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the affemblies of the violent have fought after my foul, and have not fet thee before them.

15. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compaffion and gracious, long fuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

16. O turn unto me and have mercy on me, give ftrength unto thy fervant, and fave the fon of thine handmaid.

17. Shew for me a token of thy goodness, that they, who hate me, may fee it and be afhamed, because thou, O Lord, haft holpen me and comforted me.

PSALM LXXXVII.

The triumphant fong of a few on his return from Babylon, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, in which be fets up for the fuperiority of Jerufalem over all heathen cities, even the most celebrated, in refpect of the number of eminent perfons born in her. The Targum feems to fhew, that the ancient title of this Pfalm was, "The Foundations on the Holy Mountains."

1. THE Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings in Jacob.

2. Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God.

3. I will make mention of Egypt and Babylon amongst my acquaintance, of Philiftia alfo and Tyre, with Ethiopia, saying, "this man was born

there."

4. But of Sion it fhall be faid, "this great man, and that great man was born in her, and the Most High himself hath established her.'

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5. The Lord when he writeth the registry of nations shall declare, "this man was born there 6. But of princes of renown, all my fprings are in thee."

PSALM LXXXVIII.

The lamentation of a perfon confined by an infectious difeafe, probably the leprofy.

1. O LORD God of my falvation, I cry day and night before thee.

2. O let my prayer enter into thy presence, incline thine ear unto my calling.

3. For my foul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

4. I am counted with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength.

5. Proftrate amongst the dead, like the flain that

lie in the grave, whom thou remembereft no more, and that are cut away from thy hand.

6. Thou haft laid me in the lowest pit, in darknefs, in the shadow of death.

7. Thy indignation lieth hard upon me, and thou haft poured out all thy waves upon me.

8. Thou haft put away my acquaintance far from me, and made me to be abhorred of them; I am fhut up, and I cannot come forth.

9. Mine eyefight faileth through affliction; Lord I call daily unto thee, I stretch out my hands unto thee.

10. Wilt thou fhew wonders among the dead? Shall they arise and praise thee?

II. Shall thy loving kindness be fhewed in the grave? Thy faithfulness in destruction?

12. Shall thy mercy be known in the fepulchre? And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13. Yet unto thee, O Lord, do I cry; and in the morning doth my prayer come before thee.

14. Lord, why castest thou off my foul? Why hideft thou thy face from me?

15. I have been afflicted from my youth, I have born thy terrors with a troubled mind.

16. Thy wrathful displeasure goeth over me; and thy fear hath cut me off.

17. They have come about me every day like water; they have compassed me about together.

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The Pfalmift bere prays for the preservation of the kingdom of David, when threatened with imminent danger. He grounds his confidence on the promise made by the prophet Nathan to David, 2 Sam. 7. This Pfalm is fuppofed by most commentators to have been written in the reign of Hezekiah, when he had been almoft driven from Jerufalem by Sennacherib, and was dangerously ill, nor had he got a fon to fucceed him in the kingdom.

1. MY fong fhall be alway of the loving kindness of the Lord; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

2. I faid, mercy fhall be built up for ever, thy faithfulness thou didst establish in the very heavens.

3. "I have made a covenant with my chofen, I have fworn unto David my fervant.

4. Thy feed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations.”

5. And the heavens fhall praife thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness alfo in the affembly of the holy ones.

6. For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the fons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?

7. God is greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones; and to be had in remembrance of all those that are round about him.

8. O Lord God of hofts, who is a mighty Lord like unto thee, and to thy truth of those that are round about thee?

9. Thou ruleft the raging of the fea; when the waves thereof arife, thou ftilleft them.

10. Thou haft crushed Egypt, as one that is flain; thou haft scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy ftrength.

11. The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine; the world and the fullness thereof; thou haft founded them.

12. The north and the fouth, thou didst create them; Tabor and Hermon, they rejoice in thy

name.

13. Thou haft a mighty arm; ftrong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.

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