wrought for thy children and servants from time to time and the thoughts of mercy and goodness which thou hast had towards us and shewed upon us that have believed in thee they are so many that we cannot count them nor orderly declare them should I go about particularly to praise thee for them or to tell the world of them my memory would yea could not but deceive me they are so numberless 6 Sacrifices and offerings though they be by the appointment of thy Law yet as they are commonly used or rather abused by formal and outward devotion thou carest not for them it is the kernel and not the shell comparatively that thou regardest to wit a bored pliable ear and yielding heart to do thy will in faith and obedience which blessed be thy name thou hast bestowed upon me whom herein thou hast made a type of thy sonne and servant Christ the onely acceptable sacrifice and substance of all shadows and which I know thou valuest in me above never so many burnt and sinne-offerings wherein others for most part put their religion 7 For by thy bestowing on me this spiritual ear and regenerate heart I am made apt and ready to offer and consecrate my self in all filial alacrity a sacrifice to thy service as it is written and prophesied of me in resemblance of Christ of whose son-like love and perfect obedience the whole Scripture foretells 8 I do as he much more shall delight to please and obey thee in all things O my God and his thy holy and righteous law is not to me as it is to the world untoothsome and harsh but pleasing and connatural as it shall be to Christ. 9 And what I have learned and known to be thy righteous will as a Prophet and faithfull servant of the Lord I have as Christ shall taken occasion to declare and teach it to thy people in the most solemn feasts and greatest concourse as might make most for thy glory and their edifying I have not ceased to do my duty to thee and them but have informed and instructed them O Lord I know thou knowst this and takest notice of my poor weak but sincere service herein 10 I have kept back nothing which I knew and whereof I ought to have informed them touching thee and thy good grace but both by mine example in praising thee and also by doctrine have I declared to them the faithfulness that is in thee and that thou hast and ever wilt shew to them that believe in thy promises for grace and salvation I have not smothered mine own experimented knowledg of thy mercifull loving kindness to such and thy truth in fulfilling what thou hast promised them but have taken the best opportunity to make it known most to thy praise and thy peoples edification 11 And as I have done so I will do still as thou givest me occasion therefore be as gracious and merciful as thou hast been let me find thy love and faithfulness ever at hand to preserve me 12 For I am now in as great need as ever I was being surrounded with manifold miseries and great dangers deserved punishments for mine iniquities which have arrested me and keep me prisoner under the burden of thy heavy displeasure which makes me of a dejected heart and countenance ashamed and afeard to make mine addresses to a God so displeased with a sinner so exceeding sinful as I am doubting my success and thy favour 13 Nor yet can I be silent my dangers on the other hand press so soar upon me therefore of thine own good grace O Lord deliver me from the burden of my sin and misery O Lord consider my great straits and delay not to relieve me for thou art gracious and pitiful 14 Let the shame and confusion which mine enemies would bring upon me fall upon themselves let them as they sin together so perish together that seek my life let them be defeated of their expectation and desire and come to a shameful end themselves that seek mine undoing 15 Let them be utterly ruinated and made desolate for a just reward and punishment of their shameful and sinful behaviour towards me that rejoyce unjustly and undeservedly at my misery 16 But contrariwise let all those that love me for Christs sake whose type I am and that trust in thee and religiously pray unto thee in their own and my behalf let both me and they have cause of joy and gladness in thy mercy towards us let such as love thy saving grace to trust in it and be happy by it ever have cause to speak and sing the praises of thee and it 17 But as yet it s otherwayes with me I am poor and desolate distressed both without and within yet I know I am not forgotten nor forsaken of God but that he is mindful of me at the worst and purposeth to do me good at the last My faith makes him all in all to me mine onely helper and deliverer and my condition presseth hard upon him to be so out of hand which is very desperate and therefore I beseech thee that art the God of all my faith and hope delay not to deliver me speedily least I perish utterly The xli PSALM Though this Psalm by the proprietie of its language is applicable in time of sickness yet the Scripture no where in the historical part of it mentioning any such bodily distemperature as the Psalmist here insists on it is conceived by interpretors and yet Psalms the sixth and thirtie eight import otherwayes rather to be spoken allegoricallie by David than reallie in allusion to his condition under Absaloms rebellion whereby being brought low and in a desperate state he was sorelie censured by his enemies and shamefully deserted by reason of his affliction which he here reproves commending the contrarie virtue of charitie and pittie which he knows is in God though it fail in men and accordinglie makes his prayer to find it from him his enemies and false friends so deceiving and traducinglie judgeing him which he prayes he may live to punish and hopes he shall upon probable signs of favour from God for which he blesseth him and for the assured confidence he hath that God will be as good as his word to his Israel and to him in Israels behalf To him that is the first and principal of all the Quire do I David that made this Psalm recommend it for the care and ordering of it to be sung 1 HOw rash are most mens judgements of men in affliction and thereupon how apt are they to abandon them But blessed is and shall be the man that judgeth with righteous judgement and not according to appearance knowing that God is both gracious and faithful and though he do cast down yet he can and will raise up again the afflicted that repent towards him and trust in him 2 Yea for all his dangers the Lord will and
punishment even bloud for bloud but in thine infinite mercy pardon this grievous guilt and bring not the guilt of the bloud of others yet further upon me also which thou hast threatned shall be shed in punishment of that which I have shed already In this O God thou God that hast promised salvation to thy servant in which I cannot chuse but hope hear me revoke thy sentence and reverse this judgement for thy mercy sake so will I lift up my voice with joy and thankfulness and in songs of praise will extoll thy righteousness thou art as well faithfull to pardon and shew mercy as just to punish 15 O that thou that art the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth to whom both liberty of pardon and power of punishment doth belong wouldst hear me in this and give me thereby occasion and withall renew my power as thy pen-man and Prophet to celebrate thy praise and publish the worth of such a mercy in Psalms and songs 16 For to promise thee legall sacrifices of Bulls and Goats c. Especially to expiate such sins as these are were but vain it is not that will give thee content else would I give thee store of them and think my pardon a cheap purchase but in this case it is neither one kind of such sacrifices nor other that will please thee or profit me 17 That sacrifice which is in stead of all other is when a poor sinner is grieved at the very soul for his sin against so good a God and so himself becomes a morall and spirituall sacrifice burnt and torn in the spirit of his mind with the anguish he conceives for his disobedience and ingratitude he that with a false-condemning self-crucifying and sin-mortifying heart humbly and yet believingly makes out for mercy and pardon in the bloud of Christ this this is the man and that 's the sacrifice that God expects accepts and makes great account of 18 Lord however thou beest pleased to do by me yet bring not evil upon thy people nor upon thy worship or the place thereof for my sins sake who have cause to fear the destruction of all by my means but for thine own sake thy Christ and covenant sake still take pleasure in thy people and ordinances though thou hast none in me to continue gracious and benevolent to them and let not Jerusalem fare the worse for my transgressions committed in her but go on still to preserve her and perfect her beauty according to thy designment and gracious ingagement touching her the emblem of thy Church 19 And then when thou hast compleated all thine Evangelicall ordinances graces and priviledges in their types in that glorious structure of the Temple and the ceremonies exercised therein then shall the sacrifices be offered to thee with more understanding and clear discerning of their Gospel-sense and meaning when the Church is triumphant which now under me is militant and then shall sacrifices so offered in the representation and faithfull application of Christ crucified for sin and accompanied with a suitable spirit of repentance and godly sorrow be right acceptable to thee sacrifices of every kind thus offered as then they shall be O how will they please thee That shall be a time of wonderfull praise and plenty of peace-offerings shall be offered with right glad hearts upon thine altar O let this time come and let it receive no interruption by mine unworthiness The lii PSALM David in this Psalm in the person of Doâ—g shews the siâ—full vanity of trusting in any thing but God specially in wicked and unlawfull practises against the godly seem they never so promising assuring all such that it will be their utter undoing at last and the righteous against whom they plot shall out-live them and their designs to their corroborating in faith and contempt of such vain men and their vain confidences He fore-shews that thus it shall be betwixt himself and Doeg he by his faith shall be established in a happy condition to the praise of God when Doeg shall be ejected out of Israel To the President of the Quire is this Psalm committed instructing unto confidence in God for his Church and peoples felicity and their enemies ruine notwithstanding any seeming contrariety at present made by David upon Doeg that counterfeit convert his informing Saul of Abimelechs entertaining David at Nob when he fled from him and thereby occasioning the destruction of him and the rest of the Preists there 1 O Thou wretched foolish Doeg that hypocritically professest the true worship of the God of Israel and as by nature so in heart art still an Edomite and persecutor of his Church and people why art thou so glad of an opportunity to advance thy self in the Kings favour by indirect and sinfull ways in betraying the innocent and abuse thine interest and power at court to the endeavouring my ruine which yet thou shalt never be able to compass though thou hast been a means to cut off my speciall freinds and Gods faithfull servants by thy base and treacherous flattery yet shalt thou never be able to do the like by me nor the Church of God concerned in me or to prevent what God hath promised and designed in that behalf but both Saul and thou shalt be disappointed in all your attempts and devices by the goodness power and wisdom of God which shall all work for me and preserve me maugre all you can do to the contrary 2 How mischievous hast thou been in thy treacherous discoveries of my being with Abimelech and his relieving me to the exposing him to the rage of Saul who by that thine information hath wholly cut off both him and the rest of the Preists as if they and I had conspired against him whereas they were utterly ignorant so much as of my very flight from him at that time and meant no hurt at all to Saul in that they did for me but as I so they were faithfull and loyall to him doing that they did in reference to his service which indeed I then pretended to be imploid in 3 This act of thine shews thee what thou art in thy heart an hypocriticall professor that carest not what mischief thou doest nor by what indirect means to the innocent and faithfull servants of God betraying them to the malice and rage of Saul from whom thou shouldest rather have endeavoured to preserve them and that at such a time as thou couldst not have chosen a worse to tell this in even then when it made anger against me he was railing upon and condemning all men for my sake as conspirators with me didst thou chuse to make this known thereby falsly to insinuate Abimelech and those Preists to be of the combination which was utterly false 4 Thou mightest well think what would come of such an information at such a time but it seems thou didst it purposely with a desire to endear thy self by doing
