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thou art the Lord God, even the God of Israel, who hast wrought such miracles of mercy, for the salvation of the church: and blessed, by the tongues of men and angels, be thy holy and glorious name; and let the whole earth be filled with the amazingly transcendent and inconceivable majesty of thy most excellent glory, for evermore! So be it, so be it.

Fourteenth Day.—Evening Prayer.
PSALM LXXIII.

ARGUMENT.-The person speaking in this Psalm relates, 1-3. the process of a temptation, occasioned by beholding the prosperity of wicked men upon earth, which he describes, 4–11. with, 12–14. the suggestions of nature on the occasion; but, in opposition to these, grace urges, 15. the examples of saints, 16. the difficulty of judging concerning God's dispensations, and, above all, 17-20. the final issue of things at the last day, and the end of that prosperity, which had excited his envy. Perfectly satisfied with these considerations, 21, 22. he owns his uneasiness to have sprung from his ignorance ; and, 23-28. closes the Psalm with the most affectionate expressions of his full trust and confidence in the divine mercy and goodness. No temptation is more common, or more formidable, than that above mentioned. A more powerful and effectual antidote to it cannot be devised than this most instructive and beautiful Psalm affords.

1. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.

This declaration seems to be the result of a long struggle in the mind of the Psalmist, between nature and grace, in which the latter proves victorious, and, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary, determines, against the suggestions of the

former, that God is the same good and merciful God to his church and people, if they do but preserve inviolable their fidelity to him, whether in this world they enjoy prosperity, or endure affliction.

2. But as for me, my feet were almost gone: my steps had well nigh slipt. 3. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Temptations impede the progress of the Christian in the way of righteousness, and incline him to fall; as it happens to one who walks in a slippery path. The temptation here complained of is that excited by seeing wealth and honour in the hands of infidelity and villany, while the faithful servants of God are covered with infamy, and oppressed by poverty. A prospect of this sort is apt to make us distrust the love of heaven towards us, and its providence over us. For our benefit, therefore, in the course of this Psalm, the disease is particularized, and the remedy prescribed.

4. For there are no bands, or, pangs, in their death; but their strength is firm.

Health and strength are to be reckoned among those temporal blessings which the long-suffering of God sometimes permits the ungodly to enjoy. And accordingly we find men of that cast, who live without sickness, and die in a manner without pain: while others, of a contrary character, are worn with chronical, or racked with acute disorders, which bring them with sorrow and torment to the grave.

5. They are not in trouble as other men: neither are they plagued like other men.

Calamities which overwhelm the small concerns of the poor righteous man, approach not the borders of the wealthy sinner. Far from poverty, as free from disease, he seems to pass his days exempted from the miseries of mankind, without labour or anxiety; and not so much as to think of those who, distressed on all sides, can scarcely earn their bread by the sweat of their brows. See this sentiment beautifully dilated, Job, xxi. See also Jer. xii. 1.

6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.

Among men who have not the love of God in their hearts, or his fear before their eyes, pride and oppression are the offspring of worldly prosperity. The daughters attend the mother wherever she goeth, and show themselves openly without reserve: 'pride compasseth them about as a chain;' they wear it for an ornament about their necks, as gold chains, collars, or necklaces were worn; see Cant. iv. 9; discovering it by their stately carriage; see Isa. iii. 16. Violence covereth them as a garment;' it appeareth outwardly in all they say or do, and engrosseth the whole man; they are, as the English phrase is," made up of it."

7. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

‘A man may be known by his look,' saith the son of Sirach, Ecclus. xix. 29. The choleric, the lascivious, the melancholy, the cunning, &c. &c. frequently bear their tempers and ruling passions strongly marked on their countenances: but more especially doth the soul of a man look forth at his ' eyes.' The 'pride' of the ungodly, occasioned by

great and unexpected success in the world, hardly ever fails to betray itself in this way.

8. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.

Prosperity, in an irreligious heart, breeds corruption,' which from thence is emitted by the breath in conversation, to infect and taint the minds of others. A circle of fawning dependants is never wanting, to whom the poor, vain, and ignonorant wretch, exalted in his own conceit above the level of mortality, may, from the chair, without control, dictate libertinism and infidelity, bidding defiance to the laws of God and man.

9. They set their mouth against the heavens; and their tongue walketh through the earth.

The blessings for which a Christian praises his God, only cause the infidel to blaspheme him. So true is that of Solomon, 'The prosperity of fools destroyeth them.' What a pity is it, that the former should ever be less zealous and indefatigable in diffusing his piety, than we know the latter is in propagating his blasphemies through the earth!

10. Therefore his people return thither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.

It seemeth impossible to ascertain, with any degree of precision, the meaning of this verse, or to whom it relates. Some think it intends those people who resort to the company of the wicked, because they find their temporal advantage by it; while others are of opinion, that the people of God are meant, who, by continually revolving in their thoughts the subject here treated of, namely, the

prosperity of the wicked, are sore grieved, and enforced to shed tears in abundance. Mr. Mudge translates the verse thus:-Therefore let his (God's) people come before them, and waters in full measure would be wrung out from them; that is, 'Should God's people fall into their hands, they would squeeze them to the full, they would wring out all the juice in their bodies.' He takes waters in full measure' to have been a proverbial expression.

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11. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High ?

They who interpret the foregoing verse of the people of God, tempted by the success of the ungodly to distrust his providence, suppose this and the following verses to be uttered by them,' as questioning whether God had any regard to what passed here below. But, to avoid confusion of persons, I would rather suppose the foregoing verse (to whomsoever it may belong) to be parenthetic, and the verse now under consideration to be an epicurean, atheistical speech in the mouth of the wicked above described at large; after which the Psalmist goes on, in his own person, as from the beginning, to relate the temptation which he underwent, and the

issue of it.

12. Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world, they increase in riches.

The temptation is now stated in its full force. 'These' worthless, ungodly, blasphemous wretches, whose characters I have been delineating, 'these' are the men who prosper in the world, who succeed in every thing they undertake, and roll in riches!

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