5 So they tempted and displeased the most high God: and kept not his teftimonies; 58. But turned their backs, and fell away like their forefathers: ftarting afide like a broken bow. 59 For they grieved him with their hill-altars: and provoked him to displeasure with their images. 60 When God heard this, he was wroth: and took fore difpleafure at Ifrael; 61 So that he forfook the tabernacle in Silo: even the tent that he had pitched among men. 62 He delivered their power into captivity: and their beauty into the enemies hand. 63 He gave his people over also unto the fword: and was wroth with his inheritance. 64 The fire confumed their young men: and their maidens were not given to marriage. 65 Their priests were flain with the fword: and there were no widows to make lamentation. 66 So the Lord awaked as one out of fleep: and like a giant refreshed with wine. 67 He fmote his enemies in the hinder parts: and put them to a perpetual shame. 68 Herefused the tabernacle of Jofeph: and chofe not the tribe of Ephraim; 69 But chose the tribe of Juda: even the hill of Sion which he loved. 70 And there he built his temple on high: and laid the foundation of it like the ground which he hath made continually. 71 He chose David also his fervant: and took him away from the fheep-folds. 72 As he was following the ews great with young ones, he took him: that he might feed Jacob his people, and Ifrael his inheritance, N 2 lau " 73 So he fed them with a faithful and true heart: and ruled them prudently with all his power. MORNING PRAYER. GOD, the heathen are come into thine inheritance: thy holy temple have they defiled, and made Jerufalem an heap of ftones. 2 ́ The dead bodies of thy fervants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the air: and the flesh of thy faints unto the beafts. of the land. 3 Their blood have they fhed like water on every fide of Jerufalem: and there was no man to bury them. 4 We are become an open fhame to our enemies: a very scorn and derifion unto them that are round about us. 5 Lord, how long wilt thou be angry: fhall thy jealoufy burn like fire for ever. 6 Pour out thine indignation upon the heathen that have not known thee: and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy Name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob: and laid waste his dwellingplace. 8 *O remember not our old fins, but have mercy upon us, and that foon: for we are come to great mifery. 9 Help us, O God of our falvation, for the glory of thy Name: O deliver us, and be merciful unto our fins, for thy Names fake. 10 Wherefore do the heathen say: Where is now their God? 11 O let the vengeance of thy fervants blood that is shed: be openly fhewed upon the heathen in our fight. 2700 Bil 2 3 § The deftruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Nabuchodonazar feems to have been the occafion of this Pfalm: in which the Jews intreat God to be reconciled to his People, nd to punish the blafphemies and cruelties of their Enemies. * remember not our old Sins. Some have thought that referred to the Idolatry of the Golden Calf which God threatened he would vifit upon them, Exod. xxxii. 34. Whence arcfe that faying among the Jews. Thet is no punishment in Ifrael in which there is not an ounce of the Calf. But it is no unufual Thing, in the course of Nature, for Men to fuffer in their old Age for the Follies and Vices of their Youth. 12 O let the forrowful fighing of the prifoners come before thee: according to the greatness of thy power, preferve thou those that are appointed to die. 13 And for the blafphemy wherewith our neighbours have blafphemed thee: reward thou them, O Lord, feven-fold into their bofom. In bu 14 So we that are thy people, and sheep of thy pasture, shall give thee thanks for ever: and will always be fhewing forth thy praise from generation to generation. ‡ Pfalm 80. Qui regis Ifrael. H' EAR, O thou fhepherd of Ifrael, thou that leadeft Joseph like a fheep: fhew thyfelf alfo, thou that fitteft upon the cherubims. + 2 Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manaffes: ftir up thy ftrength, and come and help us. 3 Turn us again, O God: fhew the light of thy countenance, and we fhall be whole. 4 O Lord God of hofts: how long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth? 5 Thou feedeft them with the bread of tears: and givest them plenteousness of tears to drink. 6 Thou haft made us a very strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh us to fcorn. 7 Turn us again, thou God of hofts: fhew the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole. 8 *Thou haft brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. The argument of this Pfalm is much the fame with that of the foregoing. For the Ifraelites here alfo reprefent the extreme mifery and defolation to which they were reduced: commemorate God's paft Meicies towards them under a beautiful allegory of a Vine and Vine-yard; and most ardently implore his afiftance, with a promise to praise and ferve him with new obedience. *Thou haft brought a Vine out of Egypt, &c. The allegory whereby the Jewish Nation is here represented may, in a spiritual fenfe, be jufly referred alfo to the Chriftian Church; which hath equally experienced the divine goodness in its eftablishment, fupport, and im provement: and we have no lefs reafon, than they had, to pray that he will defend it from its fpiritual Enemies, who are continually feeking its deffraction. Thou madeft room for it: and when it had taken root, it filled the land. 9 10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it: and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedar-trees. II She stretched out her branches unto the fea: and her boughs unto the river. 12 Why haft thou then broken down her hedge: that all they that go by, pluck off her grapes? 13 The wild boar out of the wild beafts of the field devour it. wood doth root it up: and the 14 Turn thee again, thou God of hofts, look down from heaven: behold, and visit this vine. 15 ̊ And the place of the vineyard that thy right hand hath planted: and the branch that thou madeft fo ftrong for thyself. 116 It is burnt with fire and cut down: and they fhall perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. 17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand: and upon the fon of man, whom thou madeft so strong for thine own self. 18 And fo will not we go back from thee: O let us live, and we shall call upon thy Name. 19 Turn us again, O Lord God of hofts: fhew the light of thy countenance, and we fhall be whole. § Pfalm 81. Exultate Deo. SING ING we merrily unto God our ftrength; make a cheerful noise unto the God of Jacob. 2 Take the pfalm, bring hither the tabret: the merry harp with the lute. 3 Blow up the trumpet in the new-moon: even in the time appointed, and upon our folemn feast-day. 4 For this was made a ftatute for Ifrael: and a law of the God of Jacob. § This Pfalm was compofed to be fung upon the Feast of Trumpets, or of the first new Moon of the civil year. See Levit. xxiii. 24. and Num. xxix. 1. and the general argument and end of it is an exhortation of the Ifraelites to obedience, from the confideration of. the paternal affection, benefits, and promifes of God. 5 ‡ This he ordained in Jofeph for a teftimony: when he came out of the land of Egypt, and had heard a ftrange language. 6 I eafed his fhoulder from the burden: and his hands were delivered from making the pots. 7 Thou calledft upon me in troubles, and I delivered thee: and heard thee what time as the ftorm fell upon thee. 8 I proved thee alfo: at the waters of ftrife. 9 Hear, O my people, and I will affure thee, O Ifrael: if thou wilt hearken unto me, 10 There fhall no ftrange god be in thee: neither fhalt thou worship any other god. II I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I fhall fill it. 12 But my people would not hear my voice: and Ifrael would not obey me. 13 So I gave them up unto their own hearts lufts: and let them follow their own imaginations. 14 O that my people would have hearkened unto me: for if Ifrael had walked in my ways, 15 I fhould foon have put down their enemies: and turned my hand against their adverfaries. 16 The haters of the Lord fhould have been found liars: but their time fhould have endured for ever. 17 He fhould have fed them alfo with the finest wheat-flour: and with hony out of the ftony rock should I have satisfied thee. EVENING PRAYER. || Pfalm 82. Deus ftetit. G OD ftandeth in the congregation of princes: he is a judge among gods. This he ordained in Jofeph for a teftimony when be same. &c. If the Ifraelites were thus engaged to commemorate their deliverance from Egyptian Slavery; then how much stronger an obligation lies upon Chriftians to keep up in their minds a thankful remembrance of their Redemption from the bondage of Sin and Death by Jefus Chrift! That was temporal--this is eternal. |