Bath-sheba 1 HAve mercy upon me O God acâ—ording to thy loving kindness according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies bloâ— out my transgressions 2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me 4 Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done this evil in thy light that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest be clear when thou judgest 5 Behold I am shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me 6 Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom 7 Purge me with hysope and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce 9 Hide thy face from my 〈◊〉 and blot out all mine iniquities 10 Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me 11 Cast me not away from thy prâ—sence and take not thy holy spirit from me 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee 14 Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousâ— 15 O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise 16 For thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in burnt-offering 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise 18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the walls of Jerusalem 19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering then shall they offer Bullocks upon thine altar Psalm li. To the chief musician Maschil A Psalm of David when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said unto him David is come to the house of Abimelech 1 WHy boastest thou thy self in mischief O mighty man the goodness of God endureth continually 2 Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs like a sharp rasour working deceitfully 3 Thou lovest evil more than good and lying rather than to speak righteousness Selah 4 Thou lovest all devouring words O thou deceitful tongue 5 God shal likewise destroy thee for ever he shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place and root thee out of the land of the living Selah 6 The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him 7 Lo this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness 8 But I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God I trust in the mercie of God for ever and ever 9 I will praise thee for ever because thou hast done it and I will wait on thy name Psalm liii To the chief musician upon Mahalath Maschil A Psalm of David 1 THe fool hath said in his heart there is no God corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquitie there is none that doth good 2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand that did seek God 3 Every one of them is gone back they are altogether become filthie there is none that doth good no not one 4 Have the workers of iniquitie no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread they have not called upon God 5 There were they in great fear where no fear was for God hath scatâ—ered the bones of him that encampeth against thee thou shalt put them to flame because God hath despised them 6 O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion when God bringeth back the captiâ—itie of his people Jacob shall rejoyce and Israel shall be glad The liiii Psalm To the chief musician on Neginoth Maschil A Psalm of David when the Ziphims came and said to Saul Doth not David hide himself with us 1 SAve me O God by thy name and judge me by thy strength 2 Hear my prayer O God give ear to the words of my mouth 3 For strangers are risen up against me and oppressours seek after my soul they have not set God before them Selah 4 Behold God is my helper the Lord is with them that uphold my Soul 5 He shall reward evil unto mine enemies cut them off in thy truth 6 I will freely sacrifice unto thee I will praise thy name O Lord for it is good 7 For he hath delivered me out of all trouble and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies Psalm lv To the chief musician on Neginoth Maschil A Psalm of David 1 GIve ear to my prayer O God and hide not thy self from my supplication 2 Attend unto me and hear me I mourn in my complaint and make a noise 3 Because of the voice of the enemie because of the oppression of the wicked for they cast iniquitie upon me and in wrath they hate me 4 My heart is sore pained within me and the terrours of death are fallen upon me 5 Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me and horrour hath over-whelmed me 6 And I said O that I had wings like a dove for then would I flie awâ—y and be at rest 7 Lo then would I wander far off and remain in the wilderderness Selah 8 I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest 9 Destroy O Lord and divide their rongues for I have seen violence and strife in the Citie 10 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it 11 Wickedness is in the midst thereof deceit and guil depart not from her streets 12 For it was â—ot an enemy that reproched me then I could have borne it neither was it he that hated me that did magnifie himself against me then I would have hid my self from him 13 But it was thou a man mine equal my guid and mine acquaintance 14 We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company 15 Let death seize upon them and let them go down quick into hell for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them 16 As for me I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me 17 Evening morning and at noon will I pray and crie aloud and he shall hear my voice 18 He hath delivered my Soul in peace from the battel that was against me for there were many with me 19 God shall hear and afflict them even he that abideth of old Selah because they have no changes therefore they fear not God 20 He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him he hath broken his covenant 21 The words of his
your thirst at the spring it self whose waters are purest and which never shall be dry A lesson which you shall be often taught by the holy Psalmist and the godly Paraphrast in this Book whereof I need not say a word being therein prevented by the Authour himself in his Epistle to the Reader who shall here find the sweet spices punned into a greater fragrancy by the Authours accommodating his stile to the most vulgar capacity for it was his aime to elevate affections which in Psalms and spirituall songs are the predominant part and therefore he wrote not so much to the eye as to the tast which pardon the solecisme is the best sence to read him with so carrying on the work in this Paraphrase as also in that of Iob as one that had not a mere notionall or carnall knowledge of spirituall things but that peculiar light which they have which are taught of God Without which even Schollars themselves do see the beauty of them but by candle-light and which that it may increase in you as the light of the Sun unto the perfect day shall be the Prayer of LONDON Iune 17. 1650. Your ever obliged Servant In the work of the Lord Iesus RICHARD VINES TO THE READER In way of ARGUMENT and APPLICATION ALL Scripture was written by the holy men of God as they were moved or inspired by the holy Ghost but this of the Psalms was not onely written by a holy man but by a holy man in holy frames who was not onely moved by the spirit to write them but was in the spirit when he penned them not so much acted by externall impulsion as inward affection warmth of zeal and sensible experience For the Psalms being to be a speciall part of the worship of God in all ages of the Church whereby God not onely speaks to us as in other Scripture but we to him in Prayer and praise the Arguments of almost all of them were therefore dictated by another spirit than other Scripture by the spirit of grace and operation not onely of illumination prophesie or inspiration to shew us how God is to be worshipped not onely by holy regenerate men such as were all the sacred pen-men but by the regenerate part of a regenerate man else Prayers nor praises neither come down from heaven nor go up to heaven It was not enough to be a Priest to offer Sacrifice but it must be done by a holy man with holy fire And therefore should we sing the Psalms of David in the spirit of David and read them as he writ them with frameable tempers to the matter treated Of all Scripture our meditation in the perusall of this Book of the Psalmes so full of practicall Gospel ought to be sweet and spirituall of which one rightly affirms Let all the rest of the Scripture be the body and this is the heart so full of heavenly affections Every Psalm whereof is a spirituall pang or fresh gail breathed by the holy Ghost on Davids heart and penned by him and the rest in instanti in heat of affection His writing is his feeling and so should be thy reading the musick of the Temple should make musick in the living Temples of the holy Ghost the sons of Sion therefore have I laboured not onely to render the proper but also the full extensive meanings of the Psalmists by congruous enlargements to move the affections as well as to inform the judgement That so Davids spirit in these Psalms may be transmigrated into the experienced Reader in proportionable power energie wherewith they were conceived digestedly put over by him to the Church whereof as of Christ he was a most lively type wading through so many dangers temptations ebbings flowings yea and sins too to create him to be a Looking-glass for the Church and Spouse of Christ who may be black yet comly and can never pass through any condition of sin or suffering where first he hath not led the way and shewen the issue whose varieties of providences states and tempers made him of such an evangelicall spirit in the time of the Law as that God stiles him a man after his own heart so that in him we see that neither great sins nor great afflictions can seperate us from the love and approbation of God though the one may cost us dear and the other may lay us low yet neither the one nor the other can build up such a partition wall but that the grapling irons of Faith Prayer and Repentance are able to demolish it and make way for us to the throne of grace whither if we can but come we shall be sure to speed for grace can deny grace to none that graciously ask it And therefore if ever we will gain that Encomium of being as he was after Gods own heart who ever loves a zealous penitent better than a luke-warm innocent it must be by improving all advantages to the encrease of Gospel-growth thus If at any time God in his wisdom let us fall or Satan by his subtility and strength give us a fall or we by our weakness catch a fall all which may be in one and the same sin then know that that sin is thine advantage or opportunity which thou art to improve to mount thee to a higher rise of Gospel-ground and step forward towards more grace by the fresh exercise or exercise of fresh faith and humiliation God being more pleased with us when we penitently and faithfully confess our sin wherein David was very ingenuous than displeased when we commit it For though we are not to sin that grace may abound yet when we have sinned it s both our wisdom and duty too to look that grace do abound and that we make a sanctified sin of it Acts of sinning in the regenerate contrary to Philosophy lessening the habits of sin And so if we fall into afflictions there is another opportunity for the promise is that all shall work for good and that going in and out we shall find pasture yea even a price in our hands which if improved by the exercise of seasonable and suitable graces will ready us in our Gospel-way better than any trade-wind or constant gail of providence can ever do Severall conditions make exceedingly for setting forth the Art of God in the second Creation as severall creatures do his skill in the first which variety in both makes us to abound not onely with necessaries but delights which Scripture calls things both new and old which no one condition unvaried can possibly render us capable of for it is said all things work together for good c. Alluding to the Art of the Apothecary in the mixing of various and diverse Simples no one whereof alone is able to work that effect that many joyntly can And when I speak of change of states I mean inward as well as outward for the soul would be as a cake unturned excellent in something and stark naught in othersome or
