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5 Gather my faints together unto me: those that have made a covenant with me with facrifice.

6 And the heavens thall declare his righteoufnefs: for God is judge himself.

Hear, O my people, and I will fpeak: I myself will testify against thee, O Ifrael; for I am God, even thy God.

8 I will not reprove thee, because of thy facrifices, or for thy burnt-offerings: because they were not alway before me.

9 I will take no bullock out of thine houfe: nor he-goat out of thy folds.

10 For all the beafts of the foreft are mine: and fo are the cattle upon a thoufand hills.

II I know all the fowls upon the mountains: and the wild beafts of the field are in my fight.

12 If I be hungry, I will not tell thee: for the whole world is mine, and all that is therein.

13 Thinkeft thou that I will eat bulls flesh: and drink the blood of goats?

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14 Offer unto God thanksgiving: and pay thy vows unto the moft Higheft.

15 And call upon me in the time of trouble: fo will I hear thee, and thou shalt praise me.

16 But unto the ungodly faid God: Why doft thou preach my laws, and takest my covenant in thy mouth;

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Whereas thou hateft to be reformed: and haft caft my words behind thee?

18 When thou faweft a thief, thou consentedft unto him: and haft been partaker with the adulterers.

19 Thou haft let thy mouth fpeak wickedness: and with thy tongue thou haft fet forth deceit.

facrifices and outward ceremonies of Religion, but rather with fincere devotion of Mind, and praise which flows from a grateful Heart : altho' even thefe marks of piety will not be acceptable without juftice

and the other virtues. In order to give greater weight
to these Doctrines, God himself is introduced by the
Pfalmift as delivering them in all the awful pomp dr
divine Majesty, as he did the Law from Sinai,

20 Thou fattest and spakest against thy brother: yea, and hast flandered thine own mothers fon.

21 These things haft thou done, and I held my tongue, and thou thoughteft wickedly,, that I am even fuch a one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and fet before thee the things that thou haft done. 22 O confider this, ye that forget God: left I pluck you away, and there. be noneto deliver

you.

23 *Whofo offereth me thanks and praife, he honoureth me: and to him that ordereth his converfation right, will I fhew the falvation of God.

HA

§ Pfalm 51. Miferere mei, Deus.

Ave mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodnefs: according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine

offences.

2 Wash me throughly from my wickedness: and cleanfe me from my fin.

3 For I acknowledge my faults: and my fin is ever before me. 4 Against thee only have I finned, and done this evil in thy fight: that thou mightest be justified in thy saying, and clear when thou art judged.

5 Behold, I was fhapen in wickedness and in fin hath mother conceived me.

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6 But lo, thou requireft truth in the inward parts: and fhalt make me to understand wisdom fecretly.

7 Thou shalt purge me with hyffop, and I fhall be clean: thou shalt wash me, and I fhall be whiter than fnow.

* Whoso offereth me Thanks and Praise, &c. "Pub"lic Praifes and Thank(givings (fays Dr. Clarke) are acceptable to God, as part of our religious Worship "and Adoration of him; but are then only fo, when "the declarations of our mouths are the real fignifications of the intentions of our hearts, and our de"figns are not to abuse those mercies which we thank him for."

This is the fourth of the penitential Pfalms, com

pofed by David upon the reproof which he received from Nathan the Prophet, after his Adultery with Bath beba, 2 Sam. xii. An Act of public penitence which fuch crimes loudly call for !..

Behold I was hapen in Wickedness, &c. Grotius fays the fenfe of this paffage is, "I have not only com mitted a grievous crime at prefent, but have often "finned from my childhood," and is an hyperbolical kind of fpeaking, as appears by comp. ng it with Job

8 Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 9 Turn thy face from my fins: and fins: and put out all my mifdeeds. 10 Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Caft me not away from thy presence: and take not thy holy Spirit from me.

12 O give me the comfort of thy help again: and stablish me with thy free Spirit.

13 Then fhall I teach thy ways unto the wicked: and finners fhall be converted unto thee.

14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou that art the God of my health: and my tongue fhall fing of thy righte

oufnefs.

15 Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew thy praife.

