1

2 Give the Lord the honour due unto his name: worship the Lord with holy worship.

3. It is the Lord that commandeth the waters: it is the glori ous God that maketh the thunder.

4 It is the Lord that ruleth the fea; the voice of the Lord is mighty in operation: the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice.

5 The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedar-trees: yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Libanus.

6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf: Libanus alfo, and Sirion like a young unicorn.

7 The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire, the voice of the Lord fhaketh the wilderness: yea, the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Cades.

8 The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to bring forth young, and discoverth the thick bushes: in his temple doth every man fpeak of his honour.

9 The Lord fitteth above the water-flood: and the Lord remaineth a King for ever.

10 The Lord fhall give ftrength unto his people: the Lord shall give his people the bleffing of peace.

MORNING

PRAYER.
Exaltabo te, Domine.

| Pfalm 30.

I

Will magnify thee, O Lord, for thou haft fet me up: and not made my foes to triumph over me.

2 O Lord my God, I cried unto thee: and thou haft healed me. 3 Thou, Lord, haft brought my foul out of hell: thou haft kept my life from them that go down to the pit.

This Pfalm is supposed to have been occafioned by a violent form. From the terrible noife and wonderful force of the Thunder David proves the fupreme dominion and infinite power of God.

The voice of the Lord maketh the Hinds to bring forth, &c. This might have been full as properly tranflated, the voice of the Lord, i. e. the Thunder Battereth the Oaks. See Dr. Lowth on the Hebrew

Poetry. Præl 27. p. 363. Defervedly was a Thunder ftorm made here a fubject of facred Poetry. For either he must be more than Man, or less than Brute who can be entirely unaffected on fuch an occafion. But we are affected to fmall purpose if it do not infpire us with an awful fenfe of God's power and majesty.

This Pfalm is fuppofed to have been fung upon the dedication of David's House which had been pol

4 Sing praifes unto the Lord, O ye faints of his: and give thanks unto him for a remembrance of his holiness.

5 For his wrath endureth but the twinkling of an eye, and in his pleasure is life: heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

6* And in my profperity I faid, I fhall never be removed: thou, Lord, of thy goodness hadit made my hill so strong.

7 Thou didst turn thy face from me: and I was troubled. 8 Then cried I unto thee, O Lord: and gat me to my Lord right humbly.

9 What profit is there in my blood: when I go down to the pit? 10 Shall the dust give thanks unto thee: or shall it declare thy truth?

11 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me: Lord, be thou my helper.

12 Thou haft turned my heavinefs into joy: thou hast put off my fackloth, and girded me with gladness.

13 Therefore fhall every good man fing of thy praise without ceafing: O my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

§ Pfalm 31. In te, Domine, fperavi.

IN

N thee, O Lord, have I put my truft: let me never be put to confusion, deliver me in thy righteousness.

2 Bow down thine ear to me: make hafte to deliver me. 3 And be thou my ftrong rock, mayeft fave me.

Jited by the crimes of Abjalom, 2 Sam. xvi. 21, 22. and xvii. 1. &c. and xx. 3. And he therefore returns folemn Thanks to God that he had delivered him and in Wrath remembered Mercy. He acknowledges that he had in profperity forgot himself, and therefore God had chaftened him to bring him to a fenfe of his duty, and to remind him of his dependence upon him; and he vows he will praise God for ever, because he had heard him.

and house of defence: that thou

And in my profperity I faid, I fall never, &e What was David's cafe here is too common in fome degree even to the best of Men. Profperity being too apt to put them off their guard, and make them froet themfelves. How kind therefore is it in Cod when by Afflictions he endeavours to bring us to a proper fenfe of ourselves, and our dury! and how much reafon have we even amiatt his chetidakats to prife him.

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4 For thou art my ftrong rock, and my caftle: be thou alfo my guide, and lead me for thy Names fake.

5 Draw me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my ftrength.

6 Into thy hands I commend my fpirit: for thou haft redeemd me, O Lord, thou God of truth.

7 I have hated them that hold of fuperftitious vanities: and my truft hath been in the Lord.

8 I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou haft confidered my trouble, and haft known my foul in adverfities.

9 Thou haft not fhut me up into the hand of the enemy: but haft fet my feet in a large room.

10 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble: and mine eye is confumed for very heavinefs; yea, my foul and my body. 11 For my life is waxen old with heaviness: and my years with mourning.

12 My ftrength faileth me, because of mine iniquity: and my bones are confumed.

13 I became a reproof among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours: and they of mine acquaintance were afraid of me, and they that did see me without, conveyed themselves from me.

