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for me, and spread a net abroad || with cords: yea, and set traps in

my way.

6 I said unto the Lord, “Thou

"art my God

hear the voice ❝ of my prayers, O Lord." "of

7 O Lord God, thou strength of my health thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.

:

8 Let not the ungodly have his desire, O Lord: let not his mischievous imagination prosper, lest they be too proud.

9 Let the mischief of their own lips fall upon the head of them; that compass me about.

Io Let hot burning coals fall upon them let them be cast into the fire, and into the pit, that they never rise up again.

II A man full of words shall not prosper upon the earth: evil shall hunt the wicked person to overth row him.

12 Sure I am, that the Lord will awenge the poor and maintain the cause of the helpless.

13 The righteous also shall give thanks unto thy Name: and the just shall continue in thy sight.

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Lessons for the Twenty-ninth Day of the Month throughout the Year.

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7 Consider my complaint : for I am brought very low.

8 O deliver me from my per secutors for they are too strong for me.

9 Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks unto thy Name which thing if thou wilt grant me, then shall the righteous resort unto my company.

Psalm cxliii. (i) HEAR my prayer, O Lord, and consider my desire: hearken unto me for thy truth and righteousness' sake.

2 And enter not into judge. ment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

3 For the enemy hath perse cuted my soul; he hath smitten

ance. It is one of the proper Psalms for Ash Wednesday.

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my life down to the ground: he hath laid me in the darkness, as the men that have been long dead.

4 Therefore is my spirit vexed within me and my heart within me is desolate.

5 Yet do I remember the time past; I muse upon all thy works: yea, I exercise myself in the works of thy hands.

6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soul gaspeth (k) unto thee as a thirsty land.

7 Hear me, O Lord, and that soon; for my spirit waxeth faint: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit (1).

8 O let me hear thy lovingkindness betimes in the morning; for in thee is my trust: shew thou me the way that I should walk in; for I lift up my soul unto

thee.

9 Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies for I flee unto thee to hide me.

10 Teach me to do the thing that pleaseth thee; for thou art

(k) "Gaspeth," i. e. as much as land gaspeth for water in time of drought. So Ps. xlii. 2. "My soul is athirst for God;" and Ps. lxiii. 3." My soul thirsteth for "thee, my flesh longeth after thee, in a "barren and dry land, where no water " is."

(1) Pit," i. e. grave. (m) For the land," the reading should perhaps be "a land," and the meaning probably is," a place of safety," or a land in which righteousness is re"garded."

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(n) Thy Name's sake," i.e. that thou mayest be glorified for the protec tion thou vouchsafest to the good.

(0) A spirited thanksgiving for deliverance and success, and a prayer for further protection. It was perhaps sung in parts by two sets of singers, David

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is supposed to have been the author: whoever wrote it, had probably the 8th and 18th Psalms in his recollection.

(p) "Blessed," &c. This is not un- v. I. like the beginning in the 18th Psalm : "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength; "the Lord is my stony rock, and my "defence; my Saviour, my God, and

my might, in whom I will trust; my "buckler, the horn also of my salva"tion, and my refuge."

(q) For "my people," forty copies, v.2. the Syriac and the Targum, read "the "nations." 2 Street, 359.

(r) This verse also occurs in the 8th v.3. Psalm, which is supposed to have been written by David after he had overcome Goliath the giant of Gath, and it might be introduced here to bring to mind that great deliverance. So Job vii. 17. "What

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his time passeth away like a shadow.

5 (s) Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down : touch (t) the mountains, and they shall smoke.

6 Cast forth thy lightning and tear them : shoot out thine arrows and consume them.

Send down thine hand from above deliver me and take me out of the great waters (u), from the hand of strange children;

8 Whose mouth talketh of vanity and their right hand (x) is a right hand of wickedness.

9 I will sing a new song unto thee, O God and sing praises unto thee upon a ten-stringed lute.

10 Thou hast given victory unto kings and hast delivered David thy servant from the peril of the sword.

II Save me, and deliver me from the hand of strange child

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❝is man, that thou shouldest magnify “him, and that thou shouldest set thine "heart upon him."

(s) In the magnificent description of God's interposition, in Ps. xviii, he is described as having done what in this and the next two verses he is intreated to do, and the recollection of what he had once done might suggest the prayer for further assistance in the same way. In Ps. xviii. 9. it is said, "He bowed the hea❝vens also, and came down, and it was "dark under his feet;" and verse 8.

There went a smoke out in his pre"sence, and a consuming fire out of " his mouth." In verse 14. "He sent ❝out his arrows, and scattered them, he "cast forth lightnings and destroyed "them;" and in verse 16. "He shall "send" (or "he sent")" down from

on high to fetch me, and shall take” (or "took") "me out of many waters." The coincidence between the passages in the two Psalms is so strong, that whoever wrote the latter of them must have been apprized of the former.

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whose mouth talketh of vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity.

12 That our sons may grow up as the young plants: and that our daughters may be as the polished corners of the temple.

13 That our garners may be full and plenteous with all man. ner of store that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets (y).

14 That our oxen may be strong to labour, that there be no decay no leading into captivity, and no complaining in our streets.

15 Happy are the people that are in such a case: yea, blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God.

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(t)" Touch," &c. So Ps. civ. 32. « "The earth shall tremble at the look of "him, if he do but touch the hills they shall "smoke."

(u)" Waters," figuratively, for "pe "rils." In Ps. xviii. 3. the forces of the heathen are called the " overflowings "of ungodliness ;" and see Ps. Ixix. 15. and Ps. xciii. 4. and the note there.

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(x)" Right hand," &c. Abp. Tillotson apprehends that this alludes to one of the Jewish modes of swearing, the lifting up the hand to heaven. See note on Ps. cvi, 26. It may mean that their oaths are oaths of wickedness, or that their strength (of which the right hand is a symbol) is only to do evil.

(y) For "streets," read" fields." I Lowth's Isaiah 37.

(z) An elevated hymn, pointing out as grounds for praising God, the wisdom of his works, his kindness, mercy, &c. his providence in meeting the wants of whatever he has created, his protection to the afflicted and to the good, his dereliction of the bad, &c. In the Hebrew

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13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all

ages.

14 The Lord upholdeth all such as fall : and lifteth up all those that are down.

15 The eyes of all (c) wait upon thee, O Lord : and thou givest them their meat in due

season.

16 Thou openest thine hand: and fillest all things living with plenteousness.

17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works.

18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him: yea, all such as call upon him faithfully.

19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him; he also will hear their cry, and will help them.

20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him : but scattereth abroad all the ungodly.

21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh give thanks unto his holy Name for ever and ever.

Psalm cxlvi. (d) PRAISE the Lord, O my soul;

،، lions roaring after their prey, do seek "their meat from God." And Ps. civ. 27. after speaking of the creatures of the

sea,

"these wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them meat in due season." And see Ps. cxlvii. 9. So in that magnificent description of God's providence and power, Job xxxviii. the question is put to Job, verse 39, 40. "Wilt thou "hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the "appetites of the young lions, when they "couch in their dens, and abide in the "covert to lie in wait?" implying, that though man cannot, God does.

(d) A spirited exhortation to trust in

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