forts and sustains himself during the time of that most miserable flight and calamity.

This Psalm may be used by those who are under the oppression of tyrants, who feel a hungering and thirsting after the word of God, and who can, under their calamity, glory in being the sons and heirs of God, because they have the knowledge of Christ, and love the word; and who can persevere in this confidence, until the impious Saul be destroyed, and David exalted; that is, until God raise up and comfort those that fear him.

PSALM LXIV.

David prayeth for deliverance, complaining of his enemies.-He promiseth himself to see such an evident destruction of his enemies, as the righteous shall rejoice at it.

To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David.

HEAR my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.

Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity. Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words ; That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not. They encourage themselves in an evil matter; they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?

They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.

But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.

So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves; all that see them shall flee away. And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God: for they shall wisely consider of his doing.

The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.

THIS is a most ardent prayer, full of the feelings of a heart under great straits, by reason of the unceasing and infinite malice of the devil, the perfidy of men, and the ingratitude of the world.

David here cries unto God, on account of having experienced so much treachery, even from those of his own household, (as always is the case, in the cause of religion). He cries to the Lord against his betrayers and his most virulent slanderers, those vipers, who, by wicked speeches, and all the arts of perfidy and malice, did not cease to plot against him. Of this base gang were his own son Absalom, Ahithophel, and others like them; and especially many in the court of Saul; Doeg, &c.

He continues, however, perseveringly to comfort and console himself;-that, by the just judgment of God, these same enemies shall bring evil upon their own heads; and that those very base and viperous tongues, which now cannot rest nor cease to slander, shall only wound themselves; as, in the end, it happened unto Absalom, Ahithophel, and Doeg.

In the same way also, we ought to pray against all those vipers, our enemies, in the halls of kings, bishops, and princes: who attack us with satanic craft and hatred, and with all the arts of wickedness. But they shall fall themselves into the snares which

they have laid, (as we have seen it exemplified in numberless instances;) and they shall only plan mischief which shall fall upon their own heads; that men may openly behold and see the works of God, and acknowledge that God himself has visited them.

PSALM LXV.

David praiseth God for his grace.-The blessedness of God's chosen by reason of benefits.

To the chief Musician.

A Psalm and Song of David.

PRAISE waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed.

O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.

Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.

Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer

us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:

Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power:

Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of

their waves, and the tumult of the people. They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid of thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.

Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou

greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.

Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly; thou settlest the furrows thereof; thou makest it

soft with showers; thou blessest the springing thereof.

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness ; and the little hills rejoice on every side.

The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn: they shout for joy, they also sing.

THIS is a remarkable Psalm of thanksgiving; (and all productions of this kind were formed by the prophet out of the First Commandment,) wherein thanks are rendered unto God, because he preserves among his people (to whom he has given his word against Satan, heretics, and all adversaries) the true religion, and the true worship of God; and because he preserves also political peace, and guards the state from all seditions, wars and tumults; and dispels all the storms of the counsels of war, slaughter and bloodshed. For war is nothing less than a horrible storm and tempest, which hurls into confusion all things divine and human; and throws them into a perturbation, like as when the waves of the sea rage with violence.

The Psalmist gives thanks to God that he preserves peace;-(in which one thing are contained all the treasures of good;) that he gives rain from heaven and fruitful seasons; and that he crowns the year with his goodness: that is, that during the

revolution of the year, he accomplishes and performs, as it were, a certain round of divine blessing and goodness. For, in the spring, there first appear the blossoms; and then, shortly after, the strawberries and cherries; and then, ere long, plums, apples, and berries of various juice and virtue; (to say nothing about the perpetual verdure of the herbs which flourishes all the while, and is continually revived with fresh supplies of dew). To these we are to add, the infinite variety of herbs and odours. And then, at the time of harvest, our barns are filled with wheat, rye, barley, and corn, and grain of every kind. In the autumn, our presses overflow with wine of an infinite variety of taste and fragrance, and our vats are filled to the brim. Thus the Lord fills the whole revolution of the year, and every part of it, with his overflowing and infinite goodness: and indeed every single fruit is, as it were, a fund, and a world of the goodness of God.

But how few are there, in general, who think about these numberless and valuable blessings, and render thanks unto God for them? Alas! we have innumerable examples of the impious manner in which the noble, the powerful, and the rich, have abused the saving doctrine of faith and Christian liberty, and also that peace which God has hitherto miraculously preserved to us :-we have numberless examples, I say, of the manner in which they have abused these great blessings, to their own lusts, as Sodom and Gomorrah did:-but they shall be visited with Sodom and Gomorrah's judgment.

You see, therefore, that those in the kingdom of David, and among the people of Israel who composed these Psalms, were excellent and great men. For these are spiritual and truly divine poems. No