ci Sitges! ON nae ed Pit ve a iar Aes it ey her Ae ae een nt it ee «3 »? % oe icin “Nn THe Hesrew Psarms IN ENGLISH VERSE. Sie RY id CL 7 “Ly Oat NEW RENDERING OF UTHER HEBREW PSALMS INTO ENGLISH VERSE Witu Notes, CRrIiricaL, HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, INCLUDING AN HisToRICAL SKETCH OF THE FRENCH, ENGLISH AND ScoTrcH METRICAL VERSIONS. BY ABRAHAM COLES, M.D., LL.D. AvuTHoR OF Digs Ire IN ToHikTEEN OriIGiInaL VERSIUSS; Ovp Gems InN New Settincs; THe Lire anp TzACHINGS OF OUR LorD IN VERSE THE Microcosm AND OTHER POEMS, ETC. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & COMPANY, [3% 5 BOND STREET: 1888, Copyright, 1887, B\ ABRAHAM COLES. ApverTIser Paintin Hovse, NEWAKR, *% I: CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION : te THE PSALMS—THEIR CHARACTER, ; ll. HuisToriciaL SKETCH OF TH FRENCH, ENGLISH AND SecoTer METRICAL, \ ERSIONS: UF Lilkh: PSAs, XIV Ht. NOEs; CRITICAL, HIsToORIC\L ANI) BIOGRAPHICAL, XXVi TESTIMONIES TO THE EXCELLENCH. OF THE PSALMS, THE PSALMS—A Netw RENDERING OF IHE WHOLE INIO ENGLISH VERSE, ENERO Ue TON, I—THE PSALMS— THEIR CHARACTER. HREE thousand years ago the Hebrew Decachord, ‘‘ The Ten- stringed Law,’ was boldly swept by Prophet-fngers. The sweetness of the music has filled the world. The chords are vibrat- ing yet. ‘‘ Voice and Verse, those sphere-born harmonious sisters, wed their divine sounds,” fitly preluding, ‘* That undisturbed song of pure concent, Aye sung before the sapphire-colored thronc To Him that sits thereon, With saintly shout and solemn jubilee;— Where the bright Seraphim in burning row, Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow, And the Cherubic hosts, in thousand quires, Touch their immortal harps of golden wires, With those just spirits that wear victorious palms, Hymns devout and holy psalms Singing everlastingly.”’ The inspiration of the Psalms is not pagan and feigned; not merely poetic, but really and truly divine. We believe them to be in a high and special sense God-inspired. The Muse is avowedly ‘ Heavenly ’’— the same : ‘“ That on the secret tup Of Oreb and of Sinai did inspire That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heavens and earth Rose out of chaos.”’ Undoubtedly the Psalms were written for our learning, and were meant for all time. So long as man is man they must have a func- tion for him. Other things grow old, but these do not. Other things die, but these live. Cut across the arteries of their life any- Vi INTRODOGLION. where, and they bleed. We listen and we hear a heart beating and throbbing, timed to our own. No mirror reflects the features more faithfully than these do the heart and life of man. They cover all varieties of human experience. No joy, no sorrow, no fear, no hope, but find there suitable expression. All heights and depths are explored. ‘' Heaven hides nothing, nor the deep tract of hell."’ The realism is intense. For however inspired and ‘‘ enriched by the Eternal Spirit with all utterance and knowledge,” we are sure that the Singer is one of us —isaman of like passions and like organs —so that, if by virtue of his prophetic office, he is able to telescope the heavens, even the heaven of heavens, and see farther than we, he, nevertheless, is compelled to see with our eyes; and since he sees not for himself alone but for others, and it is made his duty to make full report of all he sees, his discoveries can have, we suppose, no higher mean- ing for him than for us. For knowing only in part, he prophesies only in part. The organ of prophecy with which he is gifted, being restricted in its exercise and utterance, can go just so far and no farther. We value the Psalms for what they are, and not for what they are not. It does not affect the question of their insDiration, that *‘ the song is partial;"’ that they do not contain all truth; that some things were kept back, we must believe, purposely and for wise rcasons. We are told, ‘‘ It is the glory of God to conceal a matter“ —the foolishness of God is wiser than man—for everything there is a time. [tis enough to know that the All-Wise judged it best to make His revelations gradual, to let the twilight precede the dawn, the dawn the sun-rising. This being according to the analogy of nature, why should it be thought strane that certain truths should have been kept in abeyance — that, for example, a clear, explicit and pos- itive afirmation of the doctrine of the Future Life should have been withheld in those first ages, so that even inspired men were left in comparative ignerance? That their ignorance was absolute is not asserted. Their belief may have been defective, but it never amounted toadisbelief. Thatthey had anapprehension more or less distinct of a Conscious Hereafter, both for the righteous and the wicked, Psalms : INTRODUCTION. Vil 16:11; 17:15; 49:14, 15, may be cited in proof. The doctrine, moreover, was so bound up with other beliefs implying it, that it was a necessity of reason. For we find it everywhere assumed as a fundamental truth, that righteousness shall be rewarded and wicked- ness punished; that though the bad prosper in life, and have no bands in their death, there is for them an unfulfilled retribution. No one can forsee all the applications and bearings of the simplest truth. The discoverer of electricity had little prescience of the astonishing uses to which it would be put. In this respect, the child of to-day knows more of its powers than the wisest philosopher had dreamed of a few years ago. As it was with the philosopher, so it was, we have reason to believe, with the prophet. He was half- ignorant of what he taught. ‘‘ He builded better than he knew.” Of the prophet we may not know even the name; nor is it impor- tant that we should. It is the message, not the messenger, that concerns us. We, upon whom the ends of the world have come, have clearly one advantage. We have witnessed the fulfillment of many things which prophetic vision only dimly descried and imper- fectly understood. Time, in his onward flight, has overtaken the thing predicted, and left it behind. The mills of Providence grind slowly, but constantly and surely, and the event prophesied, at the proper moment, punctually happened. Then it was that all enigmas were solved and all uncertainties cleared up. When the sun arises, ‘ All the stars hide their diminished heads.’’ Among those born of woman, there was none, no prophet greater than John the Baptist, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. He is exalted to a higher dignity of privilege and knowledge. But it is in vain that the sun shines if we wilfully close our eyes. Amid noon- day’s splendors we can, if we choose, dwell in darkness. Aside from Revelaticn we know how inconsequent a being man is. We who live in the full enjoyment of those things, which ancient worthies saw afar off and were glad, fall behind them in many ways. How the ardor of their devotion shames the coldness of ours! What love to God did they express! What trust in Him! What zeal for His worship! What attachment to His law! What hunger- ings and thirstings after righteousness! Considering that all this vill IN TROVE CT ION. was true of men, who, so far from having our light, dwelt in com- purative darkness, knowing little of God and His truth —we blush the more. With motives to righteousness so inferior (He not having yet come who brought life and immortality to light), they nevertheless pursued it as the supreme vood, never doubting that well-being depended on well-doing. Without knowing that God so loved the world as to give His only-beyotten Son, they still loved Him with a rapturous affection. Without understanding the dear and affecting reasons which justified the gratuitous imputation, they could wonder at the grace and rejoice in the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputed righteousness without works. While all this goes to prove the falsity of the allegation that the service of God is a Mercenary transaction, and that the worshipper is selfishly devout, having his eye fixed on the recompense of reward —it enhances the value of those joyful anticipations of Christian truths which make their harp sound so sweetly in Christian ears. The creed of the heart is often in advance of the intellect, for therein is resident the ‘‘ prophetic soul.”” Trust is more than theory, and love than knowledge. The Psalms do not need any modern manipula- tion to fit them for Christian Worship. Prayer is the child of need. Standing on ‘ The great a)tar-stairs That slope through darkness up to God,"’ prayer 1s sometimes, even in good men, little better than * An infant erying in the night, An infant crying for the lirht, And with no language but aery."’ But the Psalms are a perpetual rebuke to all skeptic confusions. Two the Ilebrew bard God was the Supreme Reality. He was an example to all ages of Trust. He felt it guod to trust in Him; to throw all his burdens at His feet. He never doubted in darkest hours that He cared for him. He endured as seeing Him Who is invisible. God's Face was so clearly mirrored in his heart that he saw its varying expression. He saw itnow dressed in smiles, and now INTRODCCTION 1X in frowns. If the frown was the projection of conscience, it was no less the frown of God. If he sometimes mistook outward calamity, sickness, low spirits, for tokens of Divine displeasure, that must be ascribed to the imperfection of his knowledge. It was important that he should realize that God’s love was not a weak favoritism — something to presume on. He came with all boldness to the Throne of Grace, pushed forward by the urgency of his need. He was absolutely sincere. He exemplified an actual approach of a human soul to its Maker; and thus the mouth of man was brcught close to the ear of God. We are sure the words he spoke were pleasing and acceptable words; that the cry of penitence and the prayer for par- don were heard and answered. We are impressed with the sublim- ity of the spectacle. We are more convinced than ever, that the soul on its knees is the right posture; and that to refuse worship is to do violence to the fitness of things, and to incur proportionate guilt and loss. Man's superiority over all the creatures that surround him consists in this: That he alone is capable of religion. The tie that unites him to his Maker is not only one of creaturexhip but sonship. To sever this tie, to ignore his divine relationship—with feet standing on the steps of the Eternal Throne to refuse to mount. what mad- ness! In the lapse of the centuries man’s relation to God has under- gone nochange. The relation is one of character. A right relation is full of blessedness. All sin, all misery springs from a wrong attitude. It is easy to see how, to a creature ‘‘so fearfully and wonderfully made’ —so complex in himself und so related to every thing else— this must be so. It is easy to understand, how all the ministers of good to which he stands related should become the ministers of evil ; how, through a false adjustment, every avenue of pleasure should be made an avenue of pain; how completely atheistic folly and the in- sanity of wickedness should be able to frustrate the best designs of Infinite Beneficence; how eifectually health and happiness can be made exiles and outcasts from the Human Organism by indulgence in that which is forbidden. Van Helmont conceived the existence of an immaterial principle, which, present from the beginning, presides over the development of the body, and over all organic phenomena. a I TRODC CT IO, Besides this chief one, which he called Archeus, and located in the upper orifice of the stomach, he admitted several] subordinate ones, one for each organ, each of them being liable to anger, caprice, terror, and every human feeling. While this may be fanciful in form, it is substantially true. The approaches to the Tree of Life were not more jealously guarded by Cherubim and flaming sword, than is the gateway to every particular cell that goes to make up the totality of the organs, by the guardian powers whose office it is to resent and resist the entrance of what is alien and hurtful Woe to the individual if this vital constabulary, instituted in the interests of order and virtue, should be overpowered. A watchful instinct resident in the stomagh sounds the alarm when the body demands food; and manifests terror aud rage when compliance is too long delayed. What powerful dis- gusts and repugnances and efforts at rejection attend the introduction of some irritant poison, instead of wholesome nourishment! No one can say, but what this is necessary for the safety and welfare of the body. That punishment should follow in the footsteps of violated law is the best proof we have of Creative Love and Wisdom. The connection between sin and suffering is not arbitrary. It is simply cause and consequence. The conditions of éc7vg are not more abso- lutely fixed than those of wee//-bce7ng. We are bound to the universe by innumerable ties, and we cannot sever a single one. In this sense we are helpless; in another, we are all powerful, for we have the power of adjusting the manner of our relation. so as to make it normal or abnormal, right or wrong, false or true. Nothing in Nature is evil of itself. Take what you will—take fire if you please. [t burns you or warms you according to your actual position to it. In itself it is the most friendly of powers; you could not live without it. Through a long life, up to the present moment it has been to you a minister of good. But this will not prevent this very hour the manifestation of a terrible resentment should you dare to trifle with it—to cross so much as a line the proper limit of your approach. Its genital heat will then be converted into wrathful flame and consume you to ashes. The Psalms are full of bold anthropomorphisms. In the second Psalm, for example, derisive laughter, and wrath are attributed to INTRODUCTION. X1 Deity. Admitting that this is speaking after the manner of men, and that the terms employed are not to be toostrictly interpreted, there is no room for doubt as to their meaning. They fitly and powerfully express the divine antagonism to all evil and evil-doers. That this does not misrepresent Him is conclusively proved by what we see of Him in Nature. It is true that anger in man is not the same as anger in God—inevitably so, for the quality of anger depends upon character. There are we know diversities of anger even among men. The anger of a good man is not the anger of a bad one. Anger to be right must be moral. It must be void of malice. It must be justified by the occasion. It must not be in excess. When it is the pure expression of the sentiment of Justice there is nothing holier. It thus approximates to what we may suppose anger to be in the Divine Mind. It is a measured and righteous indignation against sin. It is the repulsion of Infinite Purity from that which is not pure. Not only is it compatible with Love, but it is one of the forms in which Infinite Love manifests itself. Its inexorableness is the inex- orableness of Love, or Law, which is but another name for Love. Penalty, which is an essential constituent of Law, is a kind of anger. For Law as found in Nature, we repeat, everywhere resents violation. Anger is the defensive property of things. Every atom is armed with it. The minutest insect has its sting. Every thing is sovereign in its own sphere with rights and prerogatives of vengeance. Individual sanctities may not be invaded. Outof this arises, as said before, an universal police necessary to the conservation of order throughout the Universe. Lcok where we will, we find that every thing has two aspects or faces—one all smiles, the other all frowns; and it depends very much upon ourselves which is turned towards us. So far as we can discover, the God seen in Nature and the God declared in Reve- lation are the same God. He is not more the God of vengeance in the one than He is in the other. He undoubtedly is so in both; but we will not be guilty of the folly of closing our eyes to the proofs of His goodness. They are scattered everywhere throughout the uni- verse, but what a divine thing it is,to have it put in human speech, and compressed in three words, God is Love. The Divine Government is not more august than itis lovely. It XU TNT HOD Te TION. exists for the good of the governed. The meanest subject is God's darling. All the powers of the Universe, and His almightiness are pledged for his protection and safety, so long as he remains loyal and law-abiding. But suppose he does not remain so, what happens then ? Only what happens in every well ordered huinan government under like circumstances. To the loyal and obedient, Law is paternal and benign. It is ashield anda hightower. But not so to its violators. To them it wears a changed aspect, full of dreadful menace. To the end that it may appear to all men that it does not bear the sword in vain, it is not slow nor slack to punish. It arrests and brooks no resistence. It consigns to dungeons. It hangs on the gallows. Can it be that this is the self-same power that one moment before the crime was committed was firmly and solemnly pledged for the felon’s safe-keeping, protesting that not a hair of his head should be injured ? Even so. The Law stands upright, but the transgressor holds towards it an inverted position, and by virtue of this inversion he is emptied of all his rights under the Law. Law is not simply preceptive—it is command backed by penalty. This is true of man’s law, and it is true of God’s law. Human government sometimes undertakes to pardon, and to reés- tablish the criminal in his former relations: but, to remove the falsity of a corrupt nature, to correct the insane inclination of the heart to evil. transcends her power. Here the analogy fails between human government and the divine. What is not possible to man its possible to God. He can both pardon and save. He can make the guilty soul pure, and the sick soul well. For not only has He provided remedies to heal the flesh but to heal the spirit also; and thus, by a true restora- tion to old relations, man is made just the same as if he had never sinned. Physicians in the treatment of disease rely on an automatic force or tendency, denominated evs medicatria Nati ,v hich, if it does not in every case suffice for cure, always aids it. Conscience may be said to answer to this in man’s moral and spiritual economy, operating as a ws medicatiix in the recovery of a sick soul. While not adequate alone to meet all the exigencies cf man’s desperate condition, with ‘‘his whole head sick and his whole heart faint,” it continues to be TV TRODCCTION. X111 the indispensable fulcrum upon which the lever of Help must rest. Salvation is a return to wholeness, or holiness, without which no man can see the Lord. The Psalmist celebrates the felicity of ‘the man whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered—to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,’ or as Paul construes it, ‘‘imputeth righteous- ness without works.”’ Regeneration can only mean a readjustment of right relations of the soul of man to the Universe and its Maker. Found in his place and in harmony with his surroundings, then, as Herbert sings: ‘* Man is all symmetry, Full of proportions, one limb to another, And to all the world besides. Each part may call the farthest, brother; For head with foot hath privy amity, And both with moons and tides. ‘* Nothing hath got so far, But man hath caught and kept it as his prey; His eyes dismount the highest star; He is in little all the sphere. Herbs gladly cure our flesh, because that they lind their acquaintance there. ‘* For us, the winds do blow, The earth doth rest, heavens move, and fountains flow; Nothing we see but means our good, As our delight, or as our treasure; The whole is either our cupboard of food, Or cabinet of pleasure. ‘’ The stars have us to bed: Night draws the curtain, which the sun withdraws. Music and light attend our head. All things unto our flesh are kind, In their descent and being; to our mind, In their ascent and cause. ‘* More servants wait on man Than he'll take notice of. In every path, He treads down that which doth befriend him When sickness makes him pale and wan. O mighty love! Man is one world, and hath Another to attend him.” X1V INTRODUCTION‘, IlL—METRICAL VERSIONS OF THE PSALMs. FRENCH. ENGLISH. AND SCOTCH. HE earliest attempt of which we have any record to turn the Psalms into English Verse was made in the Thirteenth Cen- tury, and was known as the Northumberland Psalter. It was fol- lowed in the next Century by another, the work of Richard Rolle, the Hermit of Hampvle. The Council of Toulouse in 1229 inter- dicted the Bible to the laity, but made an exception in favor of the Psalter. Periods of religious revival in all ages have been favorable to the growth of Sacred Song. The Psalms themselves may be regarded as the intense outcome of the rcligious life of ancient Israel, as displayed in the individual or the nation, while they served to signalize and punctuate different epochs and special crises in the history of the Jewish people. The historic books of the Bible, it is safe to say, do not give so clear an insight into the character of those remote times as the Psalms. David's history is a very event- ful one, and full of romance, and is well calculated to excite a lively interest; but the story of his life, without the lyric supplement sup- plied by the Psalms, would be divested of its greatest charm. Prose deals, for the most part, with the outward and objective; and usually practises reserve in regard to what is subjective and private. Not so with Poetry, particularly Lyric Poetry. That delights in self-revelations. It has to do with the facts of the inner life. It keeps nothing back. It is the soul on fire. It kindles others. The little spark becomes a spreading conflagration. The poet, not infrequently, is the truest and best historian. It has been often exemplified in modern times, that nothing lies so near the popular heart, and is so fitted to awaken its enthusiasm, as Sung. to Ws We Ey 16 Wis. 0 tor 1 a In regard to the ‘' New Version,” it was first published under the title of an '* Zssav of a New Version of the Psalms of David, consist- tas of the firs? Twenty, by NN Brady aud Ve Tale (3 vo, 1005 }- This was succeeded by ‘* Zhe Book of Psalms, A New Verston in Metre fitted to the Tunes used in the Churches, bv N. Tate and N. Brady," (1696). “ahum Tate was born in Dublin in 1652 and died in London 1775. After the death of Shadwell in 1692, he succeeded him as poct-laureate. He was associated with Dryden in the author- ship of ‘ Absalom and Ahithophel,” the second part being chiefly his composition. He produced several dramatic works, among which was an alteration of ‘‘ King Lear’ from Shakespeare, which long held the stage to the exclusion of the original. Nicholas Brady was born in 1659 and died in 1726. He was partly educated at Oxford, and partly at Trinity Colleye, Dublin. He was the author of a tragedy, and numerous sermons. Just prior to his death he pub- lished a poetical translation of Virgil. Elis reputation however rests chicfly on the part he took in the Metrical Version of the Psalms. The Version of Tate and Brady is still retained in the Book of Common Prayer, both in England and in this country. In regard to the comparative merits of the two Versions, while all must admit that the New isa great improvement upon the Old in smoothness and correctness of versification, the advantage, it 1s thought, in some cases at least, is more than counterbalanced by a falling off in vigor and raciness, and the loss of a certain homely quaintness and antique flavor, which constituted no small part of the charm of the earlier Version. The rendering in the older Version is confessedly unequal, and in some of the Psalms is, no deubt, rude, disjointed and uncouth, and thus has furnished the occasion for much cheap wit and ridicule, IN TRODOCTION. X1xX Sternhold and Hopkins’ Version had had, for more than seventy years, entire possession of the field, when in 1636 appeared ‘‘ 4 Paraphrase upon the Psalms of David, by George Sandys, set to New Tunes for Private Devotion ; and a Thorough-Bass for Voice and Instrument, by Henry Lawes, Gentleman of fis Majesty's Chapel Royal,” which received high commendation. Dryden calls him ‘* the ingenious and learned Sandys, the best versifier of the former age.’ James Montgomery styles his Version as ‘‘ incomparably the most poetic in the language,’’ That Sandys’ poetry and Lawes’ music combined should have failed to obtain popularity, is thought remarkable. Lawes wrote the music to Milton’s ‘‘ Comus,” in which he also acted the part of Thyrsis, and the poet’s allusion to the musician is well known (Comus 494): ‘* Thyrsis, whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale.’’ To him, too, Milton addressed the sonnet: ‘‘ Harry, whose tuneful and well measured song First taught our English music how to span Words with just note and accent.”’ George Sandys (or Sandes), the seventh and youngest son of Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York, according to the Archbishop’s own entry, ‘‘ was born the 2nd day of March at six of the clock in the morning in 1557.'' After having spent some time at Oxford, he set out on his travels in 1610, of which he published an account in 1615, with a dedication to Charles I., then Prince of Wales. The work attained great popularity. He visited the Holy Land, and the picture he gives of the Fast in his time, particularly of Jerusalem, is specially interesting and valuable. He was but a short time at home. In 1606, a charter of incorporation had been granted to the Adventurers of London to begin their first plantation and seat in any place upon any part of the Colony of Virginia. Under date of July 24, 1621, Sir Francis Wyat is mentioned as Governor, and George Sandys as Treasurer. It is interesting to know that the greater part of his Translation of ‘‘ Ovid’s Metamorphoses ’’ was —\ TAT SELON composed under great difficulties in the Colony, and that it was the first considerable book written in America. Besides the Psalms he wrote a poetical Paraphrase of the Book of Job, of Ecclesiastes, upon the Song of Solomon, Lamentations of Jeremiah, etc., all excellently done. He died in 1643 aged 66. Tate and Brady’s Version, already noticed, followed in 1696. Then we have Dr. John Patrick's ‘' Psalms of David in Metre,” which appeared in 1698, from which it is said Dr. Watts borrowed. It is a book the writer only knows by report; and is unable to say therefore how far it is original. In 1709 followed Isaac Watts’ ““ Imitations (not Versions) of the Psalms.”’ His method was a new one. It virtually consisted in converting the Psalm into a Christian Hymn. It was a Christian graft on a Jewish root. The song was made intoa sermon. In this form it easily lent itself to the pur- poses of Christian worship, but in order to make it serve this end, some violence was necessarily done to the original. It has met however with such favor as to have become a model to all later attempts at versification of the Psalms. While it may have its advantages, they are not, it is thought, of so pronounced a character as to forbid a new essay, in which the poet, availing himself of all the results of modern scholarship, shall give an English Version of the Psalms in their original form, without interpolation or alteration of any kind, after the old manner. Twelve years before, in 1707, Watts published his //yw»s in Three Books. In his original Preface to his Psalms he acknowledges his indebtedness for ideas and even expressions to Denham, Milbourne, and Tate and Brady. From Patrick he is said to have taken most. In the Lenox Library may be found Franklin’s Edition of Watts’ Hymns, 1741; Joel Barlow's amendments to his Psa/ms, 1785; and Timothy Dwight's improve- ments to éeth, 1800, Isaac Watts was born in 1674, died in 1748, aged 74. “ The Psalms Translated or Paraphiased in English Verse, by James Merrick,’ was published in 1766. Bishop Horne in his ‘“Commentary on the Psalms”’ frequently refers to it in terms of high commendation, and quotes from it. Its chief fault is said to be diffuseness. The author was born in 1720 and died in 1769. While INPRODCCTION., Xxl he was at Oxford he was the tutor of Lord North. His poetical fable, ‘‘ The Chameleon,”’ has been often printed. Coming nearer our own times, we have ‘‘ Zhe Book of Psalms Translated into English Verse, by Edmund G. March, London, 1832.” John Keble — author of ‘‘ The Christian Year,”’ which had appeared fourteen years before — published in 1839, ‘' The Psalter, or Psalms of David in English Verse,” dedicated by permission to the Lord Bishop of Oxford. It took the name of the ‘‘ Oxford Psalter.” He remarks in his Preface: ‘‘ The Versions commonly used, not- withstanding much that is meritorious, are confessedly deficient each in an important qualification. That of the Elizabethan age wants force; that which dates from the Revolution fidelity. The Translator much fears that the general character of his Version will be found to partake of harshness and obscurity, to a far greater degree than he could wish; yet he is not without hope that ( with the permission of those in authority ) it may be found occasionally useful for congregational singing.’’ The hope so modestly expressed was not fulfilled. His biographer, Sir J. T. Coleridge, accounts for the coolness of its reception by its deficiency in the singing quality. It reached however in England a Foarth Edition (1869). Singularly enough, it would seem hardly to have found its way to this country, and is comparatively unknown, In SCOTLAND the first Version employed in the Churches after the Reformation was mainly that of Sternhold and Hopkins, but not exactly, for forty-one had different renderings by various authors, The first complete Version was printed at Edinburgh in 1564 by order of the General Assembly and was continued in use till 1650. It was the Psalm-book of Knox, Walsh, Melville, etc. From this sprung the Version nowin use. The Westminster Assembly, in 1643, undertook the task of selecting a New Version. After comparison with other Versions it adopted that of Francis Rous (or Rouse) and appointed a committee to confer with him on changes and emenda- tions. While Rouse’s Version was made the basis, a number of translations drawn from the old Scottish Psalter and other sources were substituted for his. After much preliminary pains-taking, there appeared in 1650 '‘ The Psalms of David in Metre: Translated and XX1l INTRODUCTION. diligently compared with the Original Text and former Translations; More plain, smooth and agreeable to the Text than any heretofore; Allowed by the Authority of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, and appointed to be sung in Congregations and Families.”’ This Version has continued in use until the present time. Dr. James Beattie, the author of Zhe Alinstre/, attributes to it ‘"a manly, severe simplicity, without any affected refinement.” Dr. Chalmer thinks it has ‘ta charm peculiar to itself.”” Dr. Robert Lee describes it as ‘‘ sometimes rugged, occasionally sinking to dog- gerel, but upon the whole faithful, vigorous and good — equal if not superior to any other.”’ Sir Walter Scott says, ‘' Its expression, though homely, is plain, forcible and intelligible, and very often possesses a rude sort of majesty which would be ill exchanged by more elegance.’"’ The Marquis of Lorne in 1877 added to this Version, a Version of his own, bound up in the same volume. Having noticed the chief of the Complete Versions of the Psalms, it may be interesting to glance at some of the partial ones executed by distinguished hands. Sir Philip Sidney (b. 1544, d. 1586), one of the most conspicuous figures at the Court of Elizabeth, the preux chevalicr of his time, made a Translation of a part of the Psalter ‘‘into sundry kinds of verse,"’ in conjunction with his accomplished sister, the Countess of Pembroke—‘‘ Sidney's sister, Pembroke’s mother.”’ It extended to the 43rd Psalm. As none of Sidney's writings were published in his life-time the date of the composition is uncertain. It was first printed in London in 1823. The worth of these paraphrases, which have all the author's sincerity, directness, and sweetness of rhythm has been recognized by Mr. Ruskin who has edited them under the title of Reck Honercomé in the the second volume of his Bréliotheca Pastorum. In 1625, Lord Bacon published a small volume dedicated to ‘‘ his friend Mr. George Herbert,” entitled ‘*Zranslations of Certaine Psalms into English Verse.’ The actual number was seven, viz., Psalms I, 12, 90, 104, 126, 137 and 149. He wrote them during a fit of sickness in 1624. He evidently thought well of them, for, contrary to custom, he lost no time in giving them to the public. He seems to have tried both methods, the literal and the free—in INTRODUCTION. XXill the one case keeping as close to the text as possible, adding no more than the necessities of metre required, in the other combining with paraphrastic freedom an exegetical purpose, representing a kind of poetical commentary. Sir Thomas Wyatt made a paraphrase of the Seven Penitential Psalms. The Fourteenth and Twentieth Psalms, versified by Queen Elizabeth and King James, have been preserved. John Milton in 1648, did into metre ze of the Psalms (Pss. 80- 88), and in 1653, zze others (Pss. 1-8). At.the age of fifteen he versi- fied Psalms 114 and 136, making fwenty in all. They continue to be published, and form a part of his Poetical Works. Dean Swift wrote in pencil ina copy of Gibb’s Poetical Version of the first eighteen Psalms, ‘‘ I warn the readers that this is a lie, both here and all over the book; for these are not the Psalms of David, but of Dr. Gibb.”’ The grounds of the Dean's furious dislike is not stated. James Montgomery, besides being the author of numerous Hymns, published in 1822, ‘‘ Songs vf Zion, being Imttations of the Psalms.’’ We says in the Preface: ‘‘In the following imitations of portions of the true ‘ Sozgs of Zion,” having followed in the track of none, he would venture to hope that by avoiding the rugged literality of some and the diffusive paraphrases of others, he may, in a few instances, have approached nearer than either of them have gener- ally done to the ideal model of what devotional poems, in a modern tongue, grounded upon the subjects of ancient Psalms, yet suited for Christian edification, ought to be.” Since the above was in type, two other complete versions have come under the writers notice: In April, 1854, the Venerable Edward Churton, Archdeacon of Cleveland, published a version known as the ‘‘ Cleveland Psalter.” In 1882 appeared still another metrical version by William Digby Seymour, Q.C., LL.D. There are other omissions. Mr. Henry Fish discovered in the well-known handwriting of Charles Wesley, among the archives of a certain English College, translations lacking about twenty-four of the entire number of Psalms, presumably his own, but curiously enough con- taining Tate and Brady’s rendering of Ps. 136. It forms the princi- b XX1V INTRODUCTION. pal part of the Wesleyan Psalter, which has been published in this country, Mention should have been made likewise of ‘‘ The Book of Psalms, Translated into English Verse,”” by George Burgess, Bishop of Maine, New York, 1840. Richard Baxter (B. 1615, 1). 1691) is said to have published a metrical version (probably of a part-only) of the Psalms which was issued a year after his death. Joseph Addison (B. 1672; D. 17109), the well-known author of two much admired paraphrases of the Nine- teenth and Twenty-third Psalms, is said, upon doubtful authority, to have contemplated a metrical version of the entire number, had he lived. Anne Steele (B. 1716; D. 1778), whose name has an honored place in all Modern Collections, wrote, it is said, 144 Hymns and 34 Psalms. On account of the great looseness of the language em- ployed, one cannot always be sure what is meant, when a person is spoken of as having made a version of the Psalms, whether an entire version is intended or only a partial and fragmentary one. The writer’s list includes those versions that have come under his notice; it is not pretended that it comprehends all.* The synopsis is given below of the versions, complete and partial, in chronological order: Complete, Sternhold and Hopkins’..1562 Partial, Sir Thomas Wyatt’s...... 1540 a George Sandys’.........- 1636 ‘* Sir Philip Sidney’s........ 1583 - Scotch Version (Rous’s)..1643 oe ord (Bacon §.2542005<0<4 1625 “2 “Tate: and Brady §:...5..< 1696 * John Milton’s......52. 1648, 1653 a“ POND Patrick Soc cuescsss 1698 Richard Baxter’s.........-. 1691 a isaac Watts. souwess ute 1719 = Charles Wesley’s....... .- 1778 “6 James Merrick’s .___..-.-- 1765 : Aone Steele's............- 1778. e Edmund G. Marsh's. .... 1832 ‘* James Montgomery’s..... 1822 : John Keble's......5.2.... 1839 5 Bishop Burgess’s..__.... 1840 . Archdeacon Churton’s...1854 - Marquis of Lorne’s. _.... 1877 sh AV. 1D; S@YMour $2262.27 1882 In regard to the Version here given, ‘The book must be its own * It is stated that the first printing press in America was put up at Cambridge, in 1639, by Stephen Day, and the first book printed upon it was '‘ The Psalms in Metre, faithfully translated for the use, edification and comfort of the saints, in public and private, especially in New England, printed at Cambridge in 1640,"" The Pilgrim Fathers entered on their records, ‘‘ Stephen Day, being the first that LEV ENROD OCT ION: XXV defense.’ If all attempts, hitherto made, have, as some allege, been failures, this, at the worst, can only add one to the number. We are told by a recent writer, ‘‘ Poetical translations of the Psalms postulate their own failure. Parallelisms cannot be cramped into eights and sixes.” * Keble inthe Preface to his own Version says: ‘It was undertaken with a serious apprehension, which has grown into a full conviction, that the thing attempted is, strictly speaking, impossible.”’ These strong expressions are adapted, certainly, to ira- press one with the great difficulty of the task, and to deter all but the most bold from ever engaging init. But surely something can be said on the other side. The first writer quoted, admits, ‘' that the Psalms may not only be understood but profoundly /fe/t, by those who have not earned the privilege of following them in the divine original.’’ It is fortunate that this is so, considering how small is the number who have earned this privilege. It is not at all surprising, that many should prefer the prose renderings of the Prayer Book and the Bible, on esthetic and other grounds, for in them we have preserved the peculiar verse-structure of the Hebrew original in a great degree. Ewald compares its parallelisms to the ‘‘alternate beat of wings’’; and Herder speaks of it as ‘‘that lan- guage of the heart, which has never said all, but ever has something more to say.’”’ All this is true. But it is difficult to see why the meaning, which after all is the essential thing, cannot be conveyed equally, or almost as well, in another form. In regard to Metrical Versions, imperfect as they have been, all history for the last three hundred years is full of attestations to their value and efficiency. Witness Marot’s Version, which wielded such a mighty influence in bringing about the Reformation in France. Witness the Scotch set up printing, is granted three hundred acres of land, where it may be con-' venient without prejudice to any town.’’ Below is a verse of one of the Psalms in the Indian tongue, as printed for their use by Eliot in 1663: ‘* Kesuk Kukootumushteaumoo God wussohsumoonk Mamahehekesuk wumahtuhkon Wutanakausnonk.” * The Witness of the Psalms to Christ and Christianity, by William Alexander, DoD Dil. i, Bikes oF Dereyciad. Sev PERO DT CINK. Version. No one would wish to deny the important part it has played in the religious life of the Scotch people. And then we know that the melodious prose of the Psalter, pro- duced about the same time as the bald rhymes of Sternhold and Hopkins’ Version, was no match for them in the race for popular favor, indicating the people’s preference for measured verse con- joined with rhyme, suitable for singing. It is asserted, that to so great an extent were the Reformers, singers, that ‘psalm singer’ and ‘heretic’ became synonyinous terms. The term, Lollard, by some is derived from /o//cn to sing softly, whence it may be inferred, that the earlier reformers rested under the same reproach as the later. It is not wise certainly to despise an instrument of such power. Admitting that Hymn-making has been overdone, and that the Psalms have been too much neglected of late years,* and that a return to them is desirable, the question arises how can this be best * Dr. Binnie, in the last edition of his work: ‘The Psalms: Their History, Teachings and Use,’’ London, 1886, cites various honored names, representative of different branches of the Church, in favor of a return to the chureh use of the Psalms, now so gencrally displaced by Hymns. Avght Hon. Waldiam E. Glad- stone says: ‘In the Book of Psalms, for well nigh three thousand years, the piety of saints have found its most refined and choice food. . There is: the whole music of the heart when touched by the hand of the Maker, in all its tones that whisper or that swell, for every hope and fear, for every joy and pang, for every form of strength and languor, of disquictude and rest. . + Heise particular and privileged Book.” The late /raae /a) lor, in his book ' The Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry,’ 1861, expresses himself with great decision’ ‘‘It is but fecbly, and as afar off, that the ancient liturgics (except so far as they are mere copies of the original) come up to the majesty and the wide compass of the Hebrew Worship such as is indicated in the ry8th Psalm. : It would not be possible—it has never yet seemed so—to Christianize the Hebrew anthems— retaining their powcr, their carth-like riches, and their manifold splendors. What are modern hymns but so many laborious attempts to put in a new form that which, as it was done in the very best manner so many years ago, can never be done well again.”’ Littwward Doing, in his ‘L£ssay on the Book of Psalms,” says: ‘“ There has grown up in these lean years a miserable notion that the Psalms are not so appropriate for expressing the communion of the Christian Church, for the reason that they contain allusions to places and events which are of Jewish and not of Christian associations. Why do they not, upon the same principle, weed out the Jewish allusions of the Four Gospels and the Epistles? But it as poor in taste, as it is wrong in feeling, and bold in execution.” INTRODUCTION XxVll brought about. Care needs to be taken not to defer too much to the preferences, not to say prejudices of a class—scholars, for example. Because what is pleasing to them may be ‘caviare to the general ': and inasmuch as it is the great public whose tastes and inclinations are to decide in the matter, it is important to ascertain if possible what those are. A rhymed version in various metres, and set to proper tunes, all ideally perfect, would be likely to meet the exigency: but, alas! perfection is so rare and so difficult. The Psalms chanted do not seem well adapted for general use. It may be very delight- ful for me to sit and hear ‘' The pealiag organ blow To the full voiced quire belew, In service high and anthems clear, As may with sweetness through my ear Dissolve me into ecstacies, And bring all heaven before my eyes, ’— but the trouble is, that all this requires skilled performers and other things. For congregational singing, it is doubtful whether anything will take the place of the Hymn, or metric Psalm. To make this more sweet and tunable should be the obiect of every new rendering. The writer is well aware of the imperfections of his work. He knows as well as anyone can tell him how far he falls below the ideal of what a version ought to be. His a¢m has been to be literal, but not so literal as to convert rich prose into poor verse; to be a faithful but not too punctual an interpreter: to get as close to the Hebrew Original as possible, and preserve, as far as the two idioms would allow, the precise form and color of the Hebrew thought; to transfer, wherever he could, the exact phraseology, hallowed and familiar, of the Received or Revised Version: and to use no more words than sufficed to express the meaning of the Text. By comparison he has found that his lines do not take up more than two-thirds of the space occupied by Sternhold and Hopkins’ Version. The fidelity of the Scotch Version is remarkable. He would be glad to think he has equalled it in that respect. Some- thing is due to ease and fluency, but he would not be thought guilty of supposing that he could improve on the Inspired Original. The SXVI11 IN TRODE CTION. pedestrian Muse that is plain and simple, and is content to walk humbly with the Text, and does not try to soar above it—to be louder than the thunder, or sublimer than the storm —can claim a merit of her own, and ought not to be despised on account of her rustic qualities Every good Version has an exevetical value, and may be the most useful of commentaries. A word to the critics. They are doubtless aware that there are disputed readings which divide learned Hebraists, and that, in comparing the Version with the Text, it is but fair that this fact should be kept 1n mind. ‘Great Almiyhty, King of Heaven! And one God, in persons three; Honor, praise and thanks be given, Now and cvermore to Thee: Who hast more fur Thine prepared, Than by words can be declared. ‘* Thercfore as Thy blesséd Psalmist, When his warfares had an end, And his days were at the calmest, Psalms and Hymns >f praises penned — So my rest from Thee enjoyed, To Thy praise I have employed ** And with Israel's reyal singer, Teach me so Faith's Hymns to sing; So Thy ten-stringed Law to iinger, And such music thence to bring, That by grace I may aspire To Thy blesséd angel choir." INTRODUCTION: | es Il.L— NOTES — CRITICAL, HISTORICAL, AND BIOGRAPHICAL. Tue inspired Lyrics which go to make up the Hebrew Anthology, called the Book of Psalms, are the product of different ages. Thev extend over a period, it is estimated, of five hundred vears. The whole consist of Five distinct Collections, made at different times, in the order in which they now stand. Each is closed by a Doxology. Hence comes the division into Five Books. Of the Frrst Collection made (Pss. z-41) all but three are expressly noted as David's, and these may have been his also. Of the Second (Pss. 42-72) seven are by the sons of Korah, a Levitical family of singers; 1 by Asaph; Ig by David; 3 writer unnamed; 1 by Solomon. Of the 7%/rd (Pss. 73-89) eleven are by Asaph; 4 by the sons of Korah; 1 by Ethan. Only the Eighty-sixth is ascribed to David. Of the Fourth (Pss. go-106) the Ninetieth is by Moses, and the rorst and 103rd are by David. Of the /7/th (Pss. 107-150) fifteen are by David; 1 by Solo- mon; 28 writer not given. Zhe Pilgrint Sengs were fifteen in number (Pss. 120-134). The exact time when these Collections were made is not known. All the Psalms with only thirty-three excep- tions have 77tles or /nscriptions prefixed indicating the writer; or the one to whom it was committed for Temple use; or its character, as a psalm, a song, a prayer, etc.; or the occasion on which it was com- posed; or the tune or melody to which it was sung; or the accompa- nying instrument. The Psalms have been divided into four historical periods. 1. Those written before David's accession to the throne. 2. Those during his reign. 3. Those subsequent, down to the Captivity. 4. During the Captivity, and after the Return. The moral results of David's influence as an inspired teacher of religious truth are aptly set forth in the following lines: ‘It softened men of iron mould; It gave them virtues not their own. No ear so dull, no heart so cold, That felt not, fired not to the tone, Till David's lyre grew mightier than his throne."' XXX IN FRODGCTIOC.N.. Herderclaims, that every Psalm has an historical back-ground; and Goethe says, all good poems are called forth by an occasion. The Rev Dr. Maclaren of Manchester, England, in an interesting little volume entitled,‘‘ 7% Life of David as Reflected tn his Psalms," makes eloquent use of this principle. He divides his life into epochs: ‘: His early years up to his escape from the court of Saul; his exile; the prosperous beginning of his reign; his sin and peni- tence; his flight before Absalom’s rebellion, and the darkened end.”’ He seeks to find out the Psalms belonging to each of these periods, and arranges them accordingly. He shows how aptly the historic dovetails with the experimental, and how the two serve to mutually illustrate and explain each other. The shepherd boy became a king. His life therefore takes ina vast sweep — filled with strange and exciting events. But to knew only these outward details is to know only half. Fortunately in his Psalms we have the other half. There was no feeling of his heart, no secret of his breast, he did not confide to his lyre. He was placed in many trying situations, and experienced many signal deliverances, and it was his wont, to punctuate each with a song. In laying his heart bare before God, he bared it to all the world. All is genuinely human. The utterances are self-evidently sincere. They are true to life, and, being so, are representative and pro- phetic. and have ‘' germinant fulfilments.”’ David was a prophet. and spoke by Divine inspiration. He says of himself: ‘‘ The Lord spoke by me, and His word was in my tongue’ (2 Sam. 23: 2). It is well for us that the prophet was also a man, even such a man, ciothed with our weakness, sharing our infirmities, tempted as we are even to falling into sin. It is evi- dently a mistake to conceive of him as dwelling always in the light of a superior knowledge, speaking at all times with an infallible utterance qualihed by no isrnorance — for, outside of a special iliumi- nation for a special purpose, we have every reason to believe that he was left as much in the dark as we are. If the Bible had been written by angclic pen, it is doubtful whether it would have been of much use to us. While an extended commentary would be out of place, a few brief IN AKODCC PION. XXxX1 Notes, chiefly explanatory, it is hoped may be useful. More- over. in view of the important part which the Psalms have played in History and the Lives of men, a collection of the scattered facts, illustrative of the truth of this, is adapted to form a chapter of much interest. Ruskin says, The Psalter contains in the first half of it, the sum of personal and social wisdom. The Ist, 8th, 14th, 19th, 23rd and 24th Psalms, well learned and believed, are enough for all personal guid- ance; the 48th, 72nd, and 75th have in them the law and the proph- ecy of all righteous government; and every real triumph of natural science is anticipated in the roqgth. PsaLM I.—It could not have been by accident, that this Psalm was placed first in the Collection, for it is evidently prefatory and exor- dial. It sums the whole. The doctrine it emphasizes is the doctrine of the whole. The very first word stirs the heart like a trumpet. It is the swift glad answer to the question of questions, which every- body is asking: Whois happy? Where is happiness to be found? The Porch undertook to locate and define it, but failed. It was and is, Philosophy’s despair. Poetry apostrophizes to no purpose, ‘‘ O Happiness, our being’s end and aim.’”’ Riches says, It is not in me. Honor says, It is notin me. Learning says, It is not in me. Pleas- ure says, It is not in me. Where is it then? Where, O where? Echo answers, Where? Some call the proud, happy. Are they so? No! Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher. Here the true word breaks in like a burst of sunshine. Inquire no farther. The Happy Man is the Righteous Man; and no other. Should you wish an answer more in detail, the introductory verses of the Sermon on the Mount, will give it you. Righteousness is the soul’s health. Car- lyle says truly: ‘‘ A healthy body is good; but a soul in right health —it is the thing above all others to be prayed for; the b.essedest thing this earth receives of Heaven.’’ Never was there a Preface so brief that contained so much as this First Psalm. XXX11 INTRO DOr. PsaL\t II1—Stands at the head of the objective Messianic Psalms to which the Forty-fifth and the One Hundred and Tenth also belong, Four speakers are introduced, indicating its dramatic character. 1. The rebels; 2. Jehovah: 3. The Anointed; 4. The Psalmist. For its Messianic application, see Acts 4: 24-30. Psatm III-—The historic occasion was David's flight before his som.scbsalom-(2 Sams; 15 2 14,1 7.30). Ver. 3. Jt elorv and the lifter up ot my head. One might almost think that Horace had borrowed from David, when he compliments Macenas as ‘‘ his patron and swect glory ' — Oe? presidium et dulce decus Meum, ‘* The French Protestants in the time of their persecution had psalms adapted to their varied circumstances. The Third Psalm was for the stationing of sentinels to keep watch against sudden attack; when the danger was over, and they could worship in safety, they sung the 122nd."—Aew, John Aer, D. D. Psitm 1V.—Relates to Absalom’s revolt. By ‘' the sons of men’ [man] would be meant the leaders of the conspiracy against David's kingly right, or ‘* glory,” who had been especially " set apart. by "God as: His ““favared or * beloved ‘one,” (forse the term ‘‘ godly ' may be rendered). They are counselled ‘to stand in awe and sin (rebel) no more;"’ and revolviny silently and alone their vuilt and folly, repent and return to their allegiance. The despondiny inquiry, ‘‘ Who will show us good?” indicates the gloominess of the outlook, but the Psalmist was buoyed up with a pious confidence which filled him with joy and peace. It was a rule in the Syrian Churches, that no person could be or- diined sub-de icon until he had learned the Psalter by heart. Jerome mentions, that he hud learned the Psalms when he was a child, and sanz them constantly in old aye. In the first centuries of the Chris- * Maclaren thinks, ‘‘It was prophetic instinct which made Jesse call his youngest son by a name, apparently before unused — David, (Beloved) INTRODUCTION. XxXxlll tian Church, the Psalms were in general use. .fuyustine, born in 354, was converted when he was in his 33d year, under the preaching of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. In his ‘‘Confessions”’ referring to this period, he exclaims, ‘‘O, in what accents spake [ unto Thee, my God, when I read the Psalms of David."’ He makes mention of the Fourth Psalm in particular. The subject of his ‘‘ Enarrations,” (a kind of running commentary) was the Psalms. His custom was to embrace an entire Psalm in one discourse. He was ignorant of Hebrew, and allegorized too much, but his ‘‘ Enarrations’” were read and prized for a thousand years. PsALM V.—Joab, prompted by jealousy, assassinated Abner (2 Sam. 3:27), and subsequently his rival, Amasa, (2 Sam. 20: I0). David complains that although King, ‘‘ the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me.” Joab is the probabie subject of the bitter reference in verse 5, where he is called ‘‘the bloody and deceitful man’’—and other parts of the Psalm would seem to apply to him. PsaLm VI, Verse 3.—“ But Thou, O Lord, how long?” In its Latin form, Domine, guowsgue? it is said to have been the favorite ejaculation of Ca!vin in times of suffering, and especially of painful sickness. This is the first of the so-called PENITENTIAL PSALMS. The other six are the 32d, 38th, 51st, 102d, 130th, and 143d. Dr. Philip Schaff, in his ‘‘ History of the Christian Church” (Vol. III, p, 905) says of St. Augustine, ‘‘ The last ten days of his life he spentin close retirement—in prayers and tears, and repeated readings of the Penitential Psa/ns, which he had caused to be written on the wall over his bed, so that he might have them always before his eyes. He closed his life 25th August, 430, in the 76th year of his age in the full possession of his faculties.” Strangely enough, Catherine de AJ/fedicit, the queen mother of Charles IX, the prompter, and real author of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, which numbered fifty thousand victims—chose this Psalm to give expression to her worldly disappointment. The Wife of Thomas Carlyle, sick in body and mind, gives vent to her feelings in language drawn from this Psalm, entering in her AN TN ROE ely. Journal, 1355, verses 2-4 ‘'Ah, me! ‘Have mercy upon me, O Lord, heal me, for my bones are sore vexed, my soul 1s also sore vexed: but Thou, O Lord, how long?’ In the sketch of his wife's history, written three years after his wife’s death, Carlyle relates, how, about the above-named time (1855 or 1856), ‘‘ The sufferings of our poor little woman, which must have been great, though she whispsred nothing vf them, reached their nadir—internal sufferings and dispiritments. To whatever owing, my little darling was ex- tremely miserable! Of that year there is a bit of private diary by chance left unburnt, and not to be destroved, however tragical and steraly sad are parts of it’ See Cardr e's Reminiscences, bv Froude. Psitm IXN.—Furnishes an example of what may be called /opical prrallelism, after the Hebrew manner. There is a division of the Psalm into two parts, with an orderly sefetétion of topics in the second part. The whole Psalm is a review of God's gracious dealings in driviny back the invading heathen A grateful acknowledgment of former deliverances (vs. 1-6) is followed by expressions of trust in regard to the future (vs. 7-12) with consequent petitions (vs. 13, I4): then there is a return to the same topics, the same recollections of the past, anticipations of the future, and pravers for present and immediate help. Five scholars of Lausanne devoted to the Reformation were arrested in France, 1553, and burned in the Place des Terreaux at Lyons. On their way to execution they sung with a loud voice this Psalm.—Avcv. PsaLvi X\.—The character here drawn answers in so many respects to Joab that it is dificult not to believe that David had him in his eye as a typical case of audacious wickedness. Psvew XT —Is somewhat dramatic in form like Psalm 2d. The alvice of faint-hearted friends to fly (vs. 1-6) is followed by a pas- sionate rejection of the counsel as a wicked distrust of God. PoaLve NIT, Ver. §.—'* Fer the oppression of the poor,” etc., was the PVPRODL COLT: XXXV text of Dr. Fabricius before Gustavus Adolphus, when he took Augs- burg after a severe fight. A solemn thanksgiving was held in the principal church, and religious liberty was proclaimed, while the ferocious Tilly, after his defeat retired, breathing out threatening and slaughter.—Ker. PsALM XV.—Professor Wilson (Christopher North) in his ‘‘ Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life,” in describing the affecting scene of the Elder’s death-bed, tells us, the minister took the Family Bible, and kneeling, said: ‘‘ Let us sing to the praise and glory of God apart of the fifteenth Psalm, and he read with a tremulous and broken voice those beautiful verses: ‘“ Within thy tabernacle, Lord, Who shall abide with thee ? And in thy high and holy hill Who shall a dweller be ?”’ etc. PsALM XVI, Vers. 2, 3.—‘‘ALy goodness extendeth not to Thee, but to the saints.’ Later versions from the Hebrew differ from the A. V. and each other. That reading has been adopted that seemed most plausible. Ver. 4, °° Hasten after” is more exactly rendered wedded or wnited to another God. This Psalm was the last Scripture read by //ugh .1/ ‘A’ar/ the even- ing before his execution in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh. He was a young man of fervid nature, with much ability and culture, was educated at the University of Edinburgh and in Holland. and was licensed to preach at the time of the treacherous overturn of the Constitution of the Church of Scotland, by Charles II, Middleton and Sharp. His last sermon was preached while goo Presbyterian min- isters were being driven from their churches, Sept. 8, 1662 He is the chief figure in a pen-picture of the Covenanters by Sir Walter Scott.—er. PsaLM XVII, is full of passionate appeal, alternations of hope and fear. Vs. 14, I5 are worthy of the New Testament. XXxXV1 TNT ROD CLIO. Alexander Hume, of Hume, closed his life, singing the last verse (Scotch version) of this Psalm. His death was one of the most cruel murders of the time.—Avr. PsaLvt NVITI.—For another copy of this Psalm see 2 Sam. ANII. Of the two copies, this is supposed to have been the earlier, and to have been composed by David in his youth. Revised by him in his later days, he sent it tothe chief musician in its slightly altered form. The rabbins reckon up seventy-four differences between the two, but they are very minute. It is admitted that there is nothing grander in Poetry than this Psalm. Grand in many ways, it is grandest in its motive, It is the flashing splendor of the underlying thought which dazzles and amazes. The majesty of the scene does not con- sist so much in the material concomitants, the tempestuous terror and pomp of the descent, as in its moral purpose. Take this away, and there remains, to be sure, a magnificent description of a thunder storm, distinguished by bold metaphor and striking diction, but that is all. To appreciate its unparalleled sublimity, we need to raise ourselves to the height of the poet’s great argument, and conceive the Deity, as the Supreme Judve and Ruler of the Universe, coming forth in person, and putting in operation this unspeakable machinery of terror, just because Right had been struck down in the person of his servant, and acry has risen to Him for help and deliverance. What cave effect to the cry, was not the dignity of the suppliant, for God is no respecter of persons. ‘‘ The poor man cried, and he also was delivered.” So dear, in fact, is Risht to the heart of God, so essential is it to the stability of His throne, that, if it were necessary, He would summon from the farthest limitsof His empire, the re- quisite powers for its enforcement and vindication in behalf of the meanest of his subjects. For Fle makes every just cause His own. This He does from a necessity of Hisbeing. Wellitisso. If a just God is dreadful, what a horror would be a God not just! God cannot be just without being good; nor good without being merciful. Goodness comprehends both Justice and Mercy. One regulates the other. Shakespeare is warranted, therefore, in saying that Mercy is INTRODUCTION. XXXV11 ‘An attribute to God Himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's, When Mercy seasons Justice.” God's Government is paternal. He loves, and pities, and punishes. To the merciful He will show Himself merciful; to the upright he will show Himself upright; to the pure He will show Himself pure. (Vers. 25, 26)— ‘* So dear to Heaven is saintly Chastity, That when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lacky her ”’ Love Virtue !— ‘* She can teach you how to climb Higher than the sphery chime; Or if Virtue feeble were, Heaven itself would stoop to her.”’ The words, from vers. 17-19, were sung upon the scaffold by four sons of the Huguenots. They were the last martyrs of the Desert— who suffered as late as 1762, under the reign of Louis XV, Near to Nismnes, in a solitary spot, there is to be seen the Cave where the assemblies of the Desert were held. At Aignes-Mortes is the Tower of Constance, which served as a prison for the Protestant ladies who refused conversion to Catholicism. Some remained nearly forty years in this sepulchre without seeing or hearing from a friend.— Aer. PsALM XIX.—There are two voices—one inaudible—declaring the glory of God, the other audible, declaring His wr//, It forms a fit companion piece to Psalm VIII. We have thus a day-piece, and a night-piece by the same hand. The pastoral life is favorable to med- itation. Spentin the open air, all natural sights and sounds grow familiar. David in both Psalms recalls the peaceful time, when, a shepherd lad, already skilled in the use of his rustic lyre, and accustomed to give vent to his pious rapture in holy song, he lay on summer nights on the pleasant hill-sides of Bethlehem watching his flock and, looking up, saw ‘‘the heavens sowed with stars, thick as XXXVH1 INT RODCCTION a field; and as the night wore away saw the grey dawn, and the kindling fires of day-break, till, all at once, the sun, the regent of day, shot suddenly up from behind the mountains of Moab— ** Jocund to sun His longitude through heaven's high road ”’ Psitu XX.—Is an expression of loyal attachment to David, the sovereign, by the army. Dr. Maclaren thinks it may have been connected with David's organization of ‘‘ the service of song.”” He imagines the army drawn up for action, that prays for the king; who, according to custom, brinys sacrifices and offerings before the fight. Then, as they wave their banners, they send up the shout, ‘‘ In the name of our God we will set up our banners !”” Then the king speaks, rejoicing in his soldiers’ devotion, and accepts it as an omen that his sacrifice has not been in vain. ‘* Now I know Jehovah saveth His anointed.’ Then the chorus of the host exclaims, as they look across the field to the chariots and cavalry of the foe (forces which Israel seldom used), ‘‘Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.” Ere a sword is drawn, they see the enemy scattered. ‘' They are brought down and fallen, but we stand upright.” Then with the prayer, ‘‘ Jehovah, save! let the king hear us when we call,” they dash forth to victory. PsaLu XAI —This Psalm, it is said, was sung as a Coronation Ode throughout England by the overtrustful Presbyterians at the restoration of Charles II. PsitM AXNII.—This is 6v David but surely not ef David. It only then becomes intelligible, when it is accepted as a prophecy of a suf- fering Messiah. It is not inaptly called by Spurgeon, 7he Psalm of HEC TOSS. PsitMm NXAIII.—The tranquilizing effect of this sweetest of all Pastorals, compared with which all others that were ever written are puerile and poor, is felt by every reader. It deserves to be set to some heavenly tune by some angelic composer, for no TRTRODECTION. XXX1X ‘* Inferior hand or voice could hit Inimitable sounds.” For want of this let it be sung only to ideal music— ‘‘ Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on, Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.”’ Str Charles Bell arrived at the seat of Mr.‘Holland, Hallow Park, on the 27th of May, 1842. He was apparently in good health, but suffered from heart-disease (Angina pectoris). One or two recent attacks of ‘‘anguish of the chest” had made him more than usually awake to the associations which the quiet churchyard might naturally prompt. He spent some pleasant hours in sketching the beauties of the scenery. ‘‘ This is a sweet spot,’ he said, ‘‘ here I should like to rest till they come to take me away.” During the evening he de- scanted upon that masterpiece of art, the ‘‘ Last Supper,” of Leonardo da Vinci, an engraving of which lay before him, and repeated the passage from the Gospel. After retiring, as was his wont, selections from the Scriptures and the Prayer Book were read to him, and he chose the 7wenty-third Psalm. After afew hours of sleep he awoke with a frightful spasm, asked to be supported, and immediately expired.—Quarterly Revicw. When £dward Jrving was on his death-bed he repeated the 23d Psalm in Hebrew. Ver. 4, 7hy rod and Thy staff they comfort me, were the dying words of the great Scottish philosopher, Szr I} v/liam Hamilton, When Dr. Alexander Duff, the Indian Missionary, lay dying, and apparently unconscious (Feb., 1878) his daughter repeated to him the 7wety-third Psalm, and he responded at the end of each verse. Heinrich Ifcine, who had been a pantheist and scoffer, was laid for years on what he called his ma¢tress sepulchre, and took to reading the Bible, especially the Psalms. One of the very last of his poems xl INTRODUCTION. Lord is on the waters ; the God of glory thundereth; the Lord is on many waters.’ The air thickens; the blackness spreads; the path of the cyclone is strewed with a thousand wrecks. ‘‘It breaks the cedars of Lebanon, yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.” The mountain itself is made to rock—'‘to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.” The voice of the Lord forks the lightning—'‘divideth the flames of fire.” Meanwhile, two hun- dred miles away in the far south, ‘‘ The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness, the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadish; the voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to bring forth prematurely, and strips the forests.’’ Al! at once we hear countless voices out of the clouds and above them, shouting Glory! Glory! and a fearless child lying in a Sheltered nook, a delighted witness of the spectacle ehos (if the most terrible and nimble stroke Of quick, cross-lightning;”’ claps hands, and cries, bonnic! bonnie! and we too, borne upward by the ecstacy of the hour, join the ‘' mighty ones,” invoked in the beginning, in ascribiny to the Lord the glory due unto His Name— unalterably assured, that He ‘‘ who sat enthroned at the Flood, and sittcth King fourever,’’ serene and calm, ‘‘ will bless the people with peace.” Milton knew of this description—he could hardly have hoped to rival it: ‘ And either tropic now ‘Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven: the clouds From many a horrid rift, abortive poured Ficree rain with lightning mixed, water miaxed with fire, In ruin reconciled, nor slept the winds Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad From the four hinges of the worid, and fell On the vexed wilderness, whose tallest pines, Theuyh rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks Bowcd their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts, Or torn up sheer.” = FP IISE Kenge, Tt, ff, €.. $03-409 PsALM ANXA.—Among those who suffered in the Netherlands dur- ing the first governorship of the cruel Alva was JoAnn Herwin, At IN TRODECTION xh the place of execution he sang the 7hirticth Psalm. He was first strangled and then burned to ashes. Ver. 5 was among the latest sayings of Rev. John Brown, the commentator.—Ker. PsALM XXXI.—Verse 5, ‘‘ /uto Thine hand T commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth,’ or as we have it in the Latin Vulgate, 72 manus tuas, commendo spiritum meum. redimistt nos, Domine, Deus veritatis, These words (the first part at least) were the last spoken by our Lord on the Cross. The first martyr, Stephen, addressed them to the Lord Jesus during his stoning; and many Christian martyrs since have breathed confidently the same words, at the stake and on the scaffold. Inthe private chamber too, ‘“When unto dying eyes The cascment slowly grows a glimmering square,”’ has taken place the same solemn committment of his spirit by this and that good man, distinguished for important services rendered to mankind— ‘' He gave his honors to the world again, His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace.’ Doubtless, ‘‘*T is a vile thing to die, When men are unprepared, and look not for it '— (We quote by preference, from the poets rather than the preacher). Shakespeare says further of death: ‘ Thou know’st tis common; all that live must die, Passing through nature to eternity.”’ ‘‘ Why, what is pomp, rule. reign, but earth and dust, And, live we how can, yet die we must.”’ Another poet moralizes: ‘‘ The glories of our birth and state Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armor against fate— Death lays his icy hands on kings; * * * All heads must come To the cold tomb— Only the actions of the just Smell sweet and blossom from the dust.”’ xhiv IX TROP CCTION . ‘*The Last Words of Eminent Persons" are always invested with melancholy interest. It has often happened, that men, not known to be devout, when brought (unexpectedly, it may be) face to face with death, have not been ashamed to make an open avowal of their secret belicf in the reality of religion by a cry for mercy, and a com- mending of their soul to the Christian’s God. However we may Wish tne cry had been made earlier, and been clear from all suspi- cion of superstitious fear, we are bound to respect it always as some- thing inexpressibly pathetic. Because of their appropriateness, the words of our text have been more frequently used perhaps than any others. We have room only for a few names. John Huss was burned alive, July, 1415. When he came to the stake, he threw himself upon his knees and prayed: ‘: /nto thy hands, O Lord, f commit my spirit. Lhou hast redecmed me.” Christopher Columbus was born at Genoa, 1445-6, and died at Val- ladolid, May 20th, 1506, aged 70, worn out by neglect, poverty and disease. His last words were, ‘‘/n2 manus tuas, commendo spiritum mewn redimistt nos, Domine Deus veritatis. — Irving's Life of Columbus Lady Jane Grey, beautiful, accomplished and good, who was executed 1554, at the ave of 17, a victim to the rashness and ambt- tion of her misyuided parents, uttered these words as she laid her neck on the lileck, The same prayer is attributed to ary Qucen of Scots, just before she was beheaded, February 8,.1557- frane’s Quarles (B. 1592; D. 1644) when dying, spake in Latin tv this effect: O sweet Saviour of the World, let Thy last words upon the cross be my last words in the world—Into Thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit. —Clssold'’s ‘Last Hours ef Christian Men.” It is told of the Lmperer Charles V (Charles I of Spain, B. at (rhent, 1500; D. 1558), that, having had mock funerals performed in behalf of his father, mother and wife, long dead, cach on a different day, at which he attended, preceded by a page bearing a taper, and INTRODUCTION. xlv joining in the chant in a very devout manner out of a tattered prayer-book, he asked his confessor whether he might not now per- form his own funeral—in other words, whether it would not be good for his own soul. The monk said it certainly would; and on the following day, the 30th August, as the monkish historian relates, this celebrated service was actually performed. The high altar, the catafalque, and the whole church shone with a blaze of wax lights; the friars were all in their places, at the altars and in the choir, and the household of the emperor attended in deep mourning. The pious monarch was there, attired in sable weeds, and bearing a taper, to see himself interred, and to celebrate his own obsequies. While the solemn mass for the dead was sung, he came forward, and gave his taper into the hands of the officiating priest in token of his desire to yield his soul into the hands of his Maker. The funeral rites ended, the emperor dined in his western alcove. [One cannot help feeling that there is something very grotesque and ghastly in this acting one’s own funeral, so much so, as to suggest the existence of a taint of insanity. ] Three weeks afterward, on September 20th, he had been attended by his confessor and by the preacher Villalva all the previous night, who frequently read aloud at his request, passages from Scripture-— usually from the Psalms—his favorite one being Psalm XC. He asked for the eucharist. Having had great difficulty in swallowing the sacred morsel, he opened his mouth and made Quixada see if it had all gone down. It spite of his extreme weakness, he followed all the responses as usual, and repeated with great fervor the whole verse, Jz manus tuas, commendo spirttum meum. redemisti nos, Domine, Deus veritatis, The clock had just struck two when he expired.— Sterling's ‘' Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles 1.” Motley, in his History of ‘‘ The Rise of the Dutch Republic,”’ relates, that on June 3, 1568, Counts Egmont and Horn were brought from Ghent to Brussels, and lodged inthe Broodhuis. On the qth, the Duke of Alva pronounced sentence against both on an unsupported charge of high treason, The Countess of Egmont hearing of the sentence fell at the Duke’s feet, and implored mercy for her husband. He, with aaa LER Ee FIO heartless and incredible irony, reassured her that on the morrow he should be ve/eased. The Count, when informed that his death was to take place in the morning, expressed great surprise and indignation at the cruel and unjust sentence. On his way to execution he read aloud the Fiftv-frst Psalm. Having ascended the scaffold he said the Lord’s Prayer. Kneeling upon the cushion he drew a little cap over his eyes, and folding his hands together, cried with a loud voice, “Lord, tnto thy hands [commit my spirit.” The executioner then severed his head from his body at one stroke, A moment of shudderiny silence succeeded. A dark cloth was now quickly thrown over the body and the blood; and, within afew minutes, the -ldmira/, Count /Torn, was seen advancing, his bald head uncovered, and his hands unbound. He calmly saluted each of his acquaintances. Casting his eyes upon the corpse, he asked if it was the body of Egmont. He did not kiss the crucifix, but knelt upon the scaffold to pray. Then drawing a Milan cap completely over his face, uttered in Latin, the same invocation that Egmont had used, /” manus tuas, etc., and submitted his neck to the stroke. Froude, in his ‘* History of England,” gives this account of the ex- ecution of func Bevelin, in 1536. The queen walked firmly to the front of the block. When the few preparations were completed, she turned to the spectators, and said: ‘'Christian people, I am come to die. And according to law, and by law, Iam judged to death; and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come here to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that whereof I am accused and condemned to die. * * Thus I take my leave of the world and of you; and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O, Lord, have mercy on me. Zo God 7 commend my seul!’ These words, says Stowe, ‘‘she spoke with a smiling countenance,’’ which done, she kneeled down on both her knees, and said: ‘‘ Zo Jesus Christ I com- mend my soul,” and with that word the hangman of Calais smote off her head at one stroke with a sword. Her body, with the head, was buried in the quire of the chapel. Lord Thomas Cromwell, B. 1490, D. 1540. The concluding part of his last prayer was in these words: ‘'Grant, merciful Savior, that INTRODUCTION. xlvii when death hath taken away the use of my tongue, yet my heart may cry and say unto Thee, Lord, into thy hands [ commend my soul, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. Amen.” With these words on his lips he was bcheaded. George IVishart was executed for heresy March Ist, 1546. He was led to the fire, with a rope about his neck, and a chain of iron about his middle. When he came to the fire, he said these words thrice: ‘Oh, thou Savior of the world, have mercy upon me. Father of Heaven, / commend my spirit into thy hands.” He was put upon a gibbet and hanged, and then burnt.’’"