me and my small company from place to place and have now overtaken and begirt us round using all diligence to find us out wheresoever we hide our selves that they may destroy us 12 Greedily lion-like gaping after us to prey upon us and either by strength or policy utterly to ruine us 13 Consider my strait O Lord and step into my rescue defeat his purpose and disable his power save my life now endangered by my wicked enemies and destroy them that would destroy me by thy might and in thy justice 14 Save me from men which though they are too hard for me are not able to stand under thy hand O Lord God of power yea from such men as care never to see thy face in heaven nor shall they on whom thou liberally bestowest temporal favours for that 's all they are to have from thee as the fat and sweet of the earth and store of children to whom they leave store of wealth and that 's all they care for 15 But Lord this is not my care nor herein consists not my happiness but in this that I can appeal to thee in the faith of thy grace and the sense of mine own innocency This is my care and comfort at present and I am sure for future I shall be happy when they are miserable at the day of the resurrection of all flesh when I shall appear acceptable to thee clothed in thine Image of holiness and righteousness which they shall not and so be received into life and immortality when they shall be rejected The xviii PSALM David having upon the consideration and view of his great and many benefits first kindled the love of God in his heart then falls to praising him for them which he performs with much divine Art and elegancy in musical Identities poetical strains and Hyperbolical allusions similitudes and comparisons of his deliverances for substance with the most wonderful ones that ever God wrought for his Church or servants by any his notoriousest miracles Then he shâ—ws the ground hereof to wit the innocency of his cause the uprightness of his wayes and the grace and righteousness of his good God And thence raises conclusions of future mercies both to himself and others in like case that walk with and depend on the Lord as he had done to whom he thankfully ascribes all his preservation deliverance victories advancement and promises himself victory for time to come and enlargement of his dominions as a type of Christs Kingdom over as well Heathens as Israelites And resuming his acknowledgements above all he records his deliverance from Saul as most remarkable and thank-worthy By all which he gives to understand the ratification of the Kingdom to him by God and his appointment to signifie for the comfort of the faithful Christs conquests by the power of his father in the Churchâ—s behalf in and over which he shall râ—ign foâ— ever To him that is the first and principal of all the Quire is recommended for the care and ordering of it to be sung by David whose greatest honour in this his high advancement is that he is the designed and dedicated servant of the Lord this Psalm which he composed at the end of his troubles when the Lord had delivered him from the power and violence of all his home-bred enemies but principally from Saul who was his greatest persecutor and potent adversary and made him King in his stead And upon this occasion he gave thanks and praised God as followeth 1 AS I have cause so I ever will bear in mind thy mercies and love thee for them O Lord in whom I repose all my trust and stay and so have ever done 2 I have bottomed my self on the Lord onely and made him my defendor and trusted in him for deliverance which he hath sent me I own him and no other God but him for my God I will never think my self weak while I have him for my strength whom I will choose to trust in as mine all in all my defendor and mine enemies strong offendor in my behalf my safeguard from them and advancer above them 3 I have often called on the Lord in prayer in mine adversity and now I will change my note and sing a Psalm of praise to him who is right worthy to be praised by me for what he hath done for me and so I shall still be sure of him for my God and Saviour as well against those that shall be mine enemies as those that have been 4 I have been many times brought into inextricable dangers of death so that I have even given my self for lost and have thought it impossible to escape the hands of such a wicked multitude as sought my bloud 5 Yea I have made full account of my grave so near have I been to mine end in mine own apprehension I judged it utterly impossible ever to escape the deadly dangers I have been in 6 But ever in my distress I made my repair to God I called to him who I knew was of power to help me and made my earnest supplication to him that I believed loved me and would be good unto me and accordingly I found it so for he failed me not but heard my prayer and answered it from Heaven the place of his presence as shall be the Temple and was moved by my pitiful case and earnest supplication which he took special notice of and ever lent me relief according to it 7 For thereupon he miraculously delivered me and wrought wonderfully for me and against mine enemies in effect as much and as marvellously as he did of old either in the punishment or for the terrour of his own people when they rebelled against him and his servant Moses or at any time for the deliverance of Israel whether in Egypt the red sea wilderness or since yea as conspicuously did he appear for me in the acts of providence and power as if he had really and in letter created all those revolutions and transmutations in the aire and elements hereafter mentioned as to instance when at any time in his wrath he did or as if he had sent terrible earth-quakes that as it were shook the whole earth and the most unmoveable mountains from top to bottom 8 And like as when supernaturally he sent forth fire and smoak which consumed the ungodly and rebellious with all they had to ashes and strangely kindled and set on fire combustible materials as natural fire naturally uses to do coals and such like 9 Or manifested his presence in thick and darksome clouds descending as it were down to the earth 10 Or when at any time he used the powerful ministration of Angels and winds wherewith himself also was present 11 Or terribly appeared by overcasting the aire with an unwonted darkness occasioned by an extraordinarie concourse of dark watery clouds all over the skie benighting the day and obscuring the
mischief and being the instrument of Sauls crueltie O thou treacherous parasite 5 But as thou hast been the death of the Preists of Nob even fourscore and five innocent persons and hast extirpated the family of Abimelech so shall God do by thee and thine he shall utterly destroy both thee and all that belongs unto thee null thy hopes of preferment and ruine thy substance and cast thee out of the land of Israel where there shall not so much as one remain of thy family where indeed thou wast never rightly planted hypocritically counterfeiting thy self a proselyte for the place and preferment sake thou hadst in Sauls Court And so bet it 6 The righteous people of God whom thou so much hatest and hast been the destruction of not a few of them for all that their survivors shall live to see as much by thee according to my prediction and shall give glorie to God in reverence of his righteous justice upon such enemies and faithfulness to his Church and people and in heart shall laugh at the folly of unbelievers and hypocrites for thy sake and personally at thee 7 Whom God shall especially make remarkable in the execution of his just judgements upon thee whereby the Godly shall be confirmed in their faith and dependance upon God when they see what thy courses come to in trusting and relying upon thy power at Court the wealth thou hast gotten and thine own wicked devises to amplifie and establish these and not upon God 8 Thou shalt wither when I and such as trust in God shall for all thine and Sauls malice to me and the present calamities that lie upon me being driven from the tabernacle and service of God be returned thither again in a flourishing condition of honour and felicitie and this I believe as confidently as if I were there already for as I know thy present prosperitie shall have a certain end so shall this mine unhappiness which shall not dismay me for expecting better through the mercie of God wherein I trust which in his own good time shall implant me in a perpetuated good condition like as his justice shall weed thee up by the roots never to grow again 9 Though I am now far from such a State yet will I give even present aswell as future thanks and praise unto thee for it O God of my hope as if I were possessed of it already because it is as sure to me as the destruction of Doeg is to him both which shall certainly come to pass to thine everlasting praise and for which I will live in humble expectancie depending upon thy grace and faithfulness till they be accomplished which are precious things with thy people the very solace and support of their souls how ever neglected by hypocrites and unbelievers who trust in riches and honour whilst that thy saints believe in thee because of them The liii PSALM David speaking in the wisdom of the holy Ghost befools the wisdom of all flesh which in all men naturally out of an enmitie and misunderstanding of God leads only unto sin and professedly hates those few in the world whom God hath renewed instead of seeking to become such themselves But he shews that they both have and shall certainly smart for that sin of contempt and hatred of God and his Church and praies that God would presently by him give tranquillity to his people as Christ shall to his Church To him that is most skilful upon the wind instrument Mahalath is this Psalm of Davids making committed instructing what man is by nature what Gods people must find from such and how God will take their parts against them 1 MAn by his fall hath lost and naturally is void of the right understanding of God believing nothing so of him as he is and so makes him as if he were not And out of this depraved ignorance all natural men live in sin and from the beginning have multiplied abominations not one either is or ever was that by nature without special and supernatural grace ever knew or served the Lord aright 2 The Lord made a long trial of it in the first age of the world in that time of nature between Adam and the Law purposely to see what nature of it self would bring forth whether there were any that could and would improve it to the knowledge belief and worship of God his love and service as a glass for after-ages to see themselves in 3 But he found by long trial and experience notwithstanding his documents and judgements upon the old world and so he finds still that all men are naturally fools void of true understanding carnally-minded and generally without exception of polluted hearts and lives lothsome in his sight that none in nature does that which is right or acceptable no not a man of all mankind every imagination of the thoughts of whose heart is onely evil continually 4 Insomuch as God himself admired to see all men by nature void of knowledge and given over to sin yea even to the hatred and devouring those few in the world that are the people of God and have obtained mercie and differing from them walk in wayes of holiness and righteousness never taking thought to do or to be like them neither themselves by nature worshipping God nor yet seeking to God for the grace and inablement that they had but contemned it and hated them 5 Which at last brought fearful and unexpected desolation upon them when the floud came and swept them all away in the midst of their jollitie Like measure shall the wicked contemners and haters of God and his worshippers have in after-ages God will certainly take part with his Church though never so few against her persecutors and despisers though never so many to save it and ruin them As then he did so shall he in his fierce wrath destroy even the whole world of wicked wretches that know not God and persecute his Church she shall worst them as contemptible as she seems because themselves are as hateful and detestable to God as she is to them who is and ever will be an enemy to his Churches enemies to blast befool and utterly destroy them 6 O that the time were come which I am sure will come and is not long to that God will be mine enemies ruin settle my Kingdom in Sion as a type of Christs in heaven and then and there by me send deliverance and happiness to his people Israel as he will thence salvation to his Church by him When God shall thus have delivered them from their enemies and out of their present troubles as formerly he did out of their captivities into peace and tranquillitie as his Church by Christ shall be from wrath and hell how shall the faithful and true Israel of God who properly are the seed of his servant Jacob rejoyce proportionably now in the type as then in the antitype The liiii
being himself the master builder 2 The Lord hath made a special choice of and expressed therein a particular respect before all the rest of the land of Judah and Israel to the hill of Sion scituate in Jerusalem and to Jerusalem in the whole circumference therof for Sions sake where his Tabernacle Ark and Temple is for there true religion must abide till the coming of the Messiah and hence it must be spread over all the world 3 However outwardly Jerusalem is by the heavy mis-fortunes that have befallen her much lessened in beauty and glory to what she was yet glorious prophesies of spiritual excellencies whereof the former splendour was but adumbrations are recorded concerning her which are not yet fulfilled O thou citie of Gods peculiar love and election be yet comforted and confident they shall be doubt it not 4 Such glory shall shine from the tops of thy holy mountains and from thy holy citie as much changed as it is as shall be resplendent all the world over insomuch as I dare promise thee a mighty access of free-denizons members of the Church a glorious recruit of many that God shall call from all the parts teach to know and reverence him and thee for his sake even out of remote countries and from amongst thy bitter enemies as Egypt Babylon the Philistines Tyre and Ethiopia they shall flock to thee when the Messiah is known to be in thee and being partakers of the new birth shall be ambitious to be called after thy name children of the new Jerusalem 5 And as they shall be ambitious to be citizens of Jerusalem so also to be sons and daughters of Sion in a word they shall think themselves happy and blessed that they are begotten to God made partakers of the spiritual and new birth regenerated by the holy ghost and so incorporated in the seed and posteritie of faithful Abraham heirs of the Covenant and grace of salvation with us and so naturalized into the priviledge and participation of God and his worship practized in the Church typified by Sion which new Jerusalem and her denizons Sion and her children shall be founded upon the power of God who shall uphold and maintain her to perpetuitie so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her Kingdoms and Empires shall have their period but the Church Christs Kingdom who is above all blessed for ever shall be everlasting 6 Yea the Lord himself shall name thy name upon his called and elect ones he shall muster them in the role of thy souldiers and number them in the catalogue of thy Citizens all that are his shall also be thine sons and daughters begotten of God but born in Sion as God shall be their Father so Sion shall be their mother by which name the Church it self shall be called A glorious priviledge 7 And as Sion shall be glorious in a numerous spiritual of-spring so in equivalent solemnities to what she was wont to have nay beyond it for whereas all Israel had but one Temple then every Israelite every member of this new Jerusalem shall be a Temple and every one of those Temples furnished with the substances of all those shadowish significant ceremonies the Church shall have no want of voices and musical instruments to praise the Lord withall they shall be in abundance men of large graces and enlarged hearts My heart is ravished with the apprehension of the happiness of those times what graces what comforts all that a faithful soul can desire or a hungrie soul stands in need of shall be plentifully supplied to the Church and the members thereof in this new Jerusalem and spiritual Sion wherewith I desire to be happie and hereof to share as being indeed the onely comfortable soul-refreshing musick The lxxxviii PSALM Heman a man extraordinarie wise exercised with extraordinarie trouble yea even all his life long applies himself to God by a faithful insinuation pathetical narration of the superlative nature of his afflictions and humble interrogation or expostulation touching the long continuance of them in such extremitie upon him is in hope because God hath stirred him up to pray that he himself will be moved to hear and that though he live miserable yet he shall not die so concludes as he began with expostulation and narration A Psalm made to be both sung played by the Korathites and committed to him that is most skilful upon the instrument Mahalath Leannoth to which it is chiefly set for his ordering it being a Psalm of instruction an exemplarie pattern how every sincere servant of the Lord is to demean himself towards God by ardent prayer and humble expostulation when his hand is heavie upon him in the pressure of a troubled spirit or other grievous adversitie penned by Heman one of the sons of Zerah of the posteritie of Judah famous for his wisdom 1 Kings 4.31 1 O Lord God who for all thy heavy hand upon me art my souls Saviour and I am sure must be my sole deliverer out of this anxietie and I hope wilt be so as my grief is extream so are my complaints pathetical and my prayers unto thee exceeding ardent and that without ceasing as is my misery 2 Let a poor mournfull man have admittance and his prayer audience with thee the great God estrange not thy self alwaies but vouchsafe a gracious condescention to me a poor crying creature in great extremity 3 For the anguishments of my soul are an inseparable burthen which are heaped brim-full upon it in so great a measure as the weight of them almost presseth my life and soul out of my body and I am reduced to the very point of death by them 4 By the troubles of my mind my body is quite wasted I am a very skelliton nothing but skin and bones as weak as water no strength left in me so that by all symptoms I am by all that see me given for a dead man irrecoverable 5 Though I live yet my soul is as if it were departed for it administers no comfortable communion to my body which is as a corps laid out for burying and I no more to be reckoned amongst the living but a free-denizon of another society of that moietie of mankind which are dead nor do I die as others by a natural death in the ordinarie way and by ordinarie means of sickness or old-age but I languish under a wounded spirit God as an enraged enemie thrusts mine heart through as it were with a sharp sword and sends me by a violent death down into the grave where is ended all that care and providence thou hast over us whilest we are living there I shall be as it were laid out of thy sight and forgotten thy hand of providence which was wont to provide and care for me then shall be quite quite of me and I both untimely and violently ravished from it as they that lose their lives by some ireful
dispensation men die and fall as thick as hail round about thee by the pestilence which of it self knows no difference nor makes none betwixt one man and another whose natures are alike mortall and their constitutions alike apt to infection yet shall God whose judgement it is and whose will it performs so order and dispose the dispensation of it that thou shalt be as it were shot-free when thousands and ten thousands drop dead at thy feet 8 Thou in thine own person shalt feel no harm thou shalt onely be a spectatour of other mens destruction and Gods judgement executed upon sinners by suddain and untimely death overtaking many thousands that misimploied their life-time living in sin and impenitency and would have continued so 9 Because thou hast done as I do thou shalt speed as I have sped for God his promise and performance shall be one and the same to all believers and therefore as I made him my refuge and so he was so thou doing the like he shall be the like even the Almighty God from heaven shall safeguard thee as well as me if thou take sanctuary in him 10 So doing thou shalt be like Israel in Egypt when the first born were smitten how ever it happen to others thy faith shall secure thee yea both thee and thine even from commonest judgements 11 For all the powers of heaven shall be imploid to preserve thee if there be need besides both the ordinary and extraordinary providence of God he shall double his guard upon thee yea not one but many nor many but all the Angels of heaven shall stand charged with thee if there be cause to protect thee from miscarriage by any power or accidents on earth whilest thou walkest in wayes pleasing to God and believest stedfastly in him 12 For as the faithfull have many and great enemies so have they many more and greater friends If Sathan and his Angels lay stumbling blocks in thy way God and his Angels shall either remove them that is enable thee to keep on thy course without making a stand or turning back thou shalt either not stumble or so as not to fall thou shalt catch no hurt though thou maiest be endangered 13 Manifold dangers and fierce enemies men and divels the faithfull shall meet with secret plotters and open assailers but neither the one nor the other shall do them any hurt but instead thereof both they and their attempts shall miscarry Gods faithfull people shall take no hurt by the most hurtfull creatures be they never so poisonous or ravenous nor by men of like dispositions to whom the godly are great eye-sores living amongst them they are a trouble and vexation to them against whom they act their rage and malice but to their own destruction 14 Besides my doctrine and example hear God himself bespeaking thee with promises as from his own mouth whom I his Prophet personate Because saith he he that is faithfull hath out of love to me and my faithfulness put his affiance in me he shall have no cause to repent him I will not deceive him he shall not miscarry I will deliver him out of trouble and danger set him quite out of gun-shot they shall as soon hurt heaven as him because out of a right understanding and belief of my power and faithfulness he hath honoured me by believing in me with sutable recumbency 15 Such an one shall but ask and have if he be in trouble I will have an eye to him and an ear for him if he call for deliverance it shall come at his call I will deliver him and in such a manner as that because he honours me I also will honour him with speciall marks of my favour such as his very enemies men or divels shall honour or envy him for here on earth and reward him with glory in heaven 16 Thus will I preserve and lengthen his life to his own desire maugre all that would shorten it he shall know I can and will save him if he trust in me yea my everlasting salvation more worth than my temporall will I open his eyes to see and desire above it and if he believe me for it he shall be sure of it and he that hath the comfort and assurance of that by my spirits ascertaining it unto him will have no cause to think I break faith with him or deceive his faith in me whatever happen The xcii PSALM The Psalmist for the better sanctifying of the Sabbath having penned this Psalm shews the proper and adequate service of that day is to praise the Lord for his manifestations of himself and thank him for his gracious and beneficiall administrations to his people richly declared in his works of creation redemption providence and just judgements all which are nothing in the eyes of worldlings that mind the creature and not the Creatour but how ever they neglect God yet be neglects not to punish them and bless his people who by him and in him shall be happy here and hereafter A Psalm to be both sung and plaied by voices and instruments principally of use upon the Sabbath-day for its better celebrating and the peoples edifying when then they are solemnly assembled to serve the Lord. 1 IT is an acceptable service to God and a commendable imploiment for his people to be much conversant specially on the Sabbath-day in the meditation and recollection of all the benefits of what nature soever which God hath and doth bestow upon us whether of creation providence or redemption and to have our hearts affected and enflamed with them so as to be exceeding thankfull for them And to view and consider his power goodness and mercy manifested and exhibited in them so as to be moved thereby with reverence love and admiration devoutly and solemnly to worship before him and to celebrate his glory and praise as the great and onely God worthy of honour 2 Our duty is to take continuall notice of thy continued and renewed benefits and always to have our hearts upheld thereby in a sweet gratuitous frame and temper with the eye of faith piercing into the love and faithfulness answerable to his grace and promises which shine forth in them that should take us more than the things themselves and cause our thanksgivings far beyond them 3 Which cannot be too solemnly celebrated all the musick of the Temple is too little to do it therefore lay out your utmost strength and skill you that are especially appointed to that honour and service and gifted for it resembling the heavenly Quire raise up your hearts and in that holy place at the appointed times tune up all your instruments those chiefly that are most affecting and heart-ravishing to this work chiefly on this day 4 For though O Lord thou art exceeding beneficiall to all mankind yet of all the world thou hast done most for us which I and the rest of thy peculiar
