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(t) A thankful remembrance of some great deliverance, and an anxious prayer for a continuance of God's favour. It was probably written in Ezra's time, after the return from the Babylonish captivity, about 536 years before the birth of Christ, during some of the oppositions to their rebuilding the temple. According to Ezra iv. 4. the people of the land weakened their hands, and troubled them in building; and the work was put an end to, by an order of Artaxerxes, for about nine years; it might be during this interval, whilst their release from Babylon was fresh in their minds, and whilst the full completion of their hopes, by the rebuilding of the temple, was still interrupted, that this Psalm was written. In commenting on Isaiah xlv. 8. Bishop Lowth says, the 85th Psalm is a very

3 Thou hast taken away all thy displeasure and turned thyself from thy wrathful indignation.

4 Turn us then, O God our Saviour and let thine anger cease (x) from us.

5 Wilt thou be displeased at

us for ever and wilt thou stretch out thy wrath from one generation to another?

6 Wilt thou not turn again, and quicken us that thy people may rejoice in thee?

7 Shew us thy mercy, O Lord : and grant us thy salvation.

8 I will hearken, what the Lord God will say concerning me for he shall speak peace unto his people and to his saints, that they turn not (y) again.

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9 For his salvation is night

66

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elegant ode on the same subject with "this part of Isaiah's prophecies, the "restoration of Judah from captivity, ❝and is, in the most beautiful part of "it," (from verse 9 to the end), "manifest imitation of this passage,' (i. e. Isaiah xlv. 8. &c.) He adds also, that in both passages the coincidence of mercy and truth must look forward to the blessings of the great redemption by the Messiah. This is one of the proper Psalms for Christmas-Day.

(n)

"Gracious." Jeremiah had fore- v. I. told distinctly, that they should "serve "the king of Babylon seventy years." Jer. xxv. II. and xxix. 10. "Thus saith "the Lord, that after seventy years be "accomplished at Babylon, I will visit "you, and perform my good word to-" "ward you, in causing you to return to "this place," &c. The completion of this promise would have convinced them that God still had them in his thoughts, and would make them still more importunate for a further proof of his favour, in overcoming the resistances they still experienced.

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v. 9.

v. 10.

9.13.

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(x) "That glory may dwell," &c. i.e. (probably) that our land may again be in a state of glory.

(a)" Truth," i. e. justice, " peace," i.e.forgiveness. The meaning probably is,

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mercy is made consistent with justice." Though God has at length pardoned their offences, he has first attended to the demands of justice. It has been remarked of the Christian dispensation, that though it is a system of the utmost mercy, yet, by requiring such a sacrifice as our Saviour Jesus Christ, God has satisfied what justice would require. He might have pardoned upon repentance without a Mediator, or without such a one as Christ; but the claims of justice would not have been so well satisfied, nor would God's abhorrence of sin have been so strongly marked. See 1 Clarke's Attrib. 309.

(b) For he shall direct," &c. the Bible translation is, "shall set us in the 66 way of his steps."

(c) An anxious prayer to God in time of danger. It is supposed to have been written by David, and to have been used and perhaps altered by Hezekiah, when Sennacherib king of Assyria

servant that putteth his trust in thee.

3 Be merciful unto me, O Lord for I will call daily upon thee.

4 Comfort the soul of thy servant for unto thee, O Lord,

do I lift up my soul..

5 For thou, Lord, art good and gracious and of great mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

6 Give ear, Lord, unto my
and ponder the voice of

prayer
my humble desires.

7 In the time of my trouble I will call upon thee for thou hearest me.

:

8 Among the gods (f) there is. none like unto thee, O Lord: there is not one that can do as thou doest.

9 All nations (g) whom thou hast made shall come and wor

threatened Jerusalem, about 710 years before Christ.

prayer

of

(d)" Bow," &c. In the Hezekiah, recorded 2 Kings xix. 16. is a similar passage, "Lord, bow down "thine ear, and hear, open Lord thine 66 eyes, and see," &c.

(e) "Holy," i. e. (perhaps) one of thy worshippers.

(f) "The gods," i. e. (probably) the objects of heathen worship; or it may be put for "the greatest powers." Part of the insulting message from Rabshakeh to Hezekiah, 2 Kings xix. 12. was, "have "the gods of the nations delivered them "which my fathers have destroyed;" and Hezekiah observes, verse 17, 18. that "of a truth the kings of Assyria had cast "their gods into the fire, for they were

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no gods." In Ps. lxxxii. 1. God is said to be " a judge among gods;" and Ps. lxxxix. 7. the question is put, "What is he among the gods, that shall "be like unto the Lord?"

(g) All nations," &c. So in the prophetic Psalm, xxii. 27. "All the "ends of the world shall remember themselves, and be turned unto the

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"I will think upon," i. e. comher with.

(q)" Rahab," i. e. Egypt.

v. 3.

v. 3.

(r) For" with them that know v.3. 66 me," Street reads "for men of know"ledge."

(s) "Morians," i, e. the Arabians.

(t) "He born," i. e. some one or two great men. The meaning is supposed to be that in looking to Egypt, to Babylon, &c. some few great men will be found to have been born there, but that abundantly more have been born in Jerusalem for every one that Rahab, &c. could reckon, Jerusalem might reckon many.

(u) For "and" read "but."

v. 4.

v. 4.

V.

5.

(x) For he was born," the Bible v. 5. translation is "this and that man was "born," to signify numbers.

(y) For" and the Most High shall v.5.

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and thou hast vexed

upon me
me with all thy storms.

7 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me and made me to be abhorred of them. 8 I am so fast in prison: that I cannot get forth.

9 My sight faileth for very; trouble: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched forth my hands unto thee.

10 Dost thou shew wonders the dead or shall the dead

among rise up again, and praise thee?

11 Shall thy loving-kindnes be shewed in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction?

12 Shall thy wondrous work be known in the dark and th righteousness in the land wher all things are forgotten?

13 Unto thee have I cried, Lord and early shall my praye come before thee.

14 Lord, why abhorrest thou my soul and hidest thou thy face from me?

15 I am in misery, and like unto him that is at the point to die even from my youth up thy terrors (g) have I suffered with a troubled mind.

prison, or was shut up for the leprosy, By the Levitical law a leper was to "dwell alone," Levit. xiii. 46. and whe God smote Azariah the king of Judah, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, he dwelt from thenceforth in a several house. See 2 Kings xv. It is one of the proper Psalms for Good Fri day, probably selected, because some of its passages were applicable to our Sa viour at his death, and during his conti nuance in the grave.

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5.

(e) Hell," i. e. death, the grave, (f)" Free among," i. e. perhaps, as it were of fellowship with, of their community.

(g) "Thy terrors,” &c. i. e. “I

16 Thy wrathful displeasure || passed me together
together on every

goeth over me

and the fear of

thee hath undone me.

17 They came round about me daily like water (h) and com

side.

18 (i) My lovers and friends hast thou put away from me: and hid mine acquaintance out of my sight.

Lessons for the Seventeenth Day of the Month throughout the Year.

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