7 If I should declare them, and speak of them: they should be more than I am able to exprefs. 8 * Sacrifice, and meat-offering thou wouldest not: but mine ears haft thou opened. 9 Burnt-offerings, and facrifice for fin haft thou not required: then faid I, Lo, I come. 10 In the volume of the book it is written of me, that I fhould fulfil thy will, O my God: I am content to do it, yea, thy law is within my heart. 11 I have declared thy righteousness in the congregation: lo, I will not refrain my lips, O Lord, and that thou knowest. 12 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart: my hath been of thy truth, and of thy falvation. : my talk 13 I have not kept back thy loving mercy and truth: from the great congregation. 14 Withdraw not thou thy mercy from me, O Lord: let thy loving kindnefs, and thy truth alway preserve me. 15 For innumerable troubles are come about me; my fins have taken fuch hold upon me, that I am not able to look up: yea, they are more in number than the hairs of my head, and my heart hath failed me. 16 O Lord, let it be thy pleasure to deliver me: make haste, Ò Lord, to help me. 17 Let them be afhamed, and confounded together, that seek after my foul to destroy it: let them be driven backward, and put to rebuke, that wish me evil. 18 Let them be defolate, and rewarded with shame: that fay unto me, Fie upon thee, fie upon thee. 19 Let all thofe that feek thee be joyful and glad in thee: and let fuch as love thy falvation fay alway, The Lord be praifed. 20 As for me, I am poor and needy: but the Lord careth for me. 10 21 Thou art my helper and redeemer: make no long tarrying, O my God. EVENING PRAYER. Leffed is he that confidereth the poor and needy: the Lord B 2 The Lord preferve him, and keep him alive, that he may be blessed upon earth: and deliver not thou him into the will of his enemies. 3 The Lord comfort him when he lieth fick upon his bed: make thou all his bed in his ficknefs. I faid, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my foul, for I have finned against thee. 5 Mine enemies fpeak evil of me: When fhall he die, and his name perish? 6 And if he come to fee me, he fpeaketh vanity: and his heart conceiveth falfhood within himself, and when he cometh forth, he telleth it. 7 All mine enemies whisper together against me: even against me do they imagine this evil. 8. Let the fentence of guiltinefs proceed against him: and now that he lieth, let him rife up no more. 9 *Yea, even mine own familiar friend, whom I trufted: who did alfo eat of my bread, hath laid great wait for me.. The Pfalmift here pronounces particular bleffings on those that behave themfelves charitably towards the afflicted; and complains of the cruelty of his Enemies, and even of thofe who had been his pretended Friends; who inftead of compaffionating his miferies, wished for his death, and reprefented his calamities as the punishment of his crimes. * Yea, even mine own familiar Friend, &c. This. paffage our Saviour himself quotes as a prophecy concerning the treachery of Judas, John xiii. 18. Let us take heed that the bafe ingratitude of that Traytor be not chargeable upon us through forfaking our allegiance to the Lord that bought us; and giving up ourfelves to the dominion of our finful Lufts and Appetites, 10 But be thou merciful unto me, O Lord: raife thou me up again, and I shall reward them. II By this I know thou favoureft me: that mine enemy doth not triumph against me. 12 And when I am in my health, thou upholdeft me: and fhalt fet me before thy face for ever. 13 Bleffed be the Lord God of Ifrael: world without end. Amen. || Pfalm 42. Quemadmodum. IKE as the hart defireth the water-brooks: to longeth my foul after thee, O God. L 2 My foul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God: When shall I come to appear before the prefence of God? 3 My tears have been my meat day and night: while they daily fay unto me, Where is now thy God? 4 Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself: for I went with the multitude, and brought them forth into the houfe of God; 5 In the voice of praise and thanksgiving: among such as keep holy-day. 6 Why art thou fo full of heaviness, Ọ my foul: and why art thou fo difquieted within me? 7 Put thy trust in God: for I will yet give him thanks for the help of his countenance. 