at the right hand of his Father in the heavenly Jerusalem whose blessed exaltation unto the execution of those offices there is the desire and delight of his soul as being onely well pleased in him and reconciled by him therefore so is Sion here which is the representation of him and them 15 I will multiply blessings for so thou hast said upon the whole land for Sions sake that she may be provided with all manner of store for holy services Let not the poor Israelite fear to bring his offerings and disfurnish himself to worship me as I have appointed for if the service of my sanctuarie lessen his store if there he seek me faithfully he shall carrie such a blessing home with him as he shall have no cause to repent him for I will both bless him with lively-hood let him not fear it and bless it to him 16 The Priests that there officiate in consecrated garments shall be in like manner clothed upon with the saving and sanctifying righteousness of the Messiah which in their zeal and faithful discharge of their places they shall hold forth to the example and edification of their brethren who in the sinceritie of their hearts shall bless the Lord for such happie times wherein so much of God his grace and favour appears in blessing them with a holy Priest-hood and Divine worship and powerfully protecting both it and them 17 I will bless Sion and there shall David my servant be blessed not onely in himself during the time of his regencie but after him his successour and Gods anointed King Solomon shall far exceed him in power and glorie whose wisdom which I shall give him to govern by shall shine with that brightness as shall wonderfully increase his fame and dignitie the world over who shall be a lively pattern of the anointed Messiah that also shall spring out of the stock of David that spiritual Solomon the Prince of peace and mightie counsellour 18 And his enemies that would not he should rule over them but oppose his advancement or disturb his Government I will shamefully cut off both them and their enterprises but him will I bless with a flourishing reign of glorie and affluence at home and abroad resembling Christ both in his own happiness and his enemies confusion The cxxxiii PSALM David being received of all Israel for their King by common and joynt consent after much disagreement and war among the tribes some being for and some against him He shews the happie condition they were now in upon the change how amiable and acceptable unitie had rendered them to God what a flourishing Church and Common-wealth they had and should have by it and that nothing can be a greater blessing to them nor shall be to the Church and people of God in all ages than for them to honour their father and head in heaven by living in brother-hood here on earth See the title of the 120 Psalm the Authors name superadded here 1 COnsider well the singular mercie of God in uniting all the tribes sons of the same father both by nature and adoption that were so far asunder at deadly feud and open war among themselves to the hazard of the whole had not God graciously over-ruled them to peace and unitie under one head and to be all of one heart And as the mercie so the good and benefit of this union is worthie your consideration to move you to cherish and nourish it all you can for besides that Harmonie of hearts is it self an unestimable Jewel and beautiful ornament in the Church and among the people of God a very resemblance of that concord and consort which shall be in heaven the commodities also that issue thence to the publick and every mans particular weal is very considerable and impulsive how thereby all things go well and happily forward in Church and Common-wealth the worship and service of God that flourisheth the re-publick that does the like things are now orderly constituted magistracie maintained people protected justice administred and whereas before we weakened our selves by civil wars now we are strong to defend our selves and offend our enemies round about us In breef it renders us acceptable to God comfortable to our selves and an astonishment to our adversaries both profit and pleasure yea all manner of good that can be named is complicate in and productive from this one comprehensive mercie of concord we for our parts find the sweet of it and so shall the Church of God allwayes especially after such sowr dissentious as we have waded through 2 If I would compare this brotherly union of us so of the people of God in all ages in the pleasurable delectable part of it to any thing it must be to a non-such for such it is I cannot liken it to any thing that in all points better resembleth it than that rich sacred odoriferous ointment made by the special appointment of God himself for so is peace unitie in his Church for the consecration of Aaron and his sons to their holy office and service which being plentifully poured upon the High-priests head did diffuse it self down to his beard and so from thence to the holy vestments from top to toe such in perfect analogie is this general amity wrought by God among us in the sweet savour and blessed effects of it God by me your King and head consecrated as it were to mine office by this your unanimous consent and election as with an holy unction as well as by Gods immediate designation conveighing the benefit and sweetness thereof through the blessing and mediation of the Priestly office and service as by Aarons beard down to you again and so you made happie in the sweet and comfortable benefits and blessings of both by means of amitie and unitie with them and among your selves like as the Church mystical united to her head Christ at Gods right hand in glorie and at brotherly love and amitie in it self shall be unspeakably blessed with those Divine influences of grace and spirit derived from her King and Priest Christ Jesus by the mediation and ministration of his Evangelists and Gospel-ministers down to all the members of his bodie partakers of the sweet fruits and benefits of all his offices and thereby consecrated a sweet savour even Kings and Priests to God with the self-same spirit or holy unction to their infinite honour and consolation 3 And as brotherly love and concord is a pleasant and amiable thing in it self and sweet and acceptable with God so also it is exceeding profitable and brings with it abundance of blessings peace God is wont to bless with plentie whereas wars and discord are accompanied with curses and scarcitie Look how the fruitful dew that falls upon and from mount Hermon that fertil hill down into the fields of Bashan and so abundantly enricheth them to the owners benefit or look which is indeed a properer
comparison for brotherly love is a celestial benefit how the spiritual dew is dispensed from God in heaven on those holy consecrated mountains Sion and Moriah where he vouchsafes his presence unto his people who resort thither to worship him and where they meet with soul-enriching graces and consolations othergets blessings than the dew of Hermon which makes them abound in faith and godliness to their own eternal as well as temporal felicitie such like is peace and love among the Israel and people of God it self is a special blessing from heaven and brings with it all manner of blessings from thence both temporal and spiritual if ever we mean to be rich and happie this is the way to live and love as sons of one father and mother God and the Church members of one body under one head the Messiah as all Israel shall be through love and obedience to David and his successours ruling in Sion as types of Christ. The cxxxiv. PSALM David being a man of fervour and affection in the service of God gives a watch-word to the watch-men of the Temple the Priests and Levites and in them to gospel-Ministers not regardlesly to passe over their duties but to be imployed for the whilst as Christ himself is for ever in praying for the people and Church of God and blessing both God and them and that in a proportionable zeal here to Christ and his saints in heaven in their respective imployments there See the title of the 120 Psalm 1 YOu that are by the special appointment and ordination of God chosen as Christ himself from among all your brethren and preferred to the honour of sanctuarie-administration continually in his presence consider the place you hold whom and what you personate even Jesus Christ in his Priestly office at the right hand of God who ever liveth to make intercession and offer thanks-givings for his Church to his father have that allwayes in your eie and be active suitably stand not idle in your offices nor keep not sleepie centry in the sanctuarie but as your turns come to watch do service there as well night as day rouse up your spirits call to mind the moral meaning of your imployments which is to improve your nearer interest in God by virtue of your offices for the good of his Church and people as Christ does in heaven continually through Christ presenting to God in the Churches behalf the spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanks-giving for his mercies vouchsafed together with prayers and supplications for the continuation and constant gracious dispensation of them still as there is need 2 I say again busie and lay out your selves in those sacred and religious imployments of praise and prayer neither idle nor nifle out your time and Turn in the sanctuarie nor yet with formalitie or hypocrisie do you do your service to him as bare pretenders but as holy and real performers clap your wings in your night-watches let your hearts be in heaven and your hands in token of the fervour of your spirits lifted up thitherwards and so bless the Lord not betwixt sleeping and waking but with the whole soul and bodie too considering he whom you worship is a spirit and his proper place of residence is above in the heavens whose service there for condiscention sake you personate in the sanctuarie here in types shadows wherein you must not stick but by them mount up higher even to him where he is in spirit and faith externally manifested by suitable comportment of bodily action and expression such as are significant and adorative commensurable to Gods glorie and greatness your own hearts puritie faith and fervour and the Divine condition of the Church-Triumphant in heaven 3 Your office is double faced upward and downward you are in Christs stead like Jacobs ladder on which and by which blessings are to ascend and descend for as you are the mouth of the Church and people of God to offer him their thanks and praises blessing him continually in their behalfs as Christ does the father for the elect so likewise are you to be the mouth of God down to his people to bless them from him which doubtless is as an honourable so a full imployment if you set your selves to do it as it ought to be done with that zeal and reverence the Church oweth to her head and with that delight and love the head hath in and to his bodie and fellow-members Pray therefore for and as presenting the person of Jesus Christ that effectual mediatour in his name also faithfully bless ye the Israel of God that do worship him in Sion his place of residence with the blessings of his special protection and salvation who is the onely true God and Allmighty master of heaven and earth The cxxxv PSALM The Psalmist quickens up the people of Israel in general the Priests and Levites more particularly but most especially the faithful of both sorts to magnifie and praise the Lord and this he doth by way of argument taken from the congruitie delectabilitie and dutie of it from such a people to such a God who as he is greatly to be preferred for his self-sake and the excellent power that is in him so for the effects of it towards them the grateful memorie whereof should ever be upheld for his glorie and his peoples faith sake All other Gods being but puppits he onely is God and onely to be blessed as such especially of them that are his onely people and Priests his Church preferred by him of all the world to that honour who therefore ought to honour him how and where he will be worshipped 1 O That all sorts of people would consider their dutie of praising God conscionably to discharge it in spirit and power to magnifie him for his greatness as Lord of and over all yea for his excellent attributes and properties not onely absolute but relative of grace and goodness and for his alonenes for as there is no God like him so there is no God but him O ye servants of the Lord chosen by him and set apart for that purpose what ever others do forget not you your duties not onely of your persons but of your places to praise the Lord worthily with hearts enlarged with the apprehensions of him and his manifold excellencies 2 I mean ye Priests and Levites principally be you especially conversant in this service of praising the Lord in his holy Temple where you are priviledged to administer like to the glorified saints in heaven that stand in his presence for ever more praising the Lord. Yea and all others also that are admitted to the participation of grace and that worship him in his ordinances though at greater distance whether Levites or people whose persons and praises faithfully tendered in spirit are yet really accepted and graciously regarded by the God of Israel whose presence is as well in the courts which also are sanctified as in
