Thyself with light as with a gar-
ment." Darkness and light! The two opposites which
divide the world! The two foes which are in perpetual
fight throughout all nature! Behold they both are
made the mediums of the utterance of God. "Darkness

-305-