21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that are 43 And take not the word of truth utterly cursed, which do err from thy command-out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments.

4 Gen. 47. 9. 1 Chron. 29. 15. Psal. 39. 12. Heb. 11. 13. 5 Heb men of my counsel.
8 Heb. Make to pass.
Or, so shall I answer him that reproacheth me in a thing.
12 Or, companies.

14 Heb. righteousness.

105 Thy word is a "lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

15 Heb. to comfort me. 18 Heb. standeth. 19 Heb. it is ever with me. 20 Psal. 19. 10.

106 I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.

107 I am afflicted very much quicken me, O LORD, according unto thy word.

108 Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD, and teach me thy judgments.

109 My soul is continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law.

110 The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts.

111 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.

112 I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end. DSAMECH.

113 I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.

114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.

115 "Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God. 116 Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may

of my hope.

live: and let me not be ashamed

117 Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.

118 Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit

is falsehood.

119 Thou "puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies.

120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.

AIN.

121 I have done judgment and justice: leave me not to mine oppressors.

122 Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me.

123 Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.

124 Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.

125 I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies. 126 It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law.

127 Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.

23 Heb. to do. 24 Matth. 7. 23. 28 Heb. righteousness.

PE.

129 Thy testimonies are wonderful: there fore doth my soul keep them.

130 The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

131 I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.

132 Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.

133 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. 134 Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.

135 Make thy face to shine upon thy ser vant; and teach me thy statutes.

136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.

TZADDI.

137 Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.

138 Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very "faithful.

139 My zeal hath "consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.

140 Thy word is very "pure; therefore thy servant loveth it.

141 I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.

142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.

143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me yet thy commandments are my delights.

144 The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.

P KOPH.

145 I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD: I will keep thy statutes. 146 I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.

147 I prevented the dawning of the morn ing, and cried: I hoped in thy word.

148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.

149 Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: O LORD, quicken me ac cording to thy judgment.

150 They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law.

151 Thou art near, O LORD; and all thy commandments are truth.

25 Heb. causest to cease. 25 Psal. 19. 10. Prov. 8. 11. 27 Heb. according to the custom towards those, &c. 29 Heb. faithfulness. 30 Psal. 69. 9. John 2. 17. 81 Heb. cut me off. Heb, tried, or, refined 33 Heb. found me. 34 Or, that I may keep.

35 Or, Many.

169 Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD: give me understanding according to thy word.

170 Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.

171 My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.

172 My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness. 173 Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.

174 I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight.

175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.

176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy

commandments.

36 Heb. The beginning of thy word is true. 37 Heb. they shall have no stumbling-block.

PSALM CXIX. This very remarkable psalm is generally admitted to have been written by David; and from its length and very artificial construction, we may infer with Bishop Patrick, that he was "in a very sedate condition, under no extraordinary motions, when he composed this psalm, but quietly considered things as they were represented to his remembrance." The construction of the psalm is, that it is divided into as many parts as there are letters in the Hebrew alphabet: each of these parts consists of eight verses, and every verse begins with that letter from which the E section takes its name. Thus the initial letter of each verse in the first section is aleph (N), in the second beth (1), Thus there are altogether eight initial repetitions of every letter which the Hebrew alphabet contains. For this reason the psalm is, in the Masora, styled, The Great Alphabet.' The intention of this arrangement obviously was to facilitate the labour of those who learned the psalm by heart, or who wished to refer to particular verses, which would otherwise have been a matter of some difficulty in so long a psalm, consisting for the most part of

and so on.

unconnected sentences.

It is further remarkable in this psalm, that there are not more than two or three verses in it in which there is not some word or other signifying the law of God. Ten different terms, correctly rendered in our version, are employed for this purpose, the law, the testimonies, the statutes, the commandments, the judgments, the word, the ways, the precepts, the righteousness, and the truth of God. Sometimes two of these terms occur in the same verse.

Verse 70. “Their heart is as fat as grease."-Fatness of heart is used to express the insensibility, dulness, or sensuality of those feelings or affections of which the heart is considered the seat. There is much propriety in this as a figure, if, as physiologists inform us, the lean, membraneous parts of our bodily frame are the only sensitive ones.

83. “Like a bottle in the smoke."-This doubtless refers to a leathern bottle, of kid or goat-skin. The peasantry of Asia keep many articles, both dry and liquid, in such bottles, which, for security, are suspended from the roof or hung against the walls of their humble dwellings. Here they soon become quite black with smoke; for as, in the dwellings of the peasantry, there are seldom any chimneys, and the smoke can only escape through an aperture in the roof, or by the door, the apartment is full of dense smoke whenever a fire is kindled in it. And in those nights and days, when the smokiness of the hovels in which we daily rested during a winter's journey in Persia, Armenia, and Turkey, seemed to make the cold and weariness of actual travel a relief, we had ample occasion to observe the peculiar blackness of such skin vessels, arising from the manner in which substances offering a surface of this sort, receive the full influence of the smoke, and detain the minute particles of soot which rest upon them. When such vessels do not contain liquids, and are not quite filled by the solids which they hold, they contract a shrunk and shrivelled appearance, to which the Psalmist may also possibly allude as well as to the blackness. But we presume that the leading idea refers to the latter circumstance, as in the East blackness has an opposite signification to that felicitous meaning of whiteness which we have explained in the note to Psalm lxviii. 14. Perhaps a contrast is intended between such skin bottles and the rich vessels of gold and silver employed in the palaces of kings.

103. "How sweet are thy words unto my taste!"-To characterise words of instruction or affection by the quality sweetness, and, superlatively, by the sweetness of honey, is still very common in the East.

136. "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes.”—The Orientals are in general very copious weepers; and this song hyperbole is still much employed among them to express the highest degree of lamenting grief.

148. “The night watches.”—The Hebrews divided the natural day into three portions-morning, noon, and evening These are mentioned by David as hours or times of prayer. The night also was divided into three parts, called "watches Those are mentioned indefinitely by the Psalmist; but in Lament. ii. 19, we read of the first or beginning watches:n Judg. vii. 19, of the middle watch; and in Exod. xiv. 24, of the morning watch. In Homer and the early Gree writers there are references to a similar division of the night. But, afterwards, the strictness of military discipl occasioned the introduction of a fourth night watch among the Greeks and Romans, from whom it was ultimately les rowed by the Jews. Hence we read of "the fourth watch of the night" in the New Testament (Matth. xiv. 25, and the four are mentioned together in Mark xiii, 35. The precise beginning and ending of these four watches is thus dete mined by Dr. Hales, to whose elaborate work we may refer for more detailed information in this matter.

"1. 04s, the late, began at sunset, and ended with the third hour of the night, including the evening-dawn, er tv light. It was also called oyi úga, eventide, Mark xi. 11; or simply fia, evening, John xx. 19, &c.-2. Miroozta, & midnight, lasted from the third hour till midnight.-3. AλexTogofwria, the cock crowing, lasted from midnight til third hour after, or the ninth hour of the night. It included the two cock-crowings, with the second or principal al which it ended.-4. pan, the early, lasted from the ninth to the twelfth hour of the night, or sunrise, including morning-dawn, or twilight. It is also called paix, morning, or morning-tide, wga being understood, John xviii, 2,

PSALM CXX.

1 David prayeth against Doeg, 3 reproveth his tongue, 5 complaineth of his necessary conversation with the wicked.

IN

my

A Song of degrees.

what shall be done unto thee, thou fals tongue?

4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, coals of juniper.

5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech

distress I cried unto the LORD, and that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! 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

6 My soul hath long dwelt with him the hateth peace.

7 I am for peace: but when I speak they are for war.

1 Or, what shall the deceitful tongue give unto thee? or, what shall it profit thee?
*Or, It is as the sharp arrows of the mighty man with coals of juniper.

Heb. added.

4 Or, a man of peace.

TITLE, "Song of degrees.”—Fifteen psalms bear this title, which has given occasion to an immense quantity of cussion, an able analysis of which may be found in Calmet's Dissertation sur les quinze Psaumes Graduels word rendered "degrees" (by) implies, radically, ascent, and is susceptible of shades of meaning which Lare = spectively been taken to support various theories. Degrees" is most usually given, and from its indefinite characte suited to the obscurity in which the subject is involved. Some call them "Songs of the steps," and suppose that were sung on the Temple steps; and their nearly uniform shortness has been alleged in favour of this opinion. C call them "songs of ascent, or ascension," and suppose they were intended to be sung either on ascending the hill which the Temple stood; or else, at intervals, during the journey which the people made to Jerusalem three time every year. But others, who similarly translate, think that the occasion on which they were employed, was during journey of the returning captives from Babylon to Jerusalem. Calmet, after stating numerous alternatives of e planation, and characterising many of them as "vaines et frivoles conjectures," takes up this last as the most pre opinion. It seems indeed clear, that at least some of them must be understood with reference to that occasion: b does not necessarily follow that they were all written for it. It is possible that some of the psalms were originally e posed to be sung by the Jews in their three annual journeys to Jerusalem; and these, being judged by the retur captives suitable to their longer journey, were appropriated to the occasion, with the addition of some other p bearing a more distinct reference to their own actual circumstances. There are some, however, who reject this i explanation altogether, and understand that the word in question, whether rendered degrees, ascents, or elevations no other reference than to some circumstance, common to all the fifteen psalms, in the versification or the mus– and particularly, perhaps, to the uniform or gradually elevated voice with which they were sung. Some others ces the title as one of excellence, applied either to the music or the words, equivalent, in fact, to "an exalted song." The are other opinions: but these are all we feel it necessary to state on a subject involved in great uncertainty, and te cerning which it is perhaps now impossible to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion.

It will appear from the preceding statement that authorities must necessarily differ as to the time and the auth authors, of these psalms. The question of time is involved in that of author: we have therefore only to state that s ascribe the whole of them to David, and conclude that those which appear to refer to the Babylonish captivity composed in the spirit of prophecy. Some have attributed them to Solomon, on the same principle, and appare because the 127th psalm bears his name. Others conceive that they were all composed on occasion of the retur Captivity. A middle opinion seems more probable; which is, that some were composed by David, others by Simon, and a few perhaps by other writers who live dafterwards, before the Captivity; and that a further additiona made by one or more of the prophets (Ezra, Haggai, or Zechariah) after the edict had been issued for the restorati of the Jews to the city of their fathers. These observations may serve as a general introduction to the whole fifte "songs of degrees."

Verse 4. "Coals of juniper.”—See the note on 2 Kings xix. 4. It would appear that this shrub burnt with mere 2tense flame, or that its embers continued longer to glow than most other kinds of wood used for fuel by the Hebrews. 5. "Sojourn in Meshech...dwell in the tents of Kedar."- Meshech was a son of Japhet, whose descendants are s posed to have settled between the Caspian and Black Seas, and the Kedarites were a people of Arabia. As it seas difficult to suppose that the former nation can be here intended, in a literal sense, even with respect to the captives a