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PSALM XVIII.

Every reader must observe that this psalm is highly metaphorical, and quite in the Oriental exaggerating style. Deep waters-the billows of death, &c. express the greatest degree of calamity and distress; but Jehovah, who is a rock, a tower, a fortress, a shield, &c. can easily rescue from all such perils. His coming down in a thunder-storm, to save David, and terrify his enemies, is wonderfully well conceived; and the description of the storm itself uncommonly sublime.-Verses 26-28. The attributes in these verses, applied to God, seem harsh, in our refined ideas of the divinity: but in Hebrew they mean nothing more than that God treats mankind according to their deeds and dispositions.-Verse 34. The comparison of his feet to those of hinds, or deer, is peculiarly suitable. When persecuted by Saul, he was often obliged to take refuge on the most inaccessible cliffs of mountains; where both speed and sure-footing were absolutely necessary. The whole psalm is a masterly composition.-Geddes,

Of all writings, ancient or modern, the sacred Scriptures afford us the highest instances of the

sublime. The descriptions of the Deity in them, are wonderfully noble, both from the grandeur of the object, and the manner of representing it. What an assemblage, for instance, of awful and sublime ideas is presented to us in that passage of the 18th psalm, where the appearance of the Almighty is described! 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. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies." Here we see with what propriety and success the circumstances of darkness and terror are applied for heightening the sublime. -BLAIR'S LECTURES.

The Deity is described in a thousand passages of Scripture, in greater majesty, pomp, and perfection, than that in which Homer arrays his gods. The

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books of Psalms and of Job abound in such divine descriptions. That, particularly, in the 18th psalm, verses 7-10, is inimitably grand.

So again psalm lxxvii. 16-19.

"The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, and were afraid; the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water, the air thun-. dered, and thine arrows went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was heard round about; the lightnings shone upon the ground, the earth was moved and shook withal. Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known."

And in general, wherever there is any descrip tion of the works of Omnipotence, or the excellence of the divine Being, the same vein of sublimity is always to be discerned. I beg the reader to. peruse in this view the following psalms, 46, 68, 76, 96, 97, 104, 114, 139, 148, as also the 3d chapter of Habakkuk, and the description of the Son of God in the book of Revelations, chap. xix. verses 11-17.-SMITH'S LONGINUS, p. 38, note.

PSALM XVIII.

My heart on thee is fix'd, my strength, my power; My steadfast rock, my fortress, my high tower; My God, my safety, and my confidence,

The horn of my salvation, my defence.

My songs shall thy deserved praise resound;
For at my pray'rs thou wilt my foes confound."
Sorrows of death on every side assail'd,
And dreadful floods of impious men prevail'd;
Sorrows of hell my compass'd soul dismay'd;
And, to entrap me, deadly snares were laid.
In this distress I cry'd, and call'd upon
The Lord, who heard me from his holy throne.
He trembling earth in his fierce anger struck;
Th' unfixed roots of airy mountains shook k;
Smoke from his nostrils flew; devouring fire
Brake from his mouth; coals kindled by his ire:
In his descent bow'd heaven with earth did meet,
And gloomy darkness roll'd beneath his feet;
A golden-winged cherubin bestrid,

And on the swiftly-flying tempest rid.

He darkness made his secret cabinet,

Thick fogs, and dropping clouds about him set; The beams of his bright presence these expell, Whence show'rs of burning coals, and hail-stones fell.

From troubled skies loud claps of thunder brake;
In hail, and darting flames, th' Almighty spake;
Whose arrows my amazed foes subdue,

And at their scattered troops his lightning threw.
The ocean could not his deep bottom hide,
The world's conceal'd foundations were descried.
At thy rebuke, Jehovah, at the blast

E'en of the breath which through thy nostrils past...
He, with extended arms, his servant saves,
And drew me sinking from th' enraged waves;
From my proud foes by his assistance freed,
Who, swoln with hate, no less in strength exceed.
Without his aid, I, in that stormy day

Of my affliction, had become their prey;
Who from those straits of danger by his might
Enlarg'd my soul, for I was his delight.
The Lord, according to my innocence,
And justice, did his saving grace dispense:
The narrow path, by him prescrib’d, I took ;
Nor, like the wicked, my great God forsook.
For all his judgments were before mine eyes,
I with his statutes daily did advise,
And ever walk'd before him, void of guile;
No act, or purpose did my soul defile.
For this he recompens'd my righteousness,
And crown'd my innocence with fair success.