again threaten him.

Mr. Mudge and Dr. Kenni

cott are of opinion that Jeremiah was the author of this Pfalm; and indeed it every where tallies exactly both with his character, and with his circumftances at the beginning of Zedekiah's reign.

1. I WAITED patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

2. He brought me up alfo out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and fet my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps fure.

3. And he put a new fong in my mouth, even praife unto our God: many fhall fee, and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

4. Bleffed is the man that maketh the Lord his hope, and refpecteth not the proud, nor fuch as turn afide to lies.

5. Manifold are thy works, O Lord my God; thy wonders and thy counfels, for us, cannot be numbered; if I would declare and fet them forth, they are more than can be counted.

6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not defire; therefore mine ears didft thou open :

7. Burnt offering and fin offering thou didst not require, then faid I, lo, I come (what is written in the volume is my duty) to do thy will O God.

8. I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea thy law is written within my heart.

9. I have preached righteoufnefs in the great

congregation; lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord thou knowest.

10. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy falvation: I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

II. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord, let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preferve me.

12. For innumerable evils have compaffed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more in number than the hairs of my head; therefore doth my heart fail me.

13. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make hafte to help me.

14. Let them be ashamed and confounded together, that feek after my foul to deftroy it; let them be driven backward and put to rebuke, that with me evil.

15. Let them be defolate for a reward of their fhame, that fay unto me Aha! Aha!

16. But let all those feek thee, be joyful and glad in thee; and let fuch as love thy falvation, fay always "magnified be the Lord."

17. Though I am poor and in affliction, yet the Lord thinketh of me; thou art my helper and deliverer, make no long tarrying, O my God.

K

EIGHTH EVENING.

Evening Prayer.

PSALM XLI.

David, in his fickness, prays for recovery, and com plains of the perfidy of his friends. The time of writing this Pfalm does not ill accord with that period, when be possessed a confiderable share of honour and dignity in the court of Saul; and had many friends, but many enemies likewife, who had particularly betrayed their enmity towards him, while afflicted with this malady.

1. BLESSED is he that confidereth the fick, the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble.

2. The Lord will preferve him, and prolong his life, and will not give him up unto the will of his enemies.

3. The Lord will ftrengthen him on the bed of languishing; thou wilt make all his bed in his ficknefs.

4. I faid, O Lord, be merciful unto me, heal my foul, for I have finned against thee.

5.

The wishes of mine enemies are for mine evil, when shall he die, and his name perish ?

6. And if he come to fee me, he fpeaketh deceit ; his heart gathereth up falfehood; and when he goeth forth, he telleth it.

7. They that hate me, whisper together against me; against me they imagine evil, saying,

8. "The fentence of guilt is pronounced upon him, and now that he lieth, he fhall rife up no

9. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trufted; who did eat of my bread, hath dealt treacherously towards me.

10. But, thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up that I may requite them for this.

11. I know, if thou favoureft me, that mine enemies shall not triumph over me.

12. But in mine integrity thou wilt uphold me, and make me ftand before thy face for ever.

13. Bleffed be the Lord God of Ifrael from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.

PSALM XLII. XLIII.

This Pfalm and the next, which have been improperly Separated, seem to have been the lamentation of a Jew, banished from his native land, and from the houfe of

God. Muis, from R. Mofes, fays, that it was probably written in the Babylonian captivity; which is ftrongly confirmed by the expreffion, where is thy God? which is purely Pagan; for it intimates a doubt rather of the existence of God, than of his will to help; and alfo from the ft verfe of the next Pfalm, where the writer complains of the unmerciful nation to whofe infults he was expofed. As the author expresses his ardent defire to return to the house of God, it must have been written before the deftruction of the temple.

1. AS the hart panteth after the water brooks, fo panteth my foul after thee, O God.

2. My foul thirfteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come to appear before God?

3. My tears have been my food day and night, while they daily fay unto me, "where is thy God?"

4. When I call these things to remembrance, I pour out my foul within me; for I paffed over with

the multitude, I went with them in proceffion to the houfe of God; with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holiday.

5. Why art thou cast down, O my foul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I fhall yet praise him, who is the health of countenance and my God.

my

6. My foul is caft down within me, because I remember how we were wont to go to thee from the