13 For this God is our God for ever and ever: he fhall be our guide unto death. ul. evou crit LJ. § Pfalm 49. Audite hæc, omnes. · i 144

*

Hear all
Hear ye this, all ye people: ponder it with your ears, all
ye that dwell in the world.

7

2 High and low, rich and poor: one with another.

3 My mouth' fhall fpeak of wisdom and my heart fhall mufe

of understanding.

1:

2

4 I will incline mine ear to the parable: and fhew my dark fpeech upon the harp.

5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of wickedness: and when the wickedness of my heels compaffeth me round about?...

6 There be fome that put their truft in their goods: and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.

7 But no man may deliver his brother: nor make agreement unto God for him;

I

8 For it coft more to redeem their fouls: fo that he must let that alone for ever:

9 Yea, though he live long: and fee not the grave.

10 For he feeth that wife men alfo die, and perish together: as well as the ignorant and foolish, and leave their riches for other.

I And yet they think that their houses fhall continue for ever: and that their dwelling-places fhall endure from one generation to another; and call the lands after their own names.

12 Nevertheless, man will not abide in honour: feeing he may be compared unto the beafts that perifh; this is the way of them. 13 This is their foolishness: and their pofterity praife their faying.

God upholdeth the fame for ever, &c. This promife is ftill better fuited to the Chriftian, than to the Jewish Church; concerning which Chrift hath faid that the Gates of Hell fhall not prevail against it and ought ito convince us of our happiness in being members of it, and fill all fincere Believers with stedfaft hope and confidence in God.

In this Pfalm which is doctrinal and inftructive,

the writer proves that the happinefs of Man does not confift in the riches and honours of the World—and that thofe who purfue them as their chief good are fools and unwife; and therefore that we ought not to fet our Hearts upon them, nor fear nor eavy those that poffefs them; but that we should trust in God alone, who can render happy, even after death, those who fear, and firmly confide in him.

14. They lie in the hell like sheep, death ignaweth upon them, and the righteous fhall have domination over them in the morning: their beauty fhall confume in the fepulchre out of their dwelling.

15 But God hath delivered my foul from the place of hell: for he fhall receive me.

16 Be not thou afraid, though one be made rich: or if the glo ry of his house be increased;

17 For he thall carry nothing away with him when he dieth: neither fhall his pomp follow him.

18 For while he lived, he counted himself an happy man: and fo long as thou doeft well unto thyfelf, men will fpeak good of

thee.

19 He fhall follow the generation of his fathers; and fhall never fee light.

20 * Man being in honour hath no understanding: but is compared unto the beasts that perish.

MORNING

PRAYER.
Deus deorum.

|| Pfalm 50.

TH

HE Lord, even the most mighty God hath fpoken: and called the world from the rifing up of the fun, unto the going down thereof.

T

2 Out of Sion hath God appeared: in perfect beauty.

3. Our God fhall come, and fhall not keep filence: there fhall

go before him a confuming fire, and a mighty tempest shall be stir red up round about him.

6.&. E

He fhall call the heaven from above: and the earth, that he may judge his people.

* Man being in bonour bath no understanding, &e. This feems to be more properly tranflated in the Bible verfion. Man that is in honour and understandeth not, is like the Beafts that perif. From hence we may discern how dangerous riches and worldly advancement are to our eternal interests: and expecially where their pofleflors

are forgetful from whom, and to what end they are bestowed upon them. For as fuch are apt to abute them to the worst of purpofes: fo by their ingratitu, e to God the giver they defcend to a level with Brutes.

n

This Palm is of a mural inftructive nature: and is designed to fhew that God is not plated with the

5 Gather my faints together unto me thofe that have made a Covenant with me with facrifice.

6 And the heavens thall declare his righteoufnefs: for God is judge himself.

7 Hear, O my people, and I will fpeak: I myself will testify. against thee, O Ifrael; for I am God, even thy God.

8 I will not reprove thee, becaufe of thy facrifices, or for thy burnt-offerings: because they were not alway before me.

9 I will take no bullock out of thine houfe: nor he-goat out of thy folds.

TEC

10 For all the beafts of the foreft are mine: and fo are the cattle upon a thoufand hills.

II I know all the fowls upon the mountains: and the wild beafts of the field are in my fight.

