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4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

5 Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

6 I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.

7 Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.

8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

9 From the wicked 'that oppress me, from 'my deadly enemies, who compass me about. 10 They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

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3 Heb. be not moved. 4 Or, that savest them which trust in thee from those that rise up against thy right hand. 5 Heb. that waste me. 6 Heb. my enemies against the soul. 7 Heb. the likeness of him (that is, of every one of them) is as a lion that desireth to ravin. a Heb. sitting. 9 Heb. prevent his face. 10 Or, by the sword. 11 Or, from men by thine hand. 12 Or, their children are full.

PEALM XVII.-If it should seem necessary to find a particular occasion for this Psalm, we should certainly refer it to one of David's times of great distress, and the intimations agree better with his troubles under Saul, than with those which Absalom occasioned.

Verse 8. Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me under the shadow of thy wings.'-No one fails to observe the beauty of these simple images. The first evidently refers to the solicitude with which one guards that most precious and delicate organ, the eye, in time of danger; but it is not agreed whether the other refers to the outspread wings of the cherubim over the mercy-seat, or to the tender assiduities of the parent hen in covering her brood with her wings. We know the latter circumstance supplied a touching image to our Saviour (Matt. xxiii. 37).

8. The apple of the eye.'-Literally 'the eye's daughter.' 'Son' anddaughter,' in the Syro-Arabic group of languages, as we have had more than one occasion to shew, is applied to what belongs to another, or is dependant upon him; for example, arrows are named in Lam. iii. 13, sons of the quiver.

10. In their own fat.'-We know that, in the figurative language of Scripture, fatness denotes pride. This connection of ideas is still maintained in the East, where, when it is intended to indicate a proud man, he is said to be fat, or to look fat, whether really so or not. In China the ideas of dignity and fatness are so closely associated, that no man who is lean can well hope to obtain a place of authority or distinction.

11, 12. They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.-The whole passage gives a graphic picture of a person surprised, compassed, and dodged by enemies, eagerly watching to take him for a single moment at advantage. The images are derived from circumstances which are of no uncommon occurrence at the present day in Palestine. It forcibly reminds us of an adventure which occurred to Dr. Olin, when he unadvisedly strayed at some distance from the caravan near Jericho. The traveller in these unfortunate countries hears so many tales of robbery and violence, that they cease to produce any feelings of alarm, or even to ensure the necessary forethought and caution. It was hardly an hour after listening to such recitals [which he gives] that

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I first saw them, to be engaged in taking care of some horses which were grazing loose near by, but soon left them and advanced directly up to me. I felt at once the unpleasantness of my situation, and saw my gross imprudence in wandering a mile or more from the camp alone, and in a region which, I had such good reason to know, was full of robbers. It was too late, however, to retreat; and I had only to make the best of my situation, and learn more prudence for the future. I saluted my unwelcome visitors with a courteous salam, at the same time stepping back a little, as they had approached nearly within arm's length. I had no weapons, not so much as a walking stick. Franks, however, are believed by these people to go always well armed: an impression which I tried to confirm by putting my hand in my bosom, as if to see that my pistols were ready for service. At the same time I armed myself with a couple of heavy stones, with which I hoped, if necessary, to prevent mischief from the crazy matchlocks, which must be ignited by the aid of a flint and steel before becoming very formidable. The fellows halted, in seeming suspense as to what they should do. They looked at the encampment, a mile distant, but still conspicuously in view, and near enough for the report of a musket to be heard. They were very small men, even for Bedouins; and I thought they eyed my stature of six feet with an appearance of respect, which, under the circumstances, was certainly gratifying After a season of suspense, which seemed to me

to me.

to be tedious, they retreated a few paces; and, after consulting together for a moment, commenced urging me to go with them to the wady that opens into the mountain near the Jerusalem road, pointing eagerly in that direction, and exclaiming, "El deir, el ain," as if acquainted with the objects of my visit. They even seemed disposed to take hold of my hands, and lead me towards these interesting objects. I declined their civilities with a resolute tone, designing to let them know that I took them for robbers, and at the same time keeping near them, as the best position for the use of my weapons, should that become necessary. After some minutes they retired towards the western mountain, and I, when they were gone a good distance, commenced my return to the camp, at first very carelessly, as being in no hurry, but, as soon as I thought prudent, at a quicker step. It was now after sunset, I crossed the ravine by walking along the channel of the lower aqueduct. Here I met several English gentlemen of our party, and heard from them of some additional robberies that had been committed during the afternoon upon some of the pilgrims, who had proceeded without a guard a little beyond the camp.'

