1

JE

PSALM 99.

EHOVAH reigns; let therefore all
The guilty nations quake:

On cherub's wings he sits enthroned;
Let earth's foundations shake.

2 On Sion's hill he keeps his court,
His palace makes her towers;
Yet thence his sovereignty extends
Supreme o'er earthly powers.

3 Let, therefore, all with praise address
His great and dreadful name;
And, with his unresisted might,
His holiness proclaim.

4 For truth and justice, in his reign,
Of strength and power take place;
His judgments are with righteousness
Dispensed to Jacob's race.

5 Therefore exalt the Lord our God;
Before his footstool fall;

And, with his unresisted might,
His holiness extol.

6 Moses and Aaron thus, of old,
Among his priests adored;
Among his prophets, Samuel thus
His sacred name implored.

Distressed, upon the Lord they called,
Who ne'er their suit denied;

But, as with reverence they implored,
He graciously replied.

7 For with their camp, to guide their march,
The cloudy pillar moved;
They kept his law, and to his will
Obedient servants proved.

8 He answered them, forgiving oft
His people for their sake,
And those who rashly them opposed
Did sad examples make.

9 With worship, at his sacred courts,
Exalt our God and Lord;

For he, who only holy is,
Alone should be adored.

1, 2 WI

PSALM 100.

ITH one consent, let all the earth
To God their cheerful voices rais:
Glad homage pay, with awful mirth,
And sing before him songs of praise ;-
3 Convinced that he is God alone,

From whom both we and all proceed;
We, whom he chooses for his own,
The flock that he vouchsafes to feed.
4 O! enter, then, his temple gate;

Thence to his courts devoutly press;
And still your grateful hymns repeat,
And still his name with praises bless;-
5 For he's the Lord, supremely good;
His mercy is for ever sure;

His truth, which always firmly stood,
To endless ages shall endure.

PSALM 101.

F mercy's never-failing spring,
And steadfast judgment, I will sing;
And, since they both to thee belong,
To thee, O Lord, address my song.

2 When, Lord, thou shalt with me reside,
Wise discipline my reign shall guide;
With blameless life myself I'll make
A pattern for my court to take.

3 No ill design will I pursue,

Nor those my favourites make that do:
4 Who to reproof has no regard,
Him will I totally discard.

5 The private slanderer shall be
In public justice doomed by me:
From haughty looks I'll turn aside,
And mortify the heart of pride.
6 But Honesty, called from her cell,
In splendour at my court shall dwell :
Who virtue's practice make their care
Shall have the first preferments there.

7 No politics shall recommend
Ilis country's foe to be my friend :

None e'er shall to my favour rise,
By flattering or malicious lies.

8 All those who wicked courses take,
An early sacrifice I'll make;
Cut off, destroy, till none remain
God's holy city to profane.

1

PSALM 102.

WHEN I pour out my soul in prayer,

Do thou, O Lord, attend;

To thy eternal throne of grace

Let my sad cry

ascend.

2 O! hide not thou thy glorious face
In times of deep distress:
Incline thine ear, and, when I call,
My sorrow soon redress.

3 Each cloudy portion of my life,
Like scattered smoke, expires;

My shrivelled bones are like a hearth,
Parched with continual fires.

4 My heart, like grass that feels the blast
Of some infectious wind,
Does languish so with grief, that scarce
My needful food I mind.

5 By reason of my sad estate,
I spend my breath in groans;
My flesh is worn away, my skin
Scarce hides my starting bones.

6 I'm like a pelican become,

That does in deserts mourn; Or like an owl, that sits all day On barren trees forlorn.

7 In watchings, or in restless dreams, The night by me is spent,

As by those solitary birds,

That lonesome roofs frequent.

8 All day, by railing foes, I'm made
The subject of their scorn;

Who all, possessed with furious rage,
Have
my destruction sworn.

9 When grovelling on the ground I lie,
Oppressed with grief and fears,

My bread is strewed with ashes o'er,
My drink is mixed with tears.
10 Because on me with double weight
Thy heavy wrath doth lie;

For thou, to make my fall more great,
Didst lift me up on high.

11 My days, just hastening to their end,
Are like an evening shade;

My beauty does like withered grass,
With waning lustre fade.

12 But thy eternal state, O Lord,
No length of time shall waste;
The memory of thy wondrous works
From age to age shall last.

13 Thou shalt arise, and Sion view,
With an unclouded face;

For now her time is come, thy own
Appointed day of
grace.

14 Her scattered ruins by thy saints
With pity are surveyed;

They grieve to see her lofty spires
In dust and rubbish laid.

15, 16 The name and glory of the Lord
All heathen kings shall fear,
When he shall Sion build again,
And in full state appear.

17, 18 When he regards the poor's request
Nor slights their earnest prayer,
Our sons, for their recorded grace,
Shall his just praise declare.

19 For God, from his abode on high,
His gracious beams displayed;
The Lord, from heaven, his lofty throne,
Hath all the earth surveyed.

20 He listened to the captives' moans,
He heard their mournful cry,

And freed, by his resistless power,
The wretches doomed to die ;-

21 That they in Sion, where he dwells,
Might celebrate his fame,

And through the holy city sing
Loud praises to his name ;-

22 When all the tribes, assembling there,
Their solemn vows address,

And neighbouring lands, with glad consent,
The Lord their God confess.

23 But, ere my race is run, my strength,
Through his fierce wrath, decays;
He has, when all my wishes bloomed,
Cut short my hopeful days.

24 Lord, end not thou my life, said I,
When half is scarcely passed;

Thy years, from worldly changes free,
To endless ages last.

25 The strong foundations of the earth
Of old by thee were laid;

Thy hands the beauteous arch of heaven
With wondrous skill have made.

26, 27 Whilst thou for ever shalt endure,
They soon shall pass away,

And, like a garment often worn,
Shall tarnish and decay :-

Like that, when thou ordain'st their change,

To thy command they bend;

But thou continuest still the same,

Nor have thy years an end.

28 Thou to the children of thy saints
Shalt lasting quiet give,

Whose happy race, securely fixed,
Shall in thy presence live.

1, 2

MY

PSALM 103.

soul, inspired with sacred love, God's holy name for ever bless; Of all his favours mindful prove,

And still thy grateful thanks express. 3, 4 'Tis he that all thy sins forgives,

And, after sickness, makes thee sound;
From danger he thy life retrieves,

By him with grace and mercy crowned. 5, 6 He with good things thy mouth supplies, Thy vigour, eagle-like, renews;

He, when the guiltless sufferer cries,
His foe with just revenge pursues.