54

12 If I be hungry, I will not tell thee: for the whole world mine, and all that is therein.

is

13 Thinkeft thou that I will eat bulls flesh: and drink the blood of goats?

C

14 Offer unto God thanksgiving: and pay thy vows unto the moft Higheft.

15 And call upon me in the time of trouble: fo will I hear thee, and thou shalt praise me.

1-6 -But unto the ungodly faid God: Why doft thou preach my laws, and takeft my covenant in thy mouth;

17 Whereas thou hateft to be reformed: and hast cast my words behind thee?

18 When thou faweft a thief, thou consentedft unto him: and haft been partaker with the adulterers.

19 Thou haft let thy mouth fpeak wickedness: and with thy tongue thou haft fet forth deceit.

J ****

and the other virtues. In order to give greater weight to thefe Doctrines, God himself is introduced by the Pfalmift as delivering them in all the awful pomp of divine Majelly, as he did the Law from Sinai,

20 Thou fatteft and spakest against thy brother: yea, and hast flandered thine own mothers fon.

21 These things haft thou done, and I held my tongue, and thou thoughteft wickedly,, that I am even fuch a one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and fet before thee the things that thou haft done. 22 O confider this, ye that forget God: left I pluck you away, and there be noneto deliver you.

23 * Whoso offereth me thanks and praife, he honoureth me: and to him that ordereth his converfation right, will I fhew the falvation of God.

§ Pfalm 51. Miferere mei, Deus.

НА

Ave mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness: ac-
cording to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine

offences.

2 Wash me throughly from my wickednefs: and cleanfe me from my fin.

L

3 For I acknowledge my faults: and my fin is ever before me.

*

4 Against thee only have I finned, and done this evil in thy fight: that thou mightest be juftified in thy faying, and clear when thou art judged.

5 ‡ Behold, I was fhapen in wickednefs and in fin hath my

mother conceived me.

6 But lo, thou requireft truth in the inward parts: and shalt make me to understand wisdom fecretly.

7 Thou shalt purge me with hyffop, and I fhall be clean: thou shalt wash me, and I fhall be whiter than fnow.

Whofo effereth me Thanks and Praife, &c. "Pub"lic Praifes and Thanksgivings (fays Dr. Clarke) are acceptable to God, as part of our religious Worship "and Adoration of him; but are then only fo, when "the declarations of our mouths are the real fignifications of the intentions of our hearts, and our de"figns are not to abuse those mercies which we thank him for."

kuta

This is the fourth of the penitential Pfalms, com

pofed by David upon the reproof which he received
from Nathan the Prophet, after his Adultery with Bath-
Sheba 2 Sam. xii. An Act of public penitence which
fuch crimes loudly call for !..

Behold I was hapen in Wickedness, &c. Grotius fays the fenfe of this paffage is, "I have not only com mitted a grievous crime at prefent, but have often "finned from my childhood," and is an hyperbolical kind of speaking, as a pears by compang it with Job

8 Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which thou haft broken may rejoice.

9 Turn thy face from my fins: and put out all my mifdeeds. 10 Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right fpirit within me.

11 Caft me not away from thy presence: and take not thy holy Spirit from me.

12 O give me the comfort of thy help again: and stablish me with thy free Spirit.

13 Then fhall I teach thy ways unto the wicked: and finners fhall be converted unto thee.

14 Deliver me from blood-guiltinefs, O God, thou that art the God of my health: and my tongue fhall fing of thy righte oufnefs.

15 Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew thy praife.

16 For thou defireft no facrifice, elfe would I give it thee: but thou delightest not in burnt-offerings.

17 The facrifice of God is a troubled fpirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, fhalt thou not despise.

18 O be favourable and gracious unto Sion: build thou the walls of Jerufalem.

19 Then fhalt thou be pleafed with the facrifice of righteoufnefs, with the burnt offerings, and oblations: then shall they offer young bullocks upon thine altar.

Pfalm 52. Quid gloriaris?

HY boafteft thou thyfelf thou tyrant: that thou canst do

WHY

2 Whereas the goodness of God: endureth yet daily?

xxxi. 18. Pfalm xxii. 10. 11. and lviii. . and lxxi. 5.
6. Ifaiah xlviii. 8. When the confcience is deeply
wounded with a fenfe of any notorious crime, our
other smaller offences will be apt to ftand up in array

against us

This Pfalm was occafioned by the flaughter of the Priefts through the Calumnies of Doeg the Edomite, as it is related 1 Sam. xxii.