that by his power so alters the face of the heavens as we often see from serene and clear suddenly over-spreading them with thick and dark clouds so disposing it for the use and benefit of the earth that needs as well rain as fair weather which he transmits by those clouds so convoked and thereby causeth the earth to fructifie which else would be barren and like fallow land yea the very mountains are made pasturable by this means that are not capable of the benefit of flouds like lower grounds yet by his blessing from above are usefull and productive of grass and hearbs 9 And so provideth sustentation for the irrational creature making nature to supply the want of art and husbandrie to the very beast and that variously too according to the several kinds thereof in apt times and places producing suitable food to the several Species of that vast Genus and the birds as well as beasts are sustained and provided for by him yea those that we least set by the raven that though it be not meat for man yet God it being his creature provides meat for it and that too when they are young and early forsaken of the old and so want skill to shift for themselves yet have they their cries heard which nature hath taught them to put up their need supplied by God who even hears them 10 Think not that it is any created excellencie that commends men to God he is not moved by such objects and arguments as man is he bestows not his blessings upon man either by or for his own or the creatures strength or exceellencie to give success either therefore or thereafter 11 No that whch moves with God is his own graces active and stirring in the hearts of his people if you would be blessed of him be in favour with him then with filial fear endeavour his pleasing in all you do and avoid the contrarie and so walking before him confidently trust in him for grace and mercie chear-up your hearts in hope of his goodness and faithfulness toward you this and onely this is the way to be accepted of him and blessed by him 12 Wherein you that are his Church and people have the odds of all the world who for those extrinsecal created priviledges of men and horses may go beyond you but not as to God it is your intrinsecal graces wrought by him and active towards him that prefers you above all the world in his esteem O therefore praise the Lord ye his Israel his Church chosÌ„e that have the happiness to congregate at Jerusalem to worship him there in his holy mountain which he hath peculiarely set apart for the place to be worshiped in like as you for the people representing his church universal chosen out of the world to have the honour to worship and serve him from all others on whom he bestows his grace and in whom he onely takes content and pleasure no creature but the new creature since the fall being delightfull to him for which they therefore that are so ought to praise him even for this their happie proprietie and interest in him 13 Whereby it is that Jerusalem both real and mystical is fortified against all earthly power by divine protection stronger than horse or man the sons and daughters of the Church whereof God is the father is blessed in that their relation and interest and are under the Lords special care and power for their preservation as Jerusalem with the inhabitants and faithfull worshippers therein is and shall be secured by the special presence of God there resident 14 To whom he giveth peace and preservation spite of her many enemies even in all the borders of Israel who by the blessing of God in their own land enjoy peace and tranquilitie as his Church and people shall peace of conscience yea and with peace plentie and that of the best of earthly blessings of the flower of wheat the staff of temporal life like as his Church shall be happie as in peace of conscience so in Angels food the joy of the holy Ghost testifying the mind of God his love and favour toward them the best upholder of life spiritual 15 This thy God O Israel is he that commands all the world over and whatsoever throughout the whole creation he pleaseth effectually to will is by all creatures obeyed accordingly and can be no other nothing can give impediment to his will all second causes being at his beck to do his pleasure so that the word of command is no sooner given to any creature or creatures from one end of the world to the other but it is obeyed and the thing acted that he commanded the whole course of nature being nothing else but a ready and actual fulfilling of those things which he commands 16 Witness the several and wonderfull effects thereof how in the winter time by Gods appointmen and transmutation the earth is quite changed in form and complexion being covered over with snow a white and light substance as sheep with wâ—oll which he transmits from above and makes the hoarie frost lye upon the face of the earth scattered and dispersed as ashes when they are blowne about by the wind 17 Also the hail when it falls it is he that as he formed it above so sends it down below not in one intire coagulated bodie as is the nature of ice which would overwhelm and destroy the creature but in those showers and dispersions piece-meal as we see Who lives that is not sensible of the pinching weather that in winter time he is pleased to send and that is able to endure the extremitie of cold without helps and arts whereby to keep them warm 18 And as before he sent out his word and that caused them to be both snow and frost when and whilest they were so when he pleaseth to change the scene and that the earth and waters shall return to their proper elementarie appearance again he doth but give the word and it is done as it made them so it dissolves them he commands but a moist thawing wind for the winds also are his and at his dispose to blow and that melts the snow and ice into the water whereof it was congealed and so reduceth the rivers which in that could season were bound up with a firm unmoveable bodie of ice into their motion and current as before with an over-flowing augmentation by the dissolving of those waterie Meteors 19 By the word of his power creative and providential he is thus seen and known all the world over no people nor nation but partake thereof evidently But to Israel Jacobs posteritie his Church and chosen people doth he besides that hold forth another manner of word to wit a word of grace declaring his whole will to them and government over them not onely as a Creatour but a Lord and Saviour and so also owning them for his not
good Let them be strong in strength and with a mightie irresistable power prevail against all opposers as indeed they shall like as shall Christ by his word and spirit in the mouth of his Ministers to the setting up of his Kingdom all the world over Israel shall be prevalent over the heathen and Gentile nations round about that have so cruelly vexed and plagued them their turn is now come to be under and ours to be over to revenge and punish Gods dishonour and his peoples miseries upon them as the Church shall triumph over the wicked at the glorious appearing of Christs Kingdom 8 Yea as well Princes as people shall be brought into subjection Israel shall have dominion over all her enemies of what ranck so ever and shall lead captivitie captive under me as Christ and his Church shall do overcome at last their over-comers we shall have a resurrection out of our long endured miseries and be free-men when as ours and the Churches enemies how great soever shall have their declension and abasement no power on earth can hinder the powerful decree of heaven nor resist the execution thereof when the set time is come as now it is neither Kings nor nobles who then shall be but like other men easily vanquishable for all their power and authoritie as they shall be by Christ either brought into subjection and fealtie to him in his Kingdom of grace or led in triumph by him at his appearing in his Kingdom of glorie when his Church shall be triumphant 9 What the Lord hath promised in his peoples behalf and threatened to their enemies is now to be fulfilled even their destruction or subjection not by their own power but by the power of his word and promise who is faithful and almightie therefore shall it come to pass and in the faith thereof shall they prevail under me as shall the Church of Christ under him either ministerially to vanquish them or ultimately to triumph over them in a final and total destruction This glorious priviledge have the people of God his Israel which are or should be saints and his saints his really sanctified and adopted ones which are indeed his onely Israel thus by the power of his might the faithfulness of his never failing promise to overcome or overthrow all their rebellious opposers oppressours Therefore both one and other Israel now and Israel hereafter even all the people of God chew the cud upon this your happie condition through the mercie and grace of God in Christ and praise him for it The cl PSALM David never wearie of this theme presseth hard upon all principally the Church and people of God to praise the Lord and that both in and by his commanded worship as also by the book and borrowed helps of nature creation and providence and the glorious manifestations he makes of himsâ—â—f herein and this to be done with Heart and Art to the utmost of both He concludes that all flesh by nature is bound to do it and Israel by grace 1 YE that are the people of the Lord be much imployed in this singular service of praising and magnifying him that is so much yours above others and that have his peculiar residence amongst you in his sanctuarie the resemblance of heaven where is his proper residence such is the condiscention of his Divine greatness and Majestie to be worshipped as in heaven by glorified saints so also here by sanctified ones which be sure you neglect not that are his chosen priviledged people worhsip him here below with your minds above as you extend your voices so enlarge your graces eye him and reverence him in his heavenly sanctuarie when you draw nigh to praise him in his earthly where he principally resides in glorie and Majestie even above the firmament which so manifests his greatness and magnifies his power in the infinit extension of it and the varietie of excellent creatures that are in it to draw your soul upward though your bodies are prostrate and to give you to understand that it is the great God of heaven whose wonders shine in the firmament above that you are to magnifie in your sanctuarie-praises here beneath 2 Whose works of power are not onely in the firmament but extended like it every where upon the face of the whole earth for all which both above and below you ought to praise him and that with faith and reverence proportionable to such powerful efficatiousness that can bring forth such wonderful effects of creative and providential omnipotencie as every where he doeth especially for his people all which shews with what surpassing greatness he excelleth whose throne is so high above all and his power in and over all the glorie and reverence whereof as he expects it so we ought to render it with praisefull adoration that are the peculiar people of such a God 3 4 5 Muster up all your forces to this work and dutie Praise him in his sanctuarie with the utmost expression can be made tune all your stringed instruments and that unto the highest key and make your wind instruments speak out aloud Let nature Art and grace put forth themselves to the utmost with the highest affections and utmost expressions celebrate his praises on earth as in heaven who deserves it and whose deserts do far transcend it 6 Let all flesh breathing give glorie to God their Creatour and praise his name that is so praise-worthie in the eyes of all by the manifold manifestations of his infinite and superlative excellencies in their own particulars and in the whole creation so plainly appearing but most especially ye that are especially the Lords praise ye the Lord not onely for the generalitie of greatness and goodness that all the world partakes the knowledge and benefit of but be ye so ravished with the peculiaritie of the grace mercie and love of God to you respectively as to put forth your selves in a return of praise above nature suitable and acceptable magnifying grace with grace singing and making melodie in your hearts to the Lord your God FINIS 1 BLessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornfull 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper 4 The ungodly are not so but are like the chaft which the wind driveth away 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous 6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish Psalm 2. 1 WHy do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing 2 The