8 My God, my foul is vexed within me: therefore will I re § This Pfalm affords a moft elegant fpecimen of the Hebrew Elegy. The royal Prophet banished far from the Temple, and publick worship of God to the utmoft confines of Judea, oppreffed by his Enemies and vexed by their taunts pours out his complaint and his prayers to God. Here is wonderfully expreffed the most fervent defires of a pious Soul, forrow frequently breaking forth upon the remembrance of abfent good things; an extreme dejection of mind, yielding to its grief, yet bearing it impatiently; overcome with diftreffes, yet in fome degree rugling against them, and even in the member thee concerning the land of Jordan, and the little hill of Hermon. One deep calleth another, because of the noife of the waterpipes: all thy waves and ftorms are gone over me. 10 The Lord hath granted his loving kindness on the daytime: and in the night-feafon did I fing of him, and made my prayer unto the God of my life. 11 I will say unto the God of my strength, Why haft thou forgotten me: why go I thus heavily, while the enemy oppreffeth me? 12 My bones are fmitten afunder as with a fword: while mine. enemies that trouble me caft me in the teeth; 13 Namely, while they fay daily unto me: Where is now thy God? 14 Why art thou fo vexed, O my foul: and why art thou so difquieted within me? 15 O put thy truft in God: for I will yet thank him, which is the help of my countenance, and my God. | Pfalm 43. Judica me, Deus. G IVE fentence with me, O God, and defend my cause against the ungodly people: O deliver me from the deceitful and wicked man. 2 For thou art the God of my strength, why haft thou put me from thee: and why go I fo heavily while the enemy oppreffeth me? 3. 10 fend out thy light and thy truth, that they may lead me: and bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy dwelling. 4 And that I may go unto the altar of God, even unto the God of my joy and gladness: and upon the harp will I give thanks unto thee, O God, my God. In this Pfalm, as well as the foregoing, David perfecuted and driven from the Tabernacle, intreats God to deliver him from his Enemies, and restore him the valuable bletting of ferving and praising him in publick, and comforts himfelf with the profpect of his abftance. 1 Ofend out thy light and thy truth, &c. Let it be. obferved here that if the Prophet intreated. God to -20 5 Why art thou fo heavy, O my foul: and why art thou fo disquieted within me? 6. O put thy trust in God: for I will yet give him thanks, which is the help of my countenance, and my God. MORNING PRA Y E R. E have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have WE told us: what thou haft done in their time of old. 2 How thou haft driven out the heathen with thy hand, and planted them in: how thou haft destroyed the nations, and cast them out. 3 For they gat not the land in poffeffion through their own fword: neither was it their own arm that helped them; 4 But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance: becaufe thou hadft a favour unto them. 5 Thou art my King, O God: fend help unto Jacob. 6 Through thee will we overthrow our enemies: and in thy Name will we tread them under that rise up against us. 7 For I will not truft in my bow: it is not my fword that fhall help me. 8 But it is thou that faveft us from our enemies: and putteft them to confufion that hate us. 9 We make our boaft of God all day long: and will praise thy Name for ever. 10 But now thou art far off, and putteft us to confufion: and goeft not forth with our armies. deliver him from the malice of his Enemies, it was chiefly with a view to return to the Tabernacle, that he might praife God, and exprefs his joy, love and gratitude. Upon a like principle ought we always to pray for deliverance from afflictions in general-not that we may be more at liberty to gratify our worldly Lufts and Affections; but that we may be better enabled to ferve God, and do good in our generation. This Pfalm feems to have been compofed at a time when the Ifraelites were under Affliction and asfecution. The Prophet here recounts the fignal Bleffings which God had formerly conferred upon that Nation; from whence he hopes that God would again difplay his power in their behalf, and deliver them. He defcribes in a very effecting manner their prefent diftreffed fituation; earnestly imploring relief.. • We have heard with our Ears, O God, Sr. As the Ifraelites, amidst their Afflictions, thus called to remembrance the patt Mercies of the Almighty towards them, as a comfortable ground of hope for future favours; fo fhould we under our greatest diftref fès gratefully reflect. upon the many and undeferved. |
