15. The eyes of all wait upon Thee, O Lord and Thou givest them their meat in due season. : 16. Thou openest Thine hand and fillest all things living with plenteousness. And the mightiness of His kingdom is manifested by the power of the Holy Ghost strengthening the weak through the grace of Sacraments, and raising the fallen through the pardon of Absolution. 'Be of good cheer,' 'Thy sins are forgiven thee,'—these are the workings of His power, by which the glory of His kingdom is made known to man. The eyes of all creation wait upon His hand, He openeth it and they are filled with good; the eyes of the penitent and the believing wait also upon the same loving God; and to them, too, He openeth His hand,He revealeth Christ His Son,-and they are filled with the plenteous comfort of the Holy Ghost. 17. The Lord is righteous in all His ways: and holy in all His works. 18. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him: yea, all such as call upon Him faithfully. 19. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him He also will hear their cry, and will help them. : Thus all the dealings of God with His creatures, all His revealings of Himself to man, all His providences and orderings, both in the world and in the Church, are righteous and full of holiness. He is near to all in His presence everywhere: He is especially near to them who call upon Him faithfully, in the presence of His Only-begotten Son, in the Holy Eucharist. At all times, and then especially, He fulfils the desire of them who fear Him and trust in Him, hearing and answering their prayer, and making His strength perfect in their weakness. 20. The Lord preserveth all them that love Him but scattereth abroad all the ungodly. : 21. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh give thanks unto His holy Name for ever and ever. He saveth them who love Him, for to love Him is eternal salvation; He destroyeth them who love Him not, for not to love Him is eternal destruction. He is ever gathering His people by His giving them His Holy Spirit; He is ever scattering abroad the disobedient, through their resisting His Holy Spirit. But where the Holy Ghost is,-and He is ever with them who pray the Father for Him,-there is peace, hope, comfort; there is grateful thanksgiving, and a mouth that speaketh praise from the heart; there is a body consecrated to be a habitation of God through the Spirit, a temple of the Holy Ghost, which Christ the Lord shall hereafter raise up in immortality at the resurrection of all flesh, even as He has raised His own, to abide for ever unto the glory and the praise of God. This is a 66 Praise-song of David;" so called from the rapture of thankfulness and wonder in which the Psalmist-king dwells upon the goodness and grace of God. There was a saying among the ancient Jews that "he could not fail of being a child of the world to come, who should recite this Psalm three times every day,” that is, at each of his devotions. The Psalm is alphabetical, but the verse after verse 13, which should begin with the letter Nun, or N, in the Hebrew, appears to be lost; it however existed in the time of the LXX interpreters, who have preserved it in their translation. With verse 8 compare Exod. xxxiv. 5, 6, 7. This Psalm is fitly chosen by the Church for Whitsunday. PSALM cxlvi. Lauda, anima mea. 1. PRAISE the Lord, O my soul; while I live will I praise the Lord have any being, I will sing God. yea, as long as I praises unto my Where we end there must we begin, with praise to our God-with the praise of the soul, for that is the soul of praise; while all our life and all our being, through the time of this mortality and through the ages of immortality, should be justly given to the praise of the ever-blessed Three Persons in One God. 2. O put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man for there is no help in them. 3. For when the breath of man goeth forth he shall turn again to his earth and then all his thoughts perish. We cannot trust in kings or the great ones of the earth; we pray for them as needing grace like our selves. We cannot trust in any child of man, for they are all weak, selfish, and helpless things; they must die, and return to the dust of which they were made. Sinners may trust in the world, which is ever passing, and in the things of earth which are ever passing; but they who cleave to the things that are passing away will pass away with them. Men's thoughts, and plans, and arrangements must perish with the world which perisheth. The whole is passing away, and therefore every part must pass away likewise. 4. Blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help and whose hope is in the Lord his God; 5. Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: Who keepeth His promise for ever; 6. Who helpeth them to right that suffer wrong: Who feedeth the hungry. 7. The Lord looseth men out of prison: the Lord giveth sight to the blind. 8. The Lord helpeth them that are fallen : the Lord careth for the righteous. 9. The Lord careth for the strangers; He defendeth the fatherless and widow as for the way of the ungodly, He turneth it upside down. Woe to the man that putteth his trust in man; but joy to him who putteth his trust in his Lord! He is the one mighty Help, the one true Hope, Who created earth and heaven, and all things in them seen and unseen, Whose word standeth fast for ever, and Who, in the synagogue of Nazareth,' opened the book of the prophet Esaias, and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord... And then He began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.' He worked of old and still worketh, giving right to them that suffer wrong, and feeding them that hunger. He still doeth miracles, as He did in Galilee; for when the covetous is made liberal, then is the withered hand restored; when faith and hope are given to the careless, then the blind and dumb in soul are healed; when a sinner is brought from going astray, then the deaf is made to hear; when an ungodly man is converted, then the dead is raised. For these miracles we glorify the Lord, as also for His unceasing love and care for all His redeemed. He receives all who come to Him in faith and penitence; He watches over the poor and the sorrowful, for their comfort and help; and He watches over the ungodly, to turn him, if it may be, from the error of his way, but, at last, if he repent not, to turn his evil way to chastisement and to destruction. |