thou hast broken it heal the breaches thereof for it shaketh 3 Thou hast shewed thy people hard things thou hast made them to drink the wine of astonishment 4 Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee that it may be displayed because of the truth Selah 5 That thy beloved may be delivered save with thy right hand and hear me 6 God hath spoken in his holiness I will rejoyce I will divide Shechem mete out the valley of Succoth 7 Gilead is mine Manasseh is mine Ephraim also is the strength of mine head Judah is my Law-giver 8 Moab is my washpot over Edom will I cast my shoe Philistia triumph thou because of me 9 Who will bring me into the strong Citie who will lead me into Edom 10 Wilt not thou O God which hadst cast us off and thou O God which didst not go out with our armies 11 Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man 12 Through God we shall do valiantly for he it is that shall tread down our enemies Psalm lxi To the chief musician upon Neginoth A Psalm of David 1 HEar my cry O God attend unto my prayer 2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when mine heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 3 For thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy 4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever I will trust in the cover of thy wings Selah 5 For thou O God hast heard my vows thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name 6 Thou wilt prolong the Kings life and his years as many generations 7 He shall abide before God for ever O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him 8 So will I sing praise unto thy name forever that I may daily perform my vows Psalm lxii To the chief musician to Seduthun A Psalm of David 1 TRuly my soul waiteth upon God from him cometh my salvation 2 He onely is my rock and my salvation he is my defence I shall not be greatly moved 3 How long will ye imagine mischief against a man Ye shall he slain all of you as a bowing wall shall ye be and as a tottering fence 4 They only consult to cast him down from his excellencie they delight in lies they bless with their mouths but they curse inwardly 5 My soul wait thou onely upon God for mine expectation is from him 6 He onely is my rock and my salvation he is my defence I shall not be moved 7 In God is my salvation and my glory the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God 8 Trust in him at all times ye people pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us Selah 9 Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lie to be laid in the ballance they are alltogether lighter than vanity 10 Trust not in oppression and becom not vain in robbery if riches increase set not your heart upon them 11 God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God 12 Also unto thee O Lord belongeth mercy for thou renderest to every one according to his work Psalm lxiii A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah 1 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth after thee my flesh longeth for thee in a a dry and thirsty land where no water is 2 To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary 3 Because thy loveing-kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live I will lift up my hands in thy name 5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfull lips 6 When I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches 7 Because thou hast been my help therefore in the shaddow of thy wing will I rejoyce 8 My soul followeth hard after thee thy right hand upholdeth me 9 But those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth 10 They shall fall by the sword they shall be a portion for Foxes 11 But the King shall rejoyce in God every one that sweareth by him shall glory but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped Psalm lxiv. To the chief musician A Psalm of David 1 HEar my voice O God in my prayer preserve my life from fear of the enemie 2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked from the insurrection of the workers of iniquitie 3 Who whet their tongue like a sword and bend their bow to shoot their arrows even bitter words 4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not 5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter they commune of laying snares privily they say who shall see them 6 They search our iniquities they accomplish a diligent search both the inward thought of every one of them and the heart is deep 7 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded 8 So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves all that see them shall flie away 9 And all men shall fear and shall declare the work of God for they shall wisely cnsider of his doing 10 The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him and all the upright in heart shall glory Psalm lxv To the chief musitian A Psalm and Song of David 1 PRaise waiteth for thee O God in Sion and unto thee shall the vow be performed 2 O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come 3 Iniquitiâ—s prevail against me as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away 4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple 5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us O God of our salvation who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of them that are aâ—ar off upon the seas 6 Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains being girded with power 7 Which stilleth the noise of the seas the noise of their waves and the tumult of the people 8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are affraid of thy tokens thou makest the out-goings of the morning and evening to rejoyce 9 Thou visitest the earth and waterest it thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God which is full of water thoâ— preparest them câ—rn when thou hast so provided for it 10 Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly thou setlest the furrows thereof thou makest it soft with showers thou blessest the
strength is in the clouds 35 O God thou art terrible out of thy holy places the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people blessed be God Psalm lxix To the chief musician upon Shoshannim A Psalm of David 1 SAve me O God for the waters are come in unto my soul. 2 I sink in deep mire where there is no standing I am come into deep waters where the flouds overflow me 3 I am weary of my crying my throat is dried mine eyes fail while I wait for my God 4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head they that would destroy me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty then I restored that which I took not away 5 O God thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from thee 6 Let not them that wait on thee O Lord God of hosts be ashamed for my sake let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake O God of Israel 7 Because for thy sake I have born reproach shame hath covered my face 8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an aliant unto my mothers children 9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that 10 When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting that was to my reproach 11 I made sack-cloth also my garment and I became a proverb to them 12 They that sit in the gate spake against me and I was the song of the drunkards 13 But as for me my prayer is unto thee O Lord in an acceptable time O God in the multitude of thy mercy hear me in the truth of thy salvation 14 Deliver me out of the mire and let me not sink let me be delivered from them that hate me and out of the deep waters 15 Let not the water â—loud overflow me neither let the deep swallow me up and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me 16 Hear me O Lord for thy loving kindness is good turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies 17 And hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble here me speedily 18 Draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it deliver me because of mine enemies 19 Thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonour mine adversaries are all before thee 20 Reproach hath broken my heart and I am full of heaviness and I looked for some to take pitie but there was none for comforters but I found none 21 They gave me also gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vineger to drink 22 Let their table become a sâ—are before them and that which should have been for their welfare let it become a trap 23 Let their eyes be darkned that they see not and make their Ioiâ—es continually to shake 24 Pour out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathfull angâ—r take hold of them 25 Let their habitation be desolate and let none dwell in their tents 26 For they pâ—rsecute him whom thou hast smitten and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded 27 Adde iniquitie to their iniquitie and let them not come into righteousness 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous 29 But I am poor and sorrowfull let thy salvation O God set me up on high 30 I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnifie him with thanksgiving 31 This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs 32 The humble shall see this and be glad and your heart shall live that seek God 33 For the Lord heareth the poore and despiseth not his prisoners 34 Let the heaven and earth praise him the seas and every thing that moveth therein 35 For God will save Sion and will build the Cities of Judah that they may dwell there and have it in possession 36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit and they that love his name shall dwell therein Psalm lxx To the chief musician A Psalm made by David to bring to remembrance 1 MAke hast O God to deliver me make hast to help me O Lord. 2 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soule let them be turned backward and put to confusion that desire my hurt 3 Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say Aha Aha 4 Let all those that seek thee rejoyce and be glad in thee and let such as love thy salvation say continually Let God be magnified 5 But I am poor and needy make hast unto me O God thou art my help and my deliverer O Lord make no tarrying Psalm lxxi 1 IN thee O Lord do I put my trust let me never be put to confusion 2 Deliver me in thy righteousness and cause me to escape incline thine ear unto me and save me 3 Be thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort thou hast given commandment to save me for thou art my rock and my fortress 4 Deliver me O my God out of the hand of the wicked out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man 5 For thou art my hope O Lord God thou art my trust from my youth 6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb thou art he that took me out of my mothers bowels my praise shall be continually of thee 7 I am as a wonder unto many but thou art my strong refuge 8 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day 9 Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth 10 For mine enemies speak against me and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together 11 Saying God hath forsaken him persecute and take him for there is none to deliver him 12 O God be not far from me O my God make hast for my help 13 Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt 14 But I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more 15 My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day for I know not the numbers thereof 16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine onely 17 O God thou hast taught me from my youth and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works 18 Now also when I am old and gray-headed O God forsake me not until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to every one that is to come 19 Thy righteousness also O God is very high who hast done great things O God who is like unto thee 20 Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again
