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ILLUSTRATED AND EXPLAINED.

Pfalm xcii.

Bonum est confiteri.

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T is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord: and to

fing praises unto thy Name, O moft highest;

2 To tell of thy loving-kindness early in the morning : and of thy truith in the night-feafon;

3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the lute : upon a loud inftrument, and upon the harp.

4 For thou, Lord, haft made me glad through thy works: and I will rejoice in giving praise for the operations of thy hands.

5 O Lord, how glorious are thy works: thy thoughts are very deep.

6 An unwife man doth not well confider this: and a fool doth not understand it.

7 When the ungodly are green as the grass, and when all the workers of wickedness do flourish: then shall they be destroyed for ever; but thou, Lord, art the most Highest for evermore.

8 For lo, thine enemies, O Lord, lo, thine enemies shall perish: and all the workers of wickedness shall be destroyed. 9 But mine horn shall be exalted like the horn of an unicorn: for I am anointed with fresh oil.

1o Mine eye also shall fee his luft of mine enemies: and mine ear shall hear his defire of the wicked that arife up against me.

The righteous shalt flourish like a palm-tree: and shall fpread abroad like a cedar in Libanus.

12 Such as be planted in the house of the Lord: shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God.

13 They alfo thall bring forth more fruit in their age: and thall be fat and well-liking.

14 That they may shew how true the Lord my ftrength is: and that there is no unrighteousness in him.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

their distress, and heaps upon them all kinds of blessings. These glorious privileges and excellent promises are very proper to comfort and encourage all fuch as fear God, and to fill them with unspeakable joy and unfhaken confidence.

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Pfalm xciii. Dominus regnavit.

THE Lord is King, and hath put on glorious apparel: the Lord hath put on his apparel, and girded himfear with strength.

2 He hath made the round world so sure: that it cannot be moved.

3 Ever since the world began, hath thy feat been pre. pared: thou art from everlasting.

4 The floods are risen, O Lord, the floods have lift up their voice: the floods lift up their waves.

5 The waves of the fea are mighty, and rage horribly: but yet the Lord, who dwelleth on high, is mightier.

6 Thy teftimonies, O Lord, are very sure: holiness be. cometh thine house for ever.

Psalm xciv. Deus ultionum.

Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth: thou God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Pfalm xcii.] Since we learn, from the first words of this pfalm, that "it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to declare his good. ness and faithfulness day and night;" we ought all of us to be animated with a holy zeal, to the diligent, cheerful, and earnest discharge of a duty so just and agreeable. This we shall have a powerful motive to, if we apply ourselves to the confideration of the works of God, which are great and marvellous; and above all, if we attend to the ways of provi dence, and the conduct of the Almighty towards good and bad men. It fometimes happens that wicked and worldly men flourish and are happy, but their pofterity paffeth away like the grass; God destroys them, and roots them out utterly. On the contrary, he blesses the righteous, fecures their happiness, and inakes them profper and flourish and bear fruit, even unto their old age, and to be in this world examples of his mercy and

faithfulness.

Pfalm xciii.] This pfalm teaches us, that God rules with glory and magnificence over all the world: that his throne is established in righte ousness; that his power infinitely exceeds that of all created beings! from whence we are to conclude, that he will reign for ever, for the good and advantage of his people, and of all those who ferve him and submit themselves to him.

2 Arife,

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ILLUSTRATED AND EXPLAINED.

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2 Arife, thou Judge of the world: and reward the proud after their deserving.

3 Lord, how long shall the ungodly: how long shall the ungodly triumph ?

4 How long thall all wicked doers speak so disdainfully : and make fuch proud boasting?

5 They smite down thy people, O Lord: and trouble thine heritage.

6 They murder the widow and the stranger: and put the fatherless to death.

7 And yet they say, Tush, the Lord shall not fee: neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

8 Take heed, ye unwife among the people: O ye fools, when will ye understand?

9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear: or he that made the eye, shall he not fee ?

10 Or he that nurtureth the heathen: it is he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he punish ?

11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man: that they are but vain.

12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord: and teachest him in thy law;

13 That thou mayest give him patience in time of adverfity: until the pit be digged up for the ungodly.

14 For the Lord will not fail his people: neither will he forsake his inheritance;

15 Until righteousness turn again unto judgment: all such as are true in heart shall follow it.

16 Who will rise up with me against the wicked: or who will take my part against the evil-doers ?

17 If the Lord had not helped me: it had not failed but my foul had been put to filence.

18 But when I faid, My foot hath lipped: thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.

19 In the multitude of the forrows that I had in my heart: thy comforts have refreshed my foul.

20 Wilt thou have any thing to do with the stool of wick

edness which imagineth mischief as a law?

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THE COMMON PRAYER, &c.

21 They gather them together against the foul of the righteous: and condemn the innocent blood.

22 But the Lord is my refuge: and my God is the strength of my confidence.

23. He shall recompence them their wickedness, and destroy them in their own malice: yea, the Lord our God shall destroy them.

MORNING

PRAYER.

Pfalm xcv. Venite, exultemus.

Come, let us sing unto the Lord : let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.

2 Let us come before his prefence with thanksgiving: and shew ourselves glad in him with pfalms.

3 For the Lord is a great God: and a great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are all the corners of the earth : strength of the hills is his also.

and the

5 The fea is his, and he made it: and his hands prepared the dry land.

6 O come, let us worship and fall down: and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

7 For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

8 To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness;

9. When your fathers tempted me: proved me, and faw my works.

10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and faid: It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways:

PRACTICAL

OBSERVATIONS.

Pfalm xciv.] This pfalm teaches us, that God will never forsake his people, and his inheritance; that he is the defender of the faithful; that he is the joy of their fouls in the midst of their troubles, and that he • supports them against those who perfecute them, and seek to destroy them.

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ILLUSTRATED AND EXPLAINED

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Unto whome I sware in my wrath: that they should

not enter into my rest.

Pfalm xcvi, Cantate Domino.

Sing unto the Lord a new fong: sing unto the Lord, all the whole earth.

2 Sing unto the Lord, and praise his Name: be telling of his falvation from day to day.

3 Declare his honour unto the heathen: and his wonders unto all people.

4 For the Lord is great, and cannot worthily be praised : he is more to be feared than all gods.

5 As for all the gods of the heathen, they are but idols : but it is the Lord that made the heavens.

6 Glory and worship are before him: power and honour are in his fanctuary.

7 Afcribe unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people : afcribe unto Lord worship and power.

8 Afcribe unto the Lord, the honour due unto his name: bring presents, and come into his courts.

9 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: let the whole earth stand in awe of him.

10 Tell it out among the heathen, that the Lord is King: and that it is he who hath made the round world fo falt that it cannot be moved: and how that he shall judge the people righteously.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Pfalm xcv.] This psalm engages us to two duties. The first is, To render to God, with an holy joy and fervency, the adorations and praises which belong to him, on account of his power and majesty; but above all, because he is our God, and we have the happiness to be his people. The second duty is, To improve the exhortations which David addresses to the Ifraelites, not to harden their hearts as their fathers had done. These words, "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts;" and those, "I have sworn in my wrath, that they shall not enter into my rest;" do concern Christians as well as the Jews; as the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, (chap. iii. 4.) observes, where he bids us take heed, left, by hardness of heart and rebellion against the gofpel, we should be deprived of eternal rest, as the rebellious Ifraelites were excluded from the land of Canaan for their incredulity.

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