The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

204
THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH
that He may be expected to be faithful to us. He
is our Creator, and He has placed us in this world by
His own will ; His relations with us cannot cease
at this point. So Moses pleaded that God, having led
His people into the wilderness, could not desert them
there ; and Jeremiah even ventured on the daring
prayer
—
" Do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory." '
It is because we are sure the just and true God could
never do anything so base that His faithfulness becomes
the ground of perfect confidence. It may be
said, on the other hand, that we cannot claim any good
thing from God on the score of merit, because we
only deserve wrath and punishment. But this is not
a question of merit. Fidehty to a friend is not ex-
hausted when we have treated him according to his
deserts. It extends to a treatment of him in accordance
with the direct claims of friendship, claims which
are to be measured by need rather than by merit.
The conclusion drawn from these considerations is
given in an echo from the Psalms
—
'The Lord is my portion."^
The words are old and well-worn ; but they obtain
a new meaning when adopted as the expression of a
new experience. The lips have often chanted them
in the worship of the sanctuary. Now they are the
voice of the soul, of the very life. There is no
plagiarism in such a quotation as this, although in
making it the poet does not turn aside to acknow-
ledge his obligation to the earlier author who coined
the immortal phrase. The seizure of the old words
' Jer. xiv. 21. ' Psalm Ixxiii. 26.