wafted are mine eyes, while I wait for GOD. More numerous than the hairs of my head are they who hate me, without a caufe! 5 powerful are my deceitful enemies, who wish to destroy me! What I never ravished, I repay! O GOD! thou knoweft what has been my folly, 6 and from thee my faults are not hidden. But let not, I pray, be put to fhame 7 they who look up to thee, JEHOVAH GOD of hofts! Let not, I pray, be expofed to ignominy they who are attached to thee, O GOD of Ifrael! For on thy account I suffer reproach; 8 and, on thy account, am loaded with ignominy! the reproaches of thy reproachers redound on me. when I clothe myfelf in fackcloth, I become their by-word. They who fit at the gate calumniate me ; 9 ΙΟ II 12 13 and drunkards make me the burthen of their song. But I to thee, JEHOVAH! addrefs my prayer; in thine own seasonable time, O GOD! 14 hear-and affure my prefervation. according to thine infinite goodness, Free me from the mire, that I may not fink: I be refcued from thofe who hate me, and retrieved from the watery deep. may 15 Let not the flood of waters overwhelm me: nor the whirl-pool swallow me up; 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 nor the pit shut upon me its mouth. Hear me, JEHOVAH! fince great is thy bounty: according to thine infinite kindness, favour me with thy regard. Hide not thy face from thy fervant; my diftrefs. Be prefent to fave and redeem my life: redeem me, because of mine enemies. Reproach hath broken and debilitated mine heart! for comforters-but I found them not. With my food they mingled hemlock: and, in my thirst, made me drink musty wine. and, by way of retribution, a snare ! May their eyes be fo dim, that they may not fee: and their loins fo weak, that they may always ftagger. Upon them pour out thine indignation; and let thy wrathful ire lay hold on them. 26 May their caftles be defolate; and their tents without inhabitants! 27 Since they perfecute those whom thou hadst smitten, and aggravate the grief of those whom thou hadft 28 wounded, to their guiltiness, add guiltiness; and by thee let them never be justified. 29 Let them be effaced from the register of life; 30 and let their names be not written among the just. But me-although humbled and afflicted— thy faving power, O GOD! can exalt. I will celebrate GOD's name, with a canticle: I will magnify him with thankful praise : which, to JEHOVAH, will be more grateful, 31 32 than a full-horned and full-hoofed fteer. The afflicted shall fee and rejoice! 33 and their hearts, who feek GoD, fhall be revived. For JEHOVAH lifteneth to the deftitute; 34 and defpifeth not the bound for his fake. The heavens and the earth fhall praise him, 35 36 37 the feas, and all that in them move: NOTES. This pfalm is throughout highly poetical, and quite in the ftyle of oriental poefy. The calamities of the Jews, during their captivity, are represented in every image of diftrefs, in the strongest metaphorical terms.-Ver. 6. He owns that himself and his people had been guilty, and deferving chastisement: but he deprecates the insulting treatment which they met with from their enemies, who reproached them for their attachment to their God, and even laughed at their marks of repentance. Their zeal for the house of God, that is, their eager wish to fee the Temple restored; their weeping and fasting, and other felf-denials, were turned into ridicule. They were a subject of scorn and derifion to all the idle people, who met at the gates of cities, and the by-word of every revelling club. This I take to be the meaning of all this part of the pfalm.-Ver. 22. Mufty wine. Not vinegar; which was confidered as a refreshing and falubrious beverage.—Ver. 23. May their own table, &c. i. e. May their own food become as disgusting and noxious, as that which they force on us!-Ver. 28. To their guiltinefs add guiltiness. Some render "To their punishment add punishment:" but I believe the other is the true meaning. Let their guilt become fo enormous, that there may be no room for pardon, Such imprecations were familiar to the Hebrew poets: how far they are fuitable to a Chriftian congregation, let those who are concerned examine. PSALMS LXX. and LXXI.—al. LXIX. and LXX. I join these two psalms together, because I am convinced they made, originally, but one: as they still do in 16 MSS. and in some of the oldest and most approved printed editions. See C. R. -The first 5 verses (that is, the complete 70th psalm according to the present division) are copied from the conclusion of psalm 40. with some little variety of reading. The division of verses I have retained separately, as in the common editions. Psalm 71 has no title; another presumption, that it belongs to psalm 70; the title of which is I 2 3 5 A PSALM OF DAVID. BE pleafed, O GOD! to rescue me: JEHOVAH! Come speedily to mine aid! May those be confounded, and covered with fhame, who feek to take away my life. Backward may they speed and be confounded, who wish evil to me. May they be turned back with fudden shame, who fay of me: "Ahah! ahah!" But, let all thofe, who seek thee, Let those who delight in being faved by thee, fay: "Be GOD for ever magnified." When I am afflicted, and deftitute, May God haften to mine aid. Thou art my helper, and deliverer ! 1 In thee, JEHOVAH! I put my truft: deliver and rescue me for thy juftice fake: fince my rock and fortrefs thou art. 2 3 Save me, my GOD, from the hand of the wicked; 4 from the hand of the unjust and cruel; fince thou art my hope, JEHOVAH, my God! my truft from my earliest youth. 5 On thee I have depended from the womb : 6 from my mother's bowels my fupport thou haft been: thou fhalt, therefore, be ever the fubject of my praife. To the many I am like a wonder: but thou art my firm hope. My mouth fhall be full of thy praife ; 7 8 and they who watch for my life consult together! "GOD (fay they) hath forfaken him: II 66 purfue and feize him, while there is no deliverer." For in thee I will continually hope; and more and more add to thy praise. My mouth fhall rehearse thy justice; 14 15 thy faving mercies, all the day long: although I know not how to reckon them. I will dwell on thy mighty deeds, JEHOVAH ! 16 |