MORNING PRAYER.

Psalm ix. (9)

I WILL give thanks unto thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: I will speak of all thy marvellous works.

2 I will be glad and rejoice in thee yea, my songs will I make of thy Name, O thou most Highest.

3 While mine enemies are driven back they shall fall and perish at thy presence.

4 For thou hast maintained my right, and my cause: thou art set in the throne that judgest right.

5 Thou hast rebuked the heathen, and destroyed the ungodly: thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.

6 O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end : even as the cities which thou hast destroyed; their memorial is peIrished with them.

7 But the Lord shall endure for ever he hath also prepared his seat for judgement.

8 For he shall judge the world in righteousness and minister true judgment unto the people.

9 The Lord also will be a defence for the oppressed even a refuge (r) in due time of trouble.

10 And they that know thy

(q) A spirited song of triumph and thanksgiving, after success against some of the Heathen nations. David is supposed to have been the author, and if so, it might have been after the Ammo. nites and Syrians came out against him, and were overcome. See 2 Sam. x. This was about 1037 years before the birth of Christ.

(r) "A refuge," &c. In what classic writer can we find such comfortable and spirited assurances as in the scriptures? Look at the generations of old, and

Name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast never failed them that seek thee.

11 O praise the Lord, which dwelleth in Sion: shew the people of his doings.

12 For when he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them and forgetteth not the complaint of the poor.

13 Have mercy upon me, O Lord; consider the trouble which I suffer of them that hate me: thou that liftest me up from the gates of death;

14 That I may shew all thy praises within the ports of the daughter of Sion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.

15 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the same net which they hid privily is their foot taken.

16 The Lord is known to execute judgement: the ungodly is trapped in the work of his own hands.

17 The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the people that forget God.

18 For the poor shall not alway be forgotten the patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for

"see, did ever any trust in the Lord, "and was confounded? or did any abide "in his fear, and was forsaken? or "whom did he ever despise that called

upon him?" Eccles. ii. 10. "Be not "afraid of sudden fear, neither of the "desolation of the wicked when it "cometh, for the Lord shall be thy "confidence, and shall keep thy foot "from being taken." Prov. iii. 25, 26. "When the enemy shall come in like a "flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." Is. ix. 19.

the heathen be judged in thy sight.

20 Put them in fear, O Lord: that the heathen may know themselves to be but men.

Psalm x. (s)

WHY standest thou so far off, O Lord and hidest thy face in the needful time of trouble?

2 The ungodly for his own lust doth persecute the poor : let them be taken in the crafty wiliness that they have imagined.

3 For the ungodly hath made boast of his own hearts desire : and speaketh good of the covetous, whom God abhorreth.

4 The ungodly is so proud, that he careth not for God: neither is God in all his thoughts.

5 His ways are alway (t) grievous thy judgements are far above (u) out of his sight, and therefore defieth he all his enemies.

6 For he hath said in his heart, "Tush, I shall never be cast "down there shall no harm. "happen unto me."

7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and fraud under his tongue is ungodliness and vanity.

8 He sitteth lurking in the

(s) Upon the oppressions of the wicked, their atrocities and contempt of God, with an appeal to God for deliverance, and a triumphant conclusion, as if God had instantly heard the appeal, and granted the deliverance.

()" Alway," i. e. never otherwise. (u)" Far above." The distance to which God's judgments are removed is elsewhere described as influencing man's conduct, when "sentence against an "evil work is not executed speedily, "therefore the heart of men is fully set "in them to do evil." Eccles. viii. 11.

17 Break thou the power of the ungodly and malicious: take away his ungodliness, and thou shalt find none (z).

18 The Lord is King for ever and ever and the heathen are perished out of the land.

19 Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the poor thou preparest their heart, and thine ear hearkeneth thereto;

20 To help the fatherless and poor unto their right that the man of the earth (a) be no more exalted against them.

Psalm xi. (b)

In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye then to my soul, "That "she should flee as a bird unto "the hill?

2 (c) "For lo, the ungodly "bend their bow, and make ready

"the sword, and your wives shall be "widows, and your children fatherless." Exod. xxii. 22 to 24. Solomon says, "Rob not the poor, because he is poor, "neither oppress the afflicted; for the "Lord will plead their cause, and spoil "the soul of those that spoiled them." Prov. xxii. 22, 23.; and again, "enter not "into the fields of the fatherless, for their "redeemer is mighty." Prov. xxiii. 10. And Isaiah gives as a reason for God's entering into judgment with the antients of his people, and the princes thereof, that "the spoil of the poor is in their houses. "What mean ye that ye beat my people

to pieces, and grind the faces of the 66 poor, saith the Lord of Hosts?" Is. iii. 14, 15. See also Ps. xii. 5, 6.— XXXV. 10.-cxl. 12.-cxlvi 6 to 9.

(x) "And thou shalt find none,” i. e. till thou leave none remaining; take it away utterly, effectually.

"The man of the earth," i. e. the (a) oppressor, the man who careth not for God.

