King John of France, in English captivity, sitting as a guest at a great tourney, was seen to be gloomy and sad. When asked to join in and drive away his grid, he replied in the words of this psalm, "How can I sing in a strange land?" And that is the primary interpretation, no doubt. We all know what it is to be strangers in a strange land, but the psalm means more than that It has a deeper significance, a more important meaning. The deeper significance is only understood when we realize that sin has resulted in separation. The exile is really-unhappy because he is conscious that God's presence is withdrawn. This was the true meaning of their grief—not the captivity with its attendant hardships, hup the thought that God had abandongcd>His people; Zion, which typified His pre-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.