—Fvoude’s History of England, In Michelet’s Life of Luther, we read, that he arrived at Eisleben, the 28th January, and though already ill, joined in all the conferences until the 17th February, when he was too ill to go out. At supper he spoke much of his approaching end; and some one asking him if he thought we should recognize each other in the other world, he re- joined that he thought so. On returning to his chamber, he slept without waking for an hour and a half. It was now eleven o'clock. When he awoke he said to those in attendance, ‘‘ What, still sitting up by me; why do you not go to rest yourselves?’ He then com- menced praying, and said with fervor, ‘‘ /z manus twas,” etc. Later he repeated three times following, ‘' Zz manus tuas,” etc. Suddenly his eyes closed and he fainted. Soon after he expired. He was born 1484 and died 1546. Monday, Nov. 24th, 1572, was the last day that John Knox spent onearth. His biographer, Dr. M'Crie, tells us: '‘In the afternoon he desired his wife to read the 15th Chapter of First Corinthians. ‘Is not that a comfortable chapter?’ said he, when it was finished. ‘O, what sweet and salutary consolation the Lord hath afforded me from that chapter.’ A little after he said, ‘Now, for the last time, [ commend my soul, spirit and body, (touching three of his fingers), into thy hands, O Lord!’ About eleven o'clock he expired, without a struggle. On Wednesday, Nov. 26th, he was interred in the church- yard of St. Giles. The regent pronounced his eulogium in these emphatic words, ‘ There lies he who never feared the face of man.’”’ c xlvil TE TRODECTION. Torguato Tasso, was born at Sorrento, 1544, died at Rome, 1595, on the evening of the intended ceremony of crowning him Prince of Poets, by Pope Clement VIII, who was a great admirer of his genius. A contemporary account states that, his end drawing near, no one was admitted to his chamber, except his confessor, and some fathers of approved learning and sanctity, who sung Psalms, one with an- other, Tasso joining in so far as his failing breath would allow. So he remained all night till the next day, when feeling himself giving way, he began to chant the words, /z manus tuas, etc., but had not strength to finish the verse.—./?/man s Life of Tasso. PSALM NNXII.—This is the second of the Penitential Psalms. No leaf from the bock of David's experience, all blotted as it is with tears, is so fraught with comfort as this. It shows that the Evangel of the Old Testament, if less clear in its utterances as to the justify- ing reasons and grounds of the grace, differs in no essential respect from the Evangel of the New. We have here in David a typical ex- emplification of the possibilities of remedial mercy — the blessed freeness of Divine forgiveness in a real case, and the one mcthod set forth of obtaining pardon. Here is one, who had been raised toa bright eminence above all men of his time, ‘the observed of all observers,’ ‘the cynosure of neighboring eyes,’ the anointed head of the Theocracy, and representative of the True Religion ‘Into what pit thou scest, From what height fallen.” It has been well said, ‘‘ Nobody pays for a little pleasure in evil at so dear a rate, or keeps it for so short atime, as a good man.” In such an one Conscience is a terrible power. There is no peace for him night norday. His mind is “‘ filled with scorpions,’ condemned '‘“ Upon the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstacy.” When David says: ‘‘ While I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long,” he only tells us what we IN TERODCE TION xlix know must have been. But when he said, ‘‘I will confess my trans- gression unto the Lord,” forgiveness followed—the word of healing. O, the blessedness of it. For this shall everyone to the end of time pray, and seek the Lord while He may be found. No doubt this Psalm was written later than the sIst. PsALM XXXIII.—Vers. 16, 17, seem to point to a deliverance from some formidable heathen power that employed cavalry. PSALM XXXIV.—This is one of the Alphabetical Psalms, and, like the rest, didactic in character.—See Notes to Ps. 37 and I19. During the middle ages the copying of the Psalter was a favorite employment in the religicus houses. St. Columba, who had spent a long life in incessant labors among the Celtic and Gothic tribes, oc- cupied his leisure hours in his beloved Iona in multiplying copies of the Psalms. His biographer relates, that the day on which he died, June 9, 597, he was at work on the 72/rty-fourth Psalm, and had got as far as the tenth verse, ‘‘ The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.’ PsALM XXXV.—Ver. 15, ‘' /2 mv adverstty,” 7. ¢., ‘in my sick- ness, or when I was taken ill.” PSALM XXXVII.—An Alphabetical Psalm. See Note. Paul Ger- hardt’'s widely known and admired Hymn, ‘‘ Befieh/ du deine Wee’ is founded on the fifth verse: ‘‘ Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust alsotin Him, and [Te shall bring it to pass.’’ It was first printed in 1656. John Wesley’s translation, consisting of sixteen verses, is well-known; and as a part or as a whole, may be found in most of our modern Hymn Books: ‘* Commit thou all thy griefs, And ways into His hands. To His sure trust_and tender care, Who earth and heaven commands,” | INARODU CLIION. Gerhardt composed, it is said, 133 Hymns. A large number have been translated into English verse by John Wesley and others. The singing of his hymns as well as Luther's, was a powerful means of advancing the Reformation. The first Lutheran Church in Philadelphia was opened in 1743, with Gerhardt’s Hymn. Robert Baillie, savs Dr. Ker, was condemned to death at Edin- burgh, Dec. 24, 1648. He was the great grandson of John Knox, was called the Scottish Sidney, and was feared and hated by the Government of the time for his religious and political opinions, though no unlawful act could be laid to his charge. The evening before his execution he bade his son to trust in the testimony of the Psalmist (Ps. 37:25). ‘‘I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”’ The son proved worthy of his father, rose to high office in the State after the Revolution; and the descendents of Robert Baillie are found among some of the noblest families of the kingdom. PsALM NNNIX.—Ewald speaks of this Psalm as ‘‘The most beautiful of all the elegies of the Psalter.”’ PsatM XLII.—Lord Fairfax (B. 1611; D. 1671) was attacked by a fever which carried him off in a few days. The last morning of his life he called for u Bible, and read the Forty-second Psalm,—'' The Book of Death.” PsaLtM NLVI.—This forms the basis of Luther’s celebrated Hymn, Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott, ** A safe stronghold our God is still,” which was written in 1529, in a time of darkest peril. Some one has called it ‘Luther in Song,’ the rugged and fit embodiment of one ‘whose words were half battles.’ It was a recruiting energy of im- mensce efhiciency during the whole progress of the Reformation. It made brave men braver. It ennobled service and sacrifice. It rendered the faint-hearted, fearless, unflinching and invincible—lifted them up to the height of heroes and martyrs, fighting or suffering. Each soldier, as he sang it, felt his heart leap. It taught him, that if INTRODUCTION. hi life was dear, there were other things still dearer—that a pure doctrine and worship were well worth dying for; that the way to gain life was to be willing to lose it. Crusades for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre belonged to the past. Unnumbered lives and incalculable treasure had, once upon a time, been sacrificed in a frenzied struggle for the possession of an empty tomb. No higher honor, no greater merit could be imagined than to have ‘* Fought For Jesu Christ, in glorious Christian field, Streaming the ensign ot the Christian cross, Against black Pagans, Turks and Saracens.” Here is a returned knight of whom it is told, that ‘* Worn out with works of war, retired himself To Italy, and there at Venice gave His body to that pleasant country’s earth, And his pure soul unto his Captain, Christ, Under whose colors he had fought so long."’ But times had changed, and worthier objects claimed the attention of men. It was not now the possession of the Holy Sepulchre, but the possession of the Holy Scriptures which was the great point of dis- pute—the casus bel/i that split the nations into hostile camps. The train was all laid, waiting for the electric spark, which this Lyric of Luther partly supplied, and the effect was proportionate. Heine called it the J/arsezllaise of the Reformation. Before the battle of Leipsic, September 17, 1631, under the orders of Gustavus Adolphus, the whole army, drawn up in battle array, sung this Hymn of Luther; and after the victory, he thanked God, that the assurance of the concluding line of the second verse, ‘ Shall conquer in the battle, was made good. The Hymn was again sung before his last fight at Liitzen with Wallenstein, in which, though successful, he was mortally wounded. PsaALM LI, is the third of the Penzttential Psalms, and is known as the ‘‘ Wiserere,”’ this being the initial word in the Latin Version 2f ly INTRO CTION the Psalm: JWisereve met, Deus, ‘‘ Have mercy upon me, O God. Here is a cry for mercy that has gone, and is going up. continually, from innumerable death-heds. Noone has a right to brand it as weak or cowardly. It is admitted that there is a fear of death, which is simply instinctive and common to all animals, and that if this were all, it were nething. But, indisputably, man holds a relation to death which is distinctive and peculiar. Endowed with ‘intellectual being, thoughts that wander through cternity,” it to him is necessarily a thing of mysterious and mighty import. He cannot well avoid asking the question, What is it? What does it mean? The most skeptical is obliged to admit, that Death is an unsolved problem—that, in all philosophical speculations respecting it, there is a residuum of doubt, suthcient to cause anxiety. It is the unthinking alone that have no misyivings. Infidel nevations, not being based on knowledge, amount to nothing. They are mere assumptions. It is unseemly bravado for anyone to say: ** I have no fear of death, nor any anxiety about what les beyond it.) To speak thus is evidence of foolishness, not of wisdom The fool may say in his heart, There is no God, but how does that help his case? Suppose there is none, what then? There is still room for innumerable imaginable hells. Buddhism, eliminates the gods, but finds place for 136 Buddhist hells, places of punishment, into which the bankrupt in merit is immediately born when he dies—the shortest term of suffering being ten millions of vears, and the longest being almost beyond the power of even Indian notation to express. It would seem therefore, that a bad man can ground no comfort on the presumption that no God exists, so long as there are Buddhist and Agnostic possibilities of intolerable suffering without one. What state can be worse than to stand on the brink of un- known abysscs, with no Power to pray to ! Without reference to the question of probation atter death, whe would not rather, like David, fall into the hands of God, than into the hands of men? Much more, who would not prefer to bide his chances for weal or Woe in the next werld, subject to the disposition of a Being, declared to be, ‘‘ A God mereiful and pracious, slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and INTRODUCTION. li sin, but by no means clearing the guilty’—than to be delivered over to the crushing and grinding forces of blind mechanic laws, and an unfeeling irresistible destiny. As God is unchangeable, what He is, He will continue to be? So much is certain. What bearing this has on the question of probation after death, and the duration of future punishment, it may not be impertinent to inquire, quite fearlessly, up to a certain point, beyond which we have no right to go. When a prurient and unwarranted curiosity leads us to pry into matters which do not directly concern us, and which God has not seen fit to reveal, He checks and shames our presumption by the mildness and condescension of His lofty challenge, “‘ Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Cannot you trust Me? Must I give an account of all My doings to you beforehand ?’’ What reply did Christ make when questioned as to the number who should be saved, and the precise time of the end? If one might be so bold, as to turn the sweet courtesy and grace of the Divine answer into the coarseness of our every-day speech, it would run somewhat in this wise: ‘‘I may not tell you. It is none of your business.”” Surely, if I believe in a God at all, I can afford to trust Him, without any assurances and guarantees beforehand. Do you not know, my brother, kas it not been told you, God is Love? Out of the immeasurable Ocean of Doubt rises this Rock of Certainty. Its shining pinnacles pierce the Heavens. This Rock is Christ, which is only another name for Divine Love in Divinest man- ifestation. Upon this Rock, fixed and everlasting. it is your privilege and mine to stand. What if billows beat below, they cannot mount to these serene altitudes! What if darkness encompass us, thick and impenetrable, we are comforted with the assurance that it hides noth- ing that can harm us, since Love is there in the darkness! Why then is man wretched? Whence comes his misery? Why do our Misereres ascend? Where lies our danger? Where but in ourselves, and from ourselves? If all were right within, all would be right without. ‘“ He that hath light within his own clear breast, May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts, Benighted walks under the mid-day sun, Himself is his own dungeon,”’ liv INTRODUCTION. What we need is an internal salvation —to be saved fre our sins. To be saved zz cur sins is impossible. For what would that involve? Nothing short of this: Order, which is Heaven's first law, would be broken Not asinevle link in all that chain which binds the universe to the Eternal Throne but would be shattered. Manifestly a dissolu- tion of the tie which unites cause and effect necessitates chaos, the negation of government, and the annihilation of the Godhead. For God ceuld not be otherwise than he is, and be at all. We see, there- fore, how irrational is the hope, that we shall ever be able to handle fire wlth impunity. so leng as fire is fire and flesh is flesh. An impure man Wants to reap the rewar-ls of purity —to gather grapes of thorns. He wishes to be happy, but is unwilling to comply with the condi- tions of happiness. The mountain must come to Mahomet, since Mahomet will not go to the mountain. If we had not abundant proot of this perversity all around us, nay, adegreeob it in ulrselves, we would nit be able te credit. it. Jn some cuses it would seem to reach a stage where it is incurable, Evil tends to perpetuate itself. Habit confirms obduracy. Relorm becames more and more dificult, the longer a man lives in sin. It would be hard toturn Methuselah ints new paths. Millennial deprav- ity istreadial tathink of, The liw of tendency no doubt is for the unrighteous to remain unright) cus — the filthy to continue filthy. ‘Suppose God should relent And publish vrace to all, on promise made Of new suljection; with what eycs could we Stind in Eis presence humble. and reccive Strict laws imposed to cclebrate His throne With warbled hymns, and to His Godhead sing Forced hallclu jabs : how wearisome Eternity to spend io worship: paid Ty one we hate!” The object of this line of thought is to show, that we have not so much recon te frar Ged «sto fear aurselves The danger of our perdition is not from without but from within, The Argument fa favre wl posthumous probation proves too INTRODUCTION lv much. We encounter at the outset this difficulty: If Divine fairness requires that all men should be treated alike; that no one should be permitted to have any advantage over another; that the opportunities which have been accorded tosome, should be extended to all—particu larly the opportunity of accepting the salvation offered through Christ—so that an absolute equality of privilege should be secured to every human being who has lived or shall live —then, it is manifest, that the new trial will need to reach backward and forward so as to comprehend almost the entire human race. Qui bone? Besides, if there is to be a probation after death, it must clearly be a probation different from the earthly one. It can be more favorable, or less favorable, but it cannot be the same, for the scene and circumstances of the trial are not the same. To a disembodied spirit whence shall come those fleshly lusts, which in this life war so fiercely against the soul? That the ordeal is to be less severe. and the result more favor- able, militate against those passages of Scripture which speak of peril, great and imminent, which men are urged to escape from, declaring and protesting, zozw is the accepted time, and woz is the day of sal- vation What is the use of a new opportunity with no different issue ? Possibly, some of our Creeds are too narrow and need enlarging. Of God and His ways, how little do we know. He has revealed Him- self only in part. So much as was necessary for us to know, He has told us, and little or nothing bevond. But we are only a small part of His great family. We know what He is to our world, but not what He is to other worlds. We have therefore no right to say that He is shut up to but One way in His dealings with His creatures. We may be convinced, that. if He has other ways, not one of them is so dear and wonderful as that revealed to us through Jesus Christ. No doubt every way He has devised is like Himself. divinely perfect. and suited to the case. Bewildering speculations about the final fate of the heathen are useless, if not worse than useless. We know that the Gospel is necessary to them, otherwise we would not be commanded to take it to them, or send it. Our duty toward them ends with this life. What will become of them beyond this life. that is God's mat- ter, not ours. And well it is so. It is not for man to say what is right—to instruct the Judge, or anticipate Him. hy IN TROD CC TION. Judgment is the highest function of Godhead. The first requisite is omniscience, and nobudy 1s Omniscient but God. Problems which are difficult to us, are net dificult to lim. He has Divine solutions for allenigmas. No man, nor bedy of men, with the combined wis- dom of all the angels, would be competent to pass sentence on a sin- gle human soul. But God is able to do so easily and infallibly, so that no creature in the universe shall have just cause of complaint against his Maker in the end. That poor wretch — who has lived amid depraved surroundings ever since he wus born; who is of cor- rupt lineage, vicious, so to speak, almost from necessity — will he Le allowed to plead these adverse influences’ Ile will. Whether he pleads them or not, they shall plead fur him. The Supreme Judge will take every thing into account. He will unravel the entire web of his life to the last thread and fibre; will follow up the taint of a bad ancestry buck to Adam, if need be; and will temper justice by the extenuating circumstances of his whole history, so that justice and mercy and every attribute of His Godhead shall be vindicated and glorified in the sentence. It is enough to know that the Julge of all the earth will do right. In no way can we so honor Him as to trust Him—to trust Him implicitlhh—to say with a filial heart, * Father, Thy will be done.” Our duty is to trust Him always and to the end. Were we stand- ing on a precipice, and heard God's voice saying, ** Throw thyself down "—and could be sure that it was His voice, and not Satan's, we need not hesitate, knowing that we shall fall into the arms o: God— yea, even thouvh our body should be mungled and crushed at the foot, our soul shall be safe in Him. It is instructive to observe how differently good men deport them- selves in their last moments. One mizht suppose that Christian heroes and martyrs would have no occasion to use the words of this Psalm, but it is remarkable how large a number of those whose lives have been spent in devoted service, have, ev cavvemis, sent up this last ery for mercy. No doubt itis largely an affair of temperament, and proves little or nothing. Bunyan, in his immortal Allegory, illustrates this in the cases of Christian and Hopetul, while crossing together the River of Death. TRIRODCCTION. lvil Of all that has been said, this is the sum. From some cause or other, man’s nature is out of joint. What he needs is a change of will, a change of affection, a change of spiritual relations, a change from discord to harmony, so that, inasmuch as. at the first, in a higher sense than Pythagoras intended or imagined, ‘* From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began; I’.om harmony to harmony, Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in man,” there may be,at last, a restoration to pristine musical consent and agreement, without one jarring note. In the mean time, let our miserere, if need be, go up, not doubting, if sincere, that it will be heard, The dying thief, we know, was heard in the last hour, but how much better is it to seek, and experience the blessedness of ‘the healing benediction ’ at once, than to wait. Or should there be those inclined to holy mirth, let them sing psalms. PsALM LV.—Whether or not, Mary Queen of Scots, was privy to the murder of her husband, Darnley, has been always a vexed ques- tion. Froude supplies us with this story: ‘‘ When the Queen quitted Darnley’s bedside, after being more than ordinarily lavish, as it seemed, of her fondness, she let drop one fearful sentence. The Earl, though it was late, was in no mood for sleep; and Mary's last words sounded awfully in his ears. ‘She was very kind.’ he said to Nelson, ‘but why did she speak of Davie’s (Rizzio) slaughter?’ Just then Paris came back to fetch a fur wrapper which the Queen had left, and which she thought too pretty to be spoiled. ‘ What will she do?’ Darnley said again, when she was gone, ‘It is very lonely.’ The shadow of death was creeping over him; he was no longer the random boy, when, two years before, he had come to Scotland, filled with idle dreams of vain ambition. Sorrow, suffering, disease and fear had done their work. He opened the Prayer Book and read over the Ar fty-ffth Psalm, which by a strange coincidence was in the English service for the day (Sunday, February g, 1567) lvl INTRODUCTION. that was dawning. The last words that passed his lips were vs. I-5 of this Psalm, which read: ‘Hear my prayer, O Lord, and hide not Thyself from my petition. My heart is disquieted within me, and the fear of death hath fallen upon me: Fearfulness and trem- bling are come upon me. It is not an open enemy that hath done me this dishonor, fur then I could have borne it. It was even, thou, my companion, my guide, and my own familiar friend.’ Forlorn victim of a cruel time! Twenty-one years old—no more. At the end of an hour he went to bed with his page at his side. An hour later, they two were found lying dead in the garden under the stars. The house had been blown up with gun-powder.’ —Freude's ‘‘/Tistory of England” Psat LS 1). has been called “The Lord's Prayer -of the Old Testament.” PsaALM LAVIII.—Called by the Huguenots the ‘' Song of Battle,” and often sung by them, amid the storm of conflict, (French Version). Here is the beginning (as given in ‘‘Zes Psaumes de David mis en Vers Francets,”’ published in 1807): Que Dieu se montre seulement, Et l’on verra dans un moment Abandonner la place, Le camp des ennemis é€pars, Epouvanted de toutes parts, Fuira devant sa face. On verra tout ce camp s'enfuir Comme l'on voit s’evanonir Une épaisse fumée: Comme la ecire fond au feu, Ainsi des mechans devant Dicu, La force est consumee, etc. As this Psalm is not found among those that Marot translated, the version here given is probably Beza’s, slightly altered. The following account of the Battle of Dunbar, fought September 3, 1650, is taken from Carlyle’s Life of Oliver Cromweidl: The small Town of Dunbar stands on one of those projecting rock-promon- tories with which the shore of the Frith of Forth is niched, forming INTRODUCTION. lwix a grim barrier of whinstone, sheltering it from the chafing and tumbling of the German Ocean. Landward rises, some short mile off, a long hill of considerable height, called the Doon or Doon Hill. On this Hill lies David Leslie with the victorious Scotch army. Cockburnspath with its ravines has been seized on Oliver’s right and made impassable. Behind Oliver is the sea. Lesley’s force is 23,000, Oliver’s about half as many. Lesley commits the mistake of coming down to the base of the Hill, edging with a portion of his army towards the right to cut off the enemy's retreat on that side. At the sight of this movement, Cromwell determines to profit by the advantage it affords, and to anticipate the enemy’s attack by attack- ing first. All things being in readiness (the night has been wild and wet) for the attack to be made at earliest daybreak, the trumpets sound and there is cannonading along the whole line. The Scots too are on the wing, and awake. At the end of an hour’s fighting the Scotch give way and run. Just then over the Abb’s head and the German Ocean bursts the first gleam of the level sun, and Cromwell is heard to say, in the words of the Strty-e1gnth Psalm, *‘ Let God, arise, let His enemies be scattered ’’—or, in Rous’s metre, ‘* Let God arise, and scatteréd Let all His enemies be And let all those that do Him hate Before His presence flee!”’ Even so. The Scotch army is shivered to utter ruin; rushes in tumultuous wreck, hither, thither. Before entering on the pursuit, Oliver orders a halt, and all sing the Hundred and Seventeenth Psalm, uplifting it to the tune of Bangor, and rolling it strong against the sky: ‘*O give ye praise unto the Lord, All nati-ons* that be; Likewise ye peop.e all, accord His name to magnify. For great to-us-ward ever are His loving kindnesses: His truth endures forevermore: The Lord O do ye bless. * To be pronounced in three syllables. lx INTRO CON. PsaALM LANI.—Aeévit Blair, the grandfather of Robert Bluir, the author of 72 Grave, called this ** My Psalm.” Philip de MWorney, an illustrious friend and champion of the Hugue- nots, on his death-bed desired the Seven/v-frst Psalm to be read to him, Psaim LNAVI.—Charles Kingsley, when sailing up the Rhine, and looking on the strongholds of the old freebooters, writes: ‘‘ How strange that my favorite Psalm about the hills of the robbers (hills of prey) should have come in course the very first duy I sailed up the Rhine.” Psatwt LX XIX —Fourteen Protestants of Meaux, arrested at a meeting, sang this Psalm as they went to death. Psarm LXNNXV.— When Richard Cromwell was installed Pro- tector, Dr. Thomas Godwin preached, at the opening of Parliament, January 27, 1659, a sermon, taking for his text, Ver. 10, ‘‘ Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Psaim NC.—Herder calls it, “ that Ancient Psalm, that Hymn of Eternity.” Vers. 1-4 is the burial song of the Russian Church. John fampden( B. 1294; D. 1643), at the beginning of the Civil War, was fatally wounded in a skirmish with Rupert's cavalry between Thame and Oxford. In great pain and almost fainting he reached Thame where his wounds were dressed. After nearly six days «f crucl suffering he died. He was buried among the hills and woods of Chiltern. Many troops in the neighborhood followed the beloved body to its grave, with arms reversed, drums and ensigns muffled, and heads uncovered, singing the Aivvelieth Pralm as they went, and the 43rd as they returned.— Arysier's Lives of British Statesmen PsatmMs ACVI, AXCVIT, NCVITI.—Dr. William Alexander, Bishop of Derry, says, ‘‘ We have in these Psalms the pans of all creation,” IVERODECTION. lt PsALM C.—No Psalm has been more sung. It gave name to the tune known as Old Hundred composed by William Frane in 1553— sometimes attributed to Luther, but he only changed and improved it. Bishop Heber speaks of having been greatly moved at hearing Thirteen Hundred native Christians —ata Tamul service in Tungore, Incia — all join in singing this Psalm‘in their own tongue. PsaALM CI.—David was engaged in the task of ordering his house- hold. Ver. 3, /ewse. The king’s house in an Eastern monarchy included the government of his army, and the administration of jus- tice. Ernest, the pious Duke of Saxe-Gotha, the founder of the Saxe- Gotha family (B. 1601; D. 1675) used to send a copy of the Psalms to unfaithful officials, so that when any magistrate had done wrong, it became a proverb, ‘* He will certainly receive the Prince’s Psalm to read’: ‘' Mine eye shall be upon the faithful of the land,” etc. He was the intimate friend uf Gustavus Adolphus. PsaimM CII.—Is the Fifth of the Seven Penitential Psalms. Dr. Ker remarks, there is no grander missionary hymn than Vers. 13~22. Psatm CVII,.—Contains, according to one hypothesis, the thanks- giving of exiles (Ver. 3) not yet returned to Jerusalem, but already escaped from the thraldom of Babylon. The main body of the Psalm was probably sung only by the leader, the chorus joining in the re- frain. ‘*‘ O that men would praise the Lord,” etc. PsaLtm CNVI.—This Psalm was a great favorite with Dante. He introduces it into his Puzyatervto as sung by a hundred spirits just arrived under the conduct of an angel: ‘In exitu Israel de Egypto, All with one voice together sang, with what In the remainder of that hymn is writ — and he speaks elsewhere, in his prose writings, of the 114th Psalm as the voice of thrilling joy. Ixil INTRODUCTION PsirM CXV.—/fen: PV. entered France by Calais with an English army. It was already much wasted and reduced in numbers by sick- ness, when the battle of Agincourt took place on St. Crispian’s Day, 1415. The French army, four times the number of its opponents, was overthrown, and the flower of the French chivalry either fell in the field or were taken prisoners. After the battle was over, Henry ordered the chaplain to read the 115th Psalm; and at the words, ‘* Not unto us, but unto Thy name give the glory,” the king and cav- alry dismounted, and they and all the host prostrated themselves on the ground. Shakespeare puts it thus: Pails Ly are was ere: And net tous, but to Thy arm alone Ascribe we all.—When without stratagem, But in plain shock, and even play of battle, Was ever known seo great and little loss Qn one part and the other?— Take it, God, lor itis only Thine!” —ileniy hi Act sl, Semel si, Basing-House, Pawlet, Marquis of Winchester’s mansion, stood at a small distance from Basingstoke in Flampshire. It was a very important royal stronghold, and had stood siege after siege for four years. The Lieutenant-General, Cromwell, gathering all the artil- lery he could lay hold of, stormed and took it. Carlyle tells, that he had spent much time in prayer the previous night; and as he seldom fought without some text of Scripture to support him, he rested on the eighth verse of the 115th Psalm. The Turks marched, plundering and devastating, to the walls of Vienna, The capital seemed lost. The Imperial army commanded by Charles of Lorraine, in conjunction with a Polish force under the heroic king, John Sobieski, defeated the Turks, and relieved the beleaguered city, September 12th, 1683. The battle-song of the Polish king, sung on the occasion, was .Vew nodts, Domine. The battle Was a turninz-point in bistory. The Turkish power, previ- ously so formidable, as to threaten the overrunning of Europe, was effectually broken. PsaLM CXAVII.—Sung by Cromwell and his aimy after the battle TX TRODUCTION lxili of Dunbar, September 3, 1650, and known afterwards by the Puri- tans as the Dunbar Psalm. PsALM CXVIII.—The biographer of Clement Marot tells, that he presented the Emperor Cl:arles V., as he was passing through France, with a copy of his Psalter, who gave the poet 200 doubloons, and asked him to complete his translation, praying him to send him as soon as he could the translation of the 118th Psalm, as he loved it much. It took rank with the 68th as the battle-song of the Huguenots. When William of Orange landed at Torbay in 1688, he asked Car- stares to conduct service. He prayed and gave part of the 118th Psalm to be sung, in which all the troops along the beach joined; and this act cf devotion, it is said. produced a sensible effect. The 17th verse, ‘‘ I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord,” was the last utterance of PAilip Berthelier,a noble Gen- evese. At the time that Bonivard was committed to the dungeon of Chillon, 1519, for defending the liberty of his native city, Berthelier was beheaded on an island at the outlet of the Lake of Geneva. Ver. 22, ‘‘ The stone which the builders,” etc., was the text of Ebenezer Erskine’s sermon, preached October Io, 1732, before the Synod, which led to the formation of the Secession Church.—Ar. PsALM CNIX.—Is the most perfect specimen of the Alphabetic or Acrostic Psalms—Bishop Cowper calls it ‘‘a Holy Alphabet '’—not amiss, perhaps, if we consider that the Primer of the Divine Law is the first book to be learned, beginning with the heavenly A, B, C of obedience. Ver. 9. ‘' Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.” Henry Scougal, author of Zhe Life of God in the Soul of Alan, was so impressed with these words that he became a Christian minister—and later, Profes- sor of Theology, King’s College, Aberdeen. He died in 1679 aged twenty-eight. Ver. 20. Chalmers says, while he could not speak of the raptures of Christian enjoyment, he thought he could enter into the feeling of the Psalmist, ‘‘ My soul breaketh for the longing it hath unto Thy judgments at all times.” Pascal singled out ver. 59 as pivotal: “I thought on my ways, and Ixiv INTRODUCTION. turned my feet unto thy testimonies.” He used to say that, ‘ with the deep study of life, this Psalm contained the sum of all Christian virtues.’ Ver. 83. deltle in the smoke. The bottle being of skin would shrivel and burn in the smoke lil:e leather—an apt metaphor for one, the sap of whose life was dried up by trouble. Ver. 92. ‘Unless Thy law had been my delight, I should have perished in mine affliction,” is written on Luther's Bible by his own hand. The date is 1542. Ver. 97. Henry Martin savs, ‘‘I experienced a solemn gladness in learning this part, ‘MEM,’ of the 119th Psalm.” Wer ios, “~The Alvord is:a lampaunto my icet.” “Phisis the text prefixed to a little back called Zhe Lantern of Light, which was the favorite readin: of the Lollards Lefere the Reformation. The Lollards of England and Scotland were charged with reading the Bible in their mother-tongue—Wickliffe’s translation—and with esteeming it abcve anv instruction they received from the priests. ()n this account they were called Biblemen.—Acr. Ver. 0g) Seon er da ear Pope Teee- Inthe fourth century, the number of Canentcal Hews for daily devotion was en- large from three to seven in accordance with the above; but they were strictly kept only in the cloisters, under the technical names of matina, about three o'clock, A. M.: frtvar, about six, 0 ij feria, Life, Aad; Hone, three, Mh May Perper SIN, TM cope yr, nine, roMoy and mesonvetium or wigidia, midnight. Usually two nocturnal prayers were added. William Wilherforce writes in his diary, 1819, ‘' Walked from Hyde Park Corner repeatiny the rigth Psalm.” Fon misc in Poors Clavinera ‘says; Tt is strange’ that of-all the pieces of the Bible which my mother taught me, that which cost me most to learn, and was, to my child's mind, most repulsive, the 11gth Psalm, has now become, of all, the most precious to me in its overflowing passion of love for the law of God.” PsauwMw CAA.—This is the first of a Collection of Fifteen Psalms, (Pss T2o-1 3), each bearing the tile, Pilgrim Sone. literally, Song of INTRODUCTION. Ixv Ascents, Song of the Goings-up, namely, to the Holy City, “ whither the tribes go up” (Ps. 122: 4). Many, perhaps most, were written with another design, and selected for this purpose because of their suitableness. The goings-up might relate to the going up from Babylon at the close of the Captivity, or from different parts -of Palestine. Three annual pilgrimages to the Holy City were required by the Law. These were usually made in large companies, with singing on the route. PsALM CXXIV.—A Pilgrim Ode. Ver. 6, 7he snare is broken, and we are escaped, referring to the deliverance of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon. Attempts have been made to chronologize the Psalms. ‘‘ 7% Psalus Chronologically Arranged, by Four Friends,’ adopt the arrangement of Ewald, ‘‘ as full of suggestive thought, edifying, and gencrally satisfactory.” But however acute and learned, the ele- ment of conjecture enters too largely to entitle it to more thana limited acceptance. According to this, the present Psalm marks the beginning of a period extending from the rebuilding of the Tem- ple. The destruction of Babylon by Cyrus freed Israel from the thraldom of the Chaldeans. The nation, once careless of the law, after this grew tenacious of its very letter; once rigorously exclusive, they now saw their ideal in the king who should enroll all the world as citizens of a spiritual Jerusalem. The future duty of the nation was, to make themselves ready for his advent. The above scheme arranges the Psalms covering this period in the following orders; (Pss; 124,130, 135126, 127, 128, 193, 123, 67.134, 137, 118, 125, 106, 138, 92, 93, 95, 100, 97, 99, 96, 98, 67, 68, 66, or, E30. ifye Jy 70) 00) 132) BO. 00. 55)-8 3) gan or, PsatmMm CXXIX.—An outburst of joy at deliverance from captivity. A Pilgrim Ode. Psatm CXNNXIV.—A Temple-hymn. Ver. 2, dv nizh?, the priests lodged round about the House of God, and some were employed day and night. The lamps were kept burning all night. The last of the Pilgrim Odes. lvi INTRODUCTION. PsaLM CX XXVII.—The hopes of a revival of the ancient empire of David intensified the patriotic zeal of the nation. This feeling vents itself on the Edomites who had joined the invading hosts of Nebuchadnezzar in that fatal ‘day of Jerusalem’ and had received a portion of the land as a reward for their share in the destruction of Jerusalem. Contrast the apparent bitterness of this Psalm with the comprehensive spirit of the 87th Psalm.—/our Friends. PsALM CXNNNIX.—Ver. 8, parts of the sea, indicates that it was written in Palestine. Ver. 17, 7’y thoughts, i. e., counsels, con- trivances, devisings, divine adaptations of means to end, illustrated in creation, particularly in the structure of organized beings, culmin- ating in man. Pts CALA: — vr Alphabetic Psalm, PsaLM CALVII —The rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of the ancient ritual had inspired the nation with new hopes. EMINENT WITNESSES TO THE EXCELLENCE OF THE PSALMS. ‘*This oook is the most beautiful (edeganfisstmus) in the world.”’--.elancthon. ‘* These songs, not in their divine argument only, but in the very art of composi- tion, may be easily made appear over all this kind ot poesy to be incomparaole. ’ —MHilton. ‘What is there necessary for man to know which the Psalms are not able to teach? '’—Hooker. ‘“The effect of the Psalms on the character of the Huguenots was wonderful. * %* We need to-day a generation nourished on this marrow of Jlions.’— Lelievre. ‘*Songs which like the Psalms have stood the test of three thousand years may well be said to contain in them the seed of eternity.’’— 7holuck. ‘‘ David is the first of the poets of feeling—the king of lyrists, ; Read Greek or Latin lyrics after a psalm—they turn pale.”’—Lamartine. ‘The Psalms have been called fhe abstract or summary of both Testaments. — M. Henry. ve ‘The Psalms can make a life of trial a life of joy.’.’"—Fohannes lon Muller. ‘‘ Even the French Deists, the theo-philanthropists, sworn enemies of the Bible, could only make out their liturgy by the help of the Psalms.’’