14 I am clean forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am become like a broken veffel.

15 For I have heard the blafphemy of the multitude: and fear is on every fide, while they confpire together against me, and take their counfel to take away my life.

16 But my hope hath been in thee, O Lord: I have faid, Thou art my God.

17 My time is in thy hand, deliver me from the hand of mine enemies: and from thein that perfecute me.

18 Shew thy fervant the light of thy countenance: and fave me for thy mercies fake.

David appears to have compofed this i falm upon his flight from Saul: and it feems to be well adapted to the ufe of all goed People who are in extreme danger

and diftrefs; as it affords a lively defcription of affliction, anxiety, earnest defire and humble confidence in God.

19 Let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have called upon thee: let the ungodly be put to confufion, and be put to filence in the grave.

20 Let the lying lips be put to filence: which cruelly, disdainfully, and despitefully speak against the righteous.

21 O how plentiful is thy goodness which thou haft laid up for them that fear thee: and that thou haft prepared for them that put their truft in thee, even before the fons of men!

22 Thou fhalt hide them privily by thine own prefence from the provoking of all men: thou fhalt keep them fecretly in thy tabernacle from the ftrife of tongues.

23 Thanks be to the Lord: for he hath fhewed me marvellous great kindness in a strong city.

24 And when I made haste, I said: I am cast out of the fight of thine eyes.

25 Nevertheless, thou heardest the voice of my prayer: when I cried unto thee.

26 ‡O love the Lord, all ye his faints: for the Lord preserveth them that are faithful, and plenteoufly rewardeth the proud doer. 27 Be strong, and he shall establish your heart: all ye that put your trust in the Lord.

Pfalm 32. Beati, quorum.

Leffed is he, whose unrighteousness is forgiven: and whose fin is covered.

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2 Bleffed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth no fin: and in whose spirit there is no guile.

O love the Lord, all ye his Saints, &c. If David found reafon for fuch an affectionate exclamation on account of fome temporal deliverance: then how much ought it to be the fentiment of every Chriftian who enjoys the light of the bleffed Gofpel; in which God hath declared that he will reward every Man according to his works, in the Day when he shall judge the fecrets of Men by Christ Jesus.

This is the fecond in the number of the penitential

Pfalms; and teaches us that Man's true happine confifts in the pardon of his Sins, and in the piny of his Confcience which is to be obtained by fincerely confelling, and forfaking our Iniquities: and concludes with an earnest Exhortation to Repentance, and Ho. linefs of Life.

Bleed is he whofe Unrighteoufnefs, &c. This paf age is quoted by St. Paul in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans with a design to fhew that fo

3 For while I held my tongue: my bones confumed away through my daily complaining.

4 For thy hand is heavy upon me day and night: and my ture is like the drought in fummer.

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5 I will acknowledge my fin unto thee: and mine unrighteousnefs have I not hid.

6 I faid, I will confefs my fins unto the Lord: and fo thou forgavcft the wickednefs of my fin.

7 For this fhall every one that is godly make his prayer unto thee, in a time when thou mayeft be found: but in the great water-floods they fhall not come nigh him.

8 Thou art a place to hide me in, thou fhalt preferve me from trouble: thou shalt compass me about with fongs of deliverance, 9. I will inform thee, and teach thee in the way wherein thou fhalt go and I will guide thee with mine eye..

10 Be ye not like to horse and mule, which have no understanding: whofe mouths must be held with bit and bridle, lest they fall upon thee.

11 Great plagues remain for the ungodly: but whofo putteth his truft in the Lord, mercy embraceth him on every side.

12 Be glad, O ye righteous, and rejoice in the Lord: and be joyful all ye that are true of heart.

§ Pfalm 33, Exultate, jufti.

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Ejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for it becometh well the juft to be thankful.

2 Praise the Lord with harp: fing praises unto him with the lute, and inftrument of ten ftrings..

3 Sing unto the Lord a new fong: fing praifes luftily unto him with a good courage.

Man had a claim to the bleflings and privileges of the Gofpel on account of his obferving the rites and ceremonies of the Law of Mofes, neither because he was a Jew or a Gentile: but that these were the gift alone of God's unmerited favour to all of every, Nation, who hould believe and embrace the Gospel

§ David here exhorts the Righteous to praife

God.

with the utmoft fervency and fincerity, from the confideration or goodness, righteoufnefs, and power, which appear in the works of his Creation and Providence.. He reprefents God alfo as feeing all things, examining the actions of all Mer, and difplaying his mercy to wards them that fear and trust in him.