8 They are brought down, and fallen: but we are rifen, and ftand upright.

9 Save, Lord, and hear us, O King of heaven: when we call upon thee.

Pfalm. xxi. Domini, in virtute tua.

HE King fhall rejoice in thy. ftrength, O Lord: exceeding glad fhall he be of thy falvation.

TH

2 Thou haft given him his heart's defire: and haft not denied him the request of his lips.

3 For thou shalt prevent him with the bleffings of goodnefs and fhalt fet a crown of pure gold upon his head.

4 He afked life of thee, and thou gavest him a long life:

even for ever and ever.

5 His honour is great in thy falvation; glory and great worship fhalt thou lay upon him.

6 For thou shalt give him everlafting felicity: and make him glad with the joy of thy countenance.

7 And why? because the King putteth his truft in the Lord and in the mercy of the moft Higheft he fhall not mifcary.

8 All thine enemies fhall feel thy hand: thy right hand

fhall find out them that hate thee.

9 Thou shalt make them like a fiery oven in time of thy wrath: the Lord fhall destroy them in his displeasure, and

the fire fhall confume them.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Pfal. xx. It appears from this pfalm, that the people are in duty bound to pray for kings and princes, whom God has fet over them. That this is the duty of Chriftians, as it was of the Jews, appears from St Paul's exhortation, "That prayers and fupplications be made for kings, and all that are in authority." The Ifraelites befeech God in this pfalm to hear the defires of their king, and to grant him the victory over his enemies. Chriftians, in like manner, fhould beg of God to fupport and defend their princes in juft and neceffary wars, and all their lawful undertakings; but the chief fubject of their prayers fhould be, that they may lead a quiet, peaceable, and godly life under thofe who have the rule over them. Laftly, We here find, that the glory and fecurity of kings and states depend on the divine favour and protection, to which they owe all their victories and fuccefs; and therefore, that kings and their fubjects ought to labour above all things to render God propitious.

PRAC

10 Their fruit fhalt thou root out of the earth: and their feed from among the children of men.

11 For they intended mifchief against thee and imagined fuch a device as they are not able to perform.

12 Therefore fhalt thou put them to flight: and the ftrings of thy bow fhalt thou make ready against the face of them.

13 Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own ftrength: fo will we fing and praise thy power.

EVENING PRAYER.

Pfalm xxii.

Deus, Deus meus.

MY

Y God, my God, look upon me, why haft thou for faken me and art fo far from my health, and from the words of my complaint?

2 O my God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not: and in the night-feafon also I take no reft.

3 And thou continueft holy: O thou worship of Ifrael. 4 Our fathers hoped in thee: they trufted in thee, and thou didst deliver them,

5 They called upon thee, and were holpen: they put their trust in thee, and were not confounded.

6 But as for me, I am a worm, and no man: a very fcorn of men, and the out-caft of the people.

7 All they that fee me, laugh me to fcorn: they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, faying,

8 He trufted in God, that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, if he will have him.

9 But thou art he that took me out of my mothers womb. thou waft my hope when I hanged yet upon my mothers breafts. 10 I have

PRACTICAL

OBSERVATIONS.

Pfal. xxi. In this pfalm we obferve, 1. That as it is the peoples duty to pray for their kings, fo ought they to rejoice when God beffes them 2. That God loves, and their lawful defigns, and heartily thank him. and in a very extraordinary manner defends, just and pious kings, whe call upon him and truft in him. 3. That he brings low and destroys unrighteous princes, and efpecially fuch as oppofe the establishment of his kingdom and the defigns of his providence.

10 I have been left unto thee ever fince I was born: thou art my God even from my mothers womb.

11 O go not from me, for trouble is hard at hand and there is none to help me.

12 Many oxen are come about me: fat bulls of Bafan clofe me in on every fide.

13 They gape upon me with their mouths: as it were a ramping, and a roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint my heart alfo in the midft of my body is even like melting wax.

15 My ftrength is dried up like a potfherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my gums: and thou shalt bring me into the duft of death.

16 For many dogs are come about me: and the council of the wicked layeth fiege against me.

17 They pierced my hands and my feet, I may tell all my bones: they stand staring and looking upon me.

18 They part my garments among them: and caft lots upon my vefture.

19 But be not thou far from me, O Lord: thou art my fuccour, hafte thee to help me.

20 Deliver my foul from the fword: my darling from the power of the dog.

21 Save me from the lions mouth: thou haft heard me alfo from among the horns of the unicorns.

22 I will declare thy Name unto my brethren: in the midft of the congregation will I praife thee.

23 O praife the Lord, ye that fear him: magnify him, all ye of the feed of Jacob, and fear him, all ye feed of Ifrael. 24 For he hath not defpiled nor abhorred the low eftate of the poor: he hath not hid his face from him, but when he called unto him, he heard him.

25 My praife is of thee in the great congregation: my vows will I perform in the fight of them that fear him.

26 The poor hall eat, and be fatisfied: they that feek after the Lord fhall praite him; your heart fhall live for

ever.

4th

27 All the ends of the world fhall remember themselves, and be turned unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations fhall worship before him.

28 For the kingdom is the Lords: and he is the Governor among the people.

29 All fuch as be fat upon earth worshipped.

have eaten, and

30 All they that go down into the duit, fhall kneel before him and no man hath quickened his own foul.

31 My feed fhall ferve him: they fhall be counted unto the Lord for a generation.

32. They fhall come, and the heavens fhall declare his righteoufnefs: unto a people that shall be born, whom the Lord hath made.

Pfalm xxiii. Dominus regit me.

HE Lord is my fhepherd: therefore can I lack nothing.

PRACTICAL

OBSERVATION S.

Pfal. xxii.] To improve by the reading of this pfalm, we must confider it as it relates to David, and as it refers to Jefus Chrift. If we confider it in the first refpect, we learn by David's complaints, that those whom God loves fometimes fall into fo deplorable a condition as to believe God has forfaken them. But the faith which David teftifies in this pfalm, fhews us likewife, that we fhould never be difcouraged under affictions; because the Lord will deliver his children out of all their troubles, and give them caufe to celebrate his goodnefs. z. This pfalm contains a very plain defcription of our Lord's fufferings and profound humiliation. Here we read those words which he uttered at his crucifixion; My God, my God, look upon me, why haft thou forfaken me?" Here we fee how the Jews infulted him when he hung upon the cross, his hands and his feet pierced, his garments divided by lot, and the principal circumftances of his paffion and death. God was pleafed all these things thould be foretold by David, that when they happened to our Lord, we might not be fo much furprised, and might acknowledge him, to be the Meffah. We fhould therefore deplore the blindness of the Jews, who are fcandalized at the sufferings and cross of Chrift, which ought rather to convince them, that he is the Meffiah whom God had promised. These confiderations ought to ftrengthen our faith in Jefus the Saviour of the world; as this pfalm fets before us the glory to which God has exalted him after his fufferings, and which he now enjoys at the right hand of his Father, and his kingdom is established throughout all the earth.

3 G

PRAC

5th

2 He fhall feed me in a green pasture and lead me forth befide the waters of comfort.

3 He shall convert my foul and bring me forth in the paths of righteoufnefs for his Names fake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and thy ftaff comfort me.

5 Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me: thou haft anointed my head with oil, and my cup fhall be full.

6 But thy loving kindness and mercy fhall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

MORNING PRAYER.

Pfalm xxiv

Domini eft terra.

T

HE earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is: the. compafs of the world, and they that dwell therein. 2 For he hath founded it upon the feas: and prepared it upon the floods.

3 Who fhall afcend into the hill of the Lord: or who fhall rife up in his holy place?

4 Even he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart: and that hath not lift up his mind unto vanity, nor fworn to deceive his neighbour.

5 He fhall receive the bleffing from the Lord: and righteoufness from the God of his salvation.

PRACTICAL

OBSERVATIONS.

Pfal. xxiii.] The happy condition of the faithful, who live in full affurance of God's love, and under his protection, is here in a moft affecting manner fet before us. David fhews by his own example, that they never want; that God protects, comforts, and fupports them in every condition; that he is with them even in death, and confers his graces and favours upon them in the highest degree, caufing them to live in a blessed communion with him. This pfalm is full of confolation to true believers; and the defire of partaking in the precious advantages therein fet forth fhould make us all zealously to apply ourfelves to the study of piety.

PRA C