PSALM XCII.

1 The prophet exhorteth to praise God, 4 for his
great works, 6 for his judgments on the wicked,
10 and for his goodness to the godly.

A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day.
Ir is a good thing to give thanks unto the
LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O
most high:

2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness 'every night,

3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery: 'upon the harp with a solemn sound.

4 For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

5 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

6 A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.

7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed

for ever:

1 Heb. in the nights.

5 Heb. green.

*Or, upon the solemn sound with the harp. Heb. Iliggaion. 4 Hos. 14. 5. PSALM XCII. Some of the Rabbis depart from their plan of attributing the whole of the psalms, on which we are now engaged, to Moses, in favour of a fancy which they have, that the present psalm was written by Adam, soon after his creation. It is scarcely worth while to notice so absurd an idea: but the reader will observe the mention of musical instruments in verse 2, which were not invented (and then only one of them) till the time of Jubal, a descendant of Cain: and when Adam was in Eden, where were the brutish, foolish men of whom the psalm speaks; and where the wicked men, his enemies, that rose up against him? The cedars of Lebanon also are mentioned in verse 12. The Rabbis could scarcely have found a psalm less likely to have been written by Adam. David is probably its author: not Moses, because the musical instruments mentioned, were not introduced into the sacred services till David's time.

Verse 3. “Psaltery.”—The original word is nebel, which is preserved in the Greek vaßλa, and the Latin nablum. Our information concerning it is still less distinct than concerning the kinnor. The only tolerably probable conclusion with respect to it is that it was a stringed instrument, and that of the harp or lyre kind. The following is we believe the amount of the information to be gleaned from the Scriptures. The nebel is first, chronologically, mentioned in the Psalms of David, which may assure us that it was not of nearly so high antiquity as the kinnor and some other instruments. From 1 Kings x. 12, we learn that this instrument as well as the kinnor was of precious wood; although, if we are to believe Josephus, it would seem that some of them—those used in the Temple-were ultimately made of that species of precious mixed metal called electrum. It is usually mentioned in connection with the kinnor. It was employed in the services of religion; but does not, so far as Scripture shows, appear to have been in use as a private instrument; whence we may perhaps infer that it was larger and more costly. It is also associated with the "instrument of ten strings", assur) of our version, and which, in Ps. xxxii. 2, and exliv. 9, might seem to refer to the nebel itself, were it not that they are distinguished in the present text, where we have "upon an instrument of ten strings () and upon the psaltery ()." In fact, whatever inference we draw from the independent exhibition of the assur in the present text, we cannot but think that elsewhere it describes the number of strings either of the common rebel or of a particular variety of that instrument. This seems to be all the information we gain from the Scriptures on the subject. Josephus says the instrument was played with the fingers, and had twelve strings; we suppose it may have had more or fewer in different times and other different circumstances. In short, the general impression is, that the nebet was an instrument of the harp or lyre kind.

The form of the instrument has been a subject of very wide conjecture, into which we cannot profitably enter; and with respect to which it is scarcely possible to arrive at a perfectly satisfactory conclusion. We shall therefore confine our attention to the illustration of two ideas; one, founded on the most tangible intimations furnished by preceding writers; and the other offered by ourselves, as a conjecture founded on the observation of certain forms of Egyptian instruments, with which we have only in the course of the present century become acquainted, and from which, consequently, the laborious writers of the last century could obtain no assistance in their investigations.

The general statement which has come down to us from the Christian fathers amounts to little more than that the nebel was in the form of the Greek letter delta (A). They say the same indeed of the assur (Y) mentioned above, in this and the preceding note; but if the names express distinct instruments, we conjecture this to be true of one only, and this we will for the present assume to be the nebel rather than the assur. On the hint thus furnished we have sought for examples of stringed instruments of the form indicated; and we have done this the more cheerfully because we saw reason to conclude that instruments of this form must have been known to the Hebrews, by whatever name they cailed them: and it is really of less consequence to determine the precise appropriation of names than to ascertain the forms and characters of instruments and objects.

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INSTRUMENTS FROM HERCULANEUM.

Triangular forms of stringed instruments do not frequently occur on ancient classical monuments; and then they very different from our harps, to which the mere mention of the triangular form has led some to compare them. Th usual form is very simple, that of an irregular triangle, open on one side, and crossed by strings the number of whi is various. The manner in which it was held and played is shown in the figure of the dancing Cupid, from Here neum, and another cut shows a more complete representation of a similar instrument from the same source. Nov was allowed by the Greeks that instruments of the trigonal form came from the East. It is usually said to have be borrowed from the Syrians, those near neighbours of the Jews, if the denomination did not indeed, in the Greek acc tation, include the Jews themselves.

The triangular form was also in use with the Egyptians. Athenæus mentions a certain musician, called Alexande Alexandrinus, who was so admirable a performer on the trigonum, and gave such proof of his abilities at Rome, that he made the inhabitants eveouavs-musically mad. Burney, who cites this, observes, that the performer being native of Alexandria, as his name implies, makes it probable that it was an Egyptian instrument upon which he gaine his high reputation at Rome. Burney also refers to the figure of the Theban harp, engraved in his work after a drawing from Bruce, in proof that the Egyptians had the triangular form of the instrument: but, unfortunately, the triangulation is one of the errors into which Bruce fell, the particular harp in view being really in the form of a bow But the observation, although not the reference, is still applicable, as very distinct triangular instruments have bee found represented in the paintings of the ancient Egyptians. Of these we have copied one of the most remarkable from Rosellini. It is played on, with both hands, by one of those monsters which the Egyptian mind was so pro lific in producing; and whether we consider its size, its peculiar character and form, no instrument of the kind claims

a more attentive consideration. To the same elass essentially belongs another Egyptian instrument, of very simple construction; and which is also given in Rosellini, not from a painting, but from a real instrument found in Egypt, and deposited in the museum at Florence. In this, the strings (originally ten in number, as appears from the pegs) form a triangle by their extension from the upper end of a piece inserted at right angles into a large harmonical body of wood, with which the strings are at the other extremity connected; as shown in the above engraving. Portions of the strings still remain, and appear to have been formed from the intestines of animals. Remembering that Solomon obtained wood for his "psalteries" by distant commerce, it is remarkable that the wood of this instrument is what Rosellini calls "a mahogany (swietana) from the East Indies ;" and which the Egyptians must have obtained through commercial channels. Coupling the delta form, which the

old authorities assign to the nebel, with the number of the strings, Rosellini himself suggests that the present instrument has probably some resemblance to the

,"the ten-stringed nebel" of the Hebrews. He of course thinks that the assur and nebel are identical. It is remarkable that the instruments of this class have generally one side of the triangle open: but one of our cuts shows a very curious and beautiful instrument, which has a complete frame, and which is a sort of nondescript, being a combination of the triangular forms which now engage our attention, and the arched ones which we shall hereafter notice. As a suitable, though not, strictly speaking, an authentic illustration, we have introduced below a specimen of the lyre, in the form of a perfect A, and struck with a sort of stylus or plectrum, which the ancient illuminators of psalters were accustomed to represent in the hands of David.-Josephus says that the nebel was played upon with the hand, as is the case in the figure from Egypt, and that from Herculaneum; but the plectrum may have been employed in some forms of the instruments. We do not know whether the nebel was the same instrument as the vaßa or nablum of the Greeks and Romans; nor is this of much consequence, as we have little information concerning the latter. It seems however to have been highly appreciated. One proof of this has been given; and another has been adduced by Bochart, from the Adulterer' of Philemon, where, when one says that he ignorant of the nabla, it is answered, "Not know the nabla! then thou knowest nothing that is good."

Grecian Trigonum.

"The harp with a solemn sound."-The word translated "solemn sound" is 12 higgaion, which occurs untranslated in Ps. ix. 17; and in xix. 14, is rendered "meditation." Some think that it means a musical instrument; and if so, it would doubtless denote a species of harp or lyre of peculiarly grave tone: others refer it not to any distinct instrument, but to the modulation of the common kinnor, as, "In a soft whisper upon the harp" (Mudge): "Upon the murmuring harp" (Parkhurst): "With the sweet melody of the harp" (Boothroyd): and see the marginal reading. The Septuagint renders it by song, "With a song upon the cithara ;" and so the Vulgate, followed by Waterland and others, and approved by Gesenius. All these modifications of meaning are derivable from the primary sense in "hagah, to meditate," or, "to speak" with reflection: and we should certainly prefer, in the present text, to understand it as an epithet applied to the notes of the kinnor, rather than as describing a particular instrument.

13. "Shall flourish in the courts of our God."-We should not wonder if there were here an allusion to the actual presence of palm-trees, if not cedars, in the courts of houses. Of domesticated cedars we cannot speak: but it is quite usual for trees to be planted in the courts both of religious buildings and domestic habitations in the East; and while residing in the countries of the palm (Turkish Arabia for instance) we observed that this tree was almost invariably employed for the purpose. It is equally recommended to this preference by the elegance of its form, the excellence of its fruit, and the broken shade which its spreading head diffuses over the court in which it is placed.

14. "They shall still bring forth fruit in old age."-The literal reference is evidently to the palm-tree, which is very long lived for a fruit-tree, and continues in fertility and vigour at an age far more than equivalent to the extreme old age of man. The palm-tree reaches its full maturity in about thirty years (but bears fruit much earlier); and continues in full productiveness and perfect beauty for about seventy years longer. After this it begins gradually to decline, and perishes towards the latter end of its second century. This may serve as a general statement; but it is liable to large exceptions. Trees far more than two centuries old have been known; and perhaps the best general rule is afforded by the popular expression of the Arabs, which states that after it has attained maturity, it remains in undiminished vigour during three human generations. The fruit is produced in clusters, which grow from the trunk of the tree, between the branches, or rather, leaves. The form of these clusters is best shown in our engraving. In a good tree, and productive season, there may be from fifteen to twenty of these clusters, each weighing about as many pounds; but this differs with differing circumstances, and in the different varieties, of which there are many. The same variation extends to the size and quality of the fruit itself. When perfectly ripe, the most common sort is soft and pulpy, and very sweet, without any acidity. But those that are intended to be dried are not allowed to attain their softest condition. Great quantities are dried, and are then very hard, and have a shrunk and shrivelled appearance. They are then of great service as a standing article of food; and, from their hardness and portability, are very valuable to persons on a journey. The date has an exceedingly hard and solid kernel; but, like every other part of this precious tree, this is valuable, forming a most nourishing and acceptable food to camels and other cattle, when ground, or softened by being soaked for two or three days in water. In the date countries, so much of man's subsistence depends upon this fruit, that the season of gathering is watched for with all the anxiety, and attended with all the joy, of harvest or of vintage. After this, it will be perceived that palm-trees must form a valuable property, and confer importance on their owners; so much is this the case, that there is an Arabic proverb reflecting on the custom for persons, who affect consequence to which they have no claim, to pretend that the dates they consume are produced by trees of their own. (See Burckhardt's 'Arabic Proverbs,' No. 126.) These observations are chiefly confined to the fruit; but we shall perhaps avail ourselves of another occasion to notice the tree itself more particularly.

PSALM XCIII.-The Septuagint and other ancient versions attribute this psalm to David; and there does not appear any good ground for disputing this conclusion.

23 And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God 12 Blessed is the man whom thou chas-shall cut them off.

11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

3 Psal. 10. 11, 13. 4 Exod. 4. 11. Prov. 20. 12.
Heb. shall be after it.
7 Or, quickly.

PSALM XCIV.-The Septuagint and Vulgate ascribe this psalm also to David; nor is there anything in it calculated to render this determination improbable; although Calmet and some others seem rather disposed to refer it to the Captivity.