degree that I am tormented to see my enemies so forgetfull of their own interest as not to regard thy words 140. Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it 140. Which I know to be infallibly true and perfectly free from all falshood and deceit which is the reason of that ardent affection thy servant hath unto them 141. I am small and despised yet do not I forget thy precepts 141. Which will not suffer me though I am mean and contemptible in the eyes of my enemies who are honourable and mighty to be guilty of neglecting any of thy Precepