Look upon mine affliction, and my pain: and forgive all my sins.

Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.

O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

THIS is a prayer in which the prophet prays, with wonderful fervency of heart, to be strengthened in the faith and in the love of the Word, although he should have on this account great and bitter enemies in the world: that is, that he may not be broken down in mind by the afflictions, nor by the greatness and multiplicity of his own encompassing infirmities when he saw that Epicurean hypocrites despised the true religion and the true word with so much confidence and secure presumption, as if they were things in which it was a disgrace for men of a sound mind and a liberal education to be in the least engaged.

Ah Lord (saith David) preserve and glorify thy name and thy word. Let us (saith he) who are thus derided, spit upon, and, for thy sake, well nigh overwhelmed in the midst of so many afflictions and so many offences, not be confounded, but let us expect thy consolations. Let those haughty hypocrites and despisers be confounded both before God and men, who, on account of their carnal wisdom and powers, and riches, and other things of this world which they admire and value, so despise thy word and thy worship, that they deem it a disgrace to have such things in their thoughts. Our eyes (saith he) are unto thee O Lord? Do thou, if there

be any infirmity in us, pardon it. Keep us in the knowledge of thy holy word and of that mystery of thine which is hidden from the world, and stand by us in our great straits and perils.

This Psalm belongs to the Second Commandment, and to the second petition of the Lord's Prayer.

PSALM XXVI.

David resorteth unto God in confidence of his integrity.
A Psalm of David.

JUDGE me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide.

Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.

For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes; and I have walked in thy truth.

I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.

I have hated the congregation of evil-doers; and will not sit with the wicked.

I will wash mine hands in innocency; so will I compass thine altar, O LORD?

That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.

Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men ;

In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.

But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me.

My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the LORD.

THIS is a prayer unto God, containing a complaint against hypocrites who want to be justified by the works of the law, and who always persecute the true doctrine of faith and condemn its supporters for heretics. David calls these characters dissemblers, heretics, bloody men, wicked persons. For although they boast of great sanctity, yet their hearts are full of hatred and bitterness against God, and craft and iniquity against their neighbour: as Christ says of all such pharisees when he rebukes them by Luke, "Ye are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts." For such worship God with their lips, but their heart is far from him: they worship him not in truth, but do all for gain.

In a word they serve not God but Mammon and their own belly: as Paul saith to the Philippians. And this Psalm saith, " And their right hand is full of bribes." Yet their hypocrisy has a wonderful outside appearance. And indeed the false church who has power and dominion on her side, has always a more wonderful and showy appearance than the true, which lies hidden under the various forms of the cross.

Therefore we have need to pray in no slothful manner that God would preserve us in his true Church, and would not suffer us to be mingled and carried away with these characters, lest we have our portion with such hypocrites, whose end, though they may for a time make a show before the world, shall be destruction, and whose glory shall be turned into confusion: as we have seen it exemplified in the Pope and his kingdom.

This Psalm belongs to the Third Commandment, and to the first and second petitions of the Lord's Prayer: for it speaks of the true worship and kingdom of God.

PSALM XXVII.

David sustaineth his faith by the power of God, by his love to the service of God, by prayer.

A Psalm of David.

THE LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my

life; of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

Though an host should encamp against me, my

heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me he shall set me upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in this tabernacle sacrifices of joy: I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD. Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

When thou saidst, seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help: leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.

When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.

Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies : for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

THIS Psalm is a thanksgiving, containing also a prayer and consolation against false teachers.

David having been taught and exercised by such great afflictions, by so many perils and sorrows, and by such fiery conflicts, for the word's sake, and having been supported therein against the devil, and the world, now finds a greater truth and reliance on God, and is more encouraged and fortified against all his enemies.

The Lord (saith he) is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? That is, the Lord hath so often and so wonderfully comforted me under, and so powerfully delivered me from, various darknesses and storms of temptations, that he will not leave nor forsake me in time to come. If God, then, be for me, who can be against me? If God uphold me, what power or violence of the enemy can cast me down, or who can destroy me?