Selah 5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are the ways of them 6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well the rain also filleth the pooles 7 They go from strength to strength every one of them in Sion appeareth before God 8 O Lord God of hosts hear my prayer give ear O God of Jacob Selah 9 Behold O God our shield and look upon the face of thine anointed 10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwel in the â—ents of wickedness 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will â—e with-hold from them that walk uprightly 12 O Lord of hosts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee Psalm lxxxv To the chief musician A Psalm for the sons of Korah 1 LOrd thou hast been favourable unto thy land thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. 2 Thou hast forgiven the iniquitie of thy people thou hast covered all their sin Selah 3 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath thou hast turned thy self from the fierceness of thine anger 4 Turn us O God of our salvation and cause thine anger towards us to cease 5 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations 6 Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoce in thee 7 Shew us thy merâ— O Lord and grant salvation 8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints but let them not turn again to â—olly 9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him that glorie may dwell in our land 10 Mercie and truth are met together righteousness peace have killed eaâ—h other 11 Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven 12 Yea the Lord shall give that which is good and our land shall yield her increase 13 Righteousness shall go before him and shall set us in the way of his steps Psalm lxxxvi A prayer of David 1 BOw down thine ear O Lord hear me for I am poor and needie 2 Preserve my soul for I am holy O thou my God save thy servant that trusteth in thee 3 Be merciful unto me O Lord for I crie unto thee dayly 4 Rejoyce the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul. 5 For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercie unto all them that call upon thee 6 Give ear O Lord unto my praier and attend to the voice oâ— my supplications 7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee for thou wilt answer me 8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works 9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy name 10 For thou art great and doest wondrous things thou art God alone 11 Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy name 12 I will praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorifie thy name for evermore 13 For great is thy mercie toward me and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell 14 O God the proud are risen against me and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul and have not set thee before them 15 But thou O Lord art a God full of compassion and gracious long-suffering and plenteous in mercie and truth 16 O turn unto me and have mercie upon me give thy strength unto thy servant and save the son of thine handmaid 17 Shew me a token for good that they which hate me may see it and be ashamâ—d because thou Lord hast holpen me and comforted me Psalm lxxxvii A Psalm or song for the sons of Korah 1 HIs foundation is in the holy mountains 2 The Lord loveth the gates of Sâ—on more than all the dwellings of Jacob. 3 Glorious things are spoken of thee O citie of God Selah 4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know ' me behold Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia this man was born there 5 And of Sion it shall be said This and that man was born in her and the highest himself shall establish her 6 The Lord shall count when he writeth up the people that this man was born there Selah 7 As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there all my springs are in thee Psalm lxxviii A song or Psalm for the sons of Korah to the chief musician upon Mahalath Leannoth Maschil of Heman the Ezraelite 1 O Lord God of my salvation I have cried day and night before thee 2 Let my prayer come before thee incline thine ear unto my cry 3 For my soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave 4 I aâ— counted with them that go down into the pit I am as a man that hath no strength 5 Free among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave whom thou rememberest no more and they are cut off from thy hand 6 Thou hast â—aid me in the lowest pit in darknes in the deeps 7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves Selah 8 Thou hast put away mine aâ—quaintance far from me thou hast made me an abomination unto them I am shut up and I cannot come forth 9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of afâ—â—ition Lord I have called dâ—lly upon thee I have stretched our mine hands unto thee 10 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee Selah 11 Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction 12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness 13 But unto thee have I cried O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee 14 Lord why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me 15 I am afflicted and readie to die from my youth up while I suâ—fer thy terrours I am distracted 16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me thy terrours have cut me off 17 They came round about me dayly like water they compassed me about together 18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darkness Psalm lxxxix Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite 1 I Will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations 2 For I have said mercie shall be built up for ever thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens 3 I have made a covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto
help me 176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep seek thy servant for I do not forget thy commandments A song of degrees Psalm cxx 1 IN my distress I cried unto the Lord and he heard me 2 Deliver my Soul O Lord from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue 3 What shall be given unto thee or what shall be done unto thee thou false tongue 4 Sharp arrows of the mightie with coals of juniper 5 Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar 6 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace 7 I am for peace but when I speak they are for war Psalm cxxi A song of degrees 1 I Will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help 2 My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven earth 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved he that keepeth thee will not slamber 4 Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep 5 The Lord is thy keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand 6 The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night 7 The Lord shall reserve thee from all evil he shall preserve thy soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even for evermore Psalm cxxii A song of degrees of David 1 I Was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord. 2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem 3 Jerusalem is builded as a Citie that is compact together 4 Whither the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord unto the testimonie of Israel to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. 5 For there are set thrones of judgement the thrones of the house of David 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee 7 Peace be within thy walls and prosperiâ—ie within thy palaces 8 For my brethren and companions sake I will now say Peace be with thee 9 Because of tâ—e house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good Psalm cxxiii A song of degreeâ— 1 UNto thee lift I up mine eyeâ— O thou that dwellest in the heavens 2 Behoâ—d as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their maiters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercie upon us 3 Have mercie upon us O Lord have mercie upon us for we are exceedingly filled with contempt 4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud Psalm cxxiv A song of degrees of David 1 IF it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say 2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us 3 Then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us 4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our soul. 5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. 6 Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth 7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped 8 Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth Psalm cxxv A song of degrees 1 THey that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion which cannot be removed but abideth for ever 2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever 3 For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquitie 4 Do good O Lord unto those that be good and to them that are upright in their hearts 5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked wayes the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquitie but peace shall be upon Israel Psalm cxxvi A song of degrees 1 WHen the Lord turned again the captivitie of Sion we were like them that dream 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter our toÌ„gue with singing then said they among the heathen the Lord hath done great things for them 3 The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad 4 Turn again our captivity O Lord as the streams in the south 5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy 6 He that goeth forth and weepeth hearing pretious seed shall doubtless â—ome again wiâ—h reioycing bringing his sheaves with him Psalm cxxvii A Song of degrees for or as in the margin of Solomon 1 EXcept the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it except the Lord keep the citie the watchman waketh but in vain 2 It is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrow for so he giveth his beloved sleep 3 Lo children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward 4 As arrows are in the hands of a mighty man so are children of the youth 5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them they shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate Psalm cxxviii A Song of degrees 1 BLessed is every one that feareth the Lord that walketh in his waies 2 〈◊〉 thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands happy shalt thou be and it shall be well with thee 3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitfull vine by the sides of thine house thy children like olive plants round about thy table 4 Behold that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. 5 The Lord shall bless thee out of Sion and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life 7 Yea thou shalt see thy childrens children and peaâ—e upon Israel Psalm cxxix 1 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel now say 2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet they have not prevailed against me 3 The plowers plowed upon my back they made long their furrows 4 The Lord is righteous he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked 5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Sion 6 Let them be as the grass upon the house tops which withereth before it springeth up 7 Wherewith the mowe silieth not his hand nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom 8 Neither do they whiâ—h go by say the blessing of the Lord be upon you we bless you in the name of the Lord. Psalm CXXX A song of degrees 1 OUt of the depths have I cried uno thee O Lord. 2 Lord hear my vioce let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication 3 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities