16 When I this thought to know, it was Too hard a thing for me;

17 Till to God's sanctuary I went,
Then I their end did see.

18 Assuredly thou didst them set
A slipp'ry place upon;
Them suddenly thou castedst down
Into destruction.

19 How in a moment suddenly
To ruin brought are they!
With fearful terrors utterly
They are consum'd away.

20 Ev'n like unto a dream, when one
From sleeping doth arise;

So thou, O Lord, when thou awak'st,
Their image shalt despise.

21 Thus grieved was my heart in me,
And me my reins opprest:

22 So rude was I, and ignorant, And in thy sight a beast.

23 Nevertheless continually,

O Lord, I am with thee:

Thou dost me hold by my right hand,
And still upholdest me.

24 Thou, with thy counsel, while I live,
-Wilt me conduct and guide;
And to thy glory afterward

Receive me to abide.

25 Whom have I in the heavens high
But thee, O Lord alone?

And in the earth whom I desire
Besides thee there is none.

26 My flesh and heart doth faint and fail, But God doth fail me never:

For of my heart God is the strength
And portion for ever.

27 For, lo, they that are far from thee
For ever perish shall;

Them that a whoring from thee go
Thou hast destroyed all.

28 But surely it is good for me
That I draw near to God:
In God I trust, that all thy works
I may declare abroad.

PSALM LXXIV.

SIMILAR to Psalm xliv. which see.

The temple fir'd, the glory gone,
The people scatter'd to and fro,
Behold what God the Lord hath done!
Let all the world his judgments know.
By tribulations he subdues,

And for himself his elect trains :
The God of all the ancient Jews,

The same o'er all the Gentiles reigns.

GOD, why hast thou cast us off?

Is it for evermore?
Against thy pasture-sheep why doth
Thine anger smoke so sore?
20 call to thy rememberance
Thy congregation,

Which thou hast purchased of old;
Still think the same upon:

The rod of thine inheritance,
Which thou redeemed hast,
This Sion hill, wherein thou hadst
Thy dwelling in times past.

2 To these long desolations
Thy feet lift, do not tarry;

For all the ills thy foes have done
Within thy sanctuary.

4 Amidst thy congregations
Thine enemies do roar :

Their ensigns they set up for signs
Of triumph thee before.

5 A man was famous, and was had
In estimation,

According as he lifted up

His axe thick trees upon.

6 But all at once with axes now
And hammers they go to,
And down the carved work thereof
They break, and quite undo.
7 They fired have thy sanctuary,
And have defil'd the same,
By casting down unto the ground
The place where dwelt thy name.

8 Thus said they in their hearts, Let us
Destroy them out of hand:
They burnt up all the

synagogues Of God within the land.

9 Our signs we do not now behold;
There is not us among

A prophet more, nor any one
That knows the time how long.

10 How long, Lord, shall the enemy
Thus in reproach exclaim?
And shall the adversary thus
Always blaspheme thy name?

11 Thy hand, ev'n thy right hand of might, Why dost thou thus draw back?

O from thy bosom pluck it out
For our deliv'rance sake.

12 For certainly God is my King,
Ev'n from the times of old,

Working in midst of all the earth
Salvation manifold.

13 The sea, by thy great pow'r, to part
Asunder thou didst make;

And thou the dragons' heads, O Lord,
Within the waters brake.

14 The leviathan's head thou brak'st
In pieces, and didst give

Him to be meat unto the folk

In wilderness that live.

15 Thou clav'st the fountain and the flood, Which did with streams abound: Thou dry'dst the mighty waters up Unto the very ground.

16 Thine only is the day, O Lord,
Thine also is the night;

And thou alone prepared hast
The sun and shining light,

17 By thee the borders of the earth
Were settled ev'ry where;

The summer and the winter both.
By thee created were.

18 That th' enemy reproached hath,
O keep it in record?

And that the foolish people have
Blasphem'd thy name, O Lord.

19 Unto the multitude do not
Thy turtle's soul deliver
The congregation of thy poor
Do not forget for ever.

20 Unto thy cov'nant have respect;
For earth's dark places be

Full of the habitations

Of horrid cruelty.

21 O let not those that be oppress'd Return again with shame:

Let those that poor and needy are
Give praise unto thy name.

22 Do thou, O God, arise and plead
The cause that is thine own:
Remember how thou art reproach'd
Still by the foolish one.

23 Do not forget the voice of those
That are thine enemies :

Of those the tumult ever grows
That do against thee rise.

PSALM LXXV.

PARALLEL to Psal. ci. and others quoted in the margin, and spoken all in one person, is evidently spoken by the Lord the Messiah, as appears from ver. 3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.' Who dares say this, but he who upholdeth all things by the word of his power?

Behold THE SON, the Heir of all,

By whom all things were made,
Upholding all things great and small;
The sov'reign Lord and Head.
He gives the retribution due,
To ev'ry son of man;

The kingdom to the faithful few;
Death, to each faithless one!

10 thee, O God, do we give thanks,
We do give thanks to thee;
Because thy wondrous works declare
Thy great name near to be.
2 I purpose, when I shall receive

The congregation,

Prose Psalms of the Bible.