7

Although my foul be dejected within me,

I remember thee, from the land of Jordan ; from the fteep Hermonian mountains.

As here deep re-echoeth to deep,

from the found of thy cataracts:

fo thy breakers and billows have all paffed over me.

8

Yet, by day, I proclaim the goodness of JEHOVAH: 9 and, by night, I fing praises to the living God.

To God I fay: " My rock art thou.

"Why go I thus mourning from the oppreffion of the "foe?"

The reproach of my foes is a fword in my bones; while they are daily saying to me:

"Where now is thy God?"

But why, my foul, art thou dejected ?

and why thus difquieted within me?

Trust in God-that yet I shall praise him, as my faviour, as well as my God.

PSALM XLIII.-al. XLII.

10

II

12

JUDGE me, O God! and plead my cause,

I

against a people void of pity :

from the deceitful and unjuft man deliver me. Since thou art the God of my strength,

why wilt thou caft me off?

Why go I thus mourning, from the oppreffion of the foe?

Difplay thy light and truth, that they may guide me; 3 and conduct me to thine holy mountain and tabernacle. I will then approach the altar of JEHOVAH,

4

the God of my joy and exultation:
and on the harp will I praise thee,
JEHOVAH ! my God!

Why, my foul, art thou dejected?
and why thus difquieted within me?
Truft in God-that yet I fhall praise him
as my faviour, as well as my God.

NOTES.

5

Pfalm 42. ver. 5. My foul I pour out, i. e. I vent my grief.-Ver. 6. This is a beautiful apostrophe, repeated after every part of the plaint.-Ver. 7. From the land of Jordan. He means that tract of land to the east of the fources of the Jordan, in the land of Bashan, where David then fojourned.—Ib. from the fleep Hermonian mountains, lit. from the Hermons, from the steep mountain. Mount Hermon is a long ridge of high hills called the Antilebanon; and is here expressed plurally Hermons; as we fay the Alps and the Appenines. For the reft, the last comma of this verse is commonly rendered either "from the little mountain," or, as in our common verfion: "from the hill Miffar." I have ventured to change a letter in the original, and rendered the word freep: which correfponds better with the context, and is more fuitable to the whole fcene. It was the image arifing from the fight of the cascades falling down the fteeps of Hermon, and refounding from one bafon to another, that fuggefted the beautiful metaphor expreffed in the last line of ver. 8.-Ver. 9. I have here rifked a fmall conjectural emendation of the text, in order to make fense of it. As it now ftands, take our common verfion of it: "Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day-time, and in the night his fong shall be with me, and my prayer, &c. which I confefs I do not understand.-Ib. to the living God. There is here a various reading in the copies. The text and most of the antient verfions have the God of my life: but 14 MSS. with Syr. have the living God; which I prefer.

PSALM XLIV.-al. XLIII.

This psalm could not be written by David. It seems to have been composed during the captivity; or perhaps, as Calvin sup. posed, during the persecution of Antiochus Epipbanes: and, in this supposition, Mattathias may have been its author. See I Mac. ch. 1. and 2.

FOR THE FIRST MUSICIAN:

A DIDACTIC, BY I

THE SONS OF KORAH.

O GOD! with our ears we have heard,

to us our fathers have related—

what deeds thou didst in their days—

in the days of antient date.

2

With thine own hand thou expelled'st nations, and in their stead thou planted'ft them.

3

Other peoples thou extirpated'st:

but them thou madeft to fhoot forth.

For not by their sword poffeffed they the land nor were they victorious by their own arm; but through thy right hand, and thine arm;

d;

4

and because thou wert pleased to favour them. Thou, O God! who art fill our king,

ordain thou falvation for Jacob:

that, through thee, we may pufh back our enemies; and in thy name trample down our opponents:

for in our own bow we truft not;

5

6

7

nor can our own fword fave us.

'Tis thou muft fave us from our enemies;

8

'Tis thou, muft confound those who hate us.

In God we have ever gloried:

9

and thy name is our conftant theme of praise.

ΙΟ Yet thou hast caft us off, and put us to shame;

II

12

13

ᏗᏎ

15

16

and goest not forth with our armies.

Thou makeft us to retreat before the foe,
and they, who hate us, make us their prey.
Thou giveft us up, like a flock, to be devoured;
and among the nations thou difperfest us.
Thou felleft thine own people, without gain;
and enrichest not thyfelf from their barter.
Thou makest us the reproach of our neighbours,
a theme of fcorn and derifion to all around us.
Thou makeft us a bye-word among the nations;
a matter of head-fhaking among the peoples.
All the day long our ignominy is before us,
and confufion covereth our countenances;
from the voice of the carping reviler;
from the face of the vindictive foe!

17

18

All this hath come upon us :

yet thee we have not forgotten;

nor violated thy covenant.

19

From thee our hearts have not revolted,

20

21

22

nor our feet declined from thy path:

although thou hast thrust us into a place of defolation,

and over-covered us with the fhadow of death.

If we should forget the name of our own God, and stretch out our hands to a stranger God: would not our God investigate this?

23

he who knoweth the fecrets of the heart?
Yet, for thy fake we are daily flain!

24

Arife! why fleepest thou, JEHOVAH !

25

are counted, as a flock, for flaughter.

awake, neglect us not for ever.

Why wouldeft thou hide thy countenance ?

forget our affliction and oppreffion? For humbled to the duft is our foul; to the earth our body adhereth! Arife, our aid! and redeem us—

for thine own goodness' fake.

NOTES.

26

27

Ver. 3. But them thou madeft shoot forth. The whole metaphor is taken from the vine, or fome other luxuriant tree. In our common version," and caft them out," the parallelifm is loft, and the beauty of the fentence difappears.-Ver. 5. our king. The Heh. has my king : but as the pfalmift speaks in the name of his nation, the plural number is preferable in English: as in numerous other inftances.-Ver. 20. a place of defolation. Commonly rendered " the place of dragons."

PSALM XLV.-al. XLIV.

This psalm is evidently an epithalamium, or marriage song; and seems to have been composed by some courtly bard, when Solomon took to his bed a daughter of the king of Egypt; as bis principal sultana. The title is singular.

FOR THE FIRST MUSICIAN; UPON THE HEXA- I CHORD; A DIDACTIC

LOVE-SONG; BY THE

SONS OF KORAH.

MINE heart teemeth with a pleasant theme.

I will utter the poem which I have made for the king:

my tongue fhall be like the reed of a nimble scribe.

The fairest of men art thou :

3

grace is diffused on thy lips :

for God hath ever bleffed thee.

Gird on thy fword, thou mighty man!

4

thy glory and thine ornament:

and, thus decorated, ride profperously on,

5

in the caufe of truth and oppreffed justice. Let thy right hand dart terrors: