and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selab.] The moon may as well fall from her orb, as his authority fall to the ground, and rise no more: Let that be a witness of my fidelity, when you look upon it, (Jer. xxxiii. 20. 21.), and conclude, that after all the changes and e clipses his kingdom may suffer, it shall stand as fast as that and all the rest of the heavenly bodies.

Ver. 38. But thou hast cast off and abhorred; thou bast been wroth with thine anointed.] But all these promises, alas so sacredly confirmed and oft repeated, have not secured it from a dismal subversion: For thou hast rejected, with the greatest contempt and indignation, our sovereign; one of the posterity of David, and his lawful successor in the kingdom, 2 Kings, xxiv. 10. xxv. 6. 7. Lam. iv. 20.

Ver 39. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown, by casting it to the ground.] Thou seemest not to regard the covenant made with thy faithful servant, (which thou promisedst not to break, ver. 34.); and instead of raising his family higher than all other kings, (ver. 27.), hast suffered it to lose all its authority; which, together with the royal diadem, is vilely trodden under foot.

Ver. 40. Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou bast brought his strong-holds to ruin.] Thou hast broken down all the walls of Jerusalem, (2 Kings, xxv. 10.), and made all his fortified places a mere desola

tion:

Ver. 41. All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours.] So that he hath no defence against those who have a mind to make a prey of him, (2 Kings, xxiv. 2.), and is now scorned and derided by those who formerly dreaded him.

Ver. 42. Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries: thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.] Thou hast made his adversaries (whom thou promisedst to depress, ver. 23.) far stronger than him self; they have executed all that they designed, and now triumph in his ruin.

Ver. 43 Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle.] His forces have done him no service; but being shamefully routed, durst never rally again, to make any opposition to their enemies,

Ver. 44. Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground.] Thou hast put out that splendour which we thought should have been perpetual, (ver. 37. 38.), and hast utterly overturned his kingdom.

Ver. 45. The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame. Selab.] Thou hast made a speedy end of the reign of Jehoiachin, who in his youth is made a slave, (2 Kings, xxiv. 8. &c.); and haste suffered Zedekiah to be most disgracefully

condemned as a rebel, to lose his eyes, and remain a prisoner all the days of his life, 2 Kings, xxv. 6. 7. Ver. 46. How long, LORD, wilt thou hide thyself? for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?] O what at sad condition is this, in which thou seemest wholly to neglect us! But, O Lord, wilt thou never appear for us again, and put a period to our miseries? Wilt thou let thy anger burn, till we be utterly consumed?

Ver. 47. Remember how short my time is: wherefore bast thou made all men in vain ?]. Our natural weak. ness pleads for some mercy, and emboldens us to be seech thee, that, since we must only die unavoidably, but a short time will bring us to our graves, thou wilt be pleased to let us spend that little time in more ease, and not live as if we were made for nothing else, but only to be miserable and to die.

Ver. 48. What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall be deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selab.] For where is the man, whose constitution is so firm, that he shall not yield to death? For what ability have we, though our enensics should not thus destroy us, to defend ourselves from the power of the grave?

Ver. 49. LORD, where are thy former loving-kindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth? Lord what a difference is there between our times, and those when thou wast so exceeding good to David and swarest, most faithfully, to continue to him for ever thy loving-kindnesses, which we beseech thee now restore unto us.

Ver. 50. Remember, LORD, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people ;] Shew, O Lord, that thou dost not forget the scoffs and jeers, whereby our enemies augment the sufferings of thy servants: There is nothing I lay to heart so much, as all the reproaches of many and mighty nations;

Ver. 51. Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.] Who are thy enemies as well as ours, and have blasphemed thee, O Lord, and mocked at thee, as if our slavery were the effect of thy inability to protect us; and as if there were an end of the family and kingdom of David thine anointed, which thou saidst should last for ever.

PSALM XC.

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.