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13, 14. Thy sword....thy hand,' etc.-Dr. Hammond renders these clauses more intelligibly, 'Deliver my soul from the wicked by thy sword, and by thy hand from the men of this age.'

Thy hid treasure.'-Better,

'dainties.'

choice things,' or

PSALM XVIII.

David praiseth God for his manifold and marvellous blessings.

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of 'this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,

I WILL love thee, O LORD, my strength.

2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, 'my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

4 "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.

5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about the snares of death prevented me.

6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

7 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

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9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down and darkness was under his feet.

10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.

13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.

14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

16 He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of 'many waters.

17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me for they were too strong for me.

18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity but the LORD was my stay.

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19 He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted

in me.

3 Psal. 116. 3. 4 Heb. Belial.

20 The LORD rewarded me according to

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my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

22 For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. 23 I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.

24 Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands 'in his eyesight.

25 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright;

26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt 1oshew thyself froward.

27 For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.

28 For thou wilt light my "candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

12.

29 For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.

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30 As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is "tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.

31 For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?

32 It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.

33 He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places.

34 He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.

35 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.

36 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.

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37 I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.

38 I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet.

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39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.

40 Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me.

41 They cried, but there was none to save them even unto the LORD, but he answered them not.

42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.

43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me.

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44 As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall 21 22 submit themselves unto me.

45 The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.

46 The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

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47 It is God that avengeth me, and 24subdueth the people unto me.

48 He delivereth me from mine enemies : yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man.

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49 Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.

50 Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.

10 Or, wrestle. 14 Or, refined. 17 Heb. mine ankles. 21 Or, yield feigned obedience. 25 Heb. a man of violence.

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15 Deut. 32. 39. 1 Sam. 2. 2. Psal. 86. 8. Isa. 45. 5. 18 Heb. caused to bow. 19 Heb. at the hearing of the ear. 22 Heb. lie. 23 Heb. giveth avengements for me. 26 Rom. 15. 9. 27 Or, confess.

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it has here the higher signification of God's dwellingplace in the high heavens, for which the earnest cry uttered upon the earth is not unheard or disregarded by him.' The intended apposition is lost if we overlook the fact that heaven is here designated as his temple.'

8. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils.'-Chandler (in his History of David) observes, that this expresses the Lord's anger and indignation by a comparison derived from the circumstances which indicate such emotions in The ancients made the nose or nostrils the seat of angry emotions, on account of the heated, vehement breath which came from them under such conditions. On the

man.

same grounds, the physiognomists regarded wide, open nostrils as a sign of angry and fiery dispositions.

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10. The wings of the wind.'-To ascribe wings to the wind is a striking but sufficiently obvious metaphor. It occurs in the heathen poets. They are also represented as winged on ancient monuments. On the Tower of the Winds, at Athens, the eight principal winds are exhibited like young men with wings. Virgil ascribes wings to the lightning also ('Eneid,' v. 319).

29. Leaped over a wall. This probably refers to his having taken some remarkable town by scaling the ramparts.

33. My feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places.' This is repeated by Habakkuk nearly in the same words (Hab. iii. 19). It offers a double allusion, not only to the proverbial swiftness of the animal, but to the ease and safety with which it stands and leaps in high and dangerous places-upon the mountains and among the rocks. Bochart conjectures that there may also, in the first clause, be an allusion to the uncommon solidity and hardness of the hoofs, which Virgil compares to brass, and by which the animal is the better enabled to tread the rocks with ease.

34. A bow of steel is broken by mine arms.'—Instead of steel,' we should read brass.' We do not see any difficulty in understanding this text as our version gives it. As it was a test of great strength to bend certain large and very strong bows, how much more so to bring the string home with such force and compression as to break the bow! Then also there may be an emphasis in 'by

my arms,' which would seem to denote that he could do this with the strength of his arms only, without requiring the assistance of the foot, which was so usually employed that the phrase usually rendered to bend the bow,' is literally to tread the bow.' This surely brings out a better view than that which modern interpreters have usually chosen, after some of the ancient versions, 'maketh my arms like a bow of brass.'