(b) A spirited Hymn of David's, disdaining to seek safety by flight, on ac

"their arrows within the quiver: "that they may privily shoot at "them which are true of heart. 3 "For the foundations will "be cast down and what hath "the righteous done (d)?"

4 The Lord is in his holy temple the Lord's seat is in heaven.

5 His eyes consider the poor: and his eye-lids try the children of men.

6 The Lord alloweth (e) the righteous but the ungodly, and him that delighteth in wickedness, doth his soul abhor.

7 Upon the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest: this shall be their portion to drink.

8 For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness: his countenance will behold the thing (f) that is just.

count of his confidence in God. It was perhaps written, when Saul first began to conceive ill-will against him. See 1 Sam. xviii. 9. 11. &c. This was about 1063 years before the Birth of Christ.

(c) These verses contain the arguments used to induce him to fly and in the following verses he states his grounds for rejecting the advice.

(d) The Bible translation is, "If the "foundations be destroyed, what can "the righteous do?" and this seems pre ferable. The meaning probably is, If the foundations (i. e. of Justice, Govern ment, &c.) are so disregarded that the ungodly bend their bow, &c. at them that are true of heart, what can the righte where ous do, but fly. In Ps. lxxxii. 5. the conduct of the judges is arraigned, it is said, "all the foundations of the earth are "out of course," as if "the foundations" were a known expression for "law, jus"tice," the basis of all government. (e) "Alloweth," i. e. favoureth, loveth, in opposition to " abhor."

(f) For "thing," read "man ;"God" will watch and protect the upright mau.

Rom. i.

and

EVENING PRAYER.

Psalm xii. (g)

HELP me, Lord, for there is not one godly man left for the faithful are minished from among the children of men.

2 They (b) talk of vanity every one with his neighbour : they do but flatter with their lips, and dissemble in their double heart.

3 The Lord shall root out all deceitful lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things;

4 Which have said, "With "our tongue will we prevail: "we are they that ought to "speak; Who is lord over us?"

5 Now for the comfortless

(4) ante 202. 167. (5) ante 93.

troubles sake of the needy because of the deep sighing of the poor;

6 "I will up," saith the Lord : "and will help every one from "him that swelleth against him, "and will set him at rest."

7 The words of the Lord are pure (i) words: even as the silver, which from the earth is tried, and purified seven times in the fire.

8 Thou shalt keep them (k), O Lord thou shalt preserve him () from this generation for

ever.

9 The ungodly walk on every side when they are exalted, the children of men are put to rebuke (m).

Psalm xiii. (n) How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

2 How long shall I seek counsel in my soul, and be so vexed in my heart? how long shall mine enemies triumph over me?

3 Consider and hear me, O Lord my God lighten mine eyes, that I sleep not in death;

4 Lest mine enemies say, "I "have prevailed against him": for if I be cast down, they that trouble me will rejoice at it.

5 But my trust is in thy mercy: and heart is joyful in thy salmy

vation.

6 I will sing of the Lord, because he hath dealt so lovingly with me yea, I will praise the Name of the Lord most Highest.

Psalm xiv. (0)

THE fool hath said in his heart : "There is no God (p)."

2 They are corrupt and become abominable in their doings: there is none that doeth good, no,

not one.

(n) An earnest prayer to God for deliverance, apparently commenced in great distress, with a triumphant conclusion, as if God had acceded to his prayer. It is supposed to have been written by David.

(0) Upon the blasphemy, wickedness, &c. of the persons against whom the Psalm is written, with an allusion to some discomfiture God had given them. The occasion of writing it is not known ; some suppose it was written by David upon Absalom's rebellion; others that it was written during the Jews captivity in Babylon. It is nearly verbatim the same as the Psalm liii. except that the 53d omits the 5th, 6th, and 7th verses, and they are probably an addition transcribed from Rom. iii. 13, &c. where the 4th verse is cited, for they are not in the

3 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that would understand (9), and seek after God.

4 But they are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become abominable: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

5 Their throat is an open sepulchre (r); with their tongues have they deceived the poison of asps is under their lips.

6 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood.

7 Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.

8 Have they no knowledge, that they are all such workers of mischief: eating up my people as it were bread, and call not upon the Lord?

9 There were they brought in great fear, even where no fear() was for God (t) is in the gene. ration of the righteous.

Hebrew MSS. nor in the Syriac or Chaldee versions, nor in the Bible translation, nor in several copies of the Septuagint.

(p) "No God." See Ps. x. 12, 14. .. Where the wicked is represented as insinuating, not absolutely that there is no God, but, that God hath forgotten, that "he hideth away his face, and

"will not see," &c.

(2) "Would understand," &c. i. e. v3 that had understanding and wisdom to seek after God.

(r)" An open sepulchre" i. e. as mer- v. ciless as the grave. See ante, note on Ps. v. 10.

(s) "No fear," i. e. no cause for fear. .9 (t)" For God is in the generation," v.9 &c. and therefore assisted them by rais ing fears in the minds of their adversaries when there was really no danger. This