THE ARGUMENT.-Here begins the fourth book of Psalms; in this differing from the rest, that as those of the first book are most of them ascribed to David; and those of the second, in great part, to the sons of Korah; and those of the third, to Asaph; so there are few of these, whose author is certainly known, and therefore, I suppose, were all put together in one and the same collection. The first of them, indeed, being made by Moses, the Hebrews have entertained a conceit, (which St Hierom and St Hilary also follow), that he was the author also of the ten next immediately ensuing. But, as there is no reason for that, (it will appear in due place), so I can see no cause why we should fancy David, or some of the children of Moses in his time, or a singer of that name, (as Aben-Ezra conjectures), to have composed this present psalm; when not only the title expressly gives it to that Moses, who was the man of God, (as their lawgiver is called, Deut. xxxiii. 1.), or that famous prophet, by whom God spake to them; but the Chaldee paraphrase, and the very matter of the psalm, sufficiently shew, that it was a meditation of his, when the people offended so highly against God in the wilderness, (especially by murmuring at the relation the spies brought them of the good land, Numb. xiv.), that he shortened their lives to seventy or eighty years at the most; and suffered them not to arrive at the age of their ancestors, or of Moses, Caleb, and Joshua, whose lives he prolonged to an hundred and twenty years.

Which grievous punishment Moses prays God they may lay to heart seriously, and so recover his favour, (ver. 12. &c.), who is the eternal God, as he tells them, (in the beginning of the psalm), and had been, in a particular manner, kind to their progenitors in former generations.

This is the substance of the psalm; which the collector of this book thought fit to place in the very beginning of it, because of the great antiquity of this psalm, and the dignity of its author.

Ver. 1. LORD, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.] O Lord, who sustainest and governest the whole world, thou hast been. the constant protector of our nation for many ages; having afforded all things necessary for the defence and security of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when they had no certain dwelling-place, but were strangers in the land whither we are going; and supported us in the land of Egypt; where, in a time

of dearth, thou madest an ample provision for us; as thou hast also done hitherto, in this barren desert.

Ver. 2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world; even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.] Where, though we have no towns nor houses, we ought to think ourselves safe, and to trust in thee, who art the same mighty God thou ever wast, (not only before we and our forefathers were made, but before the mountains arose out of the waters, and thou com. mandedst the rest of the earth and this beautiful world to appear); and ever wilt be, whatever changes there be here, without any alteration.

Ver. 3. Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men.] We have highly offended thee, indeed, and so did our first parents, who became thereby most wretched and miserable creatures, and were doomed by thee to return to the dust out of which they were formed, as all their posterity must do, whensoever thou summonest them to obey that sentence thou hast passed upon them.

Ver. 4. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.] And should we have a reprieve for a longer time than our first father Adam and some of his successors had, who lived near to a thousand years, we should be wretched still; especially when we compared ourselves with thee, in whose account the longest life is as inconsiderable as one day, and that when it is spent and gone; nay, as three or four hours, which pass away in sleep.

Ver. 5. Thou carriest them away as with a flood ; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.] But alas! in these ages thou carriest men away suddenly, as a violent torrent doth those things it meets withal in its passage; they vanish like a dream when we awake, and are as grass, which in the morning is grown higher and stronger than it was;

Ver. 6. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.] But how flourishing and fresh soever it then appear, is cut down before night, and loses all its beauty; such is the frailty of man, who is now in vigorous health, and anon languishes, and falls to the earth.

Ver. 7. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.] This, I am sure, is our condition, who have so provoked thee to anger by our sins, that we perish in an instant, (Numb. xvi. 35. 36.), and are perpetually disturbed with dreadful apprehensions of thy heaviest displeasure, Numb. xvii. 12. 13.

Ver. 8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.] After many threatenings, thou hast proceeded as a righteous Judge, to call us to a severe account for all our

foul crimes, though never so secretly committed; and makest it appear by our punishments, to all the world, (Numb. xiv. 20. &c.), that we are a perverse generation, though we pretend to thy service. Ver. 9. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath ; we spend our years as a tale that is told.] For we constantly feel some effect or other of thine anger, whereby our lives decline exceeding fast; and many times before we can say, What is this? are at

an end.

Ver. 10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reaso of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.] We fall short of the days of our forefathers, being now all doomed to perish in the wilderness, and not to exceed, commonly, the age of seventy, or (if men be of a vigo rous constitution) at most, of eighty years; the best part of which also is spent in toilsome travels, (Num. xx. 14. xxi. 4. xxxi. 11. Deut. ii. 1. 3. &c.), and much sorrow and vexation, to see the strongest among us cut down like grass in a moment, or at least making great haste unto their graves.

Ver. 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.] And yet, alas! who is there that seriously considers and lays to heart the dreadful effects of thy displeasure, which irresistibly falls upon us? (Numb. xxv. 1. 2. 3. &c.) or with such a pious fear as it ought to excite, takes any care to prevent more terrible punishments than those we have felt already?

Ver. 12. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.] Lord, do thou touch us with a sense of thy judgements, that we may not presume thus foolishly to offend thee, as our fathers have done; but, making a just account of the shortness and uncertainty of our lives, may wisely apply ourselves to make the best use we can of them, in repenting of our sins.

Ver. 13. Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.] And then be pleased to turn thy severity into kindness towards us; let it suffice, good Lord, that we have endured so many and long punishments, and now at last revoke or mitigate the sentence thou hast passed upon us, who, though very disobedient, are thy servants.

Ver. 14. O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days! O let us see some appearance of thy love to us, which may satisfy and cheer our languishing souls, like the morning-light after a tedious night; and, instead of sighs and groans, fill us with shouts of joy, all the remainder of our days.

Ver. 15. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.] Compensate our past troubles with future comforts; and make our happiness to equal, if not exceed, the misery we have suffered.

Ver. 16. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.] Declare to all the world, that thou hast not quite forsaken us thy ser

vants, but wilt still work wonders for us, and do more glorious and magnificent things for our children, though we have sinned against thee, Numb. xx. 17. 18. &c. xxxi. 2. Deut. ii. 25. iii. 24.

Ver. 17. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it.] Let them inherit, by the special favour of the Lord our God, that lovely and pleasant land (Gen. xlix. 15. Deut. viii. 7. 8. &c.) which he hath promised to give us; and for that end, direct and prosper our arms, that what we shall attempt in vain, if we be left to ourselves, may successfully be atchieved by thy assistance, (Deut. viii. 17. 18. &c. xxxi. 6. 7. 8.). O prosper thou our undertaking, and make our arms victorious.

PSALM XCI.

THE ARGUMENT.-The author of this psalm is not known; but the occasion seems to have been some great pestilence, in which the psalmist commends an humble confidence in God, and ardent love to him, as the best security, both in that and in all other dangers. Maimonides thinks, (as others of the Rabbins also do), that the psalmist hath a peculiar respect to the incursions of evil spirits, ver. 5. 6. as in the following verses, 7. 8. to those mischiefs which may come from the hand of evil men. And as far as those spirits had any hand in the pestilence here spoken of, his opinion is true, and his words in general are very significant, that the psalmist here" treats elegantly of that great providence which protects and keeps us from all evils, both universal and particular," &c. Thus he discourses in his More Nevochim, part iii. chap. 51. where we have the reason of that name which is given to this psalm by the Talmudists, who call it A Song of evil spirits. See Buxtorf. Lex. Talmud.

פצע in the word

Now, there is no pestilence so likely to have given occasion to this psalm, as that in the latter end of David's reign, who, having numbered the people, and not made those acknowledgements to God which the law in that case prescribed, (Exod. xii.), had this sad choice given him by the prophet Gad, whether he would be punished for his negligence by famine, or, by the sword of his enemies, or by pestilence. And submitting to the last, (which God sent a destroying angel to inflict, a Sam. xxiv. 15. 16.), was taught, it is not unlikely, by that prophet, called David's Seer, to recommend himself to the divine protection, in the words of this psalm. For that David himself was the author, as some conceive, is not so probable, because there is no such confession of his sin, and deprecation of the divine displeasure, in this psalm, as we read he made on this occasion, 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 Chron. xxi.; unless we will imagine, that he made this psalm after that plague, to direct and excite all

THE ARGUMENT.-If Adam had made this psalm, presently after he was created, in the evening of the Sabbath, (which is a rabbinical fancy; mentioned in the Midrash upon this place), sure it would have been set in this fourth book of psalms, before that of Moses; who may more probably be conceived to have composed it, to raise the hearts of the Israelites to the proper business of the Sabbath-day; which was to praise God, when they meditated upon his wonderful works, not only of creation, but of providence in the government of the world. Several instances of which, in rewarding the good, and punishing the wicked, they themselves had seen since they came out of Egypt; and were to see more when they came into the land of Canaan; to keep their Sabbath or rest there, after their long travels in the deserts: with respect to which, some think Moses might call this a psalm for the Sabbath-day.

But there is no certainty of these things; or rather it is certain, that neither of these conjectures are true. For as Adam in paradise had no enemies to rise up against him, nor was troubled with any workers of iniquity, (such as we read of ver. 7. 11.), and there were no psalteries, harps, and instruments of music, then made, which Moses himself tells us, were found out by Jubal: so those instruments were not employed in the service of God, till the days of David; who may therefore more reasonably be thought to have made this psalm for the Sabbath, than either of the other; after God had given him such rest round about from all his enemies, (2 Sam. vii. 1.), that he concluded he should be able to subdue those who should hereafter adventure to oppose him such as those mentioned in the following chapters, 2 Sam. viii. 10.

Ver. 1.

IT is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, 0 Most High:] Now is the proper season to give thanks unto the Lord, for all the benefits we have received from him; and it is no less delightful than it is profitable, to sing hymns, in the praise of the divine perfections, which infinitely transcend all that can be said or thought of them.

Ver. 2. To shew forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night;] This is the sweetest employment in the morning, and no entertainment equal to it at night; to commemorate and declare to all, how bountiful thou art, and how faithful in performing thy promises to those who depend on thy almighty goodness,

Ver. 3. Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon

the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.] Which ought to be celebrated with a full concert, not only of our chearful voices, but of all the instruments

of music.

Ver. 4. For thou, O LORD, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy bands.] For all are too little, O Lord, to express the joy I have in the acts of thy providence; by whom as the world was made, so it is still governed: It ravishes my spirit, and makes me shout for joy, to think how excellently thou orderest and disposest all things. Ver. 5. O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.] Whose administration, though I cannot fully comprehend, yet I admire and applaud the astonishing greatness of thy works; and reverence the unsearchable depth of thy counsels and designs.

Ver. 6. A brutish man knoweth not: neither doth a fool understand this.] Of which a stupid man, who looks not beyond his senses, is so wholly ignorant, that seeing himself, and other such like fools, prosper and thrive, while better men are in trouble and affiction, he presently concludes, Thou dost not meddle in our affairs, but leavest all to chance; for he doth not understand so much as this secret ;

Ver. 7. When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish: it is that they shall be destroyed for ever.] That when the lewdest men grow rich, high, and powerful, and their interest is such, that by their means all the workers of iniquity, and few other men, are promoted; the reason is, because nothing in this world is of any great value, nor of any long continuance; but after they have flourished a while in an empty glory, they shall be cut down like grass; and, which is more, never rise up again;

Ver. 8. But thou, O LORD, art most high for evermore.] And that thou, who rulest all things, though far out of their sight, canst as well punish or reward men hereafter as at present, being the eternal Lord.

Ver. 9. For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.] Who shewest thou dost not intend to let the wicked escape, though now they flourish; for thou hast begun already to give thy enemies, who have long prospered, a remarkable defeat: they have received such a notable blow, that I am confident they shall perish; and all their partakers, though never so numerous, and strongly linked together, be dispersed and utterly destroyed.

Ver. 10. But my born shalt thou exalt like the born of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.] But my power and authority thou shalt raise to a formidable height; and crown that dignity with such undisturbed joy and pleasure, as shall prove the pious are not always miserable;

Ver. 11. Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies; and mine ears shall bear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.] Nor the wicked alway prosperous; for to all other pleasures this shall be added, that I shall see those deprived of all power, who have long watched to do me mischief, or certainly