Hear me, O LORD; for thy loving-kindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble; hear me speedily.

Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me, because of mine enemies.

Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.

Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.

Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.

For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.

Add iniquity unto their iniquity; and let them not come into thy righteousness.

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.

I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.

For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.

Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein :

For God will save Sion, and will build the cities of Judah; that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.

The seed also of his servants shall inherit it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

THIS Psalm is a prayer full of those most deep and spiritual feelings that were experienced in the person of Christ our Lord. In the beginning of the Psalm, in the first three verses, with what a fervency and weight of words does the Psalmist describe those great terrors of death and hell which Christ undertook and endured, for our sins. "Save me now, O Lord," saith he, "for the waters overflow me, I sink into the depth of the mire: I have now no where to stand, nothing whereon to set my foot, I sink into the abyss of the sea, and the floods overflow me." By all which figures and expressions he shadows forth, with all his powers, that unspeakable agony of Christ, which he endured for our sins, when groaning under the infinite weight of the wrath of God.

In the 7th verse Christ confesses himself as bearing our sins, and complains of the Jews, who crucify him. "They gave me," saith he, "gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink :" so

expressively and circumstantially does the prophet foretel the sufferings of Christ! And then he speaks, with the same clearness, concerning the Jews who should be blinded, and their kingdom and priesthood which should be destroyed, as also it was fulfilled; so that now we see the accomplishment of these things, and experience has set them plainly before our eyes.

In the end of the Psalm the prophet shows that the law should be abolished, and that a new worship should be instituted without the law and circumcision: "I will praise the name of the Lord,” saith he, "with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or a bullock that hath horns and hoofs." By these words he shews that the law should be abrogated with the whole of that splendidly ceremonious worship, the boasted pride of circumcision, the sabbaths, and the sacrifices; and that the worship of the New Testament should be established in its stead; namely, the sacrifice of praise and the preaching of the gospel; for it is by faith in Christ, and obedience to the gospel that we attain unto the true knowledge of God, and it is by truly keeping the first commandment that God is truly worshipped; which, as it is written, (Mark xii. 33.) is "more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

PSALM LXX.

David soliciteth God to the speedy destruction of the wicked, and preservation of the godly.

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.

MAKE haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD.

Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt.

Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha.

Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.

But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, 0 God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.

THIS Psalm is a prayer against the persecutors and enemies of the church and of the godly: for such instruments of the devil cease not to plot against the good, and those that fear God, with all possible machinations of craft, and with all the bitterness of Cain; and, like Satan himself, they burn with an insatiable desire and determination to destroy the church; nay, more than this, they insult the miseries and calamities of the saints.

PSALM LXXI.

David, in confidence of faith, and experience of God's favour, prayeth both for himself, and against the enemies of his soul.-He promiseth constancy. He prayeth for perseverance.—He praiseth God, and promiseth to do it cheerfully.

IN thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save

me.

Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given command

ment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.

Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the

wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth.

By thee have I been holden up from the womb:

thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee. I am as a wonder unto many: but thou art my strong refuge.

Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.

Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.

For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and

take him; for there is none to deliver him.

O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help.

Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt. But I will hope continually, and yet will praise thee more and more.

My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.

I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.

O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.