506 THE COMMON PRAYER, &c. 14 Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. 15 Righteousness and equity are the habitation of thy feat: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. 16 Bleffed is the people, O Lord, that can rejoice in thee : they shall walk in the light of thy countenance. 17 Their delight shall be daily in thy Name: and in thy righteousness shall they make their boaft. 18 For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy loving kindness thou shalt lift up our horns. 19 For the Lord is our defence: the holy one of Ifrael is our King. 20 Thou spakest sometime in visions unto thy faints, and faidft: I have laid help upon one that is mighty, I have exalted one chofen out of the people. 21 I have found David my fervant: with my holy oil have I anointed him. 22 My hand shall hold him faft: and my arm shall strengthen him. 1 23 The enemy shall not be able to do him violence : the fon of wickedness shall not hurt him. 24 I will fmite down his foes before his face: and plague them that hate him. 25 My truth also and my mercy shall be with him: and in my Name shall his horn be exalted. 26 I will fet his dominion alfo in the fea: and his right hand in the floods. 27 He shall call me, Thou art my Father: my God, and my strong falvation. 28 And I will make him my first born: higher than the kings of the earth. 29 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore: and my covenant shall stand fast with him. 30 His feed alfo will I make to endure for ever: and his throne as the days of heaven. 31 But if his children forsake my law: and walk not in my judgments. 32 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments: I will visit their offences with the rod, and their fin with fcourges. 33 Never - 33 Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him: nor fuffer my truth to fail. 34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips: I have fworn once by my holiness, that I will not fail David. 35 His feed shall endure for ever: and his feat is like as the fun before me. 36 He shall stand fast for evermore as the moon: and as the faithful witness in heaven. 37 But thou hast abhorred, and forsaken thine Anointed: and art displeased at him. 38 Thou hast broken the covenant of thy servant: and cast his crown to the ground. 39 Thou hast overthrown all his hedges: and broken down his strong holds. 40 All they that go by, spoil him: and he is become a reproach to his neighbours. 41 Thou hast set up the right hand of his enemies: and made all his adversaries to rejoice. 42 Thou hast taken away the edge of his sword: and givest him not victory in the battle. 43 Thou hast put out his glory: and cast his throne down to the ground. 44 The days of his youth haft thou shortned: and covered him with dishonour. 45 Lord, how long wilt thou hide thyself, for ever: and shall thy wrath burn like fire? 46 O remember how short my time is: wherefore haft thou made all men for nought ? 47 What man is he that liveth, and shall not fee death : and shall he deliver his foul from the hand of hell? 48 Lord, where are thy old loving kindnesses: which thou swarest unto David in thy truth? PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. Pfalm Ixxxix.] 1. The reading of this pfalm should animate us with an holy zeal to declare the loving kindness of the Lord, his power and faithfulness, which appear in the creation and government of the world, and in the wonders he has done, not only for the children of Ifrael, but 508 THE COMMON PRAYER, &c. 49 Remember, Lord, the rebuke that thy fervants have: and how I do bear in my bosom the rebukes of many people. 50 Wherewith thine enemies have blafphemed thee, and slandered the footsteps of thine Anointed: praised be the Lord for evermore. Amen, and Amen. 10th L MORNING PRAYER. Pfalm xc. Domine, refugium. ORD, thou hast been our refuge : from one generation to another. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: thou art God from everlafting; and world without end. 3 Thou turnest man to destruction: again, thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men. 4 For a thousand years in thy fight are but as yesterday: fecing that is past as a watch in the night. 5 As foon as thou scatterest them, they are even as a fleep : and fade away suddenly like the grass. 6 In the morning it is green, and groweth up: but in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered. 7 For we confume away in thy displeasure: and are afraid at thy wrathful indignation. 8 Thou hast set our misdeeds before thee: and our secret fins in the light of thy countenance. 9 For when thou art angry, all our days are gone; we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told: PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. also in behalf of the Christian church. 2. What is here said of the promises made to David and his pofterity, and the deplorable condition which the defcendants of that prince were reduced to, shews, that God protects kings and nations whilst they continue faithful to him; but when they break his covenant, he withdraws his protection from them; that, nevertheless, he does not forsake them entirely, and chastises them only for their converfion, and to bring them to himself. 3. We must remember. that the covenant which God had made with David, and the promifer with which he had engaged to establish his throne and posterity for ever, related to the Meffiah; and that it was verified in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Chrift, which will subist to all eternity. ILLUSTRATED AND EXPLAINED. 509 to The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and though men be so strong, that they come to fourscore years : yet is their strength then but labour and forrow; so foon passeth it away, and we are gone. 11 But who regardeth the power of thy wrath: for even thereafter as a man feareth, so is thy displeasure. 12 So teach us to number our days: that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, 13 Turn thee again, O Lord, at the last: and be gracious unto thy fervants. 14 O fatify us with thy mercy, and that foon: so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life, 15 Comfort us again, now after the time that thou hast plagued us: and for the years wherein we have fuffered adversity. 16 Shew thy servants thy work: and their children thy glory. 17 And the glorious Majesty of the Lord our God be upon us: profper thou the work of our hands upon us; O profper thou our handy-work. W Pfalm xci. Qui habitat. of the most High: 7 HOSO dwelleth under the defence PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. Psalm xc.] 1. We here learn, that God, who is the Creator of the world, and has given men life, makes them, when he pleases, return to duft; that life is short, and is soon passed away, and is moreover attended with many troubles and afflictions. 2. We are to confider, that as the rebellion of the Ifraelites exposed them to the wrath of God, and to death in the wilderness; so the miseries of this life, and death itself, are the confequences of fin; but to the children of God, death is an effect of his love, and a means which he makes use of to procure their happiness. 3. Mofes teaches us, that the use we ought to make of our knowledge of the shortness of this life, is to learn from hence to become wife, and fear God, and by prayer to apply to him, that whilst we remain in this world he would be pleafed always to grant us his grace, and make us at all times feel the eff its of his bounty, that we may pass this life in peace and happiness. Lastly, The confideration of the vanities of the present life, should raise our thoughts to the expectation of a better, and make uş afpire after that immortality which is prepared for us in the heavens, and has been purchased for us by Jesus Chrift our Lord. PRAC 510 THE COMMON PRAYER, &c. 2 I will fay unto the Lord, Thou art my hope, and my ftrong hold: my God, in him will I truft. : 3 For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter : and from the noifome peftilence. 4 He shall defend thee under his wings, and thou shalt be fafe under his feathers: his faithfulness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler. 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night: nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6 For the pestilence that walketh in darkness: nor for the fickness that destroyeth in the noon-day. 7 A thousand shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee. 8 Yea, with thine eyes shalt thou behold: and fee the reward of the ungodly. 9 For thou, Lord, art my hope : thou hast fet thine house of defence very high. 10 There shall no evil happen, unto thee: neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. 11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways. 12 They shall bear thee in their hands: that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone. 13 Thou shalt go upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon fhalt thou tread under thy feet. 14 Because he hath fet his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will fet him up, because he hath known my Name. 15 He shall call upon me, and I will hear him: yea, I am with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and bring him to honour. 16 With long life will I fatisfy him : and shew him my falvation. PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. Pfalm xci.] We may fee in this pfalm how happy those are that tru in God, and draw near to him. God commands his angels to keep them from all dangers; he loves them tenderly; he preferves them from every thing that might hurt them, delivers them when they call upon him in |