King David's Psalms, (in common use) with notes [by N. Douglas].

6 Because that thou for evermore

Most blessed hast him made;

And thou hast with thy countenance
Made him exceeding glad.

7 Because the king upon the Lord
His confidence doth lay;

And through the grace of the most High
Shall not be mov'd away.

8 Thine hand shall all those men find out
That en'mies are to thee;

Ev'n thy right hand shall find out those
Of thee that haters be.

9 Like fiery ov'n thou shalt them make,
When kindled is thine ire;

God shall them swallow in his wrath,
Devour them shall the fire.

what men and angels can conceive. For a view of his glory and fame let the reader consult Rev. iv. vii. xix. xxi. and xxii.

Verse 6. For thou hast made him most blessed. Heb. Thou hast made him a man of blessings, or thou hast set or appointed him to bless, viz. mankind, for ever, Gen. xii. 2. In him it is therefore more blessed to give than to receive. His saints shall enter into the joy of their LORD.

Verse 7. For the king trusteth in the LORD &c. As David trusted in Messiah, so he trusted in the Father, and as the former was not removed, like Saul, from his kingdom, through the mercy of the Most High towards him; so neither shall the latter, or any of his faithful seed.

Verse 8. Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies &c. This has been literally verified in the unbelieving Jews; and will it not also be realized upon all his incorrigible enemies in every age? Poole renders itThine hand shall be sufficient for all thine enemies, to conquer them, no doubt, as he adds, but then in the most favourable sense, as that rendering plainly imports. May his hand be upon us to bless and save us, but on our spiritual fees to waste and destroy them! Those that continue to hate him, cannot long escape unpunished.

Verse 9. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven &c. Malachi employs the same figure, but compares those who shall be cast into this oven to stubble, Mal. iv 1. An oven is closely shut up on every side, and so bespeaks the sad state of the Jews pent up in Jerusalem during the Roman siege, and of the wicked in hell. The same author renders it,-Thou shalt put them as it were into a ficry oven. That the other phrases in this verse mean a great destruction, appears from 2 Sam. xx. 19, 20. Psal. lvi. 1, 2. Prev. i. 12.

10 Their fruit from earth thou shalt destroy,
Their seed men from among:

11 For they beyond their might 'gainst thee
Did plot mischief and wrong.

12 Thou therefore shalt make them turn back,
When thou thy shafts shalt place
Upon thy strings, made ready all

To fly against their face.

13 In thy great pow'r and strength, O LORD,
Be thou exalted high;

So shall we sing with joyful hearts,

Thy power praise shall we.

Verse 10. Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, or the land, by which the next clause seems to intend their children; which was cmplified in the wicked Jews, as a warning to others. In what a noble sense will the Lord realize this, when all the works of the devil will be destroyed, these fruits of the wicked, and when wicked men shall exist no more, or in that character! Psal. civ. 35.

Verse 11. For they intended evil against thee &c. The evil intended by the Jews against Christ, like that of the patriarchs against Joseph, was overruled for good, to save much people alive. So may God ever bring good to his people out of the malice and efforts of the wicked, that they may not be able to perform the evil devices which they craftily imagine.

Verse 12.

Thou shalt set them as a but or mark when thou shalt make ready thine arrows against the face of them, Heb. God's threatened judgments are often compared to arrows, being sharp, swift, unerring in aim, and deadly in their stroke. Let the reader view Jerusalem encompassed with Roman armies, and torn in pieces by faction within ber walls, and he may form some conception of the vengeance here threatened. Let every Christian community, in which the symptoms of degeneracy and apostacy appear, tremble timely and repent.

Verse 12. Be thou exalted, O LORD, &c. That Messiah is intended here by the Jehovah, whom the Church prays may be exalted in his own strength, is obvious from the connection, and from the nature of the subject. His Church thence in every age hath sung and praised his redeeming power, and will in heaven celebrate her triumphs over sin and death, in their every form, when everlasting ages shall cease to run their ample round. May the reader and the writer be admitted to join the blissful chorts!

THE best comment on this psalm is the history of our LORD's suffer ings and death recorded by the Evangelists. There is no room here to ask the question, of whom speaketh the prophet, of himself, or of some other man? David gives it the title of Aijeleth Shahar, the Hind of the Morning, or adapts it to some tune or musical instrument so called. This beautiful and expressive image applies with great propriety to our Lord, whose enemies were staunch in persecuting him to the death, as a pack of blood hounds set on by the hunters.

The psalm divides itself into two parts, the first containing the prediction of our Lord's sufferings, as express and circumstantial as if it related a history of past facts; and the last celebrates the effects which result from this all interesting event. These include the conversion of the nations, to the knowlege and service of the true God.

1 My God, my God, why hast thou me

Forsaken? why so far

Art thou from helping me, and from
My words that roaring are?

2 All day, my God, to the I

cry,

Yet am not heard by thee;

And in the season of the night

I cannot silent be.

Notes on Psalm XXII. Verse 1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? &c. As our Lord undertook to expiate these sins of mankind, which deserved banishment from the presence of God, and from the glory of his power, he kindly submitted to that part of the punishment due. By so doing, he learned to sympathize with those who suffer the like affliction. Here we find the Hebrew term El, the mighty One, used twice in the singular, to prove that the use of the plural elsewhere is not owing to any anomaly in that language; and consequently, affords an irrefragable proof, that in the God of Israel there are more distinct persons, or subsistences than one. Common sense, and the plain idiom of language, must ever make a distinction between Jehovah the mighty Ones, and the singular number; and to suppose God makes none, is to make the sacred language ambiguous in the extreme, on a point of the very last importance to mankind.

Verse 2. 0 my God, I cry in the day time, &c. Though our Lord ever prayed for things agreeable to his Father's will, and continued to do so day and night, in prosperity and adversity, living and dying; yet was

3 But thou art holy, thou that dost
Inhabit Isr'el's praise.

4 Our fathers hop'd in thee, they hop'd,
And thou didst them release.

5 When unto thee they sent their cry,
To them deliv'rance came:

Because they put their trust in thee,
They were not put to shame.

6 But as for me, a worm I am,

And as no man am priz'd:

he not so heard as to obtain an immediate answer. In this also he was made like many of his brethren.

Verse 3. But thou art holy, &c. Our Lord's example here teaches us to justify God even when his Providential conduct, and his promises and our hopes seem to run counter. He should still be viewed as the glory of Israel, and celebrated as the theme of their grateful praises.

Verse 4. Our Fathers trusted in thee, &c. Humble earnest prayer to God, and trust in him, is the usual way to deliverance. We must not grow weary in this exercise, though our faith and patience should be tried as by fire. What is proper for God to do, in certain cases, and for his people to suffer, is best known to himself, we can be proper judges of neither. This consideration should silence murmuring, and serve as an anchor of the soul, sure and stedfast, amidst every storm of affliction. How beneficial these are, when sanctified, we see, Zeph. iii. 12. I will also leave in the midst of thee, an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD, rely upon the revealed character of Messiah.

As our LORD drew encouragement in prayer from what God had don for the patriarchs of the Jewish church (our fathers), so should we; for their history is transmitted for that very purpose, and his example sanctions that use. He was left to pray without an immediate answer of peace, that our hope might not be so deferred, as to make the heart sick and faint. But while we pray for deliverance from any felt or apprehended evil, submitting the time and manner to God, let us ever add, after the example set us; Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done; and this frame is a sure pledge of obtaining what we ask, or better.

Verse 5. They cried unto thee, and were delivered; &c. Here the same plea is repeated, and urged with additional force. The prayer of faith leads to trust, and sometimes to full assurance, and by it the soul is made to mount up as on eagle's wings. Abraham, who believed in hope even against hope, so far from being confounded respecting his hope, came off in triumph, and is held up as an example of heroic faith to all generations.

Verse 6. But I am a worm and no man: &c. As our blessed Lord maine into the world to obey, suffer and die for those who are centent to

Reproach of men I am, and by
The people am despis'd.

7 All that me see laugh me to scorn;
Shoot out the lip do they;

They nod and shake their heads at me,
And, mocking, thus do say,

8 This man did trust in God, that he
Would free him by his might:

Let him deliver him, sith be
Had in him such delight.

9 But thou art he out of the womb
That didst me safely take:

When I was on my mother's breare
Thou me to hope didst mate

10 And I was cast upon thy care.

Ev'n from the wom