PSALM LXXIV.

garment.

Maschil of Asaph.

struction.

19. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

20. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O LORD, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

21. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.

22. So foolish was I and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee.

23. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee; thou hast holden me by my right hand.

24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.

26. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

27. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish; thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.

28. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture

2. Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Sion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

3. Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

4. Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.

5. A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.

6. But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and ham

mers.

7. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary; they have defiled by casting down the dwelling-place of thy name to the ground.

8. They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land.

9. We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

10. O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?

11. Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.

12. For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

13. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.

14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

15. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.

16. The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.

17. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.

18. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.

19. O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.

20. Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

21. O let not the oppressed return asham

23. Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.

PSALM LXXV.

1.

rightly.

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith.

UNTO

A Psalm or Song of Asaph. NTO thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near, thy wondrous works declare.

2. When I shall receive the congregation, I will judge uprightly.

3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.

4. I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly; and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: 5. Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.

6. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south: 7. But God is the judge; he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

8. For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture, and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. 9. But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

10. All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

12. He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth. PSALM LXXVII.

The Psalmist showeth what fierce combat he had with diffi

1.

I

dence.

To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun.
A Psalm of Asaph.

CRIED unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and ¦ he gave ear unto me.

2. In the day of my trouble I sought the LORD: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.

3. I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: 1 am so troubled that I cannot speak.

5. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

6. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart, and my spirit made diligent search.

7. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?

8. Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?

9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

10. And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.

11. I will remember the works of the LORD; surely I will remember thy wonders

12. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.

13. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God!

14. Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.

15. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

16. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee: they were afraid; the depths also were troubled.

17. The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.

18. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.

19. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.

20. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

PSALM LXXVIII.

An exhortation both to learn and to preach the law of God. Maschil of Asaph.

1. law:

mouth.

2. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old;

3. Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

4. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. 5. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

6. That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children:

7. That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God; but keep his commandments:

2. And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

9. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

10. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

23. Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, 24. And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

25. Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.

26. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven; and by his power he brought in the south wind.

27. He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea;

28. And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

29. So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

30. They were not estranged from their lust: but while their meat was yet in their mouths,

31. The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

32. For all this they sinned still, and be- ' lieved not for his wondrous works.

33. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

34. When he slew them, then they sought him; and they returned and inquired early

35. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer.

36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues:

37. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

38. But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath:

39. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

40. How oft did they provoke him in the

wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! 41. Yea, they turned back, and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. 42. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the

enemy:

43. How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan: 44. And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink. 45. He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

46. He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust. 47. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore-trees with frost.

48. He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

50. He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

51. And smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

52. But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53. And he led them on safely, so that they feared not but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54. And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

55. He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56. Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies; 57. But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

59. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

60. So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among

men;

61. And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.

62. He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

63. The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

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64. Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

65. Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

66. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts; he put them to a perpetual reproach.

67. Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim; 68. But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Sion, which he loved.

69. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

70. He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheep-folds:

71. From following the ewes great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

72. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

PSALM LXXIX.

The Psalmist complaineth of the desolation of Jerusalem. A Psalm of Asaph.

1.

GOD, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

2. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

3. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

4. We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

5. How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

6. Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name: 7. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling-place.

3. O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us; for we are brought very low.

9. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake.

10. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight, by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed.

11. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy