21 22 23 24 25 26 "I have placed your help in a man of valour : "For his foes I will beat down, before his face, "and his right hand to the rivers. "He fhall thus invoke me: My father art thou; "my God, and the rock of my falvation.' 27 28 "I will even appoint him my first-born, 29 "My bounty I will ever referve for him, .30 31 32 33 34 "and my covenant with him shall be stedfast! "His feed I will for ever eftablish; ❝and his throne shall be lafting, as the heavens ! "and ceafe to walk by mine ordinances; "but will not withdraw my benevolence, 35 "My covenant I will not annul; "nor change what hath iflued from my lips :. ❝ his feed shall endure for ever; falfe: 36 37 "his throne fhall be, before me, like the fun: "like the moon, it fhall for ever be ftable; : 38 "and like the faithful witnefs in the fky !" Yet now thou haft forfaken, and rejected, 39 and art irritated againft thine anointed! Thou haft made void the covenant with thy fervant: 40 his diadem thou haft profaned to the ground: thou haft broken down all his fences; 41 and his fortreffes thou haft demolished. All thofe, who pafs along, plunder him: 42 43 Thou haft even blunted the edge of his fword; and made him unable to stand in battle. 44 To his fplendour thou haft put an end; 45 and his throne thou haft levelled with the ground. His youthful days thou haft fhortened, 46 and with ignominy thou haft covered him. How long, JEHOVAH! wilt thou withdraw thyself? 47 fhall thy wrath burn, like fire, for ever? Remember, how fhort my duration ! for what an empty fhow haft thou created all men! 48 49 50 Remember, JEHOVAH! the reproach caft on thy fervant, how I bear, in my bofom, the taunts of many people; of thine enemies, JEHOVAH! who reproachwho reproach the conduct of thine anointed! [Bleffed, for ever, be JEHOVAH. Amen, and Amen.] NOTES. Ver. 11. Between this and the next verfe one antient edition and one Ms. has the following addition: Thine is the day, thine alf, is the night : the light and the fun thou haft eflablished. The fame with ver. 16. of Pfalm 74-Ver. 21. of the people. Sep. and Arab. feem to have read of my people.-Ver. 26. The boundaries of David's dominions were the Mediterranean to the weft, and the rivers Tigris and Euphrates to the eaft; denoted by the left and right hand. I am apt to think, however, that the original reading was river in the fingular; namely the great river, or the Euphrates. Yet all the copics and verfions have rivers. —Ver. 28. my firfi-born. In the Heb. idiom all kings were the fons of God but David is the chief of thefe, God's first-born. The Greeks had a similar mode of expreffing themselves. Kings were the nurflings of Jupiter.-Ver. 52. What is in brackets is an addition made by the redactor, fimilar to that at the end of Pf. 41. and here clofes what is called the third Book of Pfalms. PSALM XC.-al. LXXXIX. In the title, this pslam is ascribed to Moses: and Darbe and others think it probable that it was written by Moses a little before bis death. There are some things in the psalm itself, bowever, that militate against this bypothesis. The author of the Psalm, ver. 10, mentions "eighty years" as the ultimate common period of man's life. But Moses bimself was at bis death 120 years old: yet his eye was not dim, nor bis vigour gone." Deut. 34. 7. Joshuab died at the age of 110.-On the whole, I agree with Kennicott, that this psalm was probably written about the return from the captivity. A PRAYER OF MOSES, THE MAN OF GOD. I THOU, JEHOVAH! haft been our shelter, from generation to generation. Before the mountains were produced, or thou hadst formed this earthly globe, for ever, and for ever wert thou, O GOD! But man thou reduceft to duft : 3 and fayeft: "Return, ye fons of Adam!" (For, in thy fight, a thousand years 4 are but as yesterday, when it is past, like a fingle watch-tide of the night.) Their flux of days is like a fleep! 5 They are like the tranfitory herbage of a morning; which, in the morning, fpringeth up and groweth, 6 7 and shrink with terror at thy wrath. Our iniquities thou settest before thy face; 8 our youthful fins thou holdest up to light! Hence all our days vanish away: 9 by thy warm wrath we are consumed: our years are like a breathing! The length of our days may be feventy years; 10 or eighty years, in the more robust : but their boafted ftrength is but labour and forrow: for quickly it is cut off-and we are gone! Yet who attendeth to the power of thy wrath, 11 or to thine indignation, with fuitable reverence? Ah! teach us fo to husband our days, 12 that we may frame our minds to wifdom! Turn to us, JEHOVAH!-how long wilt thou be wroth? 13 14 15 16 17 Turn, and be reconciled to thy fervants. that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. to the years, which we have feen of adverfity. May JEHOVAH, our GOD, look sweetly on us, NOTES. Ver. 1. Return, ye fons of Adam! Return to the dust, whence ye came. An allufion to Gen. 3. 19.-Ver. 9. like a breathing. Some of the antients: like a cobweb-Some moderns: like a bubble. Our common verfion: "as a tale that is told."-Ver. 11. The second comma of this verse has been deemed inexplicable in its present form; and various conjectural emendations have been made of the original text. I fee no difficulty in it as it stands: only perhaps one letter should be changed into another very fimilar one; which is authorized by at least two Mss. yet this change is not abfolutely neceffary.-Ver. 17. At the end of this verse there is in the Heb. and most antient verfions this addition" and the works of our hands establish thou." But the Chaldee paraphraft read them not: nor are they in the best copies of Sep. and are wanting in three Heb. MSS. PSALM XCI.-al. XC. This beautiful psalm may bave been composed by David: and there are parts of it, which make the supposition very probable. See ver. 14 and 16. It has no title, in Heb. but in Sep. Vulg. and Arab. it is called "A praise-song of David." I SITTING under the shelter of the Moft High, lodging under the fhadow of the Almighty, |