42. I beat them small as the dust before the wind.'-The original has crush them;' and as dust is not crushed before the wind, but driven away by it, the sense must be that they resembled dust in that they were crushed with as much facility as the dust is driven by the wind; implying that their destruction was as a mere pastime to him.

42. I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets,' or rather of the streets.' Hengstenberg and others seem to have stumbled in interpreting this verse, from not adverting to the fact that in the East all household refuse and filth is cast forth into the streets, where all of it that is at all edible is soon cleared away by birds and dogs, and all that is not is speedily dried up by the sun. To cast forth any one, therefore, as the dirt of the streets, is a strong image of contempt and rejection. The image applies to the putting forth or ejection of the dirt from the houses into the streets, and not to the trampling down and dispersion of the dirt ordinarily found in streets, as Hengstenberg supposes. This explanation dispenses with the necessity for a circuitous interpretation of the 'pouring out,' which the other requires.

PSALM XIX.

8 The statutes of the LORD are right, re

1 The creatures shew God's glory; 7 the word, his joicing the heart: the commandment of the grace. 12 David prayeth for grace.

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LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: "sweeter also than honey and "the honeycomb.

11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward.

12 Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

2 Or, without these their voice is heard. 5 Or, their rule, or, direction. 6 Or, doctrine. 7 Or, restoring. 10 Psal. 119. 103. 11 Heb. the dropping of honeycombs.

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Verse 1. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.'-In the East the contemplation of the heavens is peculiarly adapted to give a deep impression of the greatness of God as the Creator. Very vivid is the impression which we retain of the solemnizing and exalting effect of the beautiful heavens

above our head during our frequent night journeys, or when, in the time of summer, we have rested beneath its open cope, and remained for hours awake wrapt in devout admiration of the glorious scene. Nor by day is the view of the vast firmament of deep blue, unbroken by the smallest fragment of cloud, less admirable to those whose

eyes have been accustomed to a far different prospect. The celebrated traveller Carsten Niebuhr, is described by his son as solacing himself in his blind and lame old age with the distinct images of Eastern travel which his mind retained. He said to us, that as he lay thus blind upon his bed, the images of all that he had seen in the East were ever present to his soul; and that it was therefore no wonder that he could speak of them as of yesterday. In like manner there was vividly reflected to him in the hours of stillness the nocturnal view of the deep Asiatic heavens, with their brilliant host of stars, which he had so often contemplated; or else their blue and lofty vault by day: and this was his greatest enjoyment.'

4, 5. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber.'-This comparison cannot be well understood but by reference to some peculiarities in the marriage ceremonies of the ancient Jews, as repeated by Buxtorf in his Synagoga Judaica. The espousals by money, or a written instru

ment, were performed by the man and woman under a tent or canopy erected for that purpose. Into this chamber the bridegroom was accustomed to go with his bride, that he might talk with her more familiarly, which was considered as a ceremony of confirmation to the wedlock. While he was there, no person was allowed to enter: his friends and attendants waited for him at the door, with torches and lamps in their hands; and when he came out, he was received by all that were present with great joy and acclamation. To this ancient custom the Psalmist appears to allude in this magnificent description of the heavens.

10. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.'-We speak of the sweetness of honey, without making any such distinctions of quality as here implied. But whoever has eaten honey newly taken out of a honeycomb, or chewed the fresh honeycomb before the cups or cells have been opened, is sensible of a peculiar delicacy of flavour which will be sought for in vain after the honey has for any length of time been expressed or clarified.

PSALM XX.

1 The church blesseth the king in his exploits. 7 Her confidence in God's succour.

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. THE LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob 'defend thee.

2 Send 'thee help from the sanctuary, and 'strengthen thee out of Zion.

3 Remember all thy offerings, and 'accept thy burnt sacrifice. Selah.

4 Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.

5 We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in

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the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.

6 Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.

7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

8 They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.

9 Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.

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PSALM XX.-This Psalm is generally supposed to have been composed by David about the time of the war with the Ammonites and Syrians, as recorded in 2 Sam. x.

There were a great number of chariots and horses brought into the field against him on that occasion: and to this he seems to refer in verse 7.

PSALM XXI.

1 A thanksgiving for victory. 7 Confidence of further

success.

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

THE king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!

2 Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.

3 For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.

4 He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.

1 Heb. set him to be blessings.

5 His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

6 For thou hast 'made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

7 For the king trusteth in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.

8 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.

9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.

10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the

? Heb. gladded him with joy.

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