—/engstenbere. ‘David struck tones that were an echo of the sphere-harmonies and are stl] felt to be such. * * Read a psalm of David, then goto the opera, and hear, with unspeakable reflections, what things men now sing.’’— Thomas Carlyle. ‘“ All the wonders of Greek civilization heaped together are less wonderful than is the simple book of Psalms—the history of the human soul in relation to its Maker.''’—IV. £. Gladstone. ‘‘ This book has no equal in the expanse of time which it reflects, beginning with the wanderings in the wilderness, 1450 years before Christ, and reaching down to the building of the sacred temple, 800 years later. * * If it is the peculiarity of the classic, that the oftener it is read the more beautiful and full of meaning it becomes, then are the Psalms classic in the highest degree.’”"—Ded7tzsch. ‘Not only for its contents but its form, is the use of the book of Psalms a benefit to the spirit of man. In no lyric poet of Greece or Rome can we find so much nstruction or comfort, and in none such a variety and rich change of the poetic mood These lowers can be carried ty every clime and every sal, and they bloom In fresh youth TItisa Bock of Song for all ages.’ —/he7 der, ‘The Bible itselt is an old Cremuna; it has been played upon by the devotion of thousands of years, until every word and particle is public and tunable ..’—L£yrerson Jiwe keep vigil inthe church, David comes tirst, lust amd midst.—S!. JeAn CArisostomt, “What various and re-plendent riches are contained in this treasury (Book of Psalms), it were difficult to find words to describe. T amin the habit of calling itt The Anatemy of all parts of the soul, for not an affection will any one find in himself, an image of which is not reflected in this mirror. Nay, all the griefs, sorruws, fears, misgivings, hopes, cares, anxicties, in short, all the disquieting emotions with which the minds of men are wont te be avitated, the Holy Ghost bath here picturcd tothe life. "—Cilera. Tue HEBREW Psatms IN ENGLISH VERSE. THE PSALMS. BOOK I. PSALM I. HAPPY is the man who hath Not walked in counsels of deceit ; Who stands not in the sinner’s path ; Who sits not in the scorner’s seat ; 2 But in the statutes of the Lord Finds evermore a new delight ; Feasts on the sweetness of His word In meditation day and night. 3 Like to a tree that ’s planted near Unfailing streams that feed the root, Midst foliage that ’s never sere, He brings forth seasonable fruit. to TIE PSALMS, Il Whate’er he does shall grow and thrive ; His joyful soul shall leap and laugh: 4 Not so th’ ungodly—winds shall drive Them far away like empty chaff. s They shall not in the judgment stand; Their path leads downward to the pit: 6 But known of God, at His right hand The righteous shall in honor sit. PSALM IT. \ \ ) HY do the nations rage, Imagine a vain thing ? ° The rulers plot against the Lord And His Anointed King? 3 ‘Let us break off their bands, Their cords,” say they, “‘ divide.”’ 1} He who sits high in heaven shall laugh, Their vain attempts deride. s He speaks to them in wrath: “Though ye rebel, I still 6 Immovably have set My King On Zion’s Holy Hill.” ~! ‘“T will declare My Lord’s Unchangeable decree— He said: ‘Thou art My Son, this day Have I begotten Thee; Lit ITE ESATA S. 3 5 “*Ask Me, and I will give The nations for Thine own; And [ will make earth’s utmost bounds The limits of Thy throne: 9 “© Those that resist Thy sway, Should any be so rash, With iron rod, like vessel frail, Thou shalt in pieces dash.’ ”’ Therefore, be wise, ye kings, Ye judges or-the:earth: Serve ye the Lord with fear, and mix Much trembling with your mirth. O kiss the Son! Beware Slight kindlings of His ire, Lest ye should perish in the way When once His wrath takes fire. Pome Me. i () LORD! how many foes In arms against me rise ; 2 How many say of me, ‘* No help For him in God there lies.” * David having crossed the Jirdan, halted for the night with his party on the way to Mahanaim; and rising early (recovered now from his first depression) wrote, we may suppose, this MorninG Hymn; and before the next bivouac, the BEventxsG Hin that follows, Psalmiv. See Introduction. THE PSALMS. 3 But Thou, Lord, art my Shield, My Glory and Good-will— 4 I called, and Thou didst answer me Out of Thy Holy Hill. CN I laid me down and slept, For Thy sustaining arm Was underneath my head ; I woke Refreshed and free from harm. 6 I will not be afraid Though myriads me oppose : Rise, save me, for Thou smitten hast On the cheek-bone my foes, “J And broken hast their teeth: 8 Salvation is from Thee— Lord! let Thy blessing evermore Upon Thy people be. PSALM IV. ELAY not answer when I call, God of my righteousness! Thou didst, ere this, me disenthrall When I was in distress. Now pity, Lord, and for me care, Incline Thine ear and hear my prayer. IV IV to Tae TL aaa, How long, ye sons of men, will ye My kingly right despise? How long will ye love vanity, And follow after lies? The Lord, who loved* and set apart, Will hear me, for He knows my heart. O stand in awe and fear to sin! With your own heart commune Upon your bed, by night shut in, While silence fills the room. Offer ye sacrifices just, And in Jehovah put your trust. Many there be who say: “Ah, who Will show us any good ?”’ Light of Thy face lift up anew, And I’ have all I would. Their joy shall not compare with mine, Who have a glut of corn and wine. In fearless peace I’ll lay me down, And go at once to sleep :— Though slumber deep my senses drown, Since Thou, Lord, watch dost keep, I know I’m safe where’er I dwell, In palace or in lonely cell. * The name David means ‘ Beloved.”’ 6 VITE PSALATS. Posie Nl Vy, ( IVE ear unto my words, O Lord! My moaning heeded be: = Do Pheeseach mor Ill-didy pray, And watch and wait for Thee. 4 For Thou art not a God that hath In wickedness delight ; Evil shall not with Thee abide, The proud stand in Thy sight. on 1 will evil doers Thou dost hate ; Wilt slay them that speak hes ; The bloody and deceitful man I, odious in Thine eves. =d Butin Thy numerous mercies, | Willin Thy House appear ; And toward Thy Holy Temple, Lord! Will worship in Thy fear. » Lead me, O Lord, because of those Whowatch to sce me slide Make plain Thy way before my face, Nor let me turn-aside: ie IO Cruth 1s. an thew faithless: mouth, Wide yawns a gulf within, Their throats 2m open sepuichre: They smooth their tongue to sin. im: sds hold themeuuty,. aoet tiem fail, By their own counsels felled : VI THE PSALMS, In their transgressions thrust them out, Who have ’gainst Thee rebelled. 1r Let all be glad who trust in thee ; Be happy lips unsealed ; 12 For Thou the righteous wilt surround With favor as a shield. PSALM V1. EBUKE me not in anger, Lord! Correct but not consume: Let not Thy just resentment flame; Give gentle pity room. to Have mercy, Lord! for I am weak ; O heal me and restore! With anguish all my bones are vexed, My soul is troubled sore. 3 But Thou, O Lord, how long? Return ; 4 My soul deliver; make My threatened life Thy care; me save, For Thine own mercies’ sake. 5 Of Thee no memory is in Death, The blotting out of days— In Sheol who will give Thee thanks, Or celebrate Thy praise? fH PSALMS, VII 6 I with my groanings weary am ; I make each night my bed A kind of sea* in which I swim, All drenched with tears I shed. 7 Mine eye is shrunk, it wastes away Vhrough weeping o’er my woes ; It prematurely waxes old, Because of all my foes. 8 Depart from me, ye evil men! Jehovah is aware 9 Of all my sighing, and hath heard And will receive my prayer. 10 My foes shall all confounded be; Be filled with sudden shame ; They shall return in headlong haste Along the way they came. ote “ye ICL ORD my God, in Thee I trust, Save from all those who pursue me; 2 Lest that lion-like th’ unjust Rend and tear me and undo me; And they triumph who o’erthrew me, Lying prostrate in the dust. * Niphtly my couch J make a kind of sea.’—V/7//en. VII tae PSALMS: If, my God, I ill have wrought ; If my hands are found to blame ;* If I him have wronged in aught Who my friend was to my shame ; If I rescued not the same, Who is now my foe for naught ; Let him then pursue my soul ; Overtake it in its flight ; Trample it ; my glory roll In the dust in public sight ; I will not dispute his right, But will justify the whole. Lord, now in Thy anger rise ; Lift Thyself against the rage Of my foes, who ill devise, And unrighteous warfare wage ; Wake for me; for me engage— Just Thy judgments are and wise. Let all people round Thee gather, While Thou speakest from the sky ; Let them stand and listen—rather Let them on their faces lie— After this return on high, Thou who art th’ Eternal Father. Judge me by my righteousness, Mine integrity within : * See 1 Samuel xxiv. 11. 10 9 TO II 13 T4 15 If THE PSALLLS, Vil I would ask nor more nor less, Sure I shall acquital win. Make the sinner cease from sin, And his wickedness confess ; But establish innocence : For Thou, righteous God, dost try Hearts and reins, and wilt me, hence, Vindicate and justify: I on Thee, my Shield, rely— Th’ upright’s safety and defence. God a just Judge is, and hath Indignation every day: If men turn not, in His wrath He will whet His sword to slay ; Bend His bow, prepare straightway Tools of death to sweep His path. He His arrows fiery makes, For the wretch who multiplies— Travailing constantly—and wakes To conceive iniquities, And bring forth a brood of lies, Hissing, venomous as snakes. He with malice digged a pit, And so, rightly in my stead, Tumbled headlong into it ; All the mischief he has bred Ally IME PSALMS, 1] Shall descend on his own head— Retribution just and fit. 17 I, Jehovah the Most High Will adore and magnify ° Will His righteousness proclaim, Harping praises to His name. Poke! Y Lp. () LORD, our Lord, in all the earth, How excellent Thy Name! Thou it hast blazoned on the heavens In characters of flame. 2 By mouth of sucklings hast ordained An armory of light, With Truth’s celestial weapons stored To vindicate the Right. On weakest things hast founded strength— The babes’ believing cry— Because of foes, to silence them Who hate Thee and deny. 3 When I behold Thy heavens, the work Of Thine own fingers, Lord! The moon and stars which Thou hast fixed By Thine almighty word, — ) =J ow Le 2 SAL Ss. © what issman that Thou for him Such love shouldst manifest ? Shouldst condescend to visit him And be Thy creature's guest ? For Thou hast made him next Thyself— This brother of the clod— Hast crowned him with dominion that Befits a son of God: Hast given him lordship o’er Thy works, Put all things under him— All flocks, all herds, all beasts, whate ’er Doth walk, or fly, or swim. O Lord, our Lord, in all the earth How excellent Thy Name, Whose glory in the heavens ts set In signature of flame. PSAiM ix. | WITH my whole heart will praise, And recount Thy wondrous ways: joyunm Thee, O Thou Mest then! Sing Thy Name and magnify : IX IX Io II THE PSALMS. 13 For my enemies turned back, Finding Thee upon their track ; At Thy dreadful presence they, Stumbling, perished in the way. Thou, O Lord, my right and cause Hast maintained, upholding laws— Seated high upon Thy throne, Judging righteously alone. Thou hast nations swept away, Blotted out their names for aye: Cities, which Thou hast destroyed, Lost to memory are and void. God sits King—earth at His feet— Ever on His judgment seat ; He ’1l the peoples’ wrongs redress, Judge the world in righteousness. Tower of refuge for th’ oppressed, A high tower for the distressed ; Who Thee know will in Thee trust, For Thou ne’er wilt from Thee thrust Them that seek Thee, nor forsake Such as Thee their refuge make. Sing His praise, His doings tell, Who in Zion loves to dwell. 14 14 TE 1S PSALATS. When for blood He shall inquire, Burn His anger will like fire! For the poor man’s cry is not By th’ Omniscient Judge forgot. , Pity, Lord, whose quickening breath Raises from the gates of death. See what sufferings on me wait, From the hands of them that hate! Save me, that Thy praise I may In the gates of Zion pay. I will then with heart and voice In Thy saving health rejoice. Sunk are nations in the pit Themselves made, God ordering it— Justly ill their own foot fared, In their own net caught and snared. Back the wicked shall be turned, Reaping the reward they earned : Perish shall in Sheol yet Nations all that God forget. For the needy and the meek, Who from Goud assistance seck, Shall not always be unheard, Nor their hope for aye deferred. THE PSALMS. 15 19 Rise, Lord, let not man assail Right’s strong bulwarks and prevail. Nations that against Thee fight Let them judged be in Thy sight. 20 Let the terror of Thine arm Fill their souls with just alarm ; And with trembling let them then Know themselves to be but men. PSALM X. ORD, why standest Thou afar? Why dost Thou Thyself thus hide ? From Thy presence why debar Those by hopeless trouble tried ? 2 In his pride the wicked still Is engaged in hot pursuit ; ’Gainst the poor contriving ill, Ceasing not to persecute. 3 Let his cunning serve him not, In his own devices caught— Glorying in plunder got, God is banished from his thought. Swayed by greed that God condemns, He, a worshipper of gain, God renounces, yea, contemns, Fuller license to obtain. 16 6 “J a 10 II TH F SALI. Hear the boaster proudty Say ° “T've no fear God will require ; There no God is to repay, I will have my heart's desire.”’ Always firm against the right He Thy judgments dares contemn ; They ‘re above him out of sight— As for foes he puffs at them, Saying, “I shall ne’er be moved ; No calamity I fear.”’ Cursing by his mouth’'s approved, Guile and cruelty are dear. He in hamlets lies in wait ; Like some savage beast of prey, Lurks in ambush, watching late, Hapless ones to seize and slay.* Draws the poor man in his net, Crushes him remorselessly : God, he fancies, doth forget— Hides his face— will never see. Rise, O Lord, lift up Thy hand ; Let the poor remembered be ; Let the proud one understand Thou his wickedness dost see. *See 2 Samuel til. 275 NX. 1a. XI 13 14 15 16 17 THE PSALMS. 17 Why should he Thy justice flout? Saying, Thou wilt not require ; That Thou seest leave no doubt, Make him feel Thy righteous ire. Make him know 't was at his cost, He the fatherless did harm: Let each wicked scheme be crost, Shatter Thou his lifted arm ! Thorough inquisition make Of the evil he has done— It pursue and overtake, Punish it till there is none. Sits Jehovah on His throne, A just sceptre in His hand, All the nations, overthrown, Perish shall from out His Land. Thou of meek hearts art the stay ; Thou the orphan wilt redress, That vain man, a child of clay, Henceforth may no more oppress. Eola Aol PUT my trust in God my King: How counsel ye then dastard flight? How say ye to my soul, “ Take wing, And safety seek in mountain height. ae i) 3 () Taf THE: PSALALTS, LX ‘“For lo, the wicked bend the bow, They to the string their arrow suit ; Hid in the dark, that none may know, They ready stand at thee to shoot. ‘“The labor of thy hands is void ; In vain thou dost the work pursue ; If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous man then do?” The Lord is in His Temple,* why Should we take counsel of despair ? His throne is fixed above the sky, No earthly power can reach it there. Enough to know, His eyes behold, His eyelids try the sons of men— He proves and purifies the gold, And naught deceives his searching ken. Upon the wicked He shall rain Snares, fire and brimstone, as of yore; The portion of their cup is pain, Is, was, and shall be evermore. Por that the Lords: righteous, 11e Loves righteousness, and evil hates: The upright man His face shall see,— Immortal honor him awaits. * The Tabernacle, which contained the Ark, is so called 1 Samucli. uo; iti. 5. XII THE PSALMS. 19 PSALM X11. | | ELP,. Lord, tor these-are evil days= 2 if Cc The godly cease. the faithful fail ; Lone and deserted are Thy ways, And rank impieties prevail. All speech is an exchange of lies ; Each with his neighbor plays a part ; They practice smooth hypocrisies, With flattering lip and double heart. The Lord will guileful lips destroy ; And tongues that say in lordly tone, ‘Who's over us? We will employ These as we please, they are our own.’ y “Now, will I rise,” Jehovah saith, ‘For those they spoil, whose bread they scant, Who pine for safety, fearing death— And give them that for which they pant.’’ His words are pure, mean what they say, As silver seven times purified, ‘‘He shall them keep, though vice bears sway, Though strut the vile in robes of pride, LHE FF SALMS; XIV PSM SOE JT OW long wilt Thou, Lord, me forget ? Wilt Thou Thy face forever hide? ° How long shall datly sorrows fret? My foe exalt his head of pride? 3 Hear, Lord! revive my fainting breath, Lighten mine eyes whose light has failed, Now, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 Lest my foe boast, “I have prevailed.” s But I have trusted Thee, and still In Thy salvation will rejoice ; 6 And for Thy bounteous goodness will Attune to Thee both heart and voice. Poi 2, a Bee pupil in that school, The darkened reason of a fool !— He, proud of his ancestral clod, Saith in his heart, ‘‘ There is no God.” No wonder from sucli evil root, There springs abominable fruit : Mad revelers at Nature’s feast. Men grow more beastly than the beast. XV THE PSALMS. 21 The Lord looked down from heaven to see If any bowed to Him the knee; If there were any understood, And there was none, none that did good. They all had gone aside, all had Become corrupt and wholly bad. Are evil-doers void of sense As well as of all innocence? They, like wild beasts with ravin red, My people eat as they eat bread ; They on the Lord disdain to call— But, lo, great tremblings on them fall. For God, now with the righteous seen, His arm laid bare, doth intervene ; And counsels, that were put to shame, Are made triumphant in His Name. O that salvation might with power Come out of Zion at this hour! When back from thraldom God shall bring, Then Jacob shall exult and sing. PSwiM AV: HO shall inhabit, Lord, Thy Tent ? How nobly born? Of what descent? Who in Thy Holy Mount abide, To what imperial race allied ? bo to to >) THiie FSALALS. XVI Not to the great ones of the earth, Of princely blood, of royal birth ; Not to the haughty and the proud, Is this high privilege allowed. But he who walks uprightly here, Whose words are true, whose heart’s sincere, With slanderous tongue does not offend, Basely betray or wrong a friend ; Aids net his neighbor to defame ; Who towards the vile feels only shame, But honors those that fear the Lord ; Swears to his hurt and keeps his word ; Makes no hard terms tor money lent ; No bribes takes ‘gainst the innocent— Who does these things, he enter may God’s House, and permanently stay. PSA) Av i PRESERVE me, for in Thee I trust, lsaide. “MyGod Thowart, ° My good, my only good, I have No good from Thee apart, + ey nvas: Lhny saints, the-excellent In whom is my delight.” | Their sorrows shall be many who Withomther weds nite + XVI ~I 9 Io THE PSALMS. 22 I their drink-offerings of blood Will not pour out; nor take Their hateful names upon my lips, Nor mention of them make. The Lord the portion is of my Inheritance and cup: His favors are so numerous, I cannot count them up. Thou wilt maintain my lot—my lines In pleasant places fall: A goodly heritage have I For, having Thee, have all. I bless the Lord Who counsels me ; At night when I awake, I hear Him whisper in the dark Words that me wiser make. The Lord is always in my sight— With Him at my right hand, I never shall be moved, therefore, Glad thoughts my heart expand. My flesh shall dwell secure, my soul Not left to Sheol be :— Thou wilt not let Thy Holy One The least corruption see. a THE POAC, AVAL Thou wilt me show the path of life! [vilte: [hy presence soar, Where there is fullness of all joy— Pleasures forevermore. PSALM, AV LL, | EAR Thou the right, O God! Unjustly I’m arraigned : Sit judge, and-listen to my prayer, That comes from lips unfeigned. to I make petition, let My sentence come from Thee: And let Thine eyes behold what things Belong to equity. 3 Thou hast my heart oft proved ; Hast come to me at night, Hast tried me, and hast nothing found At variance with right. 4 As for the works of men, I, governed by Thy word, Have kept myself aloof, and been From violence deterred : 5 Have held fast to Thy paths ; My feet have firmly stood : 6 Incline, O God, Thine ear to me, And hear, for Thou art good. XVII IO It I2 13 Tf THE PSALMS. 25 Thy wondrous kindness show, O Thou who savest those That put their trust in Thee from all Who rise up and oppose! O guard me, keep me as The apple of the eye; Under the shadow of Thy wings, Let me for shelter fly, From deadly foes that spoil And compass me around— They proudly speak, they watch each step To hurl me to the ground. He like a lion is, That ’s greedy for his prey— Like a young lion that lies hid Along the public way. Arise, O Lord, confront, Cast down and overthrow! Deliver by Thy sword and hand From the ungodly foe,— From men whose portion’s here, Whose cravings Thou dost fill, Who live, enjoy, and what is left They to their children will. 26 THE PSALMS. XVI 15 As for myself, Thy face, In righteousness I'll see ; And when I with Thy likeness wake I satisfied shall be. PSA 2N°b ET. LOVE Thee, Lord! my Strength, My Fortress and High Tower ; To Thee, my Rock, my Shield, my Trust, 3 I fly in danger’s hour. to The snares of death an1 hell Around my feet were spread ; 4 And floods of wickedness rose high, And filled my soul with dread. mn 6 I called upon the Lord In my extreme distress ; He heard my voice, and came attired In robes of righteousness. Trembled the earth and shook, By mighty terror seized ; The mountains’ deep foundations quaked, Bectuse He was displeased. “J 8 His nostrils issued smoke, His mouth devouring fire, And glowing coals were kindled by The hotness of His ire. XVIII THE PSALMS. 27 g He bowed the heaven of heavens, In gloomy pomp came down ; Thick darkness was beneath His feet, But darker was His frown. 10 He on a cherub® rode, He on the swift winds flew, 11 He darkness made His hiding-place That no eye could pierce through. Dark waters and thick clouds Were round about Him cast, 12 Then at the brightness of His face The charged clouds bursting passed. 13 He thundered in the heavens, The Highest gave His voice ; 14 His lightnings scattered them who vexed The person of His choice. * The prevalent notion, that by Cherudim is meant a superior order of Celestial Intelligences, finds more support, it is safe to say, in Paradise Lost than in the Scriptures. In view of the description there given it seems surprising that any one should ever have been in doubt as to their purely symbolic character; for while as real beings they would be judged monstrous and impossible, understood as simply hieroglyphical and pictorially illustrative, all difficulties vanish, and we are delighted to see how luminous the name becomes studied in its true meaning. In the present Psalm, verse 10, we read: ‘1nd He rode upon a Cherub and did SJiy, yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind.’ Here the Cherub is made ex- pressly identical with the swift wind. While the term is used in this place in the singular number, and with a limited meaning, it furnishes, we venture to think, a reliable clue to the right interpretation of the symbol in its more complex form, as the mystic tetramorph, described by Ezekiel —the four-faced, four-winged Cherubim, every part covered with eyes—with accompanying revolving wheels, suggestive of rapid circular movement, orbit within orbit, exemplified in the 20 THE PSALMS. XVIII 15 At Thy rebuke, O Lord! The seas’ deep bed appeared ; The world’s foundations were laid bare And all Creation feared. 16 Efe reached down and me drew From whelming waters great— 17 He rescued me from my strong foe And them that did me hate. They mightier were than I, 18 And met me in the day Of my calamity ; but then, Jehovah was my Stay. 19 He also brought me forth ; And by his arm of might He rescued me, because I was The child of His delight. planetary system. It is but the extension of a part to the whole to make this many- sided figure comprehensive not of the wind only, otherwise the Air, constituting one of the Elements of Nature, but the whole Four, and God immanent in them all. If this view be correct, by Cherubim would be meant, what in modern speech is called Nature, having respect to all the aspects of its unerring perfect four- sidedness; otherwise known as the Universe, Laws of the Universe—the whole cosmic array of Secondary Causes—Force in its endless manifestations—embrac- ing all ministerial agencies, every thing, in fact, that belongs (to use the lan- guage of Milton) to ‘the throne and equipage of God's almightiness, and what He works and what He suffers to be wrought with high providence in His Church.’ Placed over the Sacred Chest which contained the Decalogue, the lid forming the Mercy Seat, the same mysterious symbol is scen under a more simple form—two Cherubim keeping guard over the Law to preserve its sanctity, while God is spoken of as enthroned between or above them in token of His supremacy over all creatures and created things. The bi-formed Pan [the All] half beast, half man, as conceived by the Greeks, representing the universal frame of things, or Nature, is a figure of the same kind, but far less rich and significant. XVIII 20 22 24 26 THE PSALMS. 29 After my righteousness. He did reward dispense ; After the cleanness of my hands, He did me recompense. For I have kept His ways; And have not wickedly Departed from my God, who is My sole felicity. For all His judgments were Before me night and day ; I kept His statutes perfectly, Not putting them away. After my righteousness, The Lord did me requite ; After the cleanness of my hands In His omniscient sight. Thou to the merciful Wilt make Thy mercy sure; Wilt with the upright upright be, And pure be with the pure ; Thou too wilt show Thyself Froward to frowardness ; For while Thou dost resist the proud, The lowly Thou dost bless. 30 31 a5 36 LHE PSALM), ANAL For Thou wilt light my lamp, Disperse my darkness deep ; By Thee I can run through a troop, By Thee a wall o’erleap. Most perfect is God’s way, His word is sure and tried ; He is a buckler to all those Who in His Name confide. The Lord alone is God, There is no other Rock ; He girds with strength, He suffers naught My perfect way to block; My feet, like hinds’ feet, makes To dizzy heights ascend ; My hands He teaches how to war, The bow of brass to bend. Thou hast to me the shield Of Thy salvation given ; And Thy right hand hath held me up And disciplined for Heaven. Thou hast enlarged my steps, My free feet have not slipped ; I will pursue and overtake, Of every hindrance stripped, XVIII 39 40 vi 42 43 44 +5 THE PSALMS. 31 And will not turn again, Until the smitten foe Shall fall beneath my conquering arm— Be utterly laid low. For to the battle Thou Hast girded me with might ; And made th’ insurgents turn their backs In ignominious flight. They cried aloud for help, But theré was none to save; Ev’n to the Lord they cried, but He No answer to them gave. Then did I beat them small ; Away I made them fleet As dust wind-driven, I cast them out As the mire of the street. Thou from the people’s strifes Hast freed me, and me made Head of the nations—homage shall By strangers be me paid. Those whom I have not known Shall hasten to obey ; They shall submit themselves to me, And fear and fade away. 46 47 49 50 THE PSALMS. XIX Jehovah lives, my Rock ; Let Him exalted be! The God of my salvation, who Avenged and rescued me. Therefore will I give thanks, And will His praises sing, Who wrought this great deliverance For His anointed King. PSAGM RL xX. | (HE rolling skies with lips of flame Their Maker's power and skill proclaim : ° Day speaks to day, and night to night Shows knowledge writ in beams of light. 3 And though no voice, no spoken word Can by the outward ear be heard, 4 The witness of a travelling sound Reverberates the world around. In the bright east with gold enriched He for the sun a tent has pitched, ~ 5 That. like a bridegroom after rest, Comes from his chamber richly drest, An athlete strong and full of grace, And glad to run the heavenly race,— 6 Completes his round with tireless feet, And naught is hidden from his heat. XIX IO 1 I2 13 I4 THE PSALMS. 33 But, Nature’s book sums not the whole: God’s perfect law converts the soul ; [lis sure unerring word supplies The means to make the simple wise; His precepts are divinely right, An inspiration and delight ; His pure commandment makes all clear, Clean and enduring in His fear. The judgments of the Lord are true, And righteous wholly through and through ; More to be coveted than gold, Of higher worth a thousand fold ; More sweet than sweetest honey far, Th’ unfoldings of their sweetness are: They warn Thy servant, and they guard ; In keeping them there ’s great reward. Who can his errors understand? My secret faults are as the sand: From these me cleanse, make pure within, And keep me from presumptuous sin; Lest sin me rule and fetter fast, And I unpardoned die at last. My words and meditation be O Lord, my Rock, approved of Thee. bo 6 THE PSACLAS. XX PSwi.iM XX. AY God thee answer in the day Of battle-peril and of need! The God of Jacob thee upstay, And out of Zion help proceed ! Have to thy offerings due regard ; Of thy pure zeal be mindful still ; Thy pious faithfulness reward, And all thy purposes fulfil ! We'll praise thee, victor in the fight, And God too, who for thee contests ; And on our loyal banners write: ‘“The Lord fulfil all thy requests.” The Lord doth His Anointed save, I know, with a salvation grand ; Ev’n while He asked, God answer gave— The saving strength of His right hand. While some in mounted horses trust, And some in chariots of war, In God, and in a cause that’s just, Our confidence is greater far. And justly so; for while they lie O’erthrown and prostrate and deject, Or panic-stricken wildly fly, We risen are and stand erect. XXI THRE PSALMS. a6 g Jehovah, save! God save the King! Let the King hear us when we call ! Hosanna! God’s high praise we sing, By whom the nations rise or fall. PoAaLM XAT HE King shall in Thy strength rejoice, And Thy salvation, Lord ! 2 The fullness of his heart’s desire Thou hast to him outpoured. 3 With gifts and blessings infinite, Thou goest him before, Forestalling all his large requests And giving him yet more. A crown of purest gold, Thy gift, Doth on his forehead blaze ; 4 He asking life, Thou gav’st it him, Ev’n endless length of days. 5 Thou dost on him high honor lay, Great majesty and might, 6 For Thou most blesséd makest him Forever in Thy sight. And Thou appointest him to be A blessing to the race ; Dost gladden him with gladness found Nowhere but in Thy face. 36 THE PSALMS. NTI 7 For the King trusted in the Lord, And he unmoved shall stand : s Against all those who bear Thee hate Thou wilt display Thy hand. 9 Like toa flaming furnace Thou Wilt make them in that hour ; God shall them swallow up in wrath, A fire shall them devour. 10 Their seed shall perish from the earth, 11 For their intended ill— The plot which they devised, they are Not able to fulfill. 12 For Thou Thy bowstrings wilt prepare, And wilt them put to flight 13 Be, Lord, exalted in Thy strength, So we will harp Thy might ! PSALM 2 Y God, my God, O why Hast Thou forsaken me? My cry sounds shrill throughout a lone And dark eternity. One moment seems an age, Mid this desertion drear ; The empty heavens receive my prayer, But there is none to hear, XXII 7 IO Et THE PSALMS, I in the daytime call, My calling is in vain ; Iam not silent in the night, But yet no help obtain. But Thou most holy art— Amid the praises throned Of Israel, who trusted Thee, And never was disowned. A worm, and not a man, Reproach I on me draw— All they that see me wag their head, And, mocking, cry: ‘Ha! ha! “He trusted in the Lord, That He would him befriend— Let Him, since He in him delights, Deliverance extend.” But from my birth Thou hast Thy love and care expressed , And madest me to trust, when I Was on my mother’s breast. Thou art my Father, God, My stay, my only one— O be not far, for trouble ’s near And helper there is none. SG 13 14 16 _ _ Ca I) It) 20) THE. PSACMS. XAII O many bulls, strong bulls Of Bashan, hem me round ; They gape on me, and, lion-like, They roar and tear the ground. Like water I’m poured out ; My bones are drawn apart ; Like melted wax within my breast Is my dissolving heart. My strength is all dried up; Fierce thirst inflames my breath ; My tongue is fastened to my jaws, And I am nigh to death. Round me a barking crowd Of evil-doers meet— With murderous and cruel nails They pierce my hands and feet ; They on my anguish gloat ; My garments, at the last, They part among them. and they lots Upon my vesture cast. Haste to my help, my Strength! Cast off each cruel clog— My soul deliver from the sword, My darling* from the dog ; * Literally, J/y only ene, i. c., Wy dear life, my soul—Macbeth’s ** mine eternal jewel.” CLL Ti PSALITS. 39 2t Save from the lion’s mouth !— I made my prayer to Thee, And from the horns of th’ unicorns TuHou, LorRD, HAST ANSWERED ME. 22 The agony is or, The triumph is complete : I to my brethren will declare Thy Name and praises sweet.* 23 Praise Him, all ye that fear Jehovah, the Most High— Ye Jacob's seed, ye Israel’s, Fear Him and glorify ! 24 For He did not despise, Abhor as others did ; But heard the Sufferer when he cried, E’en when His face seemed hid. * One who appreciates the dramatic structure of many of the Psalms, will have no difficulty in ascribing the great difference of tone which characterizes differ- ent portions of the same psalm to achange of speakers. Take Psalm 69 for an example. The imprecatory language of verses 22-28 is so out of keeping with what precedes and follows that one is forced to refer it to another speaker. Com- ing fromthe mouth of a sympathizing and indignant spectator of the fiendish cruelty practised on patient innocence, all seems natural and proper. Such an one would answer exactly to the Chorus of the Greek Drama, offering his com- ment, favorable or otherwise. on what is passing. In the present Psalm, the an- ticipatory wail of the predicted Messiah, hanging on the Cross, reaches to verse 22. Allthat follows might properly proceed from the supposed Chorus repre- senting the whole body of the faithful. See Milton's ‘‘ Samson Agonistes"’ for an illustration of the office of the Chorus; also Shakespeare's ‘‘ Henry V.”’ 40 30 THE PSALMS, XII My praise shall be of Him ; I’ll in th’ assembly great Of those that fear Him, pay my vows, And myself consecrate. The meek shall freely eat, He full supply will give: Who seek the Lord they Him shall praise: ‘Your heart forever live!’ The farthest ends of earth Shall all return to Thee— All kindreds of the nations shall Before Thee bow the knee. For His the kingdom is; His right it is to sit Ruler among the nations, men To bless and benefit. The opulent shall eat And worship; and the poor, That cannot keep his soul alive, Find his provision sure. The unborn Him shall serve, And sire shall tell to son How.faithfully His promises He hath observed and done. XXIII THE PSALMS, 41 PonmwlLM AAAS. HE Lord my Shepherd is, He satisfies my needs ; In pastures green He makes me lie— By restful waters leads. My sinking soul revives, When faint and spiritless ; For His Name’s sake He guides my feet In paths of righteousness. Though in the deep dark gorge I walk, I will not fear, For through the death-shade black as night Thy crook and presence cheer. Thou hast a table spread For me, in sight of foes ; My head anointed hast with oil, My cup of good o’erflows. Goodness and mercy still Shall surely follow me, And in Thy House* will I abide Forever, Lord, with Thee. *If it be assumed that this was one of David’s earlier ccmpositicns, asthe Tem- ple was not yet built, it follows, that by ‘‘ the House of the Lord”’ in this place is meant no particular building—not the Tabernacle even—but that, in the estima- tion of the Psalmist, any place, mountain cave or bit of green sward, hallowed by the Divine Presence, is a veritable Bethel—House of Gud. 2 THE PSALMS. lV SECOND VERSION. HE Lord is my Shepherd, I never shall want ; Since He is my Keeper, no danger shall daunt ; He makes me lie down in green pastures, and leads By the soft-sliding waters that gladden the meads. He refreshes my soul; and in faithfulness sweet Guides rightly my silly and ignorant feet ; Through the gloom of the glen I will walk without fear, For my Shepherd is with me to lighten and cheer. Thou prepar’st me a feast in the face of my foes, My head Thou anointest, my cup overflows : Surely goodness shall follow my steps all my days And I'll dwellin Thy House, and my life spend in praise. Poe ev 2 . right to all extends ; He made, and all upholds as well— The earth with all it comprehends ; The world and all that therein dwells— He founded it upon the seas, And stablished it by firm decrees. lo 3 Who shall ascend into His Hill ? Who stand within His Holy Place? 4 He with clean hands, pure heart and will, Wh» does not stoop to actions base ; Who not deceitfully has sworn, But holds all lying arts in scorn. XXV _ 10 THE PSALMS. 43 He blessings shall from God receive— Dear pledges of His saving grace : The God of Truth will not deceive Those who sincerely seek His face— The sons of Jacob who inquire, God’s chosen, shall have their desire. Lift up your heads, ye ancient gates ! Ye everlasting doors, give way ! For lo! the King of Glory waits, And means to enter in to-day. ‘“Who is this King of Glory? Who?” Jehovah, mighty to subdue. Lift up your heads, ye ancient gates! Ye everlasting doors, give way ! For lo! the King of Glory waits, And means to enter in to-day. ‘“Who is this King of Glory, then ?”’ The Lord of angels and of men. PSALM XXV. O Thee I lift my soul— My God, I trust in Thee; Let me not be ashamed, let not My foes exult o’er me. 9 TO | THE PSALMS. XXV Let none who on Thee wait In praying humbleness, Be e’er ashamed, but only those Who causelessly trangress. Show me Thy paths, O Lord! Instruct mein Thy way: Great God of my Salvation, I On Thee wait all the day. Thy tender mercies, Lord, ° Have ever been of old. Remember not my youthful sins And follies manifold. The Lord I know is good And upright; He will teach Sinners, who seek the right to know, And guidance give to each ; The lowly and the meek Will lovingly direct : Mercy and truth are unto such As His commands respect. For Thy Name's sake, O Lord ! Who only canst forgive, Pardon my guilt, for it is great, And let the culprit live, XXV 12 13 Id 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 THE PSALMS. AS What man doth fear the Lord ? He, though of humble birth, Shall dwell at ease, and his meek soul Inherit shall the earth. The secret of the Lord With them that fear Him is ; He will them show His covenant, And honor them as His. Mine eyes are toward the Lord, In confidence that He Will pluck my feet out of the net The fowler spread fur me. Have mercy on me, Lord, For desolate I grieve ; My troubles are enlarged, do Thou My countless woes relieve, And pardon all my sins ; Regard my sad estate ; My foes are many, and they me With cruel hatred hate. O keep my soul from shame ; I put my trust in Thee; Let my uprightness me preserve, And my integrity. 40 THE PSALMS. XXVI 22 Since all who wait on Thee Thou holdest in esteem, From all his troubles do Thou, Lord, Thine Israel redeem. PoALM AX Y I. UDGE me, O Lord! to Thee I dare e In my integrity appeal : I lay my inmost bosom bare, Attempting nothing to concezal. In all uprightness I have walked, And have not wavered in my trust: Bear witness if I’ve vainly talked, Have been injurious or unjust. to Examine me, O God! and try: I welcome so supreme a test As the inspection of Thine eye, Searching the secrets of my breast. 