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9 Olet the wickednefs of the ungodly come to an end: but guide thou the just.

10 For the righteous God: trieth the very hearts and reins. 11 My help cometh of God: who preferveth them that are true of heart.

12 God is a righteous judge, ftrong, and patient: and God is provoked every day.

13 If a man will not turn, he will whet his fword: he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

14 He hath prepared for him the inftruments of death: he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

15 Behold, he travaileth with mischief: he hath conceived forrow, and brought forth ungodlinefs.

16 He hath graven and digged up a pit: and is fallen himself into the deftruction that he made for other.

17 For his travail fhall come upon his own head: and his wickedness fhall fall on his own pate.

18 I will give thanks unto the Lord, according to his righteoufnefs: and I will praise the name of the Lord most high.

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§ Pfalm 8. Domine, Dominus nofter.

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LORD our Governor, how excellent is thy Name in all the world thou that haft set thy glory above the heavens! 2 Out of the mouth of very babes and fucklings haft thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies: that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

3 For I will confider thy heavens, even the works of thy fingers: the moon and the ftars which thou haft ordained.

4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him: and the fon of man that thou visiteft him.

David in this Pfalm celebrates the power and majefty of God difplayed in the works of the Creation: but efpecially the divine goodness in exalting Man to be Lord over all Things. Tho' this appears to have been fully verified in none but Jefus Chrift as St. Paul juftly remarks in the 2d of Hebrews.

What is Man, that thou art mindful, &c. The confideration of God's greatness and majefty, which are fo wonderfully fet forth in the Creation, ought (after the example of David) to infpire us with Humility: fo a fenfe of his goodness in forming us rational Beings, -enabling us to know and ferve him,-and making

5 Thou madeft him lower than the angels: to crown him with glory and worship.

6 Thou makeft him to have dominion of the works of thy hands: and thou haft put all things in fubjection under his feet. 7 All sheep and oxen: yea, and the beasts of the field;

8 The fowls of the air, and the fishes of the fea; and whatfoever walketh through the paths of the feas.

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9 O Lord our Governor: how excellent is thy Name in all the world.!

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Will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: I will speak of all thy marvellous works.

2 I will be glad and rejoice in thee: yea, my fongs will I make of thy Name, O thou moft Highest.

3 While mine enemies are driven back; they fhall fall and pe rifh at thy prefence.

4 For thou haft maintained my right and my caufe: thou art fet in the throne that judgest right.

5 Thou haft rebuked the heathen, and deftroyed the ungodly: thou haft put out their name for ever and ever.

6 * O thou enemy, deftructions are come to a perpetual end: even as the cities which thou haft deftroyed; their memorial is perished with them.

7 But the Lord fhall endure for ever: he hath alfo prepared his feat for judgment.

other Creatures fubject unto us, fhould engage us gratefully to improve these advantages to his glory, and continually to praise our Creator and Benefactor.

This is a Pfalm of Thanksgiving for fome fignal Victory which David had obtained over fome principal Enemy: in which he equally difcovers his Piety and Gratitude to his mighty Deliverer.

O thou Enemy, deftructions are come, &c. This paffage feems well explained in the New Verfion of the Pfalms by Tate and Brady.

Miftaken Foes! your haughty Threats
Are to a period come.
Our City ftands, which you defigned
To be our common Tomb.

8 For he shall judge the world in righteousness; and minifter true judgment unto the people.

9 The Lord alfo will be a defence for the oppreffed: even a refuge in due time of trouble.

10 And they that know thy Name will put their truft in thee: for thou, Lord, haft never failed them that feek thee.

II O praise the Lord which dwelleth in Sion: fhew the people of his doings.

12 For when he maketh inquifition for blood, he remembereth them: and forgetteth not the complaint of the poor.

13 Have mercy upon me, O Lord; confider the trouble which I suffer of them that hate me: thou that lifteft me up from the gates of death.

14 That I may fhew all thy praises within the ports of the daughter of Sion: I will rejoice in thy falvation.

15 The heathen are funk down in the pit that they made: in the fame net whichthey hid privily is their foot taken.

16 The Lord is known to execute judgment: the ungodly is trapped in the work of his own hands.

17 The wicked fhall be turned into hell: and all the people that forget God.

18 For the poor fhall not alway be forgotten: the patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever.

19 Up, Lord, and let not man have the upper hand: let the heathen be judged in thy fight.

20 Put them in fear, O Lord: that the heathen may know themselves to be but men.

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HY ftandeft thou fo far off, O Lord: and hideft thy face in the needful time of trouble?

