14. Juftice and judgment are the foundation of thy throne; mercy and truth go before thy face.

15. Blessed is the people that know thy praise; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy coun

tenance.

16. In thy name fhall they rejoice all the day; and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.

17. For thou art the glory of their strength, and in thy favour our horn fhall be exalted.

18. For the Lord is our defence, and the holy one of Ifrael is our king.

19. Thou hast spoken some time in vifion to thy holy ones, and said, I have given help to one that is strong, I have exalted one chofen out of the people.

20. I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him.·

21. My hand shall hold him fast, mine arm also shall strengthen him.

22. The enemy shall have no advantage over him, nor the fon of wickednefs afflict him.

23. I will beat down his foes before his face, and fmite them that hate him.

24. And my faithfulness and my mercy fhall be

with him; and in my name fhall his horn be exalted.

25. I will fet his hand also in the fea, and his right hand in the rivers.

26. He shall cry unto me; Thou art my father, my God, and my strong falvation.

27. And I will make him my first born, higher than the kings of the earth.

28. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, my covenant fhall ftand faft with him.

29. His feed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

30. If his children forfake my law, and walk not in my judgments,

31. If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments,

32. Then will I visit their offences with the rod, and their fin with stripes.

33. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor fuffer my truth to fail. 34. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth.

35. Once have I fworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David.

36. His feed fhall endure for ever, and his throne as the fun before me.

37. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as the faithful witnefs in heaven.

38. Yet thou haft caft off and rejected, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.

39. Thou haft made void the covenant of thy fervant, thou haft profaned his diadem on the earth.

40.

Thou haft broken down all his defences, thou haft brought his strong holds to ruin.

41. All that pass by the way, spoil him; he is a reproach to his neighbours.

42. Thou haft exalted the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. 43. Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and haft not made him to stand in the battle.

44. Thou haft made his brightness to ceafe, and caft his throne down to the ground.

45. The days of his youth haft thou shortened; thou haft covered him with shame.

46. How long, Lord, wilt thou hide thyfelf? shall thy wrath burn like fire for ever?

47. Remember, Lord, what their time is! to what vanity thou haft made all the fons of men.

; or

48. What man liveth and shall not fee death fhall deliver his foul from the hand of the grave? 49. Lord, where are thy former loving kindnesses, which thou fwarest unto David in thy truth.

50. Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy fervants: that I bear in my bofom all the railings of the people.

51. Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, have reproached the fteps of thine anointed. 52. Bleffed be the Lord for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

Y

EIGHTEENTH MORNING.

Morning Prayer.

PSALM XC.

But

This Pfalm is by many fuppofed to have been the meditation of Mofes, when the Ifraelites offended fo highly against God in the wilderness, that he fhortened their lives to feventy or eighty years (at the most) and fuffered them not to arrive at the age of their ancestors, or of Mofes, Caleb, or Joshua, whofe lives he prolonged to an hundred and twenty years. though the Pfalmift, as the learned Mr. Green obferves, laments the diminution of life, no one expreffion limits it to the shortened period of that generation who were untimely cut off for their fins. But it plainly and wholly refers to the decrease of man's age from a thousand years, the original fum, to feventy or eighty at the most, a diminution fufficient to make him treat the prefent life of man as a phantom, or watch in the night. Dr. Kennicott thinks that it was probably written about the return from the captivity; which feems to receive fome confirmation from verse 13, 15, 17.

1. LORD thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another.

2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. 3. Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, children of men."

return ye

4. Verily a thousand years in thy fight are but as yesterday, when it is past; and as a watch in the night.

5. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a dream in the morning, they are as grafs which changeth.

6. In the morning, it flourisheth and groweth up; and, in the evening, it is cut down and withereth. 7. So we are confumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath we are troubled.

8. Thou haft fet our misdeeds before thee, our fecret fins in the light of thy countenance.

ten;

9. For our days pafs away; in thy wrath are we confumed, our years are as a vapour. 10. The days of our years are threescore years and and if, by reafon of ftrength, they be four fcore years, yet is their number labour and forrow; for foon it passeth away, and we are gone. 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger, and the fear of thy wrath?

12. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom!