19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.

21 The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.

22 For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.

23 The steps of a good man are "ordered by the LORD and he delighteth in his way.

24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the LORD Upholdeth him with his hand.

25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

12

26 He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.

27 Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.

28 For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.

29 The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.

30 The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. 31 The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.

13

32 The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.

33 The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.

34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. 35 I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like "a green bay tree. 36 Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace.

38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.

39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD he is their strength in the time of trouble.

40 And the LORD shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in

him.

12 Heb, all the day.

PSALM XXXVII.-This is one of the alphabetical psalms. In the two that have already occurred, the stanzas commencing with the successive initials which the alphabet offers, consist of only two lines each; but the present has four lines to each stanza thus marked, which accounts for its greater length, notwithstanding the acrostical restriction. It is indeed the longest of these psalms, and consequently the only one that has four lines to each stanza. Calmet thinks this psalm was written during the captivity at Babylon, for the consolation of the captives; but the more general opinion is, that it was composed by David towards the latter end of his life; it is indeed replete with such experiences as the life of David is known to have supplied.

ezrakh)

Verse 35. A green bay tree.'-The word ( occurs only in this text, and has been variously explained. Most of the Rabbins, followed by Mudge, Waterland, Gesenius, Hengstenberg, and many others, prefer that which is given in our marginal reading, denoting an indigenous tree-implying the flourishing condition of that which grows in its native and congenial soil. This we

PSALM XXXVIII.

David moveth God to take compassion of his pitiful case.
A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.
O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither
chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

13 Or, goings.

certainly prefer. But the Septuagint, Vulgate, and some other ancient versions, followed by some good authorities, have cedar.' For the reading of bay tree,' we are not aware of any authority, except the very feeble one which is offered by some of the older of the modern versions, in this country and on the Continent. Images, comparing the transitory nature of human hope and prosperity to the sudden blight and overthrow which so often befall the glory of the forest or the pride of the garden, are at once so beautiful and natural that they have been employed by poets of every country and age as often as by those of İsrael. A passage in one of our own poets (Shakspere) furnishes a beautiful paraphrase on the present text.

This is the state of man: To-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls.'

2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any 'rest in my bones because of my sin.

4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine

head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

5 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

7 For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh. 8 I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

9 LORD, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.

10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me as for the light of mine eyes, it also 'is gone from me.

11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and 'my kinsmen stand afar

off.

was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

14 Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

15 For in thee, O LORD, do I hope thou wilt hear, O LORD my God.

16 For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.

17 For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.

18 For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.

19 But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

20 They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.

21 Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me.

22 Make haste to help me, O LORD my salvation.

6 Or, thee do I wait for. 10 Heb. for my help.

TITLE,

To bring to remembrance.'-This is also prefixed to Ps. lxx. The superscription is, as usual, differently understood: but it is generally understood to characterize the object of the psalm, between which and the title some agreement may be traced. Gesenius paraphrases it,To bring (one's self) into remembrance (with God).' Waterland compresses the whole title into David's memorial Psalm.'

It is agreed that this psalm was composed by David. It was probably written during a sickness which afforded him opportunity of calling to remembrance his deep sin in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, and the various

calamities which had befallen him on that account; and gave him occasion to lament his miserable condition. The description may thus have a two-fold reference- the disease of soul being figuratively included in the bodily disease. There are, however, many who think that the description is wholly a figurative account of David's spiritual condition: and in this there is nothing unlikely; it being quite common in Scripture to describe diseases of the moral and spiritual condition by comparisons taken from diseases of the body. However understood, it is clear that he felt the condition he describes as a chastisement on account of his sins.

PSALM XXXIX.

1 David's care of his thoughts. 4 The consideration of the brevity and vanity of life, 7 the reverence of God's judgments, 10 and prayer, are his bridles of impatience.

To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David.

I SAID, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was *stirred.