WHY

This Pfalm confifts of forrowful complaining, and fervent prayer: in which the Enemies of the Church are drawn in lively colours, and petition is made that

God would deliver the undefervedly afflicted Righ
teous disappoint the cruel artifices of their Enemies,
and inflict upon them just punishment.
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2 The ungodly for his own luft doth perfecute the poor: let then be taken in the crafty wilinefs that they have imagined.

3 For the ungodly hath made boast of his own hearts defire: and fpeaketh good of the covetous whom God abhorreth....

4 The ungodly is fo proud, that he careth not for God: *neither is God in all his thoughts.

5 His ways are always grievous: thy judgments are far above out of his fight, and therefore defieth he all his enemies.

6 For he hath faid in his heart, Tufh, I fhall never be caft down: there fhall no harm happen unto me..

7 His mouth is full of curfing, deceit, and fraud: under his tongue is ungodliness and vanity.

8 He fitteth lurking in the thievish corners of the streets: and privily in his lurking dens doth he murder the innocent; his eyes are fet against the poor.

19 For he lieth waiting fecretly, even as a lion lurketh he in his den: that he may ravish the poor.

10 He doth ravish the poor: when he getteth him into his net." 11 He falleth down and humbleth himself: that the congrega tion of the poor may fall into the hands of his captains.

12 He hath said in his heart, Tush, God hath forgotten: he hideth away his face, and he will never fee it.

13 Arife, O Lord God, and lift up thine hand: forget not

the poor.

14 Wherefore fhould the wicked blafpheme God: while he doth fay in his heart, Tush, thou, God carest not for it.

15 Surely thou haft feen it: for thou beholdest ungodlinefs and wrong.

Neither is God in all bis Thoughts, &c. It is worthy of obfervatiaton that in the ftriking picture which the Pfalmift here prefents us with of an abandoned Sinner, one of his principal features is a total difregard of Religion: He careth not for God, neither is God in all his Thoughts. The confequence of which we are too plainly told in the following verfe viz that bis ways are always grievous. For when a Man is be

come infenfible to all religious impreffions, he will foon become an eafy prey to every Temptation; and nothing will be fufficient to reftrain him from running a full courfe of Iniquity. Human Laws will be ineffeetual to keep him within the bounds of his duty: and no Man may fafely rely upon his integrity, an further than that will ferve his prefent intereft.

16 That thou mayeft take the matter into thy hand: the poor. committeth himself unto thee; for thou art the helper of the friendlefs.

17 Break thou the power of the ungodly and malicious: take away his ungodlinefs, and thou fhalt find none.

18 The Lord is King for ever and ever: and the heathen are perished out of the land.

19 Lord, thou haft heard the defire of the poor: thou preparest their heart, and thine ear hearkeneth thereto.

20 To help the fatherlefs and poor unto their right: that the man of the earth be no more exalted against them.

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N the Lord put I my truft: how say ye then to my soul, that fhe fhould flee as a bird unto the hill?

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2. For lo, the ungodly bend their bow, and make ready their arrows within the quiver: that they may privily fhoot at them which are true of heart.

3 For the foundations will be caft down: and what hath the righ teous done?..

4 The Lord is in his holy temple: the Lords feat is in heaven. 5 His eyes confider the poor: and his eye-lids try the children of men.

6 The Lord alloweth the righteous: but the ungodly and him that delighteth in wickednefs doth his foul abhor.

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*Upon the ungodly he fhall rain fnares, fire and brimstone, ftorm and tempeft: this shall be their portion to drink.

This Pfalm feems to have been compofed at the time of Saul's perfecution, when David was advised by fome of his Friends to retire to fome place of concealment. He however relies upon the juftice of his caufe, and comforts himself with the confideration of his being under God's protection, who as he approveth the conduct of the Righteous, fo he will also most asfuredly and dreadfully punish the Wicked.

Upon the ungodly he ball rain fnares, &c.

It

might full as properly have been tranflated as it is in the Margin of the Bible Verfion, he shall rain burning Coals. This terrible and fublime defcription of God's taking vengeance upon the Wicked feems to be taken from the account of the deftruction of Sodom, which though the language is figurative ferves to intimate to us the fudden and dreadful punishment which God wil inflict upon all the workers of Iniquity,

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