3 Thy mercy is before mine eyes, And from Thy truth I have not strayed ; 4 I have not sat with men of lies, s Nor friendships with dissemblers made. 6 I’ll wash my hands in innocence, And so Thine altar will surround ; 7 With love and thankfulness intense I will Thy wondrous works resound. WV FIR PSAILAS: 47 8 I love Thy Habitation, Lord! The Place where doth Thy Glorv* dwell, Whence Thou dost saving help afford To Thine afflicted Israel. 9 Gather me not with men of blood; 10 Mischief and bribes are in their hand :— 11 But as for me, I with the good Will walk uprightly in the Land. Redeem me, Lord, and show me grace, Confirm me in my righteousness! 12 My foot stands in an even place ; Thee in th’ assemblies I wi:l bless. PSALM XXVIII. HE Lord my Saviour is, and Light ; Whom should I fear with Him to aid? My life’s stronghold and secret might ;— What cause have I to be afraid ? 2 When like some hungry beast of prey, My foes came on me to devour, They stumbled, fell—and snatched away I live unhurt until this hour. 3 Not though a host ‘gainst me encamp, And war its ugly front uprear, Shall this my trust or courage damp, Or cowardize my heart with fear. * The Shekinah. LAE LSALIUS. XAVE] One thing I greatly have desired, For which I will not cease to pray, That I, from scenes of strife retired, Of battle fierce and bloody fray, In the Lord’s House may dwell in peace All my life long, with ravished eyes His beauty to behold, nor cease To ask of Him and grow more wise. In time of trouble, He’ll me hide In His pavilion strong and safe ; He to a rock my feet shali guide High o’er my foes that vainly chafe. I’ll in His Tabernacle make Offerings of joy with trumpet sound ; His praises loudly sing, and wake Melodious echoes all around. Hear me, O Lord! When Thou didst deign, Those words, ‘Seek ye My Face,” to speak, My grateful heart in contrite pain Replied, ‘“‘ Thy Face, Lord, will I seek.” Hide not Thy Face from me, I pray! Thou hast my help been in the past : In anger turn me not away ; Forsake me not, nor from Thee cast. XXVIII THE PSALMS. 49 1o When of my parents I’m bereft Earth’s holiest ties have sundered been, I know I have a Father left, Who will adopt and take me in. 11 Teach me Thy perfect way, O Lord! Because of foes that lie in wait; 12 From slJanderers and others, guard, That breathe out cruelty and hate. 13 Unless I had believed to see Thy goodness, Lord, here verified, Sometime, somehow, it seems to me I must have fainted, must have died. 14 Wait on the Lord: Be strong, and let Thy heart take courage! Banish fear! No one defeat has suffered yet— Wait on the Lord: Be of good cheer! Pon M xy Le. O Thee, O Lord, I lift my cry— Be Thou, my Rock, not deaf to it, Lest I become like them that die— . Them that go down into the pit. 2 Now, while I on Thy footstool dwell, I raise my hands, my heart to Thee! Speak from Thy Holy Oracle, O be not silent, answer me! 50 THE PSALMS, XX 3 Gather me not with those, who play Their cunning and deceitful parts! Peaceful and kind the words they say, But mischief lurks within their hearts. } Render to them their just desert : s Because Thy works they disregard, Break down and lav them in the dirt— Be utter ruin their reward. 6 Thrice blesséd be the Lord, for He Has silence broke, and answer given ; He is my Strength, He strengthens me, My Shield, my Helper, out of Heaven. “Jd 'Tis good to trust and wait I find ; I trusted, and deliverance came ; Therefore will I with heart and mind, Rejoice in Him, and praise His Name. 8 He is His people’s Strength; He is To His Anointed a Stronghold : A shepherd’s tenderness is His, He feeds His flock and guards the fold. Pow iM AAT. IVE to the Lord, ye sons of might, Glory and strength—His throne address ; 2 Him worship, clothed in robes of light, The beauty born of holiness. Ye angel hosts on high proclaim The dreadful honors of His Name. XXX 6 THE PSALMS. 51 His voice is on the billowy sea, Heard in the thunder of its waves, Is full of power and majesty, Resounding through its countless caves, And, with its loud and deafening roar, It shakes and terrifies the shore. Cedars of Lebanon it breaks ; They like a calf affrighted skip ; It Lebanon and Hermon makes Like a young unicorn to trip ; The desert, Kadesh, quakes to hear ; And hinds untimely calve through fear. 7 His voice it cleaves the lightning’s wing ; Io It strips and leaves the forest bare ; And all Creation worshipping Saith, “Glory! glory!” everywhere: He at the Flood and through all time Sits King upon His throne sublime. PS ke Soh WILL extol Thee and adore, For Thou hast raised me up once more ; And hast not chosen to fulfill, The hope of those who wish me ill. 2 O Lord, my God, I Thee besought, 3 And Thou hast healed me: Thou hast brought Up from the underworld my soul— Saved from the grave and made me whole. IO | THE PSALMS. 4 Sing to Jehovah, sound the fame Of His memorial Holy Name! While that His anger is most brief, A sharp but momentary grief, His favor is a life time; pain And weeping may perchance remain O’er night, but when the morning breaks, The sleeping joy to praise awakes. But foolishly, by pride misled, ‘“T never shall be moved,’ I said— “Thy favor, Lord, continued long, Has made my mountain to stand strong.”’ When Thou Thy loving Face didst hide, Then was I troubled, and I cried To Thee, O Lord! and said: ‘ What good Or profit is there in my blood? “When I go down into the pit, Shall the dust praise Thee? or shall it Declare Thy truth ?>—Jehovah, hear, Pity and help, in love draw near!” Thou hast (my penitence discerned) My mourning into dancing turned ; My sackcloth loosed ; and girded me With joy—that I may sing to Thee. XXXI THE PSALMS. 53 PSALM XAAXTL. N Thee, O Lord, I put my trust— ILet me not come to shame: 2 Haste to my help, deliver me, In Thy most righteous Name! Be Thou to me a rock of strength, Where I may safely bide: 3 And so Thou art; for Thy Name’s sake Thou wilt me lead and guide. 4 Pluck from the net they ve hid for me, For Thou art my sure Friend ; 5 Hast me redeemed—into Thy hand My spirit I commend. 6 Them that vain idols serve I hate; My soul on Thee relies, 7 I will be glad, for Thou hast seen My woes with pitying eyes ; 8 And hast not me delivered up A prisoner to my foe ; But set my feet in a large place, Left free to come and go. 9 Have mercy on me, Lord! mine eye With weeping wastes away ; My powers of soul and body fail, And fall into decay. 54 IO II 13 id 15 16 17 THE PSALMS. XXXI For all my life with grief is spent ; With sighing all my years: By reason of my sins, I weep My strength away in tears, Because of all my foes, reproach Me everywhere attends ; A scorn I to my neighbors am, A terror to my friends. They that did see me in the street Immediately fled : I am forgotten, out of mind, Like one already dead. I heard the many me traduce— The envious sons of strife— While they took counsel, and devised To take away my life. But in the Lord I trusted still: I said: ‘“‘ Thou art my.God ; My times are in Thy hand, I wait For Thy delivering rod.” Upon me cause Thy Face to shine ; Save, for Thy mercies’ sake: Let me not be ashamed, O Lord! But so the wicked make, XXXI 18 19 21 22 23 THE PSALMS. 55 Let them in Sheol silent be ; Let lying lips be dumb, From which proud words and insolent Now ’gainst the righteous come. How great Thy goodness treasured up, Ne’er told by tongue or pen, For those who fear and trust in Thee Before the sons of men! Thou in Thy presence wilt them hide, From plotters ’gainst their life ; In Thy pavilion them conceal, Safe from the tongues of strife. O blessed be the Lord, for He Strange kindness me hath shown, In a strong city, fenced with walls, That could not be o’erthrown. In my alarm and haste, I said : “Tam cut off,” but no— For when I cried for help, Thou didst The needed help bestow. O love the Lord, all ye His saints ; The proud He will reward : Be strong, take courage, O all ye, Whose hope is in the Lord! 56 THE PSALMS. Od G PSA Me AX EE, LEST is the man, who stands forgiven Of trespasses and debts ; To whom the Lord imputes not guilt, But cancels and forgets. to Whose penitence is found sincere ; Whose spirit knows no guile ; Whose earthly pilgrimage is cheered By God's approving smile. When I kept silence I waxed old, Through moaning all day long ; 4 Thy hand was heavy day and night, For unacknowledged wrong. 2 The moisture of my fevered frame Was changed to summer drought ; I felt the sting of conscious guilt, But could not pluck it out. 5 Acknowledged I my sin to Thee, With sense of what was fit ; I said, I will confess my fault, And Thou forgavest it. 6 For this let every godly one To Thee in prayer abound In an accepted time, when Thou May’st certainly be found. XXXII Io II THE PSALMS. G7 They surely shall not reach to him, When whelming waters rave ; When danger ’s near, Thou ’rt nearer yet, And powerful to save. Thou art for me a Hiding Place In trouble, Thou wilt make Songs of divine deliverance On every side to break. I will instruct Thee in the way, Thy duty ’t is to go— With mine eye on Thee, counsel thee What paths to tread below. Be not as horse or mule that must, Irrational and dumb, With bit and bridle be held firm, To make them stay or come: The wicked many sorrows have ; But whoso trusts the Lord, Mercy shall compass him about And grace be on him poured. Exult, ye righteous, and rejoice ; In praise bear each his part ; Ring out your gladness, O all ye Who upright are in heart ! THE PSALMS, AXXIII Ponte 2c NEIL, | ane ye righteous, in the Lord, For praise and thanks the upright suit ; 2 Now test the sweetness of each chord Of holy harp and ten-stringed lute— 3 Awake new ecstasies and joys ; Play skillfully with a loud noise! 4 Sing how Jehovah’s word is right— The awful rule of rectitude: His works of mercy and of might, How faithfully He has pursued : s How loves He righteousness ; how earth He fills with melody and mirth! 6 Say, By His word the heavens were made, And their unreckonable hosts : 7 He garnered seas, their depths uplaid In magazines shut in by coasts: He bound the whole by chains of law— 8 Let the earth fear and stand in awe. 9 All things that are, in Him begun— By Him created in the past ! He spake the word, and it was done ; Commanded, and the world stood fast. On high He sits, serene and calm, Holding creation in His palm. XXXIII IO II [2 13 Iq 15 16 17 18 Ig THE PSALMS. 59 The counsels of the nations He Makes void, their thoughts of none effect ; His counsels stand eternally, Impaired by time in no respect. Happy the nation, happiest known, Whose God Jehovah is alone. The Lord from heaven at once surveys The myriads of human birth ; From His high throne directs His gaze On all th’ inhabitants of earth: He fashioned all their hearts, and knows Who are His friends and who His foes. Not by the number of his host Is the king saved, and victory gained ; Not by his might, the warrior’s boast, Is his deliverance obtained. The war-horse, when it has to cope With mightier strength, is a vain hope. Jehovah watches from above The trembling footsteps of the just: From famine, and from death, in love, Preserves all those who in Him trust. To us, O Lord! our Help! our Shield! Be now Thy saving power revealed ! Our heart in Thee shall happy rest, Because we 've trusted in Thy Name; THE PSALMS, XXXIV Thy faithfulness ’t is sweet to test— Thou Who forever art the same. 22 Thy mercy, Lord, upon us be, According as we hope in Thee. to PeArM XXXL, WILL bless the Lord, and raise Ceaseless canticles of praise ; From full fountains running o’er, I perpetual thanks will pour. I will praise Him when I’m glad ; I will praise Him when I’m sad; While my eyes with tears are dim, I will make my boast of Him. Magnify the Lord with me; Let His Name exalted be: When I seek the Lord, He hears And delivers from my fears. They who look to Him, their gloom He shall scatter and illume: Whoso call upon His Name, They shall never blush for shame. To the poor man in his grief, Brings He succor and relief : And His angel camps about All the pious and devout. XXXIV 8 IO II 13 14 15 16 17 18 THE PSALMS. 61 Taste and see the Lord is good : ’T is a truth not understood, They alone are truly blest Who upon His bosom rest. Fear the Lord all ye His saints ; Wants He’ll banish and complaints— Though young lions suffer lack, He ’ll no good from you keep back. Come, ye children, now draw near, Hear me teach Jehovah’s fear: Would ye walk in pleasant ways, See long life and happy days, Keep your tongue from slanders vile, And your lips from speaking guile ; Practice good, no evil do; Seek ye peace and it pursue. Turns the Lord approving eyes On the good, He hears their cries ; But His face is turned away From the wicked, them to slay. To the broken-hearted, He, Dweller in eternity, Stoops contrition’s sigh to hear, And to wipe the bitter tear. 62 THE PSALMS. XXXV 1) Many are the good man’s woes, But they spoil not his repose : 20 Of his bones God keeps each one, And of all there ’s broken none. 21 Evil shall the wicked slay— Doomed the penalty to pay: They, who in Jehovah trust, Shall accounted be as just. to to Pookie) Ra ae Thou with those who strive with me; 2 2 6 g lo Fight Thou ‘gainst those who ’gainst me fight ; Grasp shield and buckler; And, O be, Jehovah, helper of my right ! Draw out the spear, and block their way ; And, ‘‘I will save thee,” to me say. Confound and put to shame all those, Who seek my life, my hurt contrive ; Turn Thou them back; and make my foes Like chaff that storm-winds fiercely drive: Let, through a dark and slippery place, The Angel of the Lord them chase. For without cause, for me a snare They hid, and digged for me a pit ; As for their trap, all unaware May they themselves fall into it. ‘“Who is like Thee,” I then shall say, “Who spoils the spoiler of his prey ?”’ XXXV II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 THE PSALMS, 63 Malicious witnesses arise ; They ask me things I do not know ; They ill for good ’gainst me devise ; Bereave, and plunge my soul in woe. Whereas, when they were sick, I wore Sackcloth, kept fast, watched, prayed, wept sore. As to a cherished friend or brother I bore myself, I to him clung ; I mourned as for a dying mother ; But at my halting, their sharp tongue They did like sword ’gainst me unsheath— They gnashed upon me with their teeth. How long, O Lord, wilt Thou look on? Restore destructions ! Let my life From the young lion’s jaws be won— The purposed prey of men of strife : In the great congregation I Will then Thy goodness magnify. Let not them, wrongfully my foes, Rejoice o’er me; permit not them, Who without cause hate and oppose, To sneer, wink with the eye, contemn, And with wide mouth exclaim, “Ha! ha! We'd have it so, we're glad we saw.”’ Lord! Thou hast seen it—Be not far ; Wake to the justice of my cause : THE PSALMS. XXXVI 24 Judge me, judge them, who guilty are, 25 26 According to Thy righteous law. Let them not say with humor grim, “Ha! ha! we now have swallowed him.” May those who at my hurt rejoice, Confounded and dishonored lie, My foes, who with united voice Themselves against me magnify. Friends of my right, let them in song, Sing Thy glad praises all day long! PSA lM Sk aV L, \ \ YICKEDNESS within the heart Of the sinner whispers lies, Drawn to act the atheist’s part, To God’s fear he shuts his eyes ;— to Duped by that false oracle, By self-flatteries within— Thinks that none will know or tell Th’ odious secret of his sin. 3 False his words are; to be wise, And do good he has left off : 4 Plans in bed iniquity ; His chief business is to scoff. XXXVI 5 6 IO Il THE PSALMS, 65 Lord, Thy truth and goodness strike Highest reaches of the sky ; And Thy righteousness is like Thy great mountains lifted high: And Thy judgments are a deep, Deeper than the deepest sea: Man and beast, Thou, Lord, dost keep— All would perish without Thee. Precious is Thy love and dear; Safe the shelter of Thy wing ; Great abundance of good cheer Thou wilt to Thy children bring: Thou wilt make them drink their fill From Thine Eden river bright : With Thee is life’s fountain still, In Thy light shall we see light. Let Thy goodness bide and stay: Let not foot of pride o’ertake: Let no hand drive me away : They shall fall who Thee forsake. 606 THE PSALMS. XXXVII PSigM xy A T evil-doers do not fret ; Let their success not thee disturb— ° ‘They soon like grass will be cut down, And withered be like the green herb! Oo But in Jehovah trust ; do good; Dwell in the land and safely feed: j And in the Lord delight thyself, And He’ll supply thy every need. Commit thy way unto the Lord: Confide in Him to make all right. 6 He will bring forth thy righteousness, And judgment as the noonday light. tN 7 Depend upon the Lord, and wait ; Fret not thyself at other’s gain: 8 From anger cease, and wrath forsake— It tends to crime, is worse than vain. ( Evil who sow, shall evil reap ; But those who wait, shall yet possess. 10 The wicked soon shall be no more,— His mansion be left tenantless. ~~ * This Psalm belongs to the acrostic or alphabetic class, in which the initial letters of the Hebrew alphabet, in their regular order, are the initial letters of the successive lines or stanzas of the poem. They are seven in number, viz : Psalms 25, 34) 37) 12%, 112, 1%), 145. The aphoristic character is commen to them all. Made up of practical precepts to be learned by heart, it is probable that the al- phabetic arrangement was meant to serve asa mnemonic device to assist in re- membering them. In the present case the English alphabet has been substituted for the Hebrew. XXXVII THE PSALMS. 67 11 Favored of God are all the meek, The meek inherit shall the earth— Abundance shall they have of peace, In testimony of their worth. 12 (gins for the good the wicked lays, He gnashes on him with his teeth. 13. The Lord shall laugh at him; He sees Destruction moving from beneath. 14 Hands of the wicked draw the sword, They bend the bow to slay the upright— 15 Their sword shall enter their own hearts ; Their bow shall broken be outright. 16 [n little has the righteous more, Than many wicked have in much: ‘7 The arms of these shall shattered be, But God lets none the righteous touch. 18 Knows God the days of the upright ; Their heritage shall aye endure ; 19 They shall at no time come to shame; Their bread in famine shall be sure. 20 [,et all the wicked know, that theirs Is the brief glory of the meads: Like smoke it vanishes away, The final fate of fairest weeds, 68 to _ to to 20 24) 30 ar THE PSALMS. XXXVII Money they borrow and pay not; The righteous favor show, and give: Those whom God blesses, title gain To vast estates, and long shall live. Need is our steps should ordered be By God, who therein takes delight ; For though we fall, we'll rise again, By help of His upholding might. Qn the Lord's faithfulness rely : For I've been young and now am old, Yet have I seen forsaken none Who trusted God, and kept fast hold. Practice the precepts thou hast learned . Keep God's pure law thine eyes before: Depart from evil and do good : And so abide forevermore. ()uite sure it is He judgment loves ; And He will not His saints forsake :— They are preserved for aye; but He An end will of the wicked make. Itevolves the righteous in his heart The words of wisdom he would speak ; His steps they waver not, because God's law makes steadfast what is weak. XXXVII THE PSALMS. 69 32 Sly secret watch the wicked keeps— Lying in wait just blood to spill: 33. God will explode a sentence given, Where Hate sits judge and thirsts to kill. 34 ‘Thou on Jehovah wait; stand fast! He ’ll raise thee to possess the land : And when the wicked is cut off, Thou shall it see and understand. 35 Under a golden canopy I saw a wicked man and proud, Having great power unjustly got, Claiming base worship from the crowd, 36 Vain glorious, self-deified, Spreading himself like a green tree In its own soil. I passed again, And he was not—gone utterly. Watch thou the perfect man, behold The upright, for his end is peace: 38 As for transgressors they shall be Destroyed together, and shall cease. 3 “i 39 ’Xult—salvation’s of the Lord ; In time of trouble your Stronghold, 4o Your Help and your Deliverer From the ungodly, as of old. JO to ! It) THE PSALMS. XXXVIII PSowtM AAA VEE. PARE me! howe’er deserved, My punishment curtail : Let Thy abundant mercy, Lord, O’er wrath provoked prevail. Thine arrows are sunk deep; There ’s nothing in me whole ; There is no soundness in my flesh, No comfort in my soul. I sink, weighed down by sins That heavier are than lead, In whelming waters whose loud waves Are roaring o’er my head. My stripes are festering wounds ; My agony is great ; I with unceasing tears bewail My sorrowful estate: There’s burning in my loins ; I am benumbed and bruised ; I cry out from disquietude That ’s everywhere diffused. My longing is not hid; To Thee each sigh and groan, My fluttering heart, my failing eyes, My feebleness, are known. XX XVIII II 13 14 15 16 17 18 Ig 21 THE PSALMS. 71 My lovers and my friends, My kinsmen stand aloof ; My foes weave hateful calumnies, Most false in warp and woof. But I’ve been deaf and dumb, Like one that did not hear; For Thee I waited, O my God! My character to clear. They will, I said, exult, If I commit a fault— [f slips my foot, and well I know I ready am to halt. My grief I kept in mind— How guilty I have been ; I will my guiltiness declare, Be sorry for my sin. But many are my foes, They deadly are and strong ; Evil for good they render me, For kindness do me wrong. Forsake me not, O Lord! Be never far away ; Make haste to help me, O my God! Thy saving power display. THE PSALMS. XXX1X Po AiM xX. SAID, I will take heed, that I Offend not with my tongue ; My mouth with bridle keep, while I The wicked am among. And I was dumb, I held my peace, I uttered not a word, Abstained from even proper speech— Then was my sorrow stirred ; My heart was hot within; the fire While I was musing, burned ; Then spake I with my tongue once more Of what me most concerned. Make me to know my end, O Lord! The measure of my days ; That I may know how frail I am, How fatal my delays. Behold my days as handbreadths are, So brief are they and few ; My life is naught—a bubble I And bubbles I pursue. Man at his best, when standing firm, In truth is but a breath ; He heaps up gold with restless toil For unknown heirs at death. AL IO Il 13 THE PSALMS. 73 And now, what wait I for, O Lord ? My hope is all in Thee ; O make me not the sceptic’s scorn ; From my transgressions free. Because Thou didst it, I was dumb, I opened not my mouth: Remove Thy stroke away from me, That parches likes a drouth. When Thou with just rebukes dost man For his misdeeds correct ; Thou spoil’st his beauty as a moth, And turn’st away respect. Hear Thou my prayer for help, O God! Reply to tears I pour: Det-mé-recover Strength”. ere | Go hence and be no more! Pow ieM A WAITED for the Lord till He His answer did no more delay ; 2 With a strong arm He lifted me From darksome pit and miry clay, And placed my feet on rocky ground, And made my joy and peace abound. * Or, O let me smile again, IO II For O my rapture was supreme ! Many shall see and fear and trust, Happy is he whom lies disgust. Many the wonders Thou hast wrought, O Lord my God, on our account : Tried 1 to tell each gracious thought, I could not to the number mount. O Thou with whom none can compare, How can I speak Thee or declare? Since sacrifice and offering Thou Hast no delight in any more, But only in obedience now, Thou didst mine ears for service bore— Then said I, “Lo, I come Thy will, My God, completely to fulfill.” To preach glad news of-righteousness, Thou knowest, Lord, I’ve not refrained ; Mid gathered Israel’s mighty press, My ardent lips I’ve not restrained, From publishing and making known The truth and mercy of Thy throne. Withhold not Thy compassions, let Thy love and truth continued be: XLI 12 13 iat 15 16 | THE PSALMS. 75 For countless ills have me beset, My sins have overtaken me— So many are they, shame and dread Forbid that I should lift my head. Make haste to answer me, O Lord ! Let those, who would my soul destroy, Confusion have for their reward, And those who in my hurt would joy. Let them therefore be desolate, Who say Aha! in scorn and hate. Make glad all who in Thee confide ; Let such as Thy salvation prize, Repeat : ‘“ The Lord be magnified !” Though poor, Thou dost not me despise ; Thou art my Help—deliv’rance bring, Make, O my God, no tarrying ! PSALM ALI. | APPY is he whose neart unlocks ° _ And swings a hospitable door, Whene’er the hand of pity knocks, And claims admittance for the poor: Who lends to grief a willing ear, And sheds the sympathizing tear: The Lord will in the evil day Deliver such, and keep alive; He’ll prosper him and turn away The ruin that his foes contrive: IO Il THE PSALMS. XLI Stretched on his couch will stay his head, And in his sickness make his bed. Have mercy on me, Lord, Isaid, Heal Thou my soul, for I have sinned : My foes speak evil, wish me dead : Visits he me? My ears are dinned With falsehood. He employs his wit Jo trame @ lie, then blazons if, Gather in knots all who me hate ; Malicious whispers go around ; They feign much grief, calumniate, And try which can the deepest wound . There clings, say they, some evil thing To him that will to death soon bring. My trusted own familiar friend,* Who ate my bread, has lifted up His heel against me—to same end Held to my lips a poisoned cup: In secret played a traitor’s part, With stabs directed at my heart. Be gracious, Lord, and me restore, That [ may properly requite ; Because my foe's shore trininph $0 er, I know Thou dost in me delight, In my integrity dost place Me evermore before Thy face. ' Ahithophel XLI THE PSALMS. 77 13 O blessed and thrice blessed be, Jehovah, God of Israel ! Whose dwelling is eternity, Whose being is perpetual— From everlasting it begun— To everlasting it will run. Amen and Amen, The supposition, that Psalms 38, 39, 41 and 55 were composed while David was weighed down by the debilitating languors of a protracted bodily illness, aggra- vated by cruel rumors of the unnatural conduct of hisson Absalom, and the secret or open defection and treachery of some of his most trusted counsellors (Ahitho- phel, in particular), is favored not only by direct hints and allusions, but by the help it affords in explaining some things otherwise unaccountable—for example, the supineness and slackened vigor which allowed the conspiracy to ripen with- out any steps being taken to defeat it. The King’s inability, moreover, from this cause, to perform the duties of his office would naturally give rise to those post- ponements and delays in the administration of justice and the hearing of causes, which Absalom so adroitly turned to his own advantage in breeding disaffec- tion, and stealing the hearts of the people (2 Sam. 15: 4-6) by an ostentatious for- wardness and pretended zeal for their welfare. David’s sin in the matter of Uriah was ever before him (Ps. 51: 3) and darkened the whole of his subsequent life. If sin be, as etymologically defined, ‘‘a missing of the mark,’ it was never more strikingly verified than inhiscase. He wassoon made aware that he had committed not only a crime but a blunder. Though for- given, he carried a dull ache in his heart’s core, that never left him. His heart oft failed him; he was degraded in his own eyes; he was so ashamed that he was not able to look up; his iniquities had laid hold of him (Ps. 40: 12) and would not let go. Ever after his fall, all his adverse fortune he never doubted was a chas- tisement for that sin—a buffet (Ps. 39: 10) of the Divine Hand. Again and again he refers to it. It is an interesting psychological study to note how the recollec- tion of his great fault affected him. He who had said “I will walk within my house witha perfect heart’’ (Ps. roz: 2) had been guilty of treachery, adultery and mur- der. Othe shame of it! During all the miserable months which passed prior to Nathan’s visit he penned no psalms nor sung any. His harp was silent. The Nemesis of a troubled conscience kept his eyes waking. He speaks of his ‘‘ roaring all the day long.’’ The anguish of his mind fevered his body. Then came con- fession. Both (Ps. 51 and 32) are saturated with the tears of penitence and a broken heart. But the sickness, noted in Psalm 41, is evidently of a more chronic kind, in which figure the plotters concerned in the Absalom rebellion. Com- pare Ps. 55. BOOK I. PSA LS 2b Ane RL S the flying hart, pursued, Pants for streamlets running free, So in this lone solitude Pants my soul, O God, for Thee— 2 Thirsts for Thee, the Living God: When before Thee shall I come ? 3 Tears have been my daily food, While they asked and I was dumb, “Where is now Thy God? O where?” 4 I recall, how with the throng, While thanksgivings shook the air, To Thy House I passed along. Dear to memory those days, When dense crowds went up to pray; And with voice of joy and praise In Thy Courts kept holy day. * These two Psalms, which are properly one, are strophic in form, being di- vided into three parts by arefrain. David, a discrowned fugitive, has reached Mahanaim, or is on his way thither. The Psalm has for its extourage, frame, or setting, the Jordan with its cataracts; its mountain affluent, the Jabbok, visited by the hunted hart ; and Mt. Hermon with its three summits. He laments his ex- clusion from the Sanctuary at Jerusalem. See 2 Samuel rs: 25. XLII-XLIII THE PSALMS. 79 s Why art thou cast down, my soul? Why this tossing, sick unrest? Hope in God, and Him extol, Who the health is of thy breast. 6 O my God! I, sad and ill, From the Jand of Jordan cry: Hermon’s heights and Mizar’s hill Refuge for the time supply. 7 Musing on the farther shore, On successful treason’s acts, In full hearing of the roar Of the mighty cataracts, Bounds no more my spirit keeps, Voicing deeps assume control, All Thy waves and billows sweep Over my astonished soul. 8 Yet the Lord will be, I know, Gracious as He was of yore ; Will His loving-kindness show, And will former songs restore. 9 I will say, My God! My Rock! Why hast Thou forgotten me? 10 Why do I endure the mock Of th’ insulting enemy? 80 Ii to THE PSALMS. XLIT-XLVITI Why art thou cast down, my soul? Why this tossing, sick unrest? Hope in God, and Him extol, Who the health is of thy breast. Judge me, Lord! defend my right, ’Gainst a nation in revolt ; From chief traitor® urging fight, Rescue, and repel assault. Thou who art my Strength, O why Dost Thou cast me off and spurn? Why, oppressed by foes, go I Mourning, waiting Thy return? Send out now Thy light and truth! They shall guide me, they shall bring To Thy Holy Tilt in:scour, Where I’ll lay thank-offering On. Thine-altar. for-rehet From my tribulation sharp, For great joy succeeding grief, I will praise Thee on the harp. Why art thou cast down, my soul? Why this tossing, sick unrest? Hope in God, and Him extol Who the health is of thy breast. * Ahithophel ? xX LIV to THE PSALMS. SI PSALM 2 bay GOD! we with our ears have heard, Our fathers have us told, What work Thou wroughtest in their days The famous days of old. Thou didst the heathen dispossess, And plantedst them therein: They by the sword gat not the Land, Nor by their arm did win; But Thou, by Thy right hand and arm, Didst mightily befriend ; Their conquests multiply, their bounds On every side extend. Thou art my King: Do Thou, O God, Deliverance command Once more for Jacob; yet once more Display Thy helping hand. Through Thee we will push down our foes, Trample and put to shame ; For I’]l not trust in bow or sword ; But only in Thy Name. Thou hast our adversaries quelled, And chased their flying ranks: In Thee we made all day our boast, To Thee will still give thanks. 82 IO II 13 Tet 16 17 18 19 THE PSALMS. XALIV But now Thou hast us quite cut off, And to dishonor brought : Thou hast not gone forth with our hosts, Nor on our side hast fought : And they who hate have us for spoil ; We-at their teet are tung : Thou givest us as sheep for food, And scatterest them among. Thy people Thou dost sell for naught ; We’re sneered at without rest ; Among the nations a by-word, The Gentiles’ constant jest. I have all day before my eyes These tokens of disgrace; The shame of their loud blasphemies Calls blushes to my face. All this has come upon us, Lord! But we 've not Thee forgot ; Nor false been to Thy covenant ; Prom Thee departed not: Though Thou hast crushed us in the place Of jackals howling near ; Hast shrouded us with shades of night, And blackest glooms of fear. XLV 20 2I 22 23 24 THE PSALMS. 8 3 If we’ve the Name of God forgot, And played a treacherous part ; Shall God not search this out? He knows The secrets of the heart. We're all day long for Thy sake slain ; Accounted are as sheep Designed for slaughter, each in turn, Our life is held so cheap. Awake: why sleepest Thou, O Lord ? Arise for our relief: Why hidest Thou Thy face from us, Forgetful of our grief? For to the dust are we bowed down, We cleave unto the clod— Rise for our help, redeem us for Thy mercies’ sake, O God! PSALM XLV. ROM my heart’s fountain, my great theme Wells up, an overflowing stream ; Because my words concern the King, Uprushing, copious, they spring: My tongue possesses a new gift, The ready writer’s pen less swift. fa to 6 ~I on THE PSALMS. XLV Fair, fair art Thou, O fairer far Than fairest of earth’s children are: What grace into Thy lips is poured ! What hives of sweetness there are stored ! Therefore has God pronounced Thee blest— Th’ Eternal Darling of His breast. Gird Thou Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Mighty One, for triumphs high: In glory and in majesty Ascend Thy car, ride prosperously : Because of meekness, truth and right, Thy trained hand terribly shall smite. Sharp are Thine arrows in Thy foes, Whereby the people that oppose Pallitinder Thee= ‘ihy work pursue, Till Thou all nations shalt subdue. Thy throne, O God, forever stands— Thy righteous sceptre sways all lands. Thou righteousness lov’st evermore, And hatest wickedness—therefore, Hath God, Thy God, anointed Thee With oil of gladness plenteously Above Thy fellows. When astir, All Thy rich garments smell of myrrh, Of aloes, cassia, fragrant gums— While, ever and anon, there comes XLV. Lo Il 13 T4 THE PSALMS. 85 Out of the ivory palaces The noise of instruments to please— The mighty melody of strings, That lifts the soul on heavenly wings. Daughters of kings are with Thee seen: On Thy right hand there stands the Queen, In gold of Ophir: Daughter, hear! Forget thy father’s house once dear ; So shall the King thy beauty prize: For He’s thy Lord, lift reverent eyes ! His beauty makes thy beauty dim ; But thou art fair since fair to Him: The sweet reflections of His face Give majesty to thine and grace— Thou art a portion of His state, So that His greatness makes thee great. Therefore proud Tyre, will, bowing low, On thee rich nuptial gifts bestow ; Th’ opulent will thee entreat, And sue for favors at thy feet: Honors flow in from every side, Such as befit a royal bride. Lo, the king’s daughter sits admired In her apartments: all attired In gorgeous dress inwrought with gold— Embroidered work fair to behold— She shail be led in to the King ; Attendant virgins shall her bring. 86 THE PSALMS. XLVI 16 Thou in Thy fathers’ stead shalt see Thy sons, a royal progeny, Whom Thou, in view of their high birth, Shalt princes make in all the earth. 17 Thy Name shall still remembered be, And praise forever rise to Thee. Poa le M aby I. OD is our Refuge and our Rock, Our Help in tribulation— 2 Therefore we will not fear the shock That moves the world's foundation. Let mountains be Sunk in the sea; a Its waters roar And shake the shore— Our hearts shall ne’er be shaken. } There is a river, whose pure streams Make glad the Holy City ; Hard by the Hill it glides and gleams, Where dwells the God of Pity. 5 Where God abides No danger hides ; Seems He withdrawn, At break of dawn, His help will be extended. XLVI IO Il THE PSALMS. 87 The nations raged, the kingdoms were In turmoil and commotion ; He spake, earth melted ; ceased the stir And madness of the ocean. The Lord of hosts Defends our coasts ; In perils high To Him we fly, And all the peril passes. Come, see Jehovah’s works of peace— Who wrought earth’s desolations, Now causing wars and strifes to cease Among all tribes and nations: He breaks the bow, The spear also ; The chariot burns ; To ashes turns The engines of destruction. Be still, and know that Iam God! My name shall be exalted— Ill stretch my peace-restoring rod O’er nations that revolted. The Lord of hosts Defends our coasts ; In perils high, To Him we fly, And all the peril passes. fr Ca THE PSALMS. XLVII PSA wo xy il () ALL ye peoples, clap your hands: Shout unto God, the Lord Most High; 2 Who is the Monarch of all lands, Whose dreadful sceptre rules the sky! 3 He nations under us subdues ; Puts hostile kingdoms ‘neath our feet: 4 Our heritage He deigns to choose— The pride of Jacob makes His seat. s God has gone up with shouts—the Lord With blare of trumpets echoing— 6 Strike harps of praise ; instruct each chord To testify God is our King. 7 Sing praise to God with harpings loud ! 8 He o’er the nations reigns alone— In unshared rule, above the proud, He sits upon His holy throne. 9 Princes of peoples hither throng, People of Abrah’m’s God to be The shields of earth to God belong— Exalted high o’er all is He. XLVIII 1) THE PSALMS. 89 PSALM XLVITI. OD is great, and only great ; Be His praise proportionate! In the City of our God, In the Place of His abode, In the Mount of Holiness, Magnify His Name and bless! Rare and beautiful for site, Earth’s chief wonder and delight Is Mount Zion: God is known For a refuge there alone: City, for defence renowned, Castles, gates, and walls around. Kings, assembled, on her gazed, Hastened then away amazed. By dismay and grief o’erta’en, Like a travailing woman’s pain ; Like the ships of Tarshish broke By the east-wind’s dreadful stroke. As we've heard, so we have seen, In Jehovah’s City clean, By His presence holy made— Its foundations by Him laid On the everlasting flint, Which no violence can dint. 90 THE PSALMS. XLIX g In Thy Temple, Lord, oft sought, On Thy kindness we have thought. 10 To the earth’s remotest ends Praise of Thy great Name extends. ry Let the:-City of Iny-choice In Thy righteousness rejoice ! 12 Compass Zion, she is ours ; Walk about her; count her towers ; 13 Mark her bulwarks ; note ye well All her palaces, to tell 14 To your sons her strength and pride: God till death will be our Guide. PoALM XLT. A LL men,.where’er ye dwell, give ear— Both high and low, both rich and poor ; 3 While I upon my harp make clear 4 Dark truths, discredited but sure: 5s In evil days, why should I dread Crafty supplanters of my right? 6 Who, glorying in their wealth, are led To trust in gold’s imagined might. 7 No one his brother can redeem, A ransom give to God for him ; When death arrests life’s flowing stream, And rigid grow each joint and limb: X LIX 10 II 12 13 14 15 THE PSALMS. gI When strikes the hour, a moment more Too costly is for him to buy ; However great his golden store, Though all were his beneath the sky. Yea, he shall see it; wise men die— The fool, the brutish too, bereft Of brief pre-eminence and rule, The wealth they prize to others left. Their inward thought is, that their fame And houses will forever last : They call their lands by their own name To tell their greatness in the past. But man in honor does not stay ; He’s like the beasts that perish all ; Though men approve their foolish way, And their vain sayings wisdom call. They are like sheep the shepherd, Death, Gathers in Sheol’s gloomy fold, Found in the morning without breath ; While live th’ upright strong and bold. Sheol their beauty shall devour, And of their frame shall nothing leave: But God my soul shall from hell’s power Deliver, and shall me receive. THE PSALMS. 16 Fear not, should chance on one convey Riches and honors without end ; 17 He dying carries naught away, No honors after him descend. 13 Though while he lived he blessed his soul, And though success men glorify ; 19 Yet shall he perish as a whole, And in perpetual darkness lie. 20 Man that is high in honor, yet Wisdom to learn no time allots, Is like (his thoughts on vain things set) The beast that perishes and rots. Powe cL. HE Mighty God, the Lord of All, The earth from east to west doth call : 2 From Zion (His most Holy Shrine, Perfect in beauty) God doth shine. 3 Be sure, that when our God shall come, His holy lips will not be dumb: A fire before Him shall devour; Round and above black tempests lower. 4 He both the heavens and earth will cite To witness that He judges right: 5s ‘Let all My saints assembled be That made a covenant with, Me.” Io II 13 14 15 THE PSALMS. 93 The heavens declare His righteousness, And sinful earth the same confess : For God Himself is Judge, and He Ig pertect truth and equity. “Theat, israel. | thee arraign = Will speak against Thee, and complain, I that am God, Thy God—draw nigh, Not for thy sacrifices, I ‘“Will blame thee: thy burnt offering Is frequent and most wearying. No bullock I from thee require ; No he-goats from thy folds desire: ‘“Rach beast is mine the forest fills ; The cattle on a thousand hills ; Birds of the mountains, one and all, Beasts of the fields are at my call. “lf hungry, I’d not ask for thine ; The fulness of the world is Mine. Think ye on flesh of bulls I feed ? That blood of goats for drink I need! “Offer to God thanksgiving; pay Thy righteous vows; and to Me pray In trouble, and I’]l answer thee; And thou with praise shalt honor Me. 94 16 17 Ig to to THE PSALMS. LI “But God saith to the wicked: What Hast thou to do, thy right whence got My statutes to declare, to take Into thy mouth laws thou dost break? ‘No vile companionship thee grieves ; Thy friends adulterers are and thieves : Assassin thou, false to each trust, That dost behind thy brother thrust. ‘“‘Meanwhile, because I silence kept, Thou vainly thoughtest justice slept ; But all thy sins, stript of disguise, I will array before thine eyes. ‘“O ye, that God forget, attend ! Lest I in pieces you shall rend. To him who orders well his way I My salvation will display.”’ PSALM aot, | AVE pity on me, Lord! Withhold forgiveness not ; According to Thy mercy spare, And my trangressions blot. 2 O wash me from my guilt, And make me clean within: 3 For my trangressions I confess, Before me is my sin. LI THE PSALMS. 95 Against Thee only, I This evil did commit ; That so thou may’st be justified When I’m condemned for it. Lo, in iniquity I shapen was and born— In sin my mother me conceived, And I’m a wretch forlorn. Behold, Thou hast desired Truth in the inward part: With wisdom, secret and sincere, Acquaint my darkened heart. Purge me with hyssop, I Shall then true cleansing know: Me in Thy laver wash, and I Shall whiter be than snow. Make me the music hear And gladness of Thy voice; That so the bones which justly Thou Hast broken may rejoice. My wickedness wipe out ; Thy face hide from my sin; A clean heart me create; renew A spirit right within. Il I2 T4 5 16 THE PSALMS. Ll O cast me not away From Thy dear presence; take Thy Holy Spirit not from ine: Nor wholly me forsake. Restore to me the joy Of Thy salvation, Lord! With a free spirit me uphold, Then I will teach Thy word, And other sinners shall Converted be to Thee: O God of my salvation, from Blood-guiltiness me free. My tongue shall sing aloud Then of Thy righteousness : Lord, open Thou my lips, and I Will praise to Thee address. For not in sacrifice, Nor in burnt-offering Delightest Thou, else I would these Unto Thine altar bring. A broken spirit is God's only sacrifice ; A broken and a contrite heart Thou, Lord, wilt not despise. LI THE PSALMS. 97 18 In Thy good pleasure, Lord! Do good to Zion; build ‘ The ramparts of Jerusalem ; 19 Then bullocks shall be killed. SECOND VERSION.—faraphrase. | AVE mercy, my offended God ; According to Thy goodness, spare ! Let not the judgment of Thy rod Sink me still deeper in despair ! O hear, and my transgressions blot: Save me from my enormous guilt: 2 Wash from my soul each leprous spot, For Thou canst cleanse me if Thou wilt. 3 My sins are mountainous, they climb The heights of air and reach the skies ; The ghastly horror of my crime Is night and day before my eyes. 4 ’Gainst Thee this odious deed was done; I struck my Maker in the face ; No wonder blushed th’ astonished sun, And earth saw shuddering the disgrace. Were not Thy mercies as the sand, I do not know that I would dare Thus lift to Thee these bloody hands, In agonizing act of prayer. 14 16 17 10 13 THE PSALMS, LII Though well, I know, there cries to Thee The crimson of th’ accusing sod, Hide not Thy face, deliver me From my blood-guiltiness, O God! Burnt offerings and sacrifice, Didst Thou desire, I would impart: One off’ring Thou wilt not despise— A broken and a contrite heart. Create in mea heart that’s pure; Renew, transform, and make me o’er; Not otherwise can I be sure, I will not stumble as before. By Thy free Spirit me uphold ; For I am weak and sick and sad ; Forgive, and love me as of old, And give me back the peace I had. Then to transgressors I will teach, How there are none so far from Thee, But Thy salvation can them reach, Por 16; 1t-tid extend 16 me: PSA eM Tl, SONNET. \ \ J HY boastest thou thyself in mischief, mighty man? The mercy of th’ Almighty never fails ; 2 Thy tongue, like a sharp razor, wickedness doth plan, Working deceitfully, inventing tales. LIII THE PSALMS. 99 Thou lovest evil more than good; and lies 4 Far more than truth, O thou deceitful tongue! He shall destroy thee, fatal man, likewise. He shall lay hold of thee; thou shalt be flung Out of thy tent; He'll thee uproot at length: 6 Good men shall laugh at thee, and say, “Lo, this is he that made not God his strength, Making th’ abundance of his wealth his stay.”’ But I am like an olive tree, forever seen In the Lord’s house still flourishing and green. Ww mn ~J Oo wo BSA ve rid: HERE is no God’”’—the fool hath said, His heart dictating to his head, To every noble feeling dead. Corrupt are they, from sun to sun They foul iniquity have done, None doeth good, not one, not one, The Lord looked down from heaven to see Who understood, who bowed the knee: Complete is the apostasy ; to 3 All are gone back, all filthy found, All vilest infamies abound, No one does good above the ground. 100 THE PSACALS. LIV 4 Are evil-doers mad, who eat My people up as they do meat, And think they need not God entreat? Where no fear was, great fear arose: The bones of the besieging foes God scattered—for despised were those. O that from Zion might proceed Salvations great for Israel’s need— Jacob made glad, from bondage freed. Poa Weeki PRESERVE me by Thy Name, O God! Thy Name is my Strong Tower ; 2 Defend me by Thy might against The-crueity of Power. 3 For strangers have against me risen, The violent have sought To take away my life—they have Of God nor fear nor thought. 3 God is my Helper, and He yet My life upholds; and will s, Return the evil of my foes By killing them who kill. LV THE PSALMS. IOI 6 I, with a free-will offering, Will sacrifice to Thee; 7 Will praise Thy Name, for praise is good, For Thou hast rescued me. Peo eM. aby ( IVE ear unto my prayer, O God! Attend and answer me: 2 I’m tost in my lament, and moan Like an unquiet. sea ; 3 Because my foes iniquity On me precipitate— Revile, oppress, and persecute In anger and in hate. 4 My heart is pained within me, I With mortal terrors quake: Trembling and fear lay hold, great waves Of horror o’er me break. cn 6 O that I wings had like a dove, Then would I fly away 7 And be at rest: would wander off And in the desert stay. Cc I would me to some shelter haste, Where safety can be found ; Out of the reach of stormy wind, And tempest howling round. IO 1 I2 13 T4 THE PSALMS. LV Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues ;* Confound their counsels; thwart The wiley chief’s state policies, And his consummate art. For I have in the City seen The circulating life— The daily movements on the walls, Significant of strife. All forms of wickedness are there, Oppressions and deceits ; Corruption ’s in her market-place, And fraud in all her streets. I could have borne it, had it been A foe the evil did, One hating me, for then I would From him myself have hid. But it was thou, mine equal held, My most familiar friend— Together we sweet counsel took ; And we were wont to wend Our way together to God’s House, With all the festal throng: I knew not then thy perfidy Would work me shame and wrong. * Absalom had been hatching treason during four years. Practically the City was now in his hands. David's fondness fur his son, even after the discovery, would lead him to temporize. Ahithophel’s defection was a serious blow, LV 15 16 I7 18 19 THE PSALMS. 103 Let sudden death upon them come; Earth swallow them alive; For all the seeds of wickedness Within them lodge and thrive. But I will call on God; the Lord Will save me from His throne: Evening and morning and at noon I will complain and moan. He hath redeemed my soul in peace, For me deliverance wrought ; Of doubtful battie turned the scale, For many ‘gainst me fought. God shall yet hear and answer them; hie fudge sits trom of old: Having no changes, and no fear, They ’ve grown in sinning bold: He has dealt treacherously, broke faith— Butter and oil his words, All smooth and soft, but meaning war, The conflict of drawn swords. Thy burden cast upon the Lord, And He will thee sustain. The righteous man shall ne’er be moved But stablished shall remain, 104 THE PSALMS. LVI 23 While bloody and deceitful men Shall not live half their days, Plunged by Thy hand into th’ abyss— I'll trust in Thee always. Poa. Lan B® merciful, O God, to me, For man would me devour: 2 Iam hard pressed, for many join To get me in their power. 3 What time I am afraid, I then Will put my trust in Thee ; 4 And, reassured, I’ll cease to fear What flesh can do to me. 5 All the day long they wrest my words, Their thoughts are full of hate ; 6 Gathered in bands they mark my steps, In ambush for me wait. 7 Would-be supplanters of my right, Do thou upon them frown: Prevent iniquitous escape, And cast the peoples down. 8 Thou counted hast my wandering steps, Now on my sorrows look ; Into Thy bottle put my tears— Are they not in Thy book? LVII THE PSALMS. 105 g Then shall mine enemies turn back, When I to God have cried ; And this I say because I know That He is on my side. In God I’ll trust ; Jehovah’s word, 10 Theme of my praise shall be; 11 Because I’ve trusted, I'll not fear What man can do to me. bom to Thy vows upon me are, O God! Thank-offerings I will pay: 13 To Thee I owe it that I still Enjoy the light of day. PSALM LV IT. B® merciful to me, O God! Where Thy great wings their shadow cast, There shalt my place of refuge be, Till these calamities are past. 2 I'll cry to God, the Mighty One, Whose love ne’er stops short of its end— Completing what it has begun— 3 And He from heaven shall swiftly send Mercy and Truth, celestial powers, From His right hand my life to save, To quell the monster that devours, And snatch me from a cruel grave. 106 IO II THE PSALMS. LVII My soul fierce lions is among ; I must lie down, distraught with fears, Midst fiery ones—a sword their tongue, Arrows their teeth and pointed spears. Be Thou exalted, God Most High, Above all praise, all thought above, Above the earth, above the sky, High seated on Thy Throne of Love! They for my steps prepared a net ; They bowed my soul, they dug a pit— The trap which they for me had set They fell into the midst of it. My heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, I will, O God, Thy praises sing : Awake, my tongue! With voice be mixed, O harp and lyre, your every string. I’ll wake the dawn! I’ll celebrate Thy praise among the nations, Lord! For high Thy mercy is and great, And true and faithful is Thy word. Be Thou exalted, God Most High, Above all praise, all thought above, Above the earth, above the sky, High seated on Thy Throne of Love! LVIII to IO THE PSALMS. 107 PSALM LV itt. OW is it, judges, ye sit dumb, When crime and wrong before you come— Silent what time ye ought to speak ? Who equity and right betray, Work wickedness, corruptly weigh Out violence unto the weak. Men from the womb devoid of worth, Habitual liars from their birth, With serpent’s deadly poison filled : Like adder deaf that stops her ear, And will the charmer’s voice not hear, Howe’er the charmer may be skilled. Lord! crush their teeth; the grinders break Of the young lions; and them make Like water hurrying fast away: Like arrow snapped upon the bow, Like snails dissolving as they go, Abortions that ne’er saw the day. Before your pots can feel the thorn, On swiftest whirlwind shall be borne The burning and the green alike: The righteous shall rejoice, when he God’s holy arm revealed shall see, Audacious wickedness to strike. 105 THE PSALMS. LIX 11 Seeing His judgments, men will say: “There is full recompense and pay, For men of piety and worth— He blesses them, and calls them His, Whereby it is made plain, there is A God that judges in the earth.”’ Peeve ats, ELIVER me from those, © God, who-are my toes; Above their utmost reach set me on high! Save me from men of blood, The banded foes of good, Strong ones who for my life in ambush lie! 2 G) It is not for my fault ¥ They run, prepare assault : Awake to meet me, Lord, their malice see! 5 O Thou Unspeakable ! Thou God of Israel! The heathen smite, spare none who traitors be. 6 Atevening they return, Of me they nothing learn ; They howl like dogs, and round the city go; z They belch out evil words, That cutting are as swords, “For who doth hear?” they say, “‘and who doth know? LIX THE PSALMS. 109g 10 if 13 Iq 15 16 But Thou shalt laugh at them ; Shalt mock them and contemn: I’ Il wait on Thee, O Thou who art my Strength! For Thou art my High Place, Wilt meet me, God of Grace, And give me triumph o’er my foes at length. Lord! slay them not; lest yet My people should forget, Scatter and bring them down, O Lord, our Shield ! Whose mouth, whose lips are sin: Let them be taken in Their pride, and for their blasphemies revealed. Thine anger on them pour, Consume till they ’re no more; And let them know that God in Israel rules: Let the report go forth To east, west, south and north, For warning to all atheists and fools. They will return at eve ; Sullen and snarling, grieve ; Howl like a dog, and go the city round: They ‘Il wander all the night, Until the morning light, Wolfish and lean in quest of prey not found. But I'll the morning crowd With anthems sweet and loud. IIo THE PSALMS, LX In praise of Thy dear might and faithfulness : 17 For Thou in danger’s hour Hast still been my High Tower, A Refuge in the day of my distress. Pee HOU, God, hast cast us off ; Thou hast us broken down; Thou hast been angry—from Thy face O drive away Thy frown! to Thou shaken hast the land; Hast it with earthquakes rent ; Great breaches made, it trembles still With dread astonishment. 3 Thou hast Thy people showed O many a hard thing! Hast for our sins made us to drink The wine of staggering. + To them who fear Thee, yet Thou hast a banner given, That it may be, because of truth, Displayed in sight of heaven. 5 That Thy belovéd ones May be delivered, save With thy right hand, and o’er us let Victorious ensigns wave. LX THE PSALMS. Tit 6 God in His holiness Has spoken—I, therefore, Will triumph in the confidence He will the lost restore: Then the reconquered Land I will again divide— Shechem and Succoth*—and mete out. His part to every Tribe. 7 Mine’s Gilead; and mine’s Manassah’s either half ; My head’s defence is Ephraim ; Judah ’s my royal staff ; 8 Moab my washpot is, Wherein I’ll wash my feet ; O’er Edom will extend my sway ;. Philistia will unseat. g Who will me bring into Edom’s fenced capital ? Surmount its muniment of rocks Impregnable high wall? 10 Thou who didst cast us off, Wilt Thou Thyself not lead? Wilt Thou not go forth with our hosts, And help us in our need? * Representing the two great divisions of the Country, east and west of the Jordan, where Jacob pitched his tent on his return from exile, T12 THE PSALMS, LXI to ty rm Give us Thy help! In-vain We on man’s help repose : Through God we shall do valiantly, For He’ll tread down our foes. Pio bv Xx... | | EAR Thou, O God, my cry ; A mourning exile, I From Zion weeping pass and its encircling hills— Beyond the bounding blue That terminates the view To where a prospect strange a new horizon fills. From thence [to Thee call Who art my all in all— Homesick, o’erwhelmed, and faint at heart—and Thou Il me lead To craggy rock and high, Up towering toward the sky, Too high for foes to reach—sure refuge in my need. To dwell I were content Ayein Thy Holy Tent ; Kept safe beneath the shade and shelter of Thy wings: For Thou, O God, hast heard My vows, and pledged Thy word To pass the heritage to my descendant kings. LXII THE PSALMS, Il3 6 The King’s life, hale and strong, To ages Thou ‘lt prolong : 7 He before God shall sit enthroned forevermore, Mercy and Truth shall be For his security— 8 So will I to Thy Name eternal praises pour. Pea Lew Dex. Y soul is silent unto God, My Rock is only* He, 2 My sole Salvation and High Tower— I shall not shaken be. 3 How long will ye set on a man, All banded him to slay, Like bowing wall or tottering fence, Which yet does not give way? 4 Only from his imperial seat To thrust him down they plan; Delight in lies, bless with their mouth, But inwardly him ban. 5 Only in God confide, my soul! On Him my hope I base— 6 He only is my Rock, my Rest, Salvation and High Place. * The repetition of the word ‘‘ only”’ is characteristic of this Psalm. II4 THE PSALMS. LXI1II 7 My honor and salvation rest On God; I firm shall stand— Rock of my Strength, my Refuge, He Guards me on every hand. 8 Ye people, put your trust in Him, At all times, and ye thus Will have sure proof how only God A Refuge is to us. 9 Only a breath are men, both those Of low and high degree ; Empty and false, they are when weighed Lighter than vanity. ro Trust in oppression not; nor grow In robbery vain ; nor let, In case your wealth and power increase, Your heart thereon beset. 11 Once has God said, twice have I heard ; All power to Him pertains, 12 And mercy too, and He to each, Right recompense ordains. PSALM 3p ht. GOD, my God Thou art I -dare-to-call Thee mine: My thirsty soul and longing heart For Thy sweet presence pine. LXIIT THE PSALMS. its Here in a land of drought, Where all the brooks are dry, Methinks I perish must, without Some token Thou art nigh. Grant, Lord, that I may now Thy power and glory see, As in the Sanctuary Thou Hast shown them unto me. Better than life Thy love: I’ll bless Thee all my days: Will in Thy Name to Thee above Lift up my hands in praise. My hungry soul shall feed On viands rich and choice, And—satisfied my every need— I will in Thee rejoice. Upon my bed at night, Will meditate on Thee; Recall the mercies of the light— Thy goodness unto me. Rejoicing in the shade Of Thy protecting wing: My eager soul shall not be stayed, On Thee hard following. 116 THE PSALMS. LXIV 9 But those who would me kill 10 Shall by the sword of power Be slain, and howling jackals will Their carcasses devour. 11 In God I will rejoice, Their boast who by Him swear: Stopped is the mouth, stilled is the voice Of them that lies declare. roo GOD! hear my complaint and prayer, And make my threatened life Thy care: 2 O hide me from the secret league, The wicked masters of intrigue, Who whisper first, then speak aloud Their treason to the noisy crowd. Their tongue they sharpen as a sword ; Their arrow fit (a bitter word) To shoot—naught fearing—th’ upright, Shoot suddenly, concealed from sight. They strengthen their malicious plot ; Lay snares, quite sure they seen are not. Fine villainies, far-sought and nice, They count an exquisite device: “All things are ready now and ripe, We have him,” say they, “in our gripe.” But God has with a surer aim Shot them—the shooter made the game. LXV THE PSALMS. iy 8 Smitten they stumble; they are stung With their own sharp envenomed tongue. g They flee away, and every one That sees, admires what God has done. 1o The righteous in the Lord shall trust ; In Him shall triumph all the just. PSALM LXV. ERPETUAL worship for Thee waits Within hushed Zion’s Temple-gates— A prayerful silence, Lord! and then Breaks forth the uttered praise of men ; Who hither come, before Thee bow, And punctually pay their vow. ° O Thou who hearest prayer, to Thee Must all flesh come, who blest would be; 3 Conscious iniquities assail, But our transgressions Thou wilt veil. Heal our backslidings when we stray, And purge our many sins away. 3 Happy the man whom Thou even here Shalt choose, and to Thyself bring near ; That in Thy House he may abide, And with its good be satisfied ; May in Thy Holy Temple rest A permanent and honored guest. 118 IO Il LAE £PSALIZS. LXV By fearful things in righteousness— Mercies and judgments numberless— O God of our salvation, Thou Wilt answer us: Be gracious now ! Ends of the earth confide in Thee, And dwellers on the far-off sea. Girded with might, Thou dost set fast By Thy great strength the mountains vast : Dost roaring seas hush at Thy will, And tumult of the peoples still: Dwellers on farthest shores are made By tokens of Thy power afraid. Thou makest with rich purple clad Th’ outgoings of the morning glad ; With golden splendors renderest gay The footsteps of departing day, Like bird with outspread gorgeous wing, The bards of morn and evening sing. Thou floodest all the fields, by which The earth Thou greatly dost enrich : Fed by th’ unfailing streams of God, With mighty marvels teems the sod— Its furrows drenched, made soft with showers, How spring the grain, the grass, the flowers ! With goodness Thou hast crowned the year ; Where Thy feet pass fair sights appear— LXVI TEE £SALIN SS, IIQ 12 The wilderness fat pastures yields, 13 Joy girds the hills, flocks clothe the fields, Grain all the valleys covering— They shout for joy, they also sing. 2 1 PSALM DX. HOUT unto God, all lands, His majesty proclaim ! Ascribe to Him the honor due, And glorify His Name! How fearful are Thine acts: Through knowledge of Thy power, Thine enemies submission feign, And at Thy footstool cower. All lands shall worship Thee, The Universal Lord— They shall sing praises to Thy Name On harp and decachord. Come, see what He has done! The dreadful power of God— He turned the sea into dry land, They Jordan crossed dry shod : Then we rejoiced in Him. He rules on high and here, His eyes keep watch the nations o’er— Let the rebellious tear : 120 Io I] 13 14 15 16 THE: PSALAS LAVI Ye nations, bless our God! Be praise to Him preferred, Who holds our soul in life, nor lets Our firm-set foot be stirred. For Thou hast proved us, Lord! Tried us as silver’s tried ; Brought us within the hunter’s net, Our lains with burdens plied. Hast suffered men to ride Triumphant o’er our head: Through fire and flood we went, but Thou To a rich place hast led. I with burnt offerings Into Thy House will come: Of vows I made in my distress, Will pay the perfect sum. I will burnt offerings Of fatlings bring to Thee ; Incense of rams, bulls and he-goats Shall my oblation be. Come, hear, and I’!] declare, All ye that fear the Lord, That which He for my soul has done, The favor on me poured. LXVII THE PSALMS. .I21 17 [ said—what time I cried, And offered praise sincere— 18 If in my heart I sin regard I know He will not hear. 19 But, verily, God heard : His Name thrice blesséd be, 20 Who nath not turned away my prayer, His mercy kept from me. PawiM LXV it. BE merciful and bless, Eternal God of grace! Upon us let the brightness fall And gladness of Thy Face. 2 That Thy most blesséd way May on the earth be known; Thy saving power and goodness be Among all nations shown. 3 Let peoples of all lands In praise find sweet employ ; 4 The various nations one and all Be glad and sing for joy ! For Thou with equity Shalt judge them from above; And they shall see stretched over them The sceptre of Thy love. 6 122 LUE PSALMS. XVIII 5 Let Thee the peoples thank, 6 For bounties of the year ; 7 Let the extremities of earth Be made to learn thy fear. PeoneEewM Lxv li & shall arise and scatter them, And push His flying foes: As smoke is driven, Thou wilt them drive ; As melts away and goes Th’ unstable wax before the fire, So pass the wicked in Thine ire. 3 They perish ; but the righteous shall Exceedingly rejoice. 4 Sing ye to God, sing to His Name With harp and lute and voice! Cast up, prepare a way for Him, Who rides upon the Cherubim! * This magnificent Battle Hymn, or Triumphal Song. composed in celebration of some recent Victory or success achieved through Divine Help, is made com- memorative of gracious interventions and deliverances in the past, outlining the history of Israel from the exodus to the full establishment of the monarchy on Zion. Jehovah is described (v. 4) as “ridiny chrvomgh the deserts”? [not ‘upon the heavens’? as the Common Version has it] in the manner of a kine marching at the head of hisarmy. Spectul reference ts made tvs. 7-101 to the journeying through the Wilderness, where the “ Cloud,” otherwise, ‘the Glory of the Lord,” the visi- ble manifestation of the Divine Prescenee accompanying the Ark with its symbolic Cherubim, was the signal to all the people to move forward or to halt If by Cherubim be understood Nature (as aruucd in Note, p. 27); and by God's cn- thronement above them, the subjection of all things to Him, we sce how it belongs, not only to poetic but imtrinsic fitness, that the announcement of any special Appearance of the ereat Lord of All should be attended with extraordi- nary natural phenemeni—such as thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes, testifying te a mighty, trembling, and adoring awe. We think, moreover, that LXVIII THE PSALMS. 125 Not up the skyey steeps, star-paved, His sacred car He guides ; Not o’er the ample plains of heaven— He through the desert rides By His Name Jah: Unto Him sing, Who leads you in your journeying. 5 God in His Sanctuary ts, The widow’s Judge and Friend ; A Father of the fatherless To care for and defend: 6 No more the solitary roam, He gives fixed dwellings and a home. The sons of bondage He brings forth, And blesses with full hand : But the rebellious and perverse Inhabit a parched land— The prisoner, who hugs his chains, In bondage rightfully remains. Verse 17 admits of being construed in the same sense. It is there’said, ‘‘ The chariots of God are myriad-fold, thousand upon thousands; the Lord is among them—Sinai in the Sanctuary,’’ meaning that the vehicles of Divine Puwer as found in Nature defy enumeration ; that God 1s a God of law: that the Ark of the Covenant, containing the Decalogue, having the Mercy-Seat above, is signfi- cant of the fact that even mercy rests on law, or, as it is poetically expressed, ‘Sinai isin the Sanctuary.”” While the close conjunction of the Cherubim, so close as to form a part of it (z. ¢., the Mercy-Seat), is fitted to suggest that the God of Nature is likewise the God of Grace. The true reading of Verse 5 1s, ‘* The Lord givcs the word: the women that publish the glad tidings [of victory] arc a mighty host,’ as in Ex. 15:29; 2 Sam, 18:16, The accepted reading of Verse 12 is, '‘ Will ye lic among the sheep-folds- as the wings of a deve covered with silver and her pinions with yellow gold ?”’— the allusion being to Judges 5: 16, where Deborah in her song rebukes the recre- ancy of Reuben, who luxuriated in the selfish indulgence vf a soft pastoral repose, unsoiled with the dust of conflict, while cthers, like Zebulun and Naphtali were 124 IO Il 13 is THE PSACMS, LX Vill O God! when through the wilderness Their march Thy people made, Earth trembled, and the heavens dropped rain, And Sinai was afraid: All Nature knew Thy presence well— The mighty God of Israel! Thou didst, O God, Thy heritage Refresh with plenteous rain ; Didst visit it when it was faint, And make it strong again . Thy flock therein was made to bide ; And for the poor Thou didst provide. God gives the word, the battle won, Women, a mighty throng, Triumphing, publish the good news, With timbrel, dance and song. ihe kings ot-armies. nee, they i1ee, Rich spoils rewarding victory. Will ye among the sheepfolds lie In pastoral repose— Like bright-winged dove in her soft nest, Not helping 'gainst God’s foes— What time He puts leagued kings to flight On Zalmon, made with bones snow-white ? jeoparding their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.’’ Verses r1- 14 belong apparently to the period of the Judges; verses 15-19 to the establish- ment of the monarchy and the national worship on Mt. Zion; verses 24-27 de- scribe the triumphal procession ; verses «8-31 point to the universal conquest yet to come. In the concluding verses (vs. 32-35) all nations are called on to unite in praise to the God of Isracl., LXViTI 15 16 17 18 Ig 20 22 THE PSAILMS. 125 Mountain of Bashan, mountain high, Proud peak and pinnacle ! Why look askance ye at the Mount Where God vouchsafes to dwell? If height is less, by easier road We climb the Hill of His Abode. Zion is strong, God in her midst: His chariots of war Thousands on thousands, myriads Incalculable, are ; Approach that Sacred Place with awe, Where God of Sinai guards His Law. Thou hast ascended, Lord, on high, The captured captive led For distribution gifts received— The conquest perfected. Preserve, while men Thy triumphs hymn, Thy place between the Cherubim. Blessed be God who daily bears The burden on us laid— Ev’n God, who our salvation is, Our ever-present aid ; We to Jehovah owe our breath, And manifold escapes from death. But God will crush the head of foes ; In vain the wicked flee: He said: “From Bashan I'll bring back From depths ev’n of the sea, 126 25 31 33 THE PSALMS. LXVIII The fugitives o’er Jordan’s flood, That thou may’st dip thy foot in blood.” They Thy triumphal goings saw ; Thy goings, God our King! Thine entrance in the Holy Place ; While those engaged to sing, Went foremost praising ; harpers then ; Maids beating timbrels ; marching men. In companies they bless the Lord, Tribes that from Israel spring : There, is the ruler Benjamin ; There, Judah’s following ; There, banners of the princes fly Of Zebulon and Naphtali. That we be strong is God’s command— Strengthen what thou hast wrought. To Thee, Lord, at Jerusalem, Shall gifts of kings be brought. Egypt rebuke, and scatter far The peoples that delight in war. Princes shall out of Egypt come; And Ethiopia soon Shall stretch out eager hands to God, And His high praises tune. Kingdoms of earth! praise Him who rides On whirling spheres, and planets guides! LXIX THE PSALMS. 127 34 Ascribe ye strength to God, your Strength! 35 His majesty He shrouds— But high o’er Israel spreads His wings, And thunders in the clouds. Out of Thy holy places, Lord, The strength Thy people need, afford. Poni, Lox TX. a eine O God! and save From drowning waters deep! 2 I sink in mire of the abyss, Great billows o’er me sweep. 3 With calling I am tired, My throat is parched and dry ; Mine eyes are wasted and worn out, While I wait Thy reply. 4 O numberless are those Who hate me without cause ; They mighty are to cut me cff, Despisers of Thy laws. 5 My foolishness and sin Not hidden are from Thee: 6 Let them not, Lord! who on Thee wait Be made ashamed through me. 128 10 13 14 15 t6 17 LHE FSALIMS. EXT I for Thy sake have borne Reviling and disgrace ; A stranger to my brethren been, An alien to my race. Because zeal for Thy House Within me quenchless burned, Those, who reproached Thee, have on me Their sharp reproaches turned. I wept and fasted, they Stood ready to contemn ; I put on sackcloth, I became A proverb unto them. I am their public talk; Drunkards make me their song ; But, Lord, my prayer is unto Thee, Delay not answer long. Out of the mire me raise, The waters of my foes ; Let not the deep me swallow up, The pit’s mouth on me close. Hear, Lord, and answer me, For Thy abundant grace ; In Thy compassion turn to me And do not hide Thy face, XIX THE PSALMS. 129 For I am in distress ; Make haste me, Lord, to hear - 18 Draw nigh my soul to ransom it: Because my foes are near. 19 Thou knowest my reproach, My shame and my despite, Mine adversaries one and all Are ever in Thy sight. 20 Reproach has broke my heart ; I’m full of heaviness ; I looked for some to pity me, But all were pitiless. There comforters were none ; All men from me did shrink ; 21 They gave me also gall for meat, ‘Me vinegar to drink. THE CHORUS SPEAKS °:* 22 Their table make a snare; Their confidence a trap ; _ 23 Darken their eyes; make their loins shake ; Their strength and vigor sap! * That Verses 22-28 are the utterances of another speaker, may, we think, be confidently asserted. For why should the dramatic character, so freely accorded to other Psalms, be denied to this, where it is most needed? Assume the exist- ence of two speakers and all is clear. The words spoken no longer are an offense. Instead of being painfully discordant with all that precedes and follows, they are seen to possess a dramatic propriety of the highest order, heightening immensely the tragic interest of the whole composition. For they are exactly the words 130 THE PSALMS. LAIX 21 On them: Thiné anger pour ; De Make their house desolate ; Let none dwell in their tents—because 26 They persecute and hate Him, Thou hast smitten sore: His woes they tell with zest ; Pain ot his wounds they make the theme Of coarse unfeeling jest. 27 Add sin to sin, heap guilt ! Let them not pardoned be! 28 But blotted from the book of life— Condemned by just decree. which the sympathetic reader is burning to say. They are the mildest possible expression of an irrepressible indignation which must fill every virtuous heart let the condemnation concern whom it will. It matters little who the second speaker may be supposed to represent—whcether it be Justice personified; or some horrified spectator, say James or John, who on one occasion were ready to cal down fire from heaven on the perpetrators of a slight affront put upon their Master. Or was it the weeping daughters of Jerusalem that performed the office of Chorus as described in Note to Psalm 22, page 39% For the sake of the argument, let us suppose the first speaker—a meek Sufferer—to be the Christ that was tocume. We listen to His prolonged wail: how He was hated without cause; how*He was despised and rejected of men; became a stranger and an alien to His own countrymen who refused to receive Him; was made a terror to His friends; was forsaken and disowned by His disciples; how reproach broke His most loving heart; how, hanging on the cross, vinegar mixed with gall was given Him to drink. Everybody must be struck with the strict correspondence be- tween this recital and what actually took place. But Christ prayed for /org7veness, To suppose He imprecated vengeance is to contradict the verity of Scripture. The thing is impossible. While Christ quotes and appropriates parts of this Psalm to Himself, the reader is sure that verses 5,6 do net belong to Him. May it not be that when ‘‘holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,’’ the prophetic utterance was sometimes designedly mixed up with the human and personal, but in a way to be easily distinguished ? LXx THE PSALMS. 131 29 I’m poor and sorrowful— Lord! set me safe on high, 3o And I will praise Thy Name in song, Thank Thee and magnify ; 31 And it shall please Thee more, These loud resounding proofs, Than offered ox or bullock slain With horns and cloven hoofs. 32 The meek have seen with joy A high deliverance wrought : Seekers of God! be cheered, for you Shall have th’ assistance sought. 33 The Lord the needy hears, The prisoners as well: 34 Let heaven and earth Him praise, the seas And all that therein dwell. 35 For God will Zion save ; And Judah’s cities build— 36 The Land by His true servants shall Be occupied and tilled. PSALM LXX,.* prs me, O God! Lord, to my help make haste ; 2 Let them who seek my life be shamed, Confounded and disgraced. * This Psalm is a repetition of Psalm x]. 13-17. 132 THE PSALMS. EXXI 3 Let them be backward turned ; Be to dishonor brought ; Turned back for a reward of shame, That say, Aha! for naught. c Wetall these that Inéeseen, With joy in Thee abide! Let such as Thy salvation love, Say, “God be magnified!" s Needy and poor am I, O Lord, do not delay ; My Help and my Deliverer, Make haste to come this way ! PS bs xi. PUT my trust, Lord! in Thy Name: O let ine never come to shame! to Promised deliverance I crave, Incline Thine ear to me, and save! 3 A Rock of Habitation be, Where I may come continually ! Since Thou my rescue hast decreed— My Cliff, My Fort, in time of need— 1 Now my deliverance command Out of the wicked’s cruel hand! s Thou art my Hope, my Trust—Thy truth, Have I relied on from my youth. LXXI 10 Lt I2 13 I4 15 16 17 THE PSALMS. 133 Yea, from the womb have leaned on Thee; Thou art my praise continually ; Many me as a wonder rate, But Thou ’rt my Refuge, strong and great ; I, all the day, will sing Thy praise, And to the stars Thy glory raise. Cast me not off in my old age: When failing powers my end presage, Do not forsake me: but disclose How false is the pretence of foes, Who say—their malice peeping through— “There ’s none to rescue, take! pursue!” Haste to my help! O be not far! Confound, consume all those who are Foes of my life. Lay in the dirt The evil men that seek my hurt. But [ll still hope, and thanks will pour, And love and praise Thee more and more. My mouth shall tell Thy righteous acts ; And all the day rehearse the facts Of Thy salvation—mighty deeds Which all arithmetic exceeds— I will Thy righteousness make known And speak of it, and it alone. Lord ! from my youth Thou hast me taught To sing the wonders Thou hast wrought. 134 18 19 20 to to bb to Oo re THE PSALMS, CX XI Forsake me not, now I am old— I would Thy saving power unfold Lorvevery one that ss 16-come, Ere yet my mouth and lips are dumb. Who is like Thee, so great, so high, Whose righteousness surmounts the sky? Thou, who hast showed me troubles sore, Shalt quicken and again restore ; My greatness shalt make greater still, And me with every comfort fill. With psaltery and harp and voice I’ll sing Thy praises and rejoice! Thy truth and faithfulness will tell, O Holy One of Israel ! Thy righteousness shall all day long Be the sweet subject of my song. Popa kM Tex Ald. GOD! Supremest Source Of government below: Thy judgments and Thy righteousness Upon the King bestow. z ‘Then he upon the earth, Thy deputy, shall reign ; With rectitude Thy people judge, And equity maintain. LXXII IO THE PSALMS. 135 The mountains and the hills Shall yield the people peace, Beneath his just and gentle sway, Shall all oppression cease. While sun and moon endure, And night succeeds to day, Throughout all generations, men Shall fear him and obey. He shall come down like rain, As earth-refreshing showers On new-mown meadows, made to smile With springing grass and flowers. The righteous in his days Shall flourish and prevail ; And peace shall everywhere abound, Until the moon shall fail. His empire shall extend, Likewise, the wide world o’er, From sea to sea—Euphrates’ banks. To earth’s remotest shore. The dwellers in the wild Shall crouch and kiss his feet ; His enemies shall lick the dust ; The kings bring presents meet, Il 13 14 TS Th 17 THE PSALMS, LXXII From Tarshish and the Isles; Sheba and Seba—yea, All kings before him shall bow down, All nations homage pay. > Ele-shall the needy save; The poor too when he cries ; The lives of all his subjects shall Be precious in his eyes, And he shall live; to him Shall Sheba’s gold be given ; And ceaseless prayer for him be made, With daily thanks to heaven. From handful of seed-corn On top of mountains sown— Vast fruit shall shake, great harvests wave Like Lebanon wind-blown. Jerusalem shall bloom, New cities shall have birth ; They flourish shall like the green herb That beautifies the earth. While shines the sun, shall last His undecaying fame: Men everywhere be blest in him All nations bless his name. LXXII THE PSALMS. 