FOR EASTER-DAY. PSALM CXiii. Laudate, pueri. 1. PRAISE the Lord, ye servants : O praise the Name of the Lord. LXX. Praise the Lord, ye children. 2. Blessed be the Name of the Lord: from this time forth for evermore. : 3. The Lord's Name is praised from the rising up of the sun unto the going down of the same. They who are God's servants are also His children: His servants through obedience, His children through love. We praise Him by obedience, we praise Him by love; our praises begin now, in the time of this mortal life, but they who praise Him truly have no end of their praise. Blessing and honour are His, and shall be given unto Him morning and evening, day by day continually, by them who believe on His Name, throughout all the world, from the rising of the sun in the east to the distant countries of the west. Our constant prayer is also a constant prophecy, Hallowed be Thy Name.' 4. The Lord is high above all heathen: and His glory above the heavens. : 5. Who is like unto the Lord our God, that hath His dwelling so high and yet humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth? The knowledge of His truth, and of His saving love, of His death and of His resurrection from the dead, is ever being made known unto the nations of the world; they who receive it become His servants, and He becomes their Lord. He is made the head of the heathen: the peoples shall bow down before Him, and confess Him to be their King, even as do the Seraphim in the highest heaven. His glory is above the dwellers on earth, but it is above the dwellers in heaven too. The whole universe suffices not for His dwelling-place, and yet hath He His temple in each holy and contrite heart, and makes His heaven there. For thus saith the high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, Whose Name is Holy; I dwell in the high and lofty place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' He Who once humbled Himself to behold the things on earth, will watch over the humble, that He may raise them to that height of heaven which He forsook for them. 6. He taketh up the simple out of the dust : and lifteth the poor out of the mire ; 7. That He may set him with the princes: even with the princes of His people. 8. He maketh the barren woman to keep house : and to be a joyful mother of children. Heb. He causeth the barren mistress of a house To dwell as a joyful mother of children. He doeth all marvellous things,-raising David from leading his sheep in the desert to the throne of Israel, bringing back Job from the dung-hill on which he lay in misery and loneliness, to his former high and prosperous estate-giving the blessing of children to the desolate and barren, to Sarah and to Rebecca, to Rachel and to Hannah. These things are wonderful, but He hath done greater things than these, in raising up our poor fallen nature from the dust. of corruption and decay, and taking it unto Himself, and thereby placing it above angels and archangels, on the right hand of the eternal Majesty. Praise we the Name of the Lord, for that the Son of Man, the First-born of our brethren from the dead, is seated on the throne of God! Praise we the Name of the Lord, for that His Church, once barren, oppressed, forsaken, hath brought forth children to His glory, children of the seed of Abraham, many as the stars in heaven, in saints on high in the dwellings of light-many as the sand on the sea-shore, in holy and humble men of heart, gathered from the waves of trouble and the bitterness of sin. For it is written, Rejoice thou barren, that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.' This Psalm is appointed by the Church for Easter-Day. It was probably, like the two which precede it, and with which it seems to have a connection, written after the return from the captivity. With verse 5 compare Isa. lvii. 15. The last three verses are taken from the song of Hannah, (1 Sam. ii. 5—8). This Psalm begins that series which made up the hymn called by the Rabbis "the greater Hallel," which was sung by the Jews at the celebration of the Passover, and U also at the other chief festivals. According to Dr. Lightfoot, Psalms. cxiii. and cxiv. were sung at the commencement of the Paschal feast, and the Psalms from cxv. to cxviii. after the fourth cup of wine, with which the feast ended. These last, therefore, were especially "the hymn" which our Lord and His disciples sang, (St. Matt. xxvi. 30). The Rabbis, however, differ as to the number of the Psalms which formed "the greater Hallel." Evening Prayer. FOR EASTER-DAY. PSALM CXIV. In exitu Israel. 1. WHEN Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from among the strange people, : 2. Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion. 3. The sea saw that, and fled : Jordan was driven back. 4. The mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like young sheep. When Israel was at length delivered by the hand of Moses from their long bondage in Egypt, where their oppressors had been alike strangers to them in language and in justice, God Himself, Who led them forth, was their King. He chose them to Himself, that His holiness and His power should abide among them. He said unto them, 'Ye shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.' Therefore, when they left Egypt, the Red Sea was cleft in twain before them, and they passed through; and when they came to Canaan, the river Jordan was divided, that they might enter. Therefore at the giving the law at Sinai, Horeb, and the mountains around, both great and small, shook with a sudden and mighty earthquake, like rams leaping in a grassy plain, with the young sheep frisking round them. 5. What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest and thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? 6. Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams: and ye little hills, like young sheep. 7. Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob; 8. Who turned the hard rock into a standing water and the flint-stone into a springing well. It was not before the holiness or the power of Israel that the sea retired; it was not through the might of the house of Judah that the mountains shook and the hills were rent. It was before Him Who was with and among them, Whose Name is the Lord, the God of Jacob, that the elements trembled and obeyed-before Him Who brought forth springs of water from the stricken rock in the thirsty desert of Rephidim. Yea rather, it was before Him Who is ever with His Church, giving holiness and power unto the true Israelites according to Abraham's seed, that the waters of the world |