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let them be covered with fhame and difhonour, that feek to do me evil.

12 As for me, I will patiently abide alway: and will praife thee more and more.

13 My mouth fhall daily speak of thy righteousness and salvation: for I know no end thereof.

14 I will go forth in the ftrength of the Lord God: * and will make mention of thy righteoufnefs only.

15 Thou, O God, haft taught me from my youth up until now: therefore will I tell of thy wondrous works.

16 Forfake me not, O God, in mine old age, when I am grayheaded: until I have fhewed thy ftrength unto this generation, and thy power to all them that are yet for to come.

17 Thy righteousness, O God, is very high: and great things are they that thou haft done; O God, who is like unto thee?

18 O what great troubles and adverfities haft thou fhewed me! and yet didft thou turn and refresh me: yea, and broughtest me from the deep of the earth again,

19 Thou haft brought me to great honour: and comforted me on every fide.

20 Therefore will I praise thee and thy faithfulness, O God, playing upon an instrument of musick: unto thee will I fing upon the harp, O thou holy One of Ifrael.

21 My lips will be fain when I fing unto thee: and fo will my foul whom thou haft delivered.

22 My tongue alfo fhall talk of thy righteoufnefs all the day long: for they are confounded, and brought unto fhame, that seek to do me evil.

Pfalm 72. Deus, judicium.

IVE the king thy judgments, O God: and thy righteousness unto the kings fon.

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* And will make mention of thy Righteousness only. The word highteousness here as well as in many other

places of Scripture (when it relates to God) fignifies, Javing Mercy, or preferving goodness: And this paffage

2 Then fhall he judge thy people according unto right: and

defend the poor.

3 The mountains alfo fhall bring peace: and the little hills righteoufnefs unto the people.

He fhall keep the fimple folk by their right: defend the children of the poor, and punish the wrong docr.

5 They fhall fear thee as long as the fun and moon endureth: from one generation to another.

6 *He fhall come down like the rain into a fleece of wool: even as the drops that water the earth.

7 In his time fhall the righteous flourish: yea, and abundance of peace, fo long as the moon endureth.

8 His dominion fhall be alfo from the one fea to the other: and from the flood unto the worlds end.

9 They that dwell in the wildernefs fhall kneel before him: his enemies fhall lick the duft.

10 The kings of Tharfis, and of the ifles fhall give presents: the kings of Arabia, and Saba shall bring gifts.

11 All kings fhall fall down before him: all nations fhall do him fervice.

12 For he shall deliver the poor when he crieth: the needy also, and him that hath no helper.

13 He fhall be favourable to the fimple and needy: and shall preferve the fouls of the poor.

He fhall deliver their fouls from falfhood and wrong: and dear fhall their blood be in his fight.

implies that David would always gratefully acknow ledge the divine goodness towards him in delivering him from his Enemies: afcribing the glory to God, and to him alone. Such is the conduct of him whofe Heart is daly affected with a fenfe of God's Mercics.

This Pfalm was probably wrote a little before David's death, when he had declared Solazon to be his fucceffor, had ordered him to be anointed by Zadoc, and publickly inaugurated, 1 Kings i. Hercin he commends his Son to God, befeeching him to endue him with fuch Wisdom and Righteoufness as would enable

him to govern his People: defcribing, at the fame time, the future glory and extent of Solomon's Kingdom, and the happiness his Subjects would enjoy under him. Yet, feveral of the antient Jewish Writers allow that this Pfalm relates, in a more exalted fenfe, to the Meffiah.

*He hall come down like the Rain, &c. This may be applied in a temporal fenfe to Solomon's wife adminiftration of justice, whereby his Kingdom and People fhould flourish and increafe. But it feems to be mot perfectly fulfilled in the influence which Chrift's Doe

15 He fhall live, and unto him fhall be given of the gold of Arabia: prayer fhall be made ever unto him, and daily fhall he be praised.

16 There fhall be an heap of corn in the earth, high upon the hills: his fruit fhall fhake like Libanus, and fhall be green in the city like grass upon the earth.

17 His Name fhall endure for ever, his Name fhall remain under the fun among the pofterities: which fhall be bleffed through him, and all the heathen shall praise him.

18 Bleffed be the Lord God, even the God of Ifrael: which only doeth wondrous things;

19 And bleffed be the Name of his Majefty for ever: and all the earth fhall be filled with his Majefty. Amen, Amen.

T

EVENING

PRAYER.