137 18 The Lord God blesséd be, The God of Israel ! Who only doeth wondrous things, And doeth all things well ; | 1g And be His glorious Name Blesséd forevermore ; The earth be with His glory filled, And all men Him adore. Amen and Amen. The prayers of David the Son of Jesse are ended.* * How this line of prose came to be inserted in this place we have no certain: means of knowing. We know that the Psalms that precede are not all by David :. and that, among those that follow, there are several undoubtedly his, being ex— pressly attributed to him, BOOK. I] 1, Peat: bs XOX TD. N | Y tongue was loosed, I broke the spell, I sternly bade the fiend depart : Sure God zs good to Israel, To Him ¢s dear the pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my tempted feet Were almost gone, by folly tripped: My steps, perplexed by vain deceit, In slippery paths had well-nigh slipped. 3 For I was envious of the proud, Seeing th’ abundance of their wealth ; 4 The easier death to them allowed, Their full-fed happiness and health. 5 Because not plagued as others are, 6 Disdain they as a necklace wear ; 7 From common men they stand afar: Oily and round, with haughty air, LXx1i THE PSALMS. 139 8 9 They from on high oppression speak ; They in the heavens their mouth have set ; Their tongue walks through the earth; the weak They trample down without regret : 10 Therefore His people, tossed with doubt, II IZ 13 14 T5 16 T7 18 Sorely perplexed, are made to drain Waters of a full cup, wrung out With agonies of heart and brain. They ’re moved to say: “ How does God know? Knowledge is there in the Most High? The wicked prosper here below, ’T is vain to ask the reason why : “*T is all in vain I’ve cleansed my heart ; In innocence have washed my hands ; My chastisements do not depart ; My daily wailings fill the land.”’ If I had said, I’ll thus speak out, I had thy children drugged with lies: Yet when I thought to solve my doubt, It was too painful in my eyes, Till to the House of God I went, And knew their end ; and how they stood Upon a slippery descent ; That false and fleeting was their good. 140 19 THE PSALMS. LXXIII Behold, the doom that long had slept An utter desolation makes ; They instantly away are swept, Like to a dream when one awakes. Now that I know Thou dost despise Their image, th’ unreal show No longer dupes and grieves mine eyes: I brutish was and did not know. A beast before Thee I have been, But Thou hast with my folly borne ; And hast forgiven me my sin; And I’m still with Thee night and morn. Thou hast of my right hand kept hold: Thou by Thy counsels wilt me guide, A straying sheep of Thy dear fold, And wilt receive me to Thy side. For whom in heaven have | but Thee? With Thee on earth I none require: My everlasting fortress be, Rock of my heart! my sole Desire ! Those far from Thee Thou wilt destroy, Who ‘gainst their marriage vows rebel ; But to draw near Thee is my joy, In thee to trust, Thy works to tell. LXXIV i) THE PSALMS. 14] PSALM LAXAIV GOD. why dost Thou cast us off? Thy tenderness revoke? Against Thy once loved flock, O why Doth Thy long anger smoke? Remember Thine own Israel, Thy purchase long ago; And this Mount Zion which has been Thy Dwelling here below. Lift up Thy feet, draw near and see Perpetual ruins piled ; The ill Thy Sanctuary done, How ravaged and defiled. Thine adversaries mid the place Of Thine assembly roared ; Their ensigns they set up for signs, Who other gods adored. They like to men with lifted axe. Among thick-growing trees, With sledge and hatchet broke and hacked The carvings of the frieze. They set Thy Sacred House on fire, Thy Dwelling-place profaned ; They burned up all God’s synagogues That in the Land remained. 142 IO Tt 13 I4 15 16 {7 Ji Pty, LXXIV No signs we see, there proof is none Of gift of prophecy :— No one among us knows how long Before the end will be. How long, Lord, shall the foe blaspheme ? Shall he forever stand ? Why from thy bosom dost Thou not Pluck Thy destroying Hand? Yet God’s my King of old, who wrought Salvation in the earth: Thou by Thy strength the sea didst part, And gav’st a nation birth | Didst heads of huge sea-monsters crush ; Leviathan didst quell, And gavest him for food to them, That in the desert dwell: Didst cleave the fountain and the flood, Didst mighty rivers dry: The day is Thine, the night is Thine, The sun that climbs the sky. Thou all the bounds of earth hast set, Summer and winter made— The frame of mighty nature formed, And her foundations laid. LXXV THE PSALMS. 143 18 Remember this, Lord! how the foe Blaspheme Thee and contemn— 19 A greedy herd, the turtle-dove Surrender not to them. 20 Have to Thy covenant respect : For earth’s dark places are Full of the homes of cruelty, And everlasting jar. 22 Arise, O God! plead Thine own cause: Make their reproaches end: 23 The tumults of Thine enemies, Continually ascend. PS Adv DALY \ \ YE give Thee thanks, O God ! We give Thee thanks sincere: Thy wondrous doings in our midst Declare Thy Name is near. 2 “JT will a set time take ; The judgment-seat ascend ; Myself will judge in equity ; Myself the right defend. 3 “The earth and its inhabitants Are falling into wreck: I poise the pillars ; I alone The rushing ruin check. 144 THE PSALMS. LXXVI 4 ‘‘I said unto the arrogant: ‘Do not lift up your horn ; 5 Speak not with a stiff neck proud words Of insolence and scorn.’ ”’ 6 For not from east or west Nor south promotion springs: 7 But God is judge, He puts down one, To power another brings. om A cup is in His hand, It foams high o’er the brink ; The wine is mixed, the wicked shall Its dregs wring out and drink. 9 But as for me, I will Forever sing Thy praise ; 10 Horns of the wicked I will lop, Horns of the righteous raise. PoeieN Letasy ts [* Judah God is known; His Name To Israel He showed ; 2 In Salem His Pavilion spread, Made Zion His Abode. 3 Bolts of the bow He shattered there, Swift flashing from afar ; Buckler He broke, and sword, and all Th’ implements of war. LXXVI IO 7 THE PSALMS. 145 High up Thy dread magnificence Majestically towers Above the mountains, whence descend Fierce predatory powers.* Spoiled are the stout of heart—they slept, Bound in death’s iron bands— And all the men of might have found No use for their strong hands. At Thy rebuke, O God, they lay, Both chariot and horse, In a deep sleep and motionless— On every side a corse. Thou, even Thou, art to be feared: When once Thou angry art, Ah! who can stand before Thee then, With guilt within his heart ? Sentence from heaven was heard proclaimed : The earth feared and was still, When God to judgment rose to save Meek doers of His will. Man’s wrath is made to praise Thee; Thou Shalt future wrathst restrain— Shalt hold in check the residue While any shall remain. * Assyrian hosts under Sennacherib. See 2 Kings xix. 35. +t The Hebrew original is plural. 146 THE PSALMS. LXXVII 11 Vow to the Lord your God and pay: Bring tribute to your Dread— 12 Kings of the earth! lest He cut off And count you with the dead. PSA eA et. a7 lift my voice to God, And He my cry will hear ; I'll lift my voice to God, who will Incline a gracious ear, 2 As when I sought the Lord In time of heavy grief, All day and night, with hand stretched out— My soul refused relief. I think on God, and sigh; I moan, my spirit ’s weak ; 4 Mine eyes Thou waking hold’st, I am So tost I cannot speak. OW 5 Idays of old recall; 6 My carol in the night ; I with my heart communion hold, And grope and seek for light. 7 Will God for aye cast off? Be favorable no more? 8 Forever has His mercy ceased ? Is there no hope in store? LXXVII Io Il 13 I4 15 16 1 18 THE PSALMS. 147 Has the old promise failed? The Mighty One forgot? No longer do His bowels yearn, His anger is so hot? I said, these ghastly doubts Of a sick mind deny Facts of the years of the right hand, And arm of the Most High. I will commemorate The doings of the Lord : The wonders which of old He wrought Will gratefully record. Thy way, O God, is pure: Who mighty is like Thee? Among the nations Thou hast shown Thy power and majesty. Thy people were set free, By Thy delivering aid : The waters saw Thee, O our God, They saw and were afraid. They trembled in their depths ; The clouds their waters poured : The firm earth shook, while lightnings blazed And skies with thunder roared. Ig 20 FHE PSAGALS, Pav A Vl Thy way was in the sea ; Thy footsteps were not known ; Thow led'st Thy people like a flock Through all the desert lone. Pew iS: dace VEE, | | Ak, © my people, willitell : Deep meanings in a parable ; {) Repeat dark sayings from of old Tous by Our srey tathers told: The things they did to us confide, We will not from their children hide: Jehcvah’s praises we ‘ll recite, And all the wonders of His might. For to this end and for this cause, In Jacob He established laws ; That handed down from sire to son, Thev might be known, observed and done: That children which should yet be born To theirs might tell them night and morn; Their hope in God might firmly set, And not His mighty works forget : And not be as their fathers were, Stubborn, perverse and prone to err; Their hearts unsteadfast and untrue From God withholding service due. LXXVIII THE PSALMS. 149 9 The sons of Ephraim* turned back, In time of conflict and attack ; 10 Kept not the covenant ot God, But, faithless, left His ways untrod: 11 Forgot the doings of His Hand Of which the fame filled all the land— 12 His wondrous works, with judgment fraught, In Egypt for their fathers’ wrought. 13 The Red Sea waves He cleft in two, And caused them, dry-shod, to pass through— Making the waters of the deep To stand suspended as a heap. 14 By day He with a cloud them led ; By night with light of fire instead ; 15 The rock He in the desert clave, And drink abundantly them gave ; 16 Out of the cliff, beneath the sun He streams like rivers made to run: 17 But ‘gainst the Highest none the less Rebelled they in the wilderness. 18 They tempted God with lustful greed, Asking for food they did not need: 19 Doubted His power; “Can God,” they said, “A table in the desert spread?” * The chief of the Ten Tribes that revolted, representing the whole. 150 THE PSALMS. LAX VILE ‘‘FH[e smote the rock and streams did flow, But can he give us bread alse ? He water has, ‘tis true supplied, But can He flesh torus: provide?” Jehovah heard this, and His ire Burned against Jacob like a fire ; Because they, impious and unjust, Did not in His salvation trust. Por-ald this, they Ceased not ti-sin. Grey unbelievers hard to win ; Therefore, in vanity and fears, Did He consume their days and years. When He them:slew, they sougnt Him then, Made eager quest for God again Their sometime Rock, their Refuge nigh, Their strong Redeemer, God Most High. But with the mouth they Him deceived: Lied with their tongues and disbelieved. Their heart, not fixed the right to do, Was to His covenant untrue. But pitiful He did not slay ; His anger often turned away ; Forgave, when they transgressed afresh, Remembering they were but flesh. LXXVITI 40 41 42 43 44 45 49 50 51 THE PSALMS. ia How oft against Him they rebelled, The Holy One of Israel! Each day they tempted God anew, And grieved Him all the desert through. It was, as if they did not know Whose hand redeemed them from the foe— As if the signs in Egypt wrought Were strangers to their mind and thought. He turned their rivers into blood, So none could drink the crimson flood. Devouring flies among them sent, And frogs for their destruction meant. He gave their labor and produce Up to the caterpiller’s use : Destroyed their vines (by hailstones lost), Their sycamores with fatal frost ; Gave over, to hail-slaughtering knocks And thunderbolts, their herds and flocks : Let loose the fierceness of His wrath, And made for it a level path: Sent on an embassy of death, Angels of evil with hot breath, The pestilence with fiery throat— All the first-born of Egypt smote, 152 THLE PSALMS. LX XVIII 52 But like a flock His people led Into the wilderness, and fed. 53 While they passed safe from terror free, Their foes were buried in the sea. st He brought them to the Holy Land, The Mountain won by His right hand— 55 Proceeded nations to expel, That so the tribes might therein dwell. 56 Yet they resisted God Most High, And would not with His laws comply— 57 Aside, as did th@ir fathers, so They turned like a deceitful bow: 338 High places built which He forbade ; Him with their idols jealous made: sy So high their impious daring soared, God greatly Israel abhorred. oo The Tent at Shiloh He forsook ; Ark of His Strength they captive took— 61 His Glory* passed to heathen hands, 62 And blood and carnage filled the lands. 63 The fire devoured their young and strong ; Their maidens were unpraised in song ; G4 Priests by the sword in numbers slept, And by their widows were unwept. *The Ark, where the ‘Glory of the Lord” er Shekinah had rested, was still called His Glory, when this visible token of His Presence was withdrawn. LXXIX 65 66 70 ay 72 e 3 THE PSALMS. 153 Then waked the Lord as out of sleep, Drove back His foes with dreadful sweep, And fastened to their hated name Perpetual reproach and shame. The house of Joseph pleased not Him, So He rejected Ephraim ; But Judah's loyal tribe approved ; And on Mount Zion which He loved, He built His Sanctuary, cast Foundations made for aye to last: David his servant too did choose, Took Him from following the ewes, To feed His people Israel, And he fulfilled his office well— With honest heart, and skillful hand, And shepherd-care, he ruled the Land. PSALM ‘hex’ TX. HE heathen in Thine heritage, O God, have hostile inroads made ; Thy Holy Temple have defiled, Jerusalem in ruins laid. They have Thy servants’ bodies given As food to birds and beasts of prey ; Their blood, like water, shed—all round Thy slaughtered saints unburied lay. 154 IO Il THE PSALMS. LXANIX We have become our neighbors’ scorn: How long, O Lord? Will Thy just ire And jealousy forever last, And burn unquenchably like fire ? Wrath rather on the nations pour, That know Thee not, nor on Thee wait; For they have Israel devoured, And made his dwellings desolate. Remember not againt us, Lord, Our fathers’ sinnings long ago: Let us Thy tender mercies meet, For we are brought exceeding low! O God of our salvation, help! Help forthe glory of [hy Name! For Thy Name’s sake deliver us, And purge away our guilt and shame. O wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? Display Thy might ; And be Thy servants’ blood avenged, Among the nations in our sight. Incline a favorable ear, And hear the groaniny captive’s cry: After the greatness of Thy power Preserve Thou those condemned to die Ex VHE PSALMS. 155 12 Return our neighbors’ scorn sevenfold : 13. So we, Thy flock, will give to Thee Eternal thanks: Thy praise show forth To generations yet to be. Poa toe A HEPHERD of Israel, give ear— Who like a flock dost Joseph lead ! Throned on the Cherubim, shine clear, Forth from Thy Cloud let light proceed! Arouse Thy might; Lord, save, restore ! s Let Thy face shine-on us once more! bo 4 Lord God of Hosts, how long wilt Thou Be angry ’gainst Thy people’s prayer? 5 For food, for drink Thou giv’st them now Abundant tears, their only fare. 6 Our neighbors laugh: Lord, save. restore! 7 Let Thy Face shine on us once more! 8 Thou didst a Vine from Egypt fetch, And plant, and drive the nations out 9 To give it room—and let it stretch Its mighty roots and boughs about, 10 To fill and cover all the Land, 11 Extending to Euphrates’ strand. * The occasion of this Psalm is supposed to have been the overthrow and de- portation of the Ten Tribes—known as the Kingdom of Israel, in distinction from the Kingdom of Judah. 156 THE PSALMS. LXXX 12 Why hast Thou broken down its wall, So all may pluck it in their greed? 13 Boar from the wood it strips, and all Beasts roaming wild upon it feed. 14 Visit the Vine, which Thou didst plant, 15 O God of Hosts, and shelter grant ! 16 ’T is burned with fire ; it is cut down: At Thy rebuke they cease to be. 17 Make strong our Champion of renown, 18 So we shall not backslide from Thee. 19 Lord God of Hosts, revive, restore ! Let Thy Face shine on us once more ! Paw M (hx, reer to the Lord, our Strength! To God of Israel sing! > Take up the psalm! The timbrel strike ! Wake every tuneful string Of the sweet harp and lute! And let the trumpets sound! 3 As at new moon, so now at full, Spread the announcement round, 4 This is the happy day Of the Passover Feast, 5 Appointed to commemorate When Jacob was released, LXXXI THE PSALMS, [G7 And out of Egypt went— To him a foreign land, Where he another language heard, He did not understand. ‘“From his tasked shoulders I Removed the crushing load ; His hands I from the basket freed, Great favor to him showed. ‘“In trouble thou didst call: And I did set thee free— I from the cloud, the secret place Of thunder, answered thee. ‘When thou at Meribah Didst murmur, I thee tried ; I gave thee water from the rock, Miraculously supplied. “QO, Israel, bend now To me a listening ear, And I will to thee testify, If thou wilt only hear. g There shall no foreign god In. thee permitted be. And thou shalt worship no strange god, But worship only Me. 158 THE PSALMS. LEXA XI 10 “Tam the Lord thy God, Who did from Egypt bring : Ope wide thy mouth, and I’1l it fill With every needful thing. 11 ‘“‘ When Israel refused To hear Me and obey, 12 | gave them up to stubbornness To walk in their own way. 13 ‘“O that My people would But hearken to My voice! 14 I’d soon subdue their enemies, And make their hearts rejoice. 15 ‘* The haters of the Lord Should unto Him submit ; The nation then should long endure, No end should be to it. 16 ‘*T would them also feed With finest of the wheat, And satisfy them from the rock With honey foo te cat” PSALM Is Xl f \HE mighty God of Heaven In His assembly stands, Judging the gods who judge below— The princes of the lands. LXXXIII THE PSALMS. 159 2 “How long will ye judge wrong ; Just laws corruptly wrest? 3 Right ye the weak and fatherless, 4 -Andirescue th’ opprest!” 5 Perversely, they prefer In darkness still to walk ; The earth's foundations shake, while they The ends of justice balk. 6 “Though I said, ‘Ye are gods, All sons of the Most High,’ 7 Yet ye shall from your places fall, Like common men shall die!”’ 8 Arise, O God! and judge The earth in righteousness: Assert thy claim, whose right it is All nations to possess! PoAbM LAAs At -EEP silence not. O God! Hold: not“ [hy peace, nor rest; 2 For, lo, Thy foes a tumult make, Proud hatred swells their breast. 3 They craftily combine; ‘‘Come,” say they, ‘‘ we will plot, 4 And from the roll of nations will The name of Israel blot.” 160 Q IO i 13 THE PSACMS. LXXXIII Edom and Ishmael, Philistia and Tyre, Asshur and Amalek, to help The sons of Lot, conspire. Do as to Midian, And as to Sisera, When Thou at the brook Kishon didst The hosts of Jabin slay ° Destroyed at Endor, these Were dung unto the ground ; The bodies of ten thousand slain Lay festering around. Their nobles do Thou like Oreb and Zeeb make; Like Zeba and Zalmunna, let Destruction them o’ertake, Who impudently said : ‘Let us the dwellings seize And fertile pasture grounds of God, And henceforth live at ease.” Make, O my God, them like The whirl of fying wheels ; Like chaff before the wind them drive, Grim slaughter at their heels. LXXX1V THE PSALMS. 161 13 As fire the forest burns, Flame kindles mountains, so 15 Do Thou pursue them with Thy storm— Make them Thy terrors know: 16 Their face fill with contempt, Till they shall seek Thy Name— 17 Let them forever be abashed, And perish in their shame. 18 Then shall men know that Thou, Jehovah! Thou alone, Art the Most High o’er all the earth, And worship at Thy throne. PoALM Bx Aly OW lovely are Thy Dwellings, Lord ! My spirit longs, yea faints to see Thy far-off Courts, where praise is poured By lips thrice-privileged to Thee. My heart and flesh Cry out afresh For those dear precincts, long untrod, And most for Thee, the Living God. 3 The favored sparrow there appears ; And there the swallow has her nest, In which her callow brood she rears, A fearless unforbidden guest, 162 IO THE PSACMS. LXXXIV Thine altars nigh, © Lord Most High— While I am banished from the place, Thy Mercy Seat and Throne of Grace. Happy the dwellers in Thy Courts, Who permanently spend their days Within [hy Femple s sacted ports, In offerings of prayer and praise: Happy 1s he, Whose strength 's in Thee, With highways in his heart that lead 10: Zion sHuill.-cast up ior speed. They, passing through the Vale of Tears, Make it a place of welling springs: The early rain the pilgrim cheers, And seasonable blessings brings. From strength to strength They go—at length They all appear. their journey done, ‘Fore God in Zion, every one. Jehovah, God of Hosts, incline A gracious ear, and hear my cry! O God, my Shield ! look Thou on Thine Anointed with a loving eye! Better one day Is it to stay Within Thy House, and:keep the door, Than tents of sin a thousand more. LXXXV THE PSALMS. 163 11 Jehovah is a Sun and Shield ; He grace and glory will bestow ; No good but He will to them yield Who walk uprightly here below. 12 O Lord of Hosts, Guard Thou our coasts ; Our light and our protection be— Happy the man who trusts in Thee! Poe bow, IN aos Vv nee hast, O Lord, in former years Been gracious to Thy Land ; Hast captive Israel brought back, By Thy restoring hand. 2 Thy people’s guilt Thou hast removed, Their sins hast covered o’er:; 3 Withdrawn the fierceness of Thine ire, So that it smoked no more. 4 O God of our Salvation, now Return to us; and make Thine indignation towards us cease, For Thine own mercy’s sake. 5 Wilt Thou be angry, and draw out Thine anger evermore? 6 Wilt Thou not quicken us again, And former joys restore? 164 9 IO et 13 THE FSALMS. LXXXVI Show us Thy mercy, gracious Lord! And Thy salvation grant: I wait to hear Thee speak the peace For which Thy people pant. Cet them:no more to folly turn; But fear, and steadfast stand ; That Thy indwelling presence may Make glorious the Land. Mercy and Truth together meet, And Righteousness and Peace Embrace and kiss—Thy covenant Is sure and does not cease. Attesting Truth springs up like grain Out of the teeming sod ; And Righteousness looks down from heaven, Like rainbow-pledge from God. The Lord the promised good shall give ; Our Land her increase pour: And Righteousness, His harbinger, Shall go His steps before. Pomel deseo YL. OW down Thine ear, O Lord, to me, Needy and poor I succor crave: 2 Preserve my soul, beloved of Thee, Thy servant trusting in Thee, save! LXXXVI IO II 13 1d 15 THE PSALMS. 165 Be merciful to me, for I The whole day long unto Thee cry. Rejoice Thy servant’s soul! [lift To Thee a meek, confiding heart : Descends from Thee each perfect gift— Good and forgiving, Lord, Thou art ; Plenteous in mercy unto all Who unto Thee contritely call. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer ; In trouble Thou wilt hear my cry ; No gods with Thee can e’er compare. No works of theirs with Thine can vie; All nations shall their Maker own, And worship Thee and Thee alone. Teach me to walk in wisdom’s ways ; Unite my heart to fear Thy Name; With my whole heart I will Thee praise, And evermore resound Thy fame. Great is Thy mercy, for ‘t was it That snatched me from the lowest pit. Proud ones against me have rebelled— The violent, the sons of strife— Thy fear they ve not before them held, Ungodly men that sought my life ; But Thou a God art, full of ruth— Plenteous in mercy and in truth. 166 THE PSALMS. LX XXVII 16 Oto me turn and gracious be! Strength and salvation to me give ! 17 A sign of favor show to me, That, seeing by whose help I live, All those towards me with hate inflamed, May be confounded and ashamed. PSALM bLAAAYV It. () N consecrated ground, The holy mountains round, Rest Zion’s bulwarks and her lofty domes: 2 Jehovah loves her gates, And them more precious rates Than all the lordliest of Jacob’s homes. Dear City of our God, The Place of His Abode! 3 Most glorious things are prophesied of thee ; To the true worship won, 4 Egypt and Babylon, Philistia and Tyre and Cush shall be. By God establishéd— In Thee, it shall be said, 5 This man was born and that; and so when He The nations shall convert, Of each He will assert, 7 There this was born—the mother of the free. LXXXVILI THE PSALMS. 167 2 IO Poot: dex vad. ORD God of my salvation, I By day, by night before Thee cry, O let my prayer to Thee ascend, Thine ear to my petition bend ! For, oh, my soul is full of fear, And my life draws to Sheol near : I’m counted with th’ already dead, And all my manly strength is fled. Cast off, I with the dead remain, Forsaken, like the buried slain, Whom Thou Thyself rememberest not, From Thee cut off and doomed to rot. Thou hast in lowest pit me hurled, Th’ abysses of the underworld ; Thy wrath lies heavy on my soul, Great waves of sorrow o’er me roll. Thou my acquaintance hast estranged, And hast their love to loathing changed ; Shut up, I can go forth no more, Mine eye decays through weeping sore. I Thee invoke, Lord, every day ; I stretch forth wearied hands and pray: Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead, Shall shades * arise Thy praise to spread ? * Disembodied spirits, implying the separate existence of the soul after death. 168 IT 13 14 15 16 17 18 LAE PSALMS. LAA VI Shall any in the grave rehearse Thy loving kindnesses in verse? Or any in Abaddon™* bless And celebrate Thy faithfulness ? Any in that lone darksome land Recite the wonders of Thy hand ?>— Land of forgetfulness and night Where reaches not one ray of lignt. To Thee [ come with tears and cries; At early morn my prayer shall rise— Why cast me off, O God of grace? Why dost Thou hide Thy lovely Face? I long have drawn uncertain breath, A ready candidate for death : Have borne Thy terrors and still bear, A wretched victim of despair. Thine indignations like a sea, Loud roaring, have passed over me: Thy terrors have made mea prey, Like waters compassed me all day. Of lover and of friend bereft, Darkness to me alone is left— My path is lost. Great Shepherd, say, Shall I still wander from Thy way? * A poetical equivalent of Grave and Death. See Prov. vvii. rr; Job xxvi. 6; xxVili, 22. LXXXIN THE PSALMS. 169 Poa M dex Ale. HE mercies of the Lord I will forever sing ; 2 Make known th’ enduring faithfulness Of our Eternal King. 3 For, Mercy, I have said, Shall be built up for aye: Thy faithfulness, fixed in the heavens, Be permanent as they. “T have with David made A covenant, and sworn: ‘I stablish will thy seed ; build up Thy throne for sons unborn.,’”’ 5 The heavens shall celebrate, The skilled angelic choirs, The wonders of Thy faithfulness Upon their golden lyres. For who in all the Sky— Sons of the mighty there, The angels that excel in strength — Can with the Lord compare? A God most terrible, With awful glory crowned— High seated at His council board, The holy ones around. 170 )) TO EI 14 Td 16 (ok fSALIMS, LXXXIX Jehovah, God of Hosts, Who mighty ts like Thee? Thy faithfulness the girdle is OL Thy eternity, The proud imperious deep Acknowledges Thy sway : Th’ obsequious waves Thy mandate hear Aud instantly obey. Thou hast proud Egypt crushed, Inflicting mortal harm ; Thy foes hast scattered by the strength Of Thine almighty arm. The heavens and earth are Thine, Thow-didst all nature frame: All quarters of the world rejoice In their Creator's Name. Justice and judgment are Thy throne s eternal base: Mercy and Truth, celestial forms, Shall:eo before Thy face: Happy the people, who, IkXnowing the joyful sound, Walk in the sunshine of Thy Face, Glad daylight all around. LXXXIX 17 18 19 20 21 THE PSALMS, 171 For Thou, Lord, art our Strength ; Our Ornament, as well ; Our Shield, our King, the Holy One Of favored Israel. In vision Thou didst speak And saidst: “I help have laid Upon a Mighty One and fit, Of whom I choice have made— “David, my servant, him I have anointed King ; My hand and arm shall present be For his establishing. ‘No foe shall him compel, Or vanguish him in fight ; His adversaries I ’ll beat down, And those who hate him smite. ‘““My faithfulness and love . Shall him exalt and bless ; I'll set his hand too on the seas And rivers to possess. “From his warm lips to Me Shall burst the filial cry: ‘Thou art my Father, Thou my God, The Rock to which I fly.’ Sl lo 30 td foe to = wd 3 39 40 41 LHE PSALAS. LASIX “Til make him my First-born, Highest of earthly kings ; His throne shall, like the days of heaven, Exceed all reckonings ‘“Tf Me his sons forsake, And from my laws diverge, Their sin I ‘Il visit with a rod, Their trespass with a scourge ; ‘Bot ) Werot utterly My mercy from him take; I'll not My faithfulness let fail, My covenant not break. Once by My iichness I have to David sworn, His seed shall last, his throne abide While night succeeds to morn. And yet Thou hast cast off, On Thine anointed frowned, Abhorred his covenant, profaned Hts crown hurled to the ground ; Hast broken down his walls, His strongholds hast uptorn: All spoil him that pass by—he has Become his neighbors’ scorn, DAXXIS to 43 44 45 40 47 48 49 50 THE PSALMS C72 Thou hast made strong his foes, And triumph to them given ; Turned back the keenness of his sword, And from the field him driven. And Thou hast made to cease The brightness of his fame ; His throne cast down, his days cut short, And covered him with shame. How long, O Lord? wilt Thou Thyself forever hide? How long shall burn like fire Thy wrath? How long shall foes deride? Remember, Lord, how short My time is: To what use Hast Thou made man? No one the grasp Of Sheol’s hand* can loose. Where are Thy mercies which Thou didst to David swear? Remember, Lord, I the reproach Of many peoples bear. Blessed be Jehovah forevermore, Amen, and Amen. *So the Hebrew. Beak. XS. Poe a i. Thou hast been our dwelling-place, Our refuge in the past: Before the mountains were brought forth Or earth’s foundations cast, Thou wast, and art, and wilt ve God : From everlasting Thou To everlasting still the same, An unbeginning NOW. The generations come and go, Appear, and perish then ; Thou turnest man to dust, and say st: “Return ye sons of men!” For in Thy sight a thousand years Are but as yesterday, And as a brief watch in the night When it hath passed away. XC 6 10 II 12 THE PSALMS. 175 Thou bearest them as with a flood On to the silent deep ; So unsubstantial and so vain Their life is as a sleep. They are like grass, which groweth up In the sweet morning light, And in the evening is cut down, And withered to the sight. We by Thine anger are consumed ; Our secret sins are known; The troubled years in sorrow pass, Their end a sigh,* a groan. Three score and ten complete our term, And should it reach four score, "T is soon cut off, we fly away, And here are seen no more. Who knows the power of love incensed ? Of Thy just anger, who? Of wrath proportioned to Thy fear, And awe that is Thy due? Teach us to so compute our days, That we each hour may prize; Apply our hearts to learn the lore And wisdom of the skies. * Marginal readiny. 176 IME PSALM S, CE 13 Return, O Lord, how long? Do Thou Compassionate our Case ; Let it repent Thee so to hide The cointortoer [ny lace. 14 With carly mercy satisfy, And all our days make glad, ts According to the days and years Wherein Thou mad’st us sad. ~ ni Tet Thy redeeming work beseen ; 17 Thy beauty on us-rest: Establish Thou what we attempt, And be our labors blest. Pee dave ave. \ \ Y HO has his refuge in the sky, And secret place of the Most High, to On whom the Aimighty’s shadow falls, Can have no need of towers and walls: Who puts in God his trust sublime, Is safe from all the ills of time. The Lord is his deliverance From fowler’s snare, and pestilence : His wings shall a safe covert yield ; His truth a buckler be and shield. Thee shall no terror of the night, Nor dart that flies by day affright ; ae Io rl 12 13 14 15 THE PSALMS, 197 No pest that in the darkness hastes, Nor sickness that at noou-day wastes ; Thousands shall fall at thy right hand, But unmolested thou shalt stand: Thou only with thine eyes shalt see, Shalt only a spectator be, Of the reward and recompense God doth to wicked men dispense. And inasmuch as thou hast said, “The Lord my refuge is; and made Thy habitation the Most High ; No plague shall come thy dwelling nigh : For He shall give His angels charge, With heavenly orders strict and large, To keep thee safe in all thy ways, And in their hands to thee upraise— Lest, left unto thyself alone, Thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt upon the lion tread, And trample on the serpent’s head. Jehovah saith: ‘ Because that he Hath set his love supreme on Me— Because that he My Name hath known, I will deliver him and own. “He shall upon Me call, and I Will answer, and to him draw nigh: 178 THE PSALMS. XCII Will with him in his trouble be, Will honor him and set him free: 16 Long life I will on him bestow, And to him My salvation show.’ ESE, NetCEsh., ‘ie give Jehovah thanks, And Thy high praises sing, O Thou Most High, is a most good And necessary thing. to Thy kindness to show forth Is meet at morning light ; And laud Thy love and faithfulness, At each return of night, 3 Upon the decachord, With psaltery and lute, And harp of soft and solemn sound The holy strains to suit. 4 For Thou hast made me glad, Through knowledge of Thy works— In all a glorious goodness shines An awful beauty lurks. 3 How infinite Thy works! Thy thoughts are an abyss ; 6 The brutish man and fool alike Are ignorant of this. XCII “I IO II 13 14 15 THE PSALMS. 179 When spring they as the grass, The wicked, overjoyed, Know not it is that they may soon Forever be destroyed. But Thou, Jehovah, art For evermore on high: Thy foes shall perish, all their hosts Be scattered from the sky. Thou hast my honored head, Anointed with fresh oil— Mine eye hath seen Thy Hand stretched out Mine enemies to foil. The righteous as a palm Shall grow and flourish, like Cedars of Lebanon whose roots In soil congenial strike. They, planted in Thy House, Shall in Thy Courts be seen Producing fruit—ev’n in old age Still full of sap and green. Just is the Lord, who sits Between the Cherubim— He is my Rock, and there is no Unrighteousness in Him. Lao THE ff SALW 3. ALY: Petia ah at, J oN rcigns, and reigns alone: Earth is His footstool, heaven his throne; He, with omnipotence arrayed, Of old the world’s foundations laid. O universal is Thv sway ; The loyal atoms Thee obey ; AlLibeine, bord, procéeds trom. J hee, Who-divellest in eternity. LeLanery waves hitap: their roar, And dash themselves against the shore ; Above the voices of the déep, Thine shall be heard commanding sleep. Thy testimonies, ord, endure- Thy pronises-are very ure: While holiness Thy house and door Makes beautiful forevermore. Poa ako ORD God of recompense, Shine forth with bickering flame ;* * Lift up Chyself, Judve of the earth, Reward the proud with shame. = And from about Him fierce cftusion rolled Of smoke, and Af Avevnvy flame, and sparkles dire. Wiehe fit Lyte 70D: XCIV IO II 13 THE PSALMS. ISI How long, O Lord, how long Shall wicked men exult? In saucy triumph speak hard words, And cruelly insult ? They grind the people, they Thy heritage oppress ; The widow and the stranger kill, Murder the fatherless. They say * Jah: will. not see; The God of Jacob know ”’— Reflect, ye brutish ones; ye fools, When will ye wiser grow? Who made the ear and eye, Shall He not hear and see? From Him who gives the power to know, Shall knowledge hidden be? He knows men’s thoughts are vain, And like the breath they draw: > Happy is he whom Thou dost warn, And teach, Lord, from Thy law. Thy chastisements are meant To profit not to grieve, Against the time the pit is dug The wicked shall receive. 182 14 15 16 17 18 19 THE PSALMS. ACIY The Lord will not cast off His people, nor forsake : For banished Justice shall return, And righteous judgment make. Who will for me against Theevil-doers vise? For me stand up against those who Iniquity devise? Unless Jehovah were A present help for me, My soul would soon in Silence dwell— My struggles ended be. When I said, Mv foot slips, Thy mercy,.teord, was near; Mid whirling thoughts Thy comforts did My troubled spirit checr. Shall Crime beside Thee sit, High seated on a throne, To frame iniquity by law And right be overthrown ? They haste to congregate, They rush in crowds, they hem Souls of the righteous in, the blood Of innocence condemn. XCV THE PSALMS. 183 22 But God has been my Tower, My Rock, my sure Defence ; 23 He in their sins will cut them off, Their evil recompense. PeauM ACY. ET us to Jehovah raise, Rock of our Salvation, praise ! to Let us come with lifted palms! Let us shout to him in psalms! Let our joyful thanks arise To the Monarch of the Skies ! Inexpressible the odds ’Twixt Him and all other gods. Depths of earth to Him belong, And the heights of mountains strong: His the sea, made by His hand That created the dry land. Let us worship! let us bow ’Fore the Lord, our Maker now! He’s our God, our Shepherd He, People of His pasture we, Objects of His shepherd-care— Thus He doth His mind declare: ‘“O that ye to-day would hear! Steel your hearts not ‘gainst my fear, 184 THE PSAILMS. NOI As at Meribah, no less Massah in the wilderness, g When your fathers tempted Me, Proved Me, and My work did see! 10 ‘‘ Forty years I, grieving sore, With that generation bore: ‘They a people are,’ I said, ‘That have always erred and strayed ; Irreclaimably preverse, Aye addicted to the worse ;' So in wrath I did protest They should’enter not my rest.” PSeAIM 3a. SNS to Jehovah a new song, k His great salvation sing : 2 Sing to Jehovah, bless His name, The good news publishing ; Let earth her guilty silence break, And sweet melodious thunder make. 3 .Among the nations day by day Declare His power and love. 4 How greatly He is to be feared All heathen gods above— s Vain senseless things of wood and stone— Jehovah made the heavens alone. XCVI 6 IO me 1) THE PSALMS. 185 Honor and majesty attend, And go before His Face ; Beauty and excellence and strength Are in His Holy Place: Ye peoples, long estranged, proclaim The glory of Jehovah's Name. An offering bring and come into His Courts, His throne aadress ! O worship Him in beauty clad, Adorned with holiness! Tremble before Him all the earth, From whom all creatures have their birth. Among all nations publish ye, Jehovah reigns on high : The world stands fast: His equity From the impartial sky He'll make on all alike descend, And Right be honored in the end. Let heaven and earth be glad, the sea With all its fullness roar: Let fields exult, let happy trees, Their whispered gladness pour : For, lo, He comes in glorious dress To judge the world in righteousness. 186 THE PSALMS. XCVII PSAbM Xx CyY Id, — reigns: let-earth rejoice ; Let all the isles be glad ! He rules the world in equity, And is with mercy clad. 2 Thick clouds and darkness Him surround ; But this great truth is known, That righteousness and judgment are The basis of His throne. 3 Before Him went a fire that burned ;: The kindlings of His look 4 His foes consumed: His lightnings flamed, The earth beheld and shook. 5 Melted the hills like wax before The presence of the Lord ; 6 Loud thundering the skies declared His right to be adored. 7 Put shame on those who idols serve— Things deaf and dumb and blind; Bow down yourselves to Him, ye gods, Vain phrenzies of the mind. 8 Lo, Zion heard it and was glad ; And Judah's daughters sang, How just Thy judgments are, O Lord! Till all the mountains rang. XCVIII LHE PSALMS. 187 g For Thou, O Lord, art high above All that on earth bear sway : Thy throne is in the heaven of heavens And doth not pass away. 10 ( ye that love the Lord, be sure Ye evil hate, and fight: 11 For light is for the righteous sown, And joy for the upright. Ppa A YT. ING a new song of matchless charm ! S The Lord most wondrous things hath done : With His right hand and holy arm He hath a victory for Him won; 2 Before the nations hath displayed His righteousness and saving aid. 3 He hath been faithful to His word, Each holy pledge remembered still ; And in His mercy hath conferred This crowning grace on Israel— Famous where’er man’s foot hath trod As “ THE SALVATION OF GUR Gop.” 4 Make to the Lord a joyful noise ; Break forth ; His praise with rapture sing ; 5 Make melody with harp and voice, And sound of trumpet to our King ; Join, all ye dwellers on the earth, To give the mighty transport birth. 188 THE PSALMS. XCTX 7 Let the sea roar, each wave a tongue ; s And let the rivers clap their hands; And joy resound the hills among ; And shouts of welcome fill all lands : 9 For,lo, fre comes m1 noly ‘dress To judge the world in righteousness. Poa) ae lx E Nappies reigns, the Mighty God, r Let all the nations shake ! He’s throned above the Cherubim, Let conscious Nature quake! to Jehovah is in Zion, great ; Above all people, high ; 3 Let them extol Thy dreadful Name, And give the reason why, Pot itas holy. 4 Thy kingly streneth doth judgment love ; Thou dost establish right ; Thou innocence dost vindicate, And wickedness requite. >» Exalt the Lord our God: approich Hissasyiall wercy Seat; Prostrate yourselves belore Elis thronc, And worship at His feet, Por Heis loly: LUE PSALMS: 18Q 6 Moses and Aaron were to God As priests to intercede ; And Samuel called upon His name, And did for Israel plead. 7 They called, He answered them ; He in The cloudy pillar spake ; They kept His statues which He gave And warned them not to break. 8 Thou didst, Jehovah, answer them— Wast a forgiving God ; But mad’st them tecl for their misdeeds The vengeance of Thy rod. g Exalt the Lord our God, bow down ; Ye people all draw near! Assemble at His Holy Mount And worship in Elis tear, For He is holy ¢ PSaeiaw, iC, ( ALL ye lands, unite your joys ; +) Make to the Lord a joyful noise ; 2 Serve Him with gladness; come before His presence, and with songs adore ! 3 The Lord is God, for He it is Who us has made, and we are His; We are His people, we Eis sheep Whom He delights to tend and keep. LQO THE PSALAIS, cy 4 Enter His Temple gates with praise ; Songs of thanksgiving to Him raise, s For He is good, His mercy vast And faithfulness forever last. Poole oy \ | ERCY and judgement willl sing: To Thee, O Lord, will I sing praise ; 2 When Thou shalt come, I, in Thy strength, Will walk in wisdom’s perfect ways ; I will at home perform my part, And serve Thee with an honest heart. 3 [ll no base thing before me set ; I hate their work who turn aside ; 4 Ther vileness: shal! not cleave to me. Naught evil shall with me abide. 5 The slanderer I will not spare, The proud of heart I will not bear. 6 IT’ll seek them out, mine eyes shall be Upon the faithful of the Land, That they may dwell with me, and be The trusted men of my right hand. 7 Men of deceit 1 “il not-employ, 8 All evil-doers Ill destroy. CII THE PSALMS, Ig! PSALM CPi. | | EAR, O Jehovah, let my cry Reach Thy high dwelling-place : LO In this dark day of my distress Hide not Thy loving Face. Make haste to answer, for my days Have vanished into smoke; My fevered bones cease not to burn, And fiery pangs provoke. My heart is smitten, like the grass All withered, scorched, and dried ; For I forget to eat my bread, By groans preoccupied. So lean, my skin cleaves to my bones, I solitary moan, Like pelican in the wilderness, Like owl ’mid ruins lone; Like sparrow on the house-top, I Unsleeping sit forlorn ; While all day long my maddened foes Belch curses mixed with scorn. Sitting in sackcloth, ashes vile I eaten have like bread ; My tears have mingled with my drink, For Thy displeasure shed. Ig II 13 14 16 Ly 18 I‘) THE PSALMS. CT] As by the whirlwind taken up, Thou hast me borne away: My life is as the lengthened shade That marks the close of day. I withered am like grass, but Thou Forever shalt endure ; And to all generations, Lord! Is Thy remembrance sure. Thou wilt arise and Zion build ; lor the set time and right [s when Thy servants love her stones, And in her dust delight. So shall the nations fear Thy Name ; All kings Thy greatness own ; Because the Lord has Zion built, And made His glory known ; And stooped to hear the destitute, Despising not their prayer— The grace of which the written page To after times sha!! bear. Jehovah looked down from the height Of heaven itself to hear The groaning of the prisoner And loose him from his fear ; CIl 24 25 THE PSALMS. 193 That men in Zion might declare Elis*piiy lo the race, When gathered at Jerusalem The kingdoms seek His face. My strength He weakened in the way ; My days He has made few : I said, ‘‘ Remove me not, my God, Before my life’s half through ! “Thy years are endless; grudge me not The remnant of my term— Thou art the Everlasting God And Iam but a worm !” Of old hast Thou, Almighty One! The earth’s foundation laid ; The heavens the work are of Thy hands, And are by Thee upstayed. While they shall perish, Thou shalt last— These, like a garment worn, Thou wilt put off, new dress to wear On that eternal morn. But Thou art evermore the same, Thy years shall have no end ; Thy servants shall endure, their seed Prosperity attend. 194 THE PSALMS, Clit Po eve WT Ih () BLESS the Lord, my soul! Let all within me bless ; Join, all my powers, in psalms of praise ba And hymns of thankfulness ! O bless the Lord, my soul! Let memory awake, And think of all His benefits, And grateful mention make: Who all thy sins forgives ; All thy diseases heals ; Who saved thy life from threatened death, And for thee pity feels. Who gives thee pleasant food, And makes an end of pain ; So, like an eagle, is renewed Thy faded youth again. He judgment executes For all that are oppressed ; He made to Israel of old His goodness manifest. The Lord is merciful, And is to anger slow ; The plenteous fountains of His grace Continually o’erflow. CIII Io Il 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 THE PSALMS. 195 He will not always chide, His anger always keep ; He has not dealt with us to match Our soul’s demerit deep. For as the heaven is high Above this lower sphere, So great His mercy is toward them, Who reverence Him and fear. Far as from east to west, He doth our sins remove ; He pities us, as parents do The children of their love. For He knows well our frame; How frail we are, He knows ; How man’s original is dust, And back to it he goes. His days are as the grass ; He blossoms like the flower, The wind sweeps o’er it, and ‘t is gone— The vision of an hour. But then His mercies are Forever and for aye, To such as keep His covenant, And His commands obey. 196 THE PSALMS. CIV 19 His throne is in the heavens, His kingdom over all: 20 Ye angels—that excel in strength, Who hearken to His call, then fly to execute His powerful decrees— 21 Bless ye the Lord; and thou, my soul! 22 Bless Him on bended knees. Pesan La LORD, my God! Thou art Above conception great ; Nature Thy wardrobe is in part— The purple of Thy state. ° Thy garment is the light— Around Thee, lo; are drawn The starry mantle of the night, The vesture of the dawn. * Alexander Von Humboldt, in his ‘‘Cosmos,"’ remarks: ‘It might be said one single Psalm (the royth) represents the image of the whole Cosmos. We are astonished to find ina lyrical poem of such limited compass, the whole universe —the heavens and the earth—sketched with a few bold touches.’ Bishop Lowth in his Lectures refers again and again to this Psalm (or Idyllium, as he some- where calls it) in terms of unbounded admiration. He says: ‘' There is nothing of the kind extant (indeed nothing can be conceived) more perfect than this Hymn, whether it be considered with respect to its intrinsic beauties, or as a model to this species of composition.’’ Lord Bacon dedicates to his ‘‘ very good friend, Mr. George Herbert,’’ a version executed in the heroic couplet : ‘* Father and King of Powers, both high and low, Whose sounding fame all creatures serve to blow,” etc. ly 6 ITHE PSALMS, The heavens Thou dost extend As a pavilion fair ; Thy chambers’ beams Thou dost suspend In watery depths of air. The clouds Thy chariots are ; The winged winds Thy steeds ; To bear Thy messages atar The flaming lightning speeds. Thou founded hast the earth On law’s eternal base, That nothing should, while time shall last, Remove it from its place. The garment of the deep Around it all was poured ; Above the mountains’ highest steep The haughty waters roared. Thy dread rebuke they heard ; They fled, they hasted down, Before the thunder of Thy word, The terror of Thy frown. They climb the mountains’ height, They down the valleys roll, Wave chasing wave in headlong flight, To the appointed goal. 19/ 198 10 II i} 15 THE PSALMS, C1y¥ There Thou a bound hast set, That nevermore the main, Howe’er the loud waves rage and threat, May drown the earth again. Among the vales and hills A. thousand fountains burst = There run cool brooks and murmuring rills For beasts to slake their thirst. The fowls of heaven have near Their favorite retreat, Among the branches singing clear Their happy songs and sweet. From out the blessed sky Thou send’st the genial rain ; And thirsty vales and hill-tops dry Revive and laugh again. ny breath:as-in the elds Thy power beneath the sod ; Each mead and cornfield tribute yields, And owns the present God. For sake of man and beast, To satisfy their needs, Exhaustless Nature spreads this feast, This miracle proceeds. es 16 17 18 1g 20 21 THE PSALMS. 199 Majestic cedars prop The nests on Lebanon ; The stork prefers the fir-tree’s top To build her house upon. On craggy summit, where Can tread no other feet, The wild goats and the conies there Find both a safe retreat. Thou dost for all provide Whate’er their natures ask, A sphere and faculty to guide, A purpose and a task. Alike the sun and moon Their proper seasons wait— For punctual Nature ’s ne’er too soon, Nor ever yet too late. As down heaven's headlong steep The dewy night is hurled, Forth from their dens all wild beasts creep, While darkness wraps the world. Young lions roar for prey, And seek their meat from God ; But when the sun arises, they No longer roam abroad. 200 to in THE PSALMS. CIV Man, now, refreshed by sleep, Goes forth at morning light To plough the fields, to sow, or reap, Tithe return-of night. O Lord, how manifold The products of Thy hand— How wise! how wondrous to behold! How admirably planned ! And not the earth alone, But the unfathomed sea Is filled with myriads unknown, Whose being is in Thee. Tiere oo the:ships:: and there Leviathan disports, And other beasts the waters bear— Innumerable sorts. these allion Thee depend ; All wait on Thee for food; Thine open hand Thou dost extend, And they are filled with good. That moment Thou dost hide, Genienant Iird, Ply ace, They down to-swilt destruction glide, They die and leave no trace. CIV LHE PSALMS, 201 30 Thou spread’st Thy brooding wing : 31 32 oO 34 Thou sendest forth Thy breath, And countless forms of life upspring From out the dust of death. The earth, that late was seen Shrunk by the fatal cold, Warmed by Thy smile appears as green And beauteous as of old. Thy glory doth endure, Thy goodness doth not pass, Thy works reflect Thine image pure Distinct as in a glass. Awe-struck beneath Thy gaze, Earth shakes from south to north— At Thy bare touch the mountains blaze, Volcanic fires burst forth. While I have power to praise, And being have and breath, My joyful songs to Thee I'll raise, Nor shall they cease at death. What tongue cannot repeat, That silence shall express ; My thoughts of Thee shall still be sweet, Whose love is fathomless. 202 THE PSALMS. CIV 35 Though Thou canst be severe, As impious men shall know, Yet to the humble and sincere Thy grace doth overflow. My soul, bless thou the Lord! Glad hallelujahs sing ! Let rapturous praise be ever poured From an exhaustless spring. SECOND VERSION. LORD my God! Thou art Of all that is the soul— The mystery of every part, The glory of the whole. 2 Thou art the Light of light, Light is Thy dazzling veil— Compared with this, Thy raiment white, The light of suns is pale. With high aerial grace, The azure firmament Thou hangest o'er the empty place, In likeness of a tent. 3 Thy chambers’ buoyant beams Rest on that upper sea, Where unseen rivers flow, and streams Pour tribute silently. Cry THE PSALMS. 203 Thou makest clouds Thy car, By winds tempestuous driven ; Th’ obedient lightnings bear afar The messages of Heaven. Immovably Thy hand The earth established—still Beneath its strong foundations stand The pillars of Thy will. Thou poured’st the deep around, Whose waters roared and swirled Above the mountains of a drowned And ocean-buried world. At Thy rebuking word, They trembling fled away— The thunder of Thy voice they heard And hastened to obey. In endless ebb they shrink To lower levels fast ; The mountains rise, the valleys sink, Till, gathered at the last, They keep the place assigned— Th’ unsounded depths of seas, By bars of adamant confined, And Thy unchanged decrees. 204 IO II T4 15 16 THE PSALMS CIV In valleys cool and sweet, Spring brooks and murmuring rills, That walk the meads with shining feet, And run among the hills. Beasts of the field there drink : Wild asses thirst allay ; Among the trees that shade the brink Sing happy birds all day. Thou water’st all the land, And makest glad the sod ; The earth contented owns the hand And husbandry of God. Thou makest grass to spring For cattle ; and dost plan Supplies of every needful thing For the support of man. The tilled and teeming soil Brings forth the foodful wine, That cheers the heart of man, and oil That makes his face to-shine: The cedars of the Lord, The pride of Lebanon, With plenteous sap and vigor stored, Thou planted'st every one. Cry 17 18 19 20 THE PSALMS. 205 The birds there build, and hide Their nests from human ken ; Fir trees for storks a house provide, Far from the haunts of men. The wild goats climb the steep Of friendly hills that mocks Pursuing feet ; and conies creep For safety in the rocks. All these Thy thoughts employ ; Jhy tender mercies share ; The great and mean alike enjoy Thy universal care. The changeful moon observes Thine ordinances yet ; The sun his orbit keeps, nor swerves, And knows his time to set. Thou makest dark : ‘tis night, Mid settling shadows brown, Wild beasts with eyeballs flashing light The forests trample down. Young lions roar for prey, And food from Thee require ; But, when the sun arises, they Back to their dens retire. 26 THE PSALMS. CIV After the night’s repose, Refreshed in every power, Man to his work and labor goes, Until the evening hour. O Lord, how manifold Thy works, in wisdom framed ; The earth is full of wealth untold, Beneficence unnamed. So this great sea and wide, Where things unnumbered creep ; Beasts small and great there swiftly glide And populate the deep. There go the ships ; there plough Monsters of mighty fin— That huge leviathan, whom Thou Hast made to play therein. These wait without alarm On Thee, their bounteous Lord, Who hang’st Creation on Thine arm, And feed’st it at Thy board. Thy love and pity grand Assure them timely food ; Thou op’nest Thy paternal hand, And they are filled with good. CIV 29 30 3. 32 oo 34 THE PSALMS. 207 Thou hid’st Thy Face and they Are struck with mortal fear ; Thou takest soon their breath away, They die and disappear. Thy Spirit broods above, They live, in numbers more ; The earth beneath Thy smile of love Seems fairer than before. The glory of Thy power Shall stand as it has stood, Since that divine rejoicing hour When Thou mad’st all things good. Earth trembles at the stroke Of Thy swift-glancing eyes ; The hills Thou touchest and they smoke— Volcanic flames arise. O Lord my God! I fling Me down at Thy dear feet ; There will I lie and gladly sing Adoring anthems sweet. Bless thou the Lord, my soul! Permitted as thou art, Of this majestic cosmic whole To form a noble part. 208 THE PSALMS. CV Pook ba Cy, And call upon His Name— ( : IVE to Jehovah thanks and praise! 9 LO Th’ Eternal, Self-existent One, From age to age the same. Among the nations it declare, And make His doings known : Talk ye of all His wondrous works, His grace to Israel shown. O glory in His Holy Name! Who seek Him shall rejoice: Ye people, seek ; Jehovah choose, And triumph in your choice ; And keep perpetually in mind ihemiracles He wiought: The judgments of His mouth, likewise, With dreadful warning fraught. Ye faithful Abrah'’m’s chosen seed, Jehovah is our God! His judgments are in all the earth— He wields a chastening rod. He made a lasting covenant With Abrah’m, and it sealed By oath, and it a statute made Never to be repealed ; CV II 12 13 14 15 16 I] 18 THE PSALMS. 209 Saying, “To thee I’ll give the land Of Canaan; it shall be The lot of your inheritance By title got from Me’— A promise made, what time they were In number very few, And strangers there, mere travelers, The country passing through. From nation they to nation went ; Their trust in God they put; From realm to realm they journeyed safe, With free unfettered foot. He suffered none to do them wrong ; Rebuked kings for their sake ; Said, “ Touch not my anointed ones ; Let them no injury take!” He brought a famine on the land; He brake the staff of bread ; He sent a man before them, that The starving might be fed. Joseph was sold in Egypt, where, Upon false charges made, His feet they with strong fetters hurt And him in irons laid : 210 19 to to THE PSALMS. CV Till when his word had come to pass, And him the Lord had proved, The ruler ob ine people sent And had his chains removed ; And made him lord of all his house, And gave him full control Of all his wealth, to follow out The pleasure of his soul; To bind his chiefs; his elders teach The arts of wise command. Then Israel into Egypt came And sojourned in the land. When much increased, and stronger grown Than those they served, these say ° “We ’ll shrewdly deal, we ‘ll them oppress, Each son at birth will slay.”’ He Moses did depute and send, And Aaron whom He chose ; They signs and prodigies displayed Among their cruel foes. He darkness sent, and made it dark, Their hearts with terror filled ; He turned their waters into blood, And all their fish He killed. CV 30 31 a5 34 a8 a 38 39 4o THE PSALMS, 211 Their land was filled with countless frogs, Ev'n chambers of their kings : He spake, there came great swarms of flies, And gnats inflicting stings. He gave them hail instead of rain, And flame swept through the land ; Their vines and fig trees smote, and brake The trees on every hand, He spake, and straight the locusts came In numbers without bound; Grasshoppers, too, that ate up all The products of the ground. He smote likewise all their first-born, The chief of all their strength : Laden with silver and with gold He brought them forth at Jength. Among the tribes there was not one That feebleness betrayed : Egypt was glad when they were gone, Because she was afraid. A cloud He for a covering spread ; For light at night a fire; Fed them with bread from heaven, and quails To answer their desire. ZI 41 +3 44 +5 t2 td THE PSALIATS. Cvi He smote the rock, and waters gushed, That like-aqriver ran Through dry and thirsty places where There was no drink for man. He kept His holy word in mind To Abrah'm pledged, and brought His chosen people forth with joy Unto the Land they sought. The Land of many peoples gave Them richly to possess ; That they might all His statutes keep— Praise ye the Lord and bless. Poa iaM "Gy. RAISE ‘ve -the Lord for Hes oood, His mercy lasts the ages through. What tongue can tell His mighty acts Or utter all His praises due? Happy are they who judgment keep ; Whomevertrom (Thy law depart; Who love the ways of righteousness And serve the Lord with perfect heart. Regard me with the favor, Lord, thou bear st Thy people = visit me With Thy salvation, that I may The welfare of Thy chosen see! CVI IO II 12 13 T4 15 THE PSALMS. 213 But we have with our fathers sinned ; Have from Thy testimonies swerved ; Our covenant with Thee have broke ; And all we suffer have deserved. Mindless of signs in Egypt wrought, Rebellious words our fathers spake At the Red Sea; He yet them saved, By His great power for His Name's sake. The Sea dried up at His rebuke: He through its hidden depths them led— That seemed a low and level plain, Solid and firm beneath their tread. When safe upon the further shore, The waters, which for them were cleft, Closed over the pursuing foe, Not one of their whole member left. Then they believed His words; they sang His praise, but soon His works forgot— Self-willed, impatient, they made haste, And waited for His counsel not. They lusted in the wilderness, And tempted God—on having bent— Displeased, He gave them their request, But in their souls He leanness sent. 16 17 1s Ig a1) THE PSALMS. CVI They Moses envied in the camp, And Aaron, made high priest to be; Earth oped—with Dathan swallowed were Abiram and his company. A fire was kindled, and consumed Korah and all his wicked crew. In spite of judgments Israel still Remained rebellious and untrue. They made a calf at Horeb; thus They changed their Glory for, alas! The molten likeness of an ox That chews his cud and feeds on grass. They God forgat, their Saviour, who Had graciously, to set them free, In Egypt done great things for them And terrible by the Red Sea. Theretoreiie said "I ll theni destroy! But nevertheless allowed to plead, Moses His chosen—who in the breach Before Him stood to intercede. Yea, they despised the pleasant Land ; And they discredited His word ; They daily murmured in their tents, And harkened not unto the Lord. CVI 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 a7 38 THE PSALMS. 215 So with uplifted hand He sware They should the Promised Land not see— Their seed should ’mong the nations fall, And in all lands should scattered be. To Baal-Peor they them joined ; Things offered to dead idols ate ; By their nefarious deeds provoked, A plague them slew in numbers great. Then stood up Phinehas alone, And executed judgment fell! The plague was stayed—in this bold act "T was ever held that he did well. At Meribah they angered Him; And Moses suffered for their sake, Because, beyond endurance vexed, He foolishly and rashly spake. The peoples they did not destroy— Unmindful of the Lord’s commands— But mixed with them, and learned their works, And served their idols made with hands; And these became a snare to them ; By horrible example led, They sons and daughters sacrificed— Their guiltless blood to demons shed. 216 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 47 THE PSALMS. CVI Thus they the Land with blood defiled, And played the harlot ’fore the Lord ; Therefore His wrath was kindled so He His inheritance abhorred. He to the nations gave them up, Up to the tyranny of those Who hated them—caused them to bow Their stiff proud necks to cruel foes. He many times delivered them, But they, rebellious and perverse, Were by their crimes, full oft, brougnt low— Such their propension to the worse. Yet when He heard their moaning cry, His covenant He called to mind, And pitied them, and made the hearts Of captors pitiful and kind. Save us, O Lord! and gather us From out the nations, and restore, That we may give Thee sounding thanks And triumph in Thy praise once more. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting ; and let all the people say, Amen. Praise Ve TNE 10rd, BOOK V. PSALM CV IT. Is most good; His mercy vast Compasses eternity, Future ages and the past. € IVE Jehovah thanks, for He vo So let His redeemed attest, 3 Whom He gathered and led forth From the east and from the west, From the south and from the north. They the desert wandering o’er, Found no permanent abode ; 5 Hungry and athirst, foot-sore, Faint they sunk beneath the load. 6 Then unto the Lord they cried, In their hour of bitter need ; He with their requests complied, And from their distresses freed. 10 218 THE PSALMS. CVII 7 By a straight way He them led From the wilderness, to-go To a land inhabited, Where abundant harvests grow. 8 O that men would praise the Lord, And Him never grieve again, For His goodness that restored, And His wondrous works to men! 9 For He satisfies the needs Of the longing soul with food, And the hungry soul He feeds With a plentitude of good. 10 Those that in dark prisons lay, Being bound with iron bands— 11 Having dared to disobey, And contemn the Lord’s commands— 12 Were brought down with heavy toil, Victims of oppression made, Slaves compelled to drudge and moil, With no hand to render aid: 13 Then unto the Lord they cried, In their hour of bitter need ; He with their requests complied, And from their distresses freed. CVII 14 15 17 18 1g 20 THE PSALMS. 219 Out of death-shade made them pass, Iron bands asunder broke, Burst the mighty gates of brass, Loosed the captive from his yoke. O that men would praise the Lord, And Him never grieve again, For the goodness that restored, And His wondrous works to men! Fools, because of their misdeeds, Painful fetch uncertain breath ; Mid the loathings sickness breeds, They draw near the gates of death. They but reap what they have sown— Tossed with fever, racked with pain, Conscious they deserve each groan, Guilt forbids them to complain. Then unto the Lord they cry, Bending unaccustomed knees : He beholds with pitying eye, And from their distresses frees. He sends forth His healing word, Pain and weakness to dispel : With new life the frame is stirred, And the sick again are well. 220 21 25 26 28 THE PSALMS, CVII O that men would praise the Lord, And Him never grieve again, For the goodness that restored, And His wondrous works to men! They that with stout hearts and bold O’er the sea in vessels sweep, These Jehovah’s works behold, And His wonders in the deep. He commands: a stormy wind Lifts the ocean from its bed; In fierce battle now combined Each mad billow lifts its head. Up to heaven the bark is tost ; Poised upon the steep wave’s brink, They give up themselves for lost, As again they downward sink. Like a drunken man they reel, Pitching, staggering to and fro; All their skill is vain they feel— What to do they do not know. Then unto the Lord they cry, Bending unaccustomed knees ; He beholds with pitying eye, And from their distresses frees. CVII 29 30 31 32 33 34 a5 THE PSALMS, Howls the tempest now no more; Calm and peaceful is the sea ; So He brings them safe to shore, To the port where they would be. O that men would praise the Lord, And Him never grieve again ; For the goodness that restored, And His wondrous works to men ! Let the people Him extol, When they in th’ assembly meet !. Let the elders one and all Praise Him in the council-seat ! He a barren desert makes Of fair fields and watered plains ; For the sinful dwellers’ sake, Fire and brimstone on them rains. He the burning desert cools ; Springing waters upward burst; Sky-reflecting crystal pools, Running streamlets slaking thirst, Turn the sand to fruitful loam ;— And He makes the hungry there Dwell in peace, that they a home And a city may prepare, 222 THE PSALMS. CVIII 37 Sow the fields, and plant the vine: He doth them increase and bless, 38 Fostered by His power divine, Lets their cattle grow no less. 39 They are minished and bowed down, By oppression’s hand abased ; yo Princes blasted by His frown, Wander in a pathless waste. 41 He the poor in families Sets, where no afflictions come ; 42 It the upright gladly sees And iniquity is dumb. 43 Who is wise will ponder well, Nor despise the warning voice ; Will upon His mercies dwell, And with trembling heart rejoice. PSA MM Oxy tit M* heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, I will, O God. Thy praises sing : 2 Awake, my soul! with voice be mixed, Both lute and harp! your every string. 3 I'll wake the dawn; I'll celebrate Thy praise among the nations, for 4 Thy Mercy and Thy Truth are great, High o’er the heavens for evermore. * This Psalm is compiled from two others—verses 1-5 are substantially the same aS P8. 57: 7-11; Vs. 6-12 as PS. 60 : 5-12, Cx THE PSALMS. 223 s Be Thou exalted, God Most High! Above all praise, all thought above, Above the earth, above the sky, High seated on Thy throne of love! — 6 That Thy belovéd ones May be delivered, save With Thy right hand, and o’er us let Victorious ensigns wave ! 7 God in His holiness Hath spoken—I, therefore, Will triumph in the confidence He will the lost restore: Then the reconquered Land I will again divide— Succoth and Schechem—and his part Mete out to every tribe. 8 Mine’s Gilead ; and mine’s Manasseh’s either half ; My head’s defence is Ephraim ; Judah’s my royal staff ; 9 Moab my wash-pot is, Wherein I ‘ll wash my feet ; O’er Edom I’ll extend my sway, Philistia Ill unseat, THE PSALMS. CIX 10 Who will me bring into it 13 Edom’s fenced capital ? Surmount its muniment of rocks, Impregnable high wall? Thou who hast cast us off, Wilt Thou not lead our van? O give us help from trouble, for Vain is the help of man. Go forth Thou with our hosts, And marshal and dispose! We shall through God do valiantly, For He’ll tread down our foes. Poo M ela. Her not Thy peace, God of my praise! For they against me slanders raise ; With tongue of falsehood and deceit 3 They words ot causeless hate repeat. 4 They for my love return ill-will, But I to prayer devote me still ; s Evil for good they ‘ve on me laid, My love with hatred have repaid. 6 Measure for measure him be given, By the dispensing hand of heaven ; The woes he loves to others deal, Let him in his own person feel. CIX IO rs 12 13 14 15 16 THE PSALMS, O28 O’er him the wicked give command ; Th’ accuser set on his right hand ; When tried, let him no favor win, His prayer for mercy be for sin. His days make few and evil make; His office let another take ; His children be of sire bereft, And be his wife a widow left. And let his orphaned children roam, Poor vagabonds without a home— From some decayed and ruined shed Let them creep forth to beg for bread. Let the extortioner Jay toils ; And strangers from him gather spoils ; Pity to show let there be none Either to father or to son. Let him posterity have not; His name be blotted and forgot ; His father’s guilt, his mother’s sin, Make him as though he’d never been; Because that he no pity knew, And did th’ afflicted one pursue ; With deadly malice and hot breath The broken hearted hunt to death. 226 17 18 19 20 bo to THE PSALMS. CO? ws Cursing he loved, and so the same Down on himself revolving came : He had in blessing no delight And so ’t was far from him of right. He on him as a garment put Cursing, that reached from head to foot— Close fitting, clinging to the skin That sucked the raging madness in. Be it to him a poisoned vest ; And let his bones imbibe the pest ; And let this be his just reward, A righteous judgment from the Lord. But, Thou. Lord, gracious be to me, (For Thou art good) and set me free ; Because I needy am and poor, And wounded is my heart and sore. Like shadows, which at close of day Lengthen, I passing am away ; Like locust, tost and helpless driven Before the stormy winds of heaven. My tottering knees beneath me fail ; Through fasting I’ve grown lean and pale ; Reproach, of scorn and hatred bred, They cast on me, and wag their head. CR. 26 27 28 29 30 31 THE PSALMS. 227 Thy help, O Lord my God, I crave ; According to Thy mercy, save! That they the act may understand Is done by Thy delivering hand. They will me curse, but Thou wilt bless; Shame shall them cover as a dress ; Like to a mantle shall their own Confusion be around them thrown. I to the Lord great thanks will give, And sound His praises while I live; For He is present to console And save from them that judge my soul. PSAs CX. J PROVAR said unto my Lord. “Sit Thou on My right hand, Till I Thy foes Thy footstool make, Thy foes of every land.’’ 2 Jehovah out of Zion shall Rod of Thy strength extend ; Thine enemies shall own Thy rule, All nations to Thee bend. 3 Thy people free-will offerings*® are, Men to Thy service sworn; Decked with the pearls of holiness, Like dew-drops of the morn. * So the Hebrew. THE PSALMS, CXI 4 Sworn hath Jehovah, He’ll not change: ‘Thou shalt forever be, After the order of Melchizedek, A Royal Priest to Me!” s; The Lord, the strength of Thy right hand, Opposing kings shall smite: He will among the nations judge, And vindicate the right. 6 In many countries o’er broad lands The warrior heaps the dead ; 7 Quenches his thirst by way-side brook And victor lifts his head. PSALM © XE: pre Jehovah! I will bring All my powers His praise to sing ; Mid the consecrated ranks Of the upright will give thanks. 2 Great the works Jehovah wrought, To be diligently sought, 3 Memorable, matchless, grand— Aye His righteousness shall stand : 4 Kind, compassionate, and dear, 5 Food He gives to them who fear : Of His covenant He will be Mindful to eternity. CXII Io THE PSALMS. 229 To His people He made known His great power, in Canaan shown ; ‘Gainst the nations war did wage ; Made the Land their heritage. All His works are just and pure; And His precepts all are sure ; Stablished are for aye each one, Truly spoke and rightly done. Their redemption He obtained ; He His covenant ordained ; True to His eternal pact— Gracious promise turned to fact. All His mighty works proclaim Fearful is His Holy Name: Whosoever wisdom wins With Jehovah's fear begins. He is wise who understands, Keeps His precepts and commands ; Whose great goodness ceases never, And His praise endures forever. PSA NE Cox LD, ALLELUJAH! This attest He who fears the Lord is blest; Knowing His commands are right He in them finds great delight. 12> 10 IHL £SALM S. CXII Mighty shall his offspring be ; Blest with great prosperity ; Wealth be in his house and hand ; Aye his righteousness shall stand. There arises to the upright, In the midst of darkness, light : Righteous he, compassionate, Kind to the unfortunate. Happy he who favor shows, Lends, or generously bestows; He ‘ll his course by justice guide, And unmoved shall e’er abide: And his righteousness shall be Always kept in memory— Fixed his heart and void of fear, Trusting, loving, and sincere. Of bad news he’s not afraid; On the Lord his heart is stayed ; He shall no misgivings -own, Till his foes are overthrown. He has to the needy given ; He accepted is of Heaven! High his horn shall litted be ; Grieved the wicked shall it see. CNIV THE F SACHS, 231 Poe ex a. ALLELUJAH! praise accord, O ye servants of the Lord! 2 Let His Name exalted be Now, and through eternity ; 3 From the rising of the sun To its setting be it done! 4 High above all nations His Everlasting Kingdom is ; Higher than His dwelling-place, Is the glory of His grace. 5 Who's like Him who stoops to see What in heaven and earth there be? 7 He the needy and the poor Raises up to sit secure 8 With the nobles of the land, Princes holding high command. He the barren woman takes And a joyful mother makes. Hallelujah ! PSALM CALTY, HEN Israel, held in bondage long, \ \ Out from the land of Egypt went, 2 She was His sanctuary strong, And from her midst His law was sent. Diee 2 Al CAY to Cr tu 3 The Sea affrighted saw, and fled ; Jordan amazed was driven back ; While down across the waters’ bed Dry-shod, she kept her onward track. } The conscious Mountains skipped like rams— Sinai and Horeb in their place— The quickened Hills leaped up like lambs, Thrilled with deep awe from top to base. s Why fleddest thou, O Sea? and why O Jordan, did thy waters shrink? Why then were left your channels dry, That moment Israel touched your brink? 6 Ye Mountains, why skipped ye like rams, Sinai and Horeb in your place? And why, ye Hills, leaped ye like lambs, Thrilled with deep awe from top to base? 7 Tremble, thou Earth, and be afraid! The Lord, the God of Israel hear ; 8 Whose presence turned the rock, and made The flint a fount of waters clear. PSALM CAYV OT unto us, but glory give, O Lord, to Thy dishonored Name! Thy truth and mercy vindicate, And impious rulers put to shame. 2 Why should the taunting nations say: ‘Where ’s now their God, where is He, pray?” CXV Io II 12 13 15 THE PSALMS. 233 Our God’s in heaven, He reigns supreme, And whatsoe’er He pleased has done: Their gold and silver idols, made By human hands, have functions none— Mouth, eyes, ears, noses, hands and feet, That cannot move, perceive, nor eat. They make no sound, poor senseless things : Like them shall be those who them made; And every one who trusts in them— Blockish, incapable of aid: Trust, Israel! and keep the field— Jehovah is thy Help and Shield. O house of Aaron, in Him trust: All who Him fear in Him confide ; It matters not what threatens, while Omnipotence is on your side. Be not dismayed, refuse to yield, Jehovah is your Help and Shield. Jehovah has remembered us; He will the house of Israel bless: Will bless the house of Aaron; crown Those fearing Him with happiness, Both small and great; and He will add To you, diminished now and sad. Ye of Jehovah blesséd are— Creator of the earth and heaven— 234 THE PSALMS. CXVI 16 The heavens are for Himself; the earth He to the sons of men has given. 17 The dead praise not, their lips are dumb, 18 But we'll Him bless all time to come. Hallelujah ! PsoaLM CAVE, | LOVE the Lord, because to me, He audience deigned to give ; 2 Inclined His ear, I'll on Him call, And bless Him while I live. 3 The cords of death encompassed me, The pains of death gat hold ; I trouble and deep sorrow found, And terrors manifold. 4 Then called I on Jehovah's Name: “Deliver, Lord, and save!” s And He, who is most pitiful, Me kind deliverance gave. 6 Preserver of the simple, when I was brought very low, He helped me, and He raised me up, And did new life bestow. 7 Return. my soul, unto Thy rest ; Be thankful for thy breath ! 8 The Lord has with me kindly dealt, And rescued me from death ; CXVI 10 rr I2 13 14 15 16 THE PSALMS. Delivered has mine eyes from tears, My feet from falling ; so I in the Jand of living men Before the Lord will go. My faith enabled me to speak, I turned to God for aid ; I was afflicted greatly, but To trust man was afraid. I in my haste and terror said: ‘All men are liars; I Will put my trust in none of them, But on the Lord rely.” What shall I render to the Lord, From whom salvation came? I will the cup of blessing take And call upon His Name; Will to Jehovah pay my vows For His new gift of breath— Most dear His saints are in His eyes, And precious is their death. Iam Thy servant, am the son Of Thy handmaiden, Lord! My fetters Thou hast loosed, and dost True freedom me afford. 235 230 THE PSALMS. CXVIII 17 I’llin Thy Courts thank-offerings bring, And on Thy Name will call; 18 Among Thy people pay my vows, In presence of them all. Hallelujah ! Poa Daw Cx vie, () PRAISE the Lord, Elis name extol, O all ye nations! all ye lands! 2 For great His mercy is toward all; His truth unchanged forever stands. Hallelujah ! INO: 2: O praise the Lord, who reigns above !. Ye nations, your allegiance own! e