soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen, or, shall fall themselves.

David compares himself, 1 Sam. xxvi. 20, to a bird upon the mountains, which the fowler endeavoureth to hunt into the nets and snares set up and prepared for its destruction. So was the most innocent dove, the holy Jesus, persecuted by the Jews, until they had driven him into the snares of death, and laid him low in the grave. But the enemies of both received, in the end, the due reward of their deeds, and fell into the pit they had digged.'

7. My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise.

At the prospect of approaching deliverance, the prophet, in the person of Christ, declareth his heart to be fixed and established, steadfast and unmoveable in the midst of trouble, even then preparing to celebrate its future enlargement with songs of praise.

8. Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early, or, awaken the morning.

For this purpose he calls upon his tongue, with all his instruments of music, all the organs of the body and affections of the soul, to unite their powers in sweetest harmony and concert, and to awaken the sluggish morning with the voice of melody, sounding forth the glories of redemption. Thus should the morning be ever celebrated, on which Christ arose from the dead, and became the first-fruits of them that slept.'

9. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people; I will sing unto thee among the nations. 10. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.

The resurrection of Jesus from the grave, foreshadowed in the deliverance of David from the hand of Saul, was a transaction which caused the heavens, and all the powers therein, to extol the mercy and the truth of God. The nations of the earth, whose are the benefits and the blessings of that transaction, are, therefore, bound evermore to make it the subject of their praises and thanksgivings; which is done by the members of our church, every Easter-day, in the words of this very Psalm.

11. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

Even so, be thou still exalted, O blessed Jesu! above the heavens, while the angels sing their hallelujahs on high; and let thy glory be above all the earth, while, in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, the congregations of the redeemed incessantly magnify thy salvation below.

"The church triumphant, and the church below,
In songs of praise their present union show;
Their joys are full, our expectation long;
In life we differ, but we join in song.

Angels and we, assisted by this art,

May sing together, though we dwell apart."

Walker on Divine Poesie.

PSALM LVIII.

ARGUMENT.-In the person of Saul and his iniquitous counsellors, the enemies of Christ and the church, 1, 2. are reproved, and, 3-5. their malice is described, by comparing it to the poison of serpents, which are proof against every art made use of to tame them: 6-9. the destruction of the wicked is foretold, and illustrated by six similitudes; 10. the triumph of the righteous is likewise predicted; as also, 11. the effect it will produce, in manifesting to all the world the providence and glory of God.

1. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation ? Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? 2. Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands, or, your hands from violence, in the earth.

The proceedings of Doeg, and other associates. of Saul, against David; those of Judas and the sanhedrim, against our Lord; and those of wicked princes, and court sycophants, in different ages, against the faith and the church; as they spring from the same principles, so they flow pretty much in the same channel. Such men may here see their characters drawn, and their end foretold.

3. The wicked are estranged, from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

The tares sown by the enemy, in human nature, appear early; and show us how far we are 'estranged from original truth and righteousness. What can be expected, unless grace and discipline prevent it, but that out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.'

4. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her car : 5. Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

The wicked are here compared to serpents, for that malignity in their tempers which is the venom and poison of the intellectual world. And whereas there are some kinds even of serpents, which, by musical sounds, may, for a time, as it is said, be disarmed of their rage, and rendered so tame as to be handled without danger;' yet the evil dispositions of some men, like those of one particular species of the serpentine race, are often invincible. The enmity of a Saul, was proof against the heavenly strains of the son of Jesse; and He, who spake as 'never man spake,' was stung to death by a 'generation of vipers.'

1 "Bochart quotes several ancient authors, who mention this effect of music, and among them Virgil, Æneid, vii. v. 753.

'Vipereo generi, et graviter spirantibus hydris

Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat.'

The elder Scaliger, as quoted by the same learned critic, writes thus: Nos aliquando vidimus cantationibus e cavernis exciri serpentes: and Mr. Boyle, in his Essay on the Great Effects of Languid Motion, p. 71, ed. 1685, gives us the following passage, from Sir H. Blunt's Voyage into the Levant, p. 81, edit. 5. Many rarities of living creatures I saw in Grand Cairo ; but the most ingenious was a nest of four-legged serpents, of two feet long, black and ugly, kept by a Frenchman; who, when he came to handle them, they would not endure him, but ran and hid in their hole; then would he take his cittern, and play upon it; they, hearing his music, came all crawling to his feet, and began to climb up him, till he gave over playing; then away they ran.' The 'deaf' adder may either be a serpent of a species naturally deaf, (for several such kinds are mentioned by Avicenne, as quoted by Bochart,) or one deaf by accident: in either case she may be said, in the language of poetry, to 'stop her ear,' from her being proof to all the efforts of the charmer." -Merrick.

6. Break, or, thou wilt break, their teeth, O God, in their mouths; break, or thou wilt break, out the teeth of the young lions, O Lord.

The destruction of the wicked is represented under six similitudes. The first is that of breaking the teeth of lions, being the most terrible weapons of the most terrible animals. But what is human power, at its highest exaltation, if compared to that of God? The mountains of Gilboa can tell us, the desolated Zion can inform us, how the mighty are fallen, and the weapons of war perished! because the mighty had exalted themselves, and the weapons of war had been lifted up against truth and innocence, protected by the decrees of Heaven.

7. Let them, or, they shall, melt away as waters which run continually, or, pass away; when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them, or, they shall, be as cut in pieces.

The second similitude used to illustrate the destruction of the wicked, is that of torrents and inundations, which descend with great noise from the mountains, and cover the face of a country; but their cause soon ceasing to act, they run off and appear no more; herein affording a fine emblem of the weakness and instability of earthly power. The impotence of human efforts against divine counsels is compared, thirdly, to a man drawing a bow, when the arrow on the string is broken in two; and therefore, instead of flying to the mark, falls useless at his feet.

8. As a snail which melteth, let every one of them