16 For thou defireft no facrifice, elfe would I give it thee: but thou delighteft not in burnt-offerings.

17 The facrifice of God is a troubled spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, fhalt thou not despise.

18 O be favourable and gracious unto Sion: build thou the walls of Jerufalem.

19 Then fhalt thou be pleased with the facrifice of righteousness, with the burnt offerings, and oblations: then shall they offer young bullocks upon thine altar.

Pfalm 52. Quid gloriaris?

HY boastest thou thyfelf thou tyrant: that thou canst do mifchief;

WH

2 Whereas the goodness of God: endureth yet daily?

xxxi. 18. Pfalm xxii. 10. 11, and Iviii. . and lxxi. 5. 6. Ifaiah xlviii. 8. When the confcience is deeply wounded with a fenfe of any notorious crime, our other smaller offences will be apt to ftand up in array

against us

This Pfalm was occafioned by the flaughter of the Priefts through the Calumnies of Doeg the Edomite, as it. is related 1 Sam. xxij.

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3 Thy tongue imagineth wickednefs: and with lies thou cuttest like a fharp razor.

4 Thou haft loved unrighteoufnefs more than goodness:, and, to talk of lies more than righteousness.

5 Thou haft loved to speak all words that may do hurt: O thou falfe tongue.

6 Therefore fhall God deftroy thee for ever: he shall take thee, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling, and root thee out of the land of the living.

7 The righteous alfo fhall fee this, and fear: and shall laugh him to fcorn.

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8 Lo, this is the man, that took not God for his ftrength: but trufted unto the multitude of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickednefs.

9 As for me, I am like a green olive-tree in the houfe of God: my truft is in the tender mercy of God for ever and ever.

10 I will always give thanks unto thee for that thou hast done: and I will hope in thy name, for thy faints like it well.

"THE

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HE foolish body hath faíd, in his heart: There is no God. 2 Corrupt are they, and become abominable, in their wickednefs: there is none that doeth good.

3 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men: to fee if there were any that would understand, and seek after God.

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promises the righteous help and deliverance from the Almighty.

The foolish Body hath faid in bis Heart, &c. This does not imply that all Sinners actually believe there is no God; but the meaning is that the impiety of the people in the Prophets time was fo great and general that wicked men lived as if they denied the Being of a God. Well were it if this Complaint might not bewith too much juftice applied to a great number of Chriftians, who profefs to know God, but in Works deny him, giving themfelves up to all manner of Wickedness.

4 But they are all gone out of the way they are altogether become abominable: there is also none that doeth good, no not one. 5 Are not they without understanding, that work wickedness: eating up my people as if they would eat bread? they have not called upon God.

6 They were afraid where no fear was: for God hath broken the bones of him that befieged thee; thou haft put them to confusion, because God hath despised them.

7 Oh that the falvation were given unto Ifrael out of Sion: Oh that the Lord would deliver his people out of captivity.

8 Then should. Jacob rejoice: and Ifrael fhould be right glad.' Pfalm 54. Deus, in nomine.

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AVE me, O God, for thy Names fake; and avenge me in thy ftrength.

2 Hear my prayer, O God: and hearken unto the words of my mouth.

3 For ftrangers are rifen up against me: and tyrants which have not God before their eyes, feek after my foul.

4 +Behold, God is my helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my foul.

5 He fhall reward evil unto mine enemies: deftroy thou them in thy truth.

6 ́An offering of a free heart will I give thee, and praise thy Name, O Lord: because it is fo comfortable.

7 For he hath delivered me out of all my trouble: and mine eye hath feen his defire upon mine enemies.

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| Pfalm 55. Exaudi, Deus.

EAR my prayer, O God: and hide not thyfelf from my petition.

HEA

The treachery of the Ziphues and the artifices of Sau! to take David gave occafion to this Pfalm fee 1 Sam. xxiii and xxvi. David therefore, tho' in great danger, commends himself with firm confidence to God's protection foretells the punishment which should fall upon his enemies, and makes a grateful acknow

ledgement to God for his deliverance.

den change in David's language might perhaps be Behold God is my Helper, the Lord, &c. This fudoccafioned by his being told amidst his Prayer that Saul was called off from the purfuit of him by the Philistines 1 Sam. xxiii, 27. and he therefore fuddenly. I

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