Pfalm 73. Quam bonus Ifrael!

RULY God is loving unto Ifrael: even unto fuch as are of a clean heart.

2 Nevertheless, my feet were almoft gone: my treadings had well-nigh flipt.

3 And why? I was grieved at the wicked: I do alfo fee the ungodly in fuch profperity.

4 For they are in no peril of death: but are lufty and strong. 5 They come in no misfortune like other folk: neither are they plagued like other men.

6 And this is the cause that they are so holden with pride: and overwhelmed with cruelty.

7 Their eyes fwell with fatnefs: and they do even what they

luft.

8 They corrupt other, and speak of wicked blafphemy: their talking is against the most High.

trine hath upon all true Believers: by which they are rendered fruitful in every good Work, increafing with the increafe of God, Col. i. 10. See alfo Ifaiah lv. 10, 11. This Pfalm teacheth us how we ought to judge of

the profperity of the Wicked, and the afflictions the Righteous. For that the felicity of the Wicked is, at beft, but fleeting, tranfitory and unfubftantial; whereas the Righteous enjoy comfort and peace, amidit

9 For they ftretch forth their mouth unto the heaven: and their tongue goeth through the world.

10 Therefore fall the people unto them: and thereout fuck they no fmall advantage,

11 Tush, say they, how should God perceive it: is there knowledge in the most High?

12 Lo, thefe are the ungodly, thefe profper in the world, and thefe have riches in poffeffion: and I faid, "Then have I cleanfed my heart in vain, and washed mine hands in innocency.

13 All the day long have I been punished: and chastened every morning.

14 Yea, and I had almost said even as they: but lo, then I should have condemned the generation of thy children.

me,

15 Then thought I to understand this: but it was too hard for

16 Until I went into the fanctuary of God: then understood I the end of these men;

17 Namely, how thou doft fet them in flippery places and cafteft them down, and destroyeft them.

18 Oh how fuddenly do they confume: perish, and come to a fearful end!

19 Yea, even like as a dream when one awaketh fo fhalt thou make their image to vanish out of the city.

20 Thus my heart was grieved: and it went even through my

reins.

21 So foolish was I, and ignorant: even as it were a beast before thee..

22 Nevertheless, I am alway by thee: for thou haft holden me by my right hand.

23 Thou fhalt guide me with thy counfel: and after that receive me with glory.

their deepest diftreffes, from the confidération that they are under the continual care and protection of a gra

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cious God, who will make all things work together for good to them that love him.

*Whom have I in heaven but thee: and there is none upon earth, that I defire in comparison of thee.

24

25 My flesh, and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

26 For lo, they that forfake thee fhall perish: thou hast deftroyed all them that commit fornication against thee.

27 But it is good for me to hold me faft by God, to put my truft in the Lord God: and to speak of all thy works in the gates of the daughter of Sion.

O

|| Pfalm 74. Ut quid, Deus?

GOD, wherefore art thou abfent from us fo long: why is thy wrath fo hot against the sheep of thy pasture?

2 O think upon thy congregation whom thou haft purchased, and redeemed of old.

3 Think upon

the tribe of thine inheritance: and mount Sion, wherein thou haft dwelt.

4 Lift up thy feet, that thou mayeft utterly destroy every ene my: which hath done evil in thy fanctuary.

5 Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy congregations: and fet up their banners for tokens.

6 He that hewed timber afore out of the thick trees: was known to bring it to an excellent work.

7 But now they break down all the carved work thereof: with axes and hammers.

8 They have set fire upon thy holy places: and have defiled the dwelling-place of thy Name, even unto the ground.

9 Yea, they faid in their hearts, Let us make havock of them altogether: thus have they burnt up all the houses of God in the land.

* Whom base I in Heaven but thee, c. "If a Man "were to chufe a Happiness for himself, (fays Dr. Tillotfon, on this paffage,) and were to ranfack Heaven and Earth for it; after all his fearch and enquiry he "would at last fix upon God, as the chief happiness "of Man, and the true and only rest and center of our "Soul."

The destruction of the Temple feems to have been the occafion of this Pfalm in which the Jewish Nation defcribes the melancholy fituation to which it is reduced in its captivity-implores the affiftance of the Almighty, and is comforted with the confideration of the deliverances he had formerly granted to that People, and the proofs of his power in the order of the

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