3 My heart was hot within me, while I

11 Chron. 25.1. 2 Heb. a bridle, or, muzzle for my mouth. Psalm 62.9, and 144. 4.

was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

4 LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

7 And now, LORD, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.

9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest 'his beauty to

8 Heb. conflict.

TITLE, Jeduthun.'-From 1 Chron. xvi. 42; xxv. 1; 2 Chron. v. 12, it appears that Jeduthun was one of the chief musicians. This therefore strengthens the conclusions stated in the note to Ps. iv.

This psalm is generally regarded as a sequel to the preceding, and on the same occasion. Some, however, think that it was occasioned by the death of Absalom, after Joab had represented to David the inconsistency of the vehement grief in which he had then indulged.

Verse 11. Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth.'-The moths of the East are very large and beautiful, but short lived. After a few showers these splendid insects may be seen fluttering in every breeze;

but the dry weather and their numerous enemies soon consign them to the common lot. Thus the beauty of man consumes away like that of this gay rover, dressed in his robes of purple, and scarlet, and green.

12. I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.'-See also the parallel texts. This is in the East a favourite mode of characterizing our condition in this life. So Mohammed, of whom Ibn-Omer relates: 'His majesty took hold of some of my limbs, and said, 'Be in the world like a traveller, or like a passer by, and reckon yourself as of the dead."-Mischat-ul-Masabih, book xxii. chap. 25, pt. 1,

PSALM XL.

1 The benefit of confidence in God. 6 Obedience is the best sacrifice. 11 The sense of David's evils inflameth his prayer.

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

'I WAITED patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: "they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,

8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

9 I have preached righteousness in the

great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.

10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up: they are more than the hairs of mine head; therefore my heart faileth me.

13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.

14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.

15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.

16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation. say continually, The LORD be magnified.

17 But I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

3 Or, none can order them unto thee. 5 Heb. digged. 6 Heb. in the midst of my bowels. 8 Psal. 33. 4, and 70. 3.

PSALM XL. This is usually considered a psalm of thanksgiving by David on his recovery from the diseased condition of body or mind, to which the two preceding psalms refer.

Verse 6. Mine ears hast thou opened,' or 'bored.'There is probably here an allusion to a custom of Hebrew

PSALM XLI.

1 God's care of the poor. 4 David complaineth of his enemies' treachery. 10 He fleeth to God for succour.

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. BLESSED is he that considereth 'the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

2 The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.

3 The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt 'make all his bed in his sickness.

4 I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.

5 Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?

6 And if he come to see me, he speaketh

bondage, as explained in Exod. xxi. 5, 6; Deut. xv. 17. Every one who had sold his liberty was to go free at the jubilee; but if any one so loved his master as to prefer to continue in bondage, his ear was bored in token of his willing subjection.

vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it.

7 All that hate me whisper together against me against me do they devise my hurt. 8 'An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him and now that he lieth he shall rise

up no more. 9 'Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath "lifted up his heel against me.

10 But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them. 11 By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. 12 And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.

13 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.

PSALM XLI. It is generally understood that David composed this psalm with reference to the conspiracy of Absalom, his best beloved son, and the treachery of Achitophel, the familiar friend in whom he trusted. If so, it might seem, from the mention of his sickness (if it be a real and not a figurative disease), and from the reference, in verse 5, to the expectation of his enemies that he would die, that the sickness to which the preceding chapters refer occurred just before the revolt of Absalom, who, from the intimations here given, may seem to have suspended his design, in the expectation that the death of his father would give him all the advantages he could hope from the

open revolt to which he resorted when the king's recovery frustrated this expectation. Perhaps the incaution into which the conspirators were betrayed by the expectation of his death, conveyed to him some intimation of their plans. Under this view, the present psalm may perhaps have been composed just before, or not long after, David fled from Jerusalem with the faithful party which remained true in his cause.

Verse 13. Amen and amen.'-With this concludes the first of the five books into which the Jews have divided the book of Psalms.-See the INTRODUCTION.

PSALM XLII.

1 David's zeal to serve God in the temple. 5 He encourageth his soul to trust in God.

To the chief Musician, 'Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the 1 Or, A Psalm giving instruction of the sons, &c. 2 Heb. brayeth. Or, his presence is salvation.

multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou_disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet 'praise him for the help of his countenance.

6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from 'the hill Mizar.

7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows

8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

PSALM XLII.-Bishop Lowth considers this psalm one of the most beautiful specimens of the Hebrew elegy. It seems to have been composed by David when he was expelled from his kingdom by his rebellious son, and compelled to fly to the borders of Lebanon, as it is plain he did, from 2 Sam. xvii. 24, 26, 27. Undoubtedly, whoever composed this psalm, was expelled from the sacred city, and wandered as an exile in the region beyond the Jordan (verse 7). David was never here during the persecutions of Saul, and it is therefore preferable to select the period of Absalom's revolt. Here then he pitched his camp, protected by the surrounding mountains and woods; and hither the veteran soldiers, attached personally to him and averse to change, resorted from every part of Palestine. Here also, indulging his melancholy, the prospect and objects about him suggested many of the ideas in this poem. Observing the deer, which constantly came from the distant valleys to the fountains of Lebanon, and comparing this circumstance with his earnest desire to revisit the temple of God, and perhaps elevating his thoughts to a higher celestial temple, he commences his poem, As the hart panteth after the water-brooks,' etc. See Michaelis, as quoted in a note to Lowth's 23rd Lecture.

Verse 1. As the hart panteth after the water brooks,' etc.-The hart, naturally of a hot and arid constitution, suffers much from thirst in the Oriental regions. He therefore seeks the fountain or the stream with intense desire, particularly when his natural thirst has been aggravated by the pursuit of the hunter. Panting and braying. with eagerness, he precipitates himself into the river, that he may quench at once the burning fever which consumes his vitals in its cooling waters' (Bochart, in Paxton, vol. ii. p. 167). Such animals also suffer much, and pant painfully for water, when they have been chased from their favourite haunts into the waterless plains by the fiercer inmates of the forest or the glade, and are afraid to return to the water lest they should again be molested. And when the unconquerable wants of nature compel them at

last to venture, or when they discover some other source from which they may be gratified, the intense and panting eagerness which they exhibit furnishes a beautiful verification of the comparison employed by the Psalmist. See the note and cut under Deut. xii. 15.

3. My tears have been my meat day and night.'-'It seems odd to an English reader to represent tears as meat or food; but we should remember that the sustenance of the ancient Hebrews consisted for the most part of liquids, such as broths, pottages,' etc. HENLEY: note in Lowth.

7. The noise of thy water-spouts.'-There is no part of the Mediterranean in which water-spouts are of such frequent occurrence as on the coast of Syria. The Jews were, therefore, familiar with the phenomenon, and it naturally finds a place in the present description of a storm at sea. Water-spouts in the Mediterranean are by no means unfrequent, as we can personally testify; but it is to Dr. Shaw we owe the knowledge of the fact, that there is no part of that sea in which they are so frequently seen as off Cape Latikea, Greego, and Carmel-all of which are on the coast of Syria. It is, therefore, by no means unlikely that David had actually seen water - spouts himself; or, if not, it is certain that they must have been well known by the report of those who had seen them, to David and to the people generally-forming a part of the common stock of knowledge. This not being known formerly so well as it is now, the elder commentators were disposed to consider that the phrase here employed should rather be understood of a flood of rain than of a waterspout. But how then of the noise?' which is proper to water-spouts, but not-or at least not in the same signal degree-to rain. A water-spout at sea is a splendid sight; in shape it resembles a funnel, with the tube pointed to the water. After a time it bursts, and the noise occasioned by the fall of a large body of water into the sea is very great. Their bursting near a vessel would involve it in great danger of being submerged; and hence a gun is usually fired at it, to make it break at a distance.