9 I have proclaimed righteousness in the great con

gregation,

Lo, I will not restrain my lips ; THOU, Lord, knowest. 10 I hid not Thy righteousness within my heart,

I told of Thy faithfulness and salvation;

I did not conceal Thy mercy and truth from the great congregation.

11 Thou too10, O LORD,-oh restrain not Thy compassion from me;

Oh let Thy mercy and truth perpetually guard me. 12 For evils without number have coiled around me, My sins have laid hold on me; and I cannot see11; They are more than the hairs of my head; and my heart has forsaken me.

13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me;

O LORD, haste to my help.

14 Let them be ashamed and abashed together who seek after my soul to destroy it;

15

Let them be driven back and disgraced that desire my hurt.

Let12 them be left desolate by reason of their shame, Who say to me: Aha, aha!"

16 Let all those who seek Thee be joyful and glad in Thee;

Let those who love Thy salvation continually say "The LORD be magnified!"

8 Bissárti; "I proclaimed the glad tidings of " xcvi. 2.

• True, in his degree, of David; see 1 Chr. xxviii, xxix. But cp. xxii. 22-25.

10" Thou," in Thy turn :-since I restrained not my lips, v. 9. 11 His sight was gone from sorrow. Cp. xxxviii. 10.

12 With the last four vv. of the Psalm cp. xxxv. 10, 25, 26, 27.

17 As for me, I am poor and needy, but the LORD thinks of me13;

I

13

My help and deliverer art Thou; O my God, delay not14!

13 Chasháv: cp. v. 5. LXX. Opovrieî pov. Vulg. solicitus est mei. 14 Isai. xlvi. 13; Hab. ii. 3; Dan. ix. 19.

XLI.$

To the Precentor. A Psalm of David.

HAPPY

APPY he who deals considerately with the afflicted2;

The LORD shall deliver him in the day of evil. 2 The LORD shall guard him and keep him alive; He shall be prospered upon earth,

And oh ! give him not over to the will of his enemies3. 3 The LORD shall support him on the couch of languishing:

Thou turnest all his bed in his sickness.

The last Psalm ended with speaking of the Lord's care for the poor and needy. This opens with mention of man's caring for his fellow-sufferer. "With such sacrifices God is well pleased:" (Hebr. xiii. 16).

Ps. lv.

1 LXX. ó σvvæv. Symm. ó évvowν & проσîкε. Jer. qui cogitat de paupere. Apollinarius: πepikηderal. St. Ambrose (ap. Corder. r. 769) "Quid est, Qui intelligit?—Qui compatitur pauperi, qui haurit ejus necessitates, scit quid mali inopia adferat indigenti."

Obs. The word "maskil" denotes properly "thoughtful attention; "--which springs, however, from sympathizing love. (See Phil. i. 9, "that your love may yet more and more overflow, ev ἐπιγνώσει καὶ πάσῃ αἰσθήσει, in discernment and all intelligence.”)

2 Of whom, remarks Hengstenberg, could this considerateness for the afflicted be affirmed with such depth of meaning, as of Him, who (St. John xiii. 18) expressly applies v. 9 to Himself? 3 Cp. xxvii. 12, lxxiv. 19.

4 "Tu, Deus suavis et mitis, ita soles facere cum fidelibus Tuis;

4 As for me, I said, "LORD, have pity on me; "Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee." 5 My enemies speak evil of me;

"When will he die and his name perish?".

6 And if he visit me, his heart speaks vanity; He gathers up to himself iniquity";

He goes forth; he speaks it in the street.

7 All that hate me whisper together against me, Against me they devise evil for me.

8 "Some piece of villainy is poured out over him; "And now that he is laid down10, he shall rise no more."

9 My intimate friend", too, in whom I confided,

Who ate of my bread, lifted high his heel against me12

nam siquando vidisti pium aliquem gravari tentationibus vel afflic tionibus, ita illum consolari consuevisti quomodo consolatur ægrotum, qui totum stratum versat et reversat, ut mollius cubet et quiescat." (Bellarmin.)

5 Lit. "to Thee:". —as in li. 4. Because his malady was sin, God only could heal him.

While he was bowing down in lowly penitence, they were invoking evil on him.

7 He makes a show of friendship, using hollow compliments; but he is treasuring up every expression as material for misrepresentation.

8 Lit. "word of Belial : "-here and in ci. 3. Note.-David had been called a 66

(2 Sam. xvi. 7).

'man of Belial" by Shimei

So as to be fixed on him like a coating of metal. Job xli. 15, 16 (23, 24 E. V.)

10 On his sick-bed.

11 Lit. "Man of my peace." Jer. xx. 10. (See Pref. to Ps. xxxix.)

12 Or; (xxxviii. 16); "vaunted himself over me treacherously."

10 But Thou, O LORD, have pity on me, and raise me

up;

So shall I requite them18.

11 By this I know Thou hast delight in me1,

Because my enemy does not triumph over me. 12 And as for me,-in my integrity Thou upholdest me, And establishest me before Thee for ever.

13 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel 15,

From everlasting to everlasting. Amen. Amen16.

13 Such requital was obligatory on David as a king,-bound to resist treachery and villainy in God's name. (Del.)

14 Chafatz:-David's word in 2 Sam. xv. 26. Cp. Ps. xviii. 19, xxii. 8, xxxv. 27.

15 Words used by David, 1 Chr. xxix. 10; 1 Kgs. i. 48. (Also 1 Chr. xvi. 36. Cp. St. Luke i. 68.)

16 Each of the four first books ends with "Amen." (See Ps. LXXII, LXXXIX, CVI.) Hippolytus says: "The Hebrews divided the Psalter into five books, so that it is another Pentateuch." (P. 193, ed. Lagarde.)

The Second Book.

INTRODUCTION.

1. Of the thirty-one Psalms in this Book, eight belong to the Sons of Korah (xlii-xlix ;-for xliii is manifestly a companion piece to xlii); one (L.) to Asaph; eighteen to David (li-lxv, lxviii-lxx); one to Solomon (lxxii). The remaining three (lxvi, lxvii, lxxi) are anonymous; but lxxi at any rate is almost certainly to be assigned to the author of lxx, that is, to David.—(Cp. lxx. 1 with lxxi. 12.)

2. In the First Book the Psalmist, after climbing up to the heights of xviii-xxiv, fell back again into conflict. In the opening of Book II we have "deep calling to deep :" while Ps. xliv seems even to anticipate the horrors of the Chaldean Invasion. But out of this sea of troubles there emerges one of the most glorious prophecies in the whole Psalter (xlv), followed by three hymns of triumph (xlvixlviii), and two of solemn admonition (xlix, 1). After that we descend again into the Valley of Penitence; and by a toilsome ascent reach the most triumphant of Temple Anthems (lxviii). Then once more plunging into the depths (lxix), the Book arrives finally at Unmixed Peace (lxxii).