a long lift of expoftulations and complaints, fuddenly refolves the caufe; namely, a change in the difpofition of God, toward a guilty people: but confoles himself with future hopes; and rehearses the former mighty works of Jehovah in favour of his people. See C. R.

PSALM LXXVIII. al. LXXVII.

I bave little doubt of this psalm's being a continuation of the preceding one. It is a beautiful recapitulation of all that Jehovah bad done for the Ifraelites; and of their unaccountable ingratitude and frequent relapses. Its title is,

A DIDACTIC PSALM OF ASAPH.

LISTEN, my people, to mine admonition :

give ear to the words of my mouth.

I

My mouth I will open with memorable inftructions: 2 the documents of antiquity I will detail:

fuch as we have heard, and fuch as we know;

3

the children to be born, and rife up:

who should, again, relate them to their children:

9

a froward and rebellious generation :

a generation, whose hearts were not upright ;
nor their minds faithful to GOD.

The children of Ephraim were like armed bow

men,

who turn their back in the day of combat!

ΙΟ

They kept not the covenant of GOD,

and refused to walk by his law.

II

They forgot his fingular works,

12

their fathers,

and the wonders which he had shown them:
the miracles which he had done among
in Egypt-in the region of Zoan.

He divided the sea, to let them pass through;
made the waters ftand up like an heap!

13

By day he conducted them by a cloud,

and all night by a lucid fire!

He rent the rocks in the wilderness ;

14

15

16

17

and gave them drink, as from a copious deep.
From the rock he brought flowing streams,
and made waters run down like rivers!.
Yet ftill they finned against him,

and irritated the Most High, in the defert.

18

They tempted him deliberately,

by asking food for their appetites.

19

Nay, they spoke against GOD, and faid:

20

21

"Can GOD fpread a table in the wilderness?
"Although, when he ftruck the rock, waters flowed,
"and torrents impetuously rushed forth :
"Is he alfo able to give bread?

66

can he provide flesh for his people?" JEHOVAH heard this, and was wroth: fo a fire was kindled against Jacob;

and wrath was high against Ifrael !

because they believed not in God,

nor relied on his faving power.

22

Yet, he had commanded the clouds from above, and the doors of the heavens he had opened;

23

He now removed the caft-wind from the heavens, 26

and brought a fouth-wind in its full force;

and rained down upon them flesh as duft,

27

and feathered fowls, as the fand of the fea!

In the midst of their camp he made them light,

28

all around their habitations!

So they ate, and glutted themfelves,

29

for he brought them what they had longed for. Their longing was hardly fatisfied,

30

Therefore he confumed their days in disappointment, 33

and their years in confternation!

When he fmote them, then they sought him;

34

and were instantly reconverted to GOD!

calling to mind that GOD was their rock;

and GOD the Moft High, their redeemer.
But they only flattered him with their mouths,
and with their tongues they lied to him:

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

for their hearts were not fincere with him,
nor were they ftedfaft in his covenant.

Yet, full of compaffion, he forgave their iniquity, and would not utterly deftroy them.

Often he restrained his indignation,

and roufed not all his anger:

for he remembered, that they were but flesh 1;
a breath, that paffeth and returneth not.

How often did they provoke him in the wilderness! how often did they grieve him in the desert! Again and again they provoked GOD,

and irritated the Holy One of Ifrael.

They remembered not-how his powerful hand
had erft delivered them from their enemies!
what miracles he had wrought in Egypt !
what prodigies in the region of Zoan!
How he had turned their canals into blood,
and made their ftreams undrinkable!

45

had fent beetles, that ate them up,

and frogs that infested them !—

had given their fruits to the cricket,
and their labours to the locuft!

had with hail deftroyed their vines,

and their fycamores with nipping frofts !—
had to the hail configned their cattle,
and their flocks to the forky lightning !—
had poured on them his ire, his wrath and fury,
through the medium of meffengers of evils!-
How he levelled a way for his wrath,
referving not even themselves from death,
but giving up their lives to the pestilence!-
How he had flain all the first-born of Egypt;

L

the firstlings of their manhood, in the dwellings of Ham! while his own people he led out like sheep,

52

and like a flock conducted them in the wilderness !

So fafely he conducted them, that they feared nought: 53 for the fea had overwhelmed their enemies.

He brought them into his own hallowed lot,
that mountainous tract, by his right-hand acquired :

54

which, having expelled the nations before them,

55

he affigned to them for an inheritance:

and made the tribes of Ifrael inhabit their tents.

Yet they provoked and irritated GOD, the Moft

56

High GOD;

and did not observe his teftimonies!

Like their forefathers, they relapfed and prevaricated: 57

they recoiled like a deceitful bow!

They provoked his wrath, by their hill-chapels,

and excited his jealoufy by their idols!

which when GOD faw, he was wroth,

and fo greatly abominated Israel,

that he forfook the tabernacle at Shiloh,

the tent of his abode

among men.

The enfign of his power he delivered into captivity,

and the fymbol of his glory into the hand of his enemy. His own people he gave up to the fword,

58

59

60

61

62

and with his own heritage he was highly wroth. Their young men the fire of his wrath consumed,

63

and their virgins chanted no marriage-fong.

Their priests fell by the sword,

64

and their widows made no lamentation.

But, at length, JEHOVAH waked, as from sleep;

65

like a hero, exulting from wine,

and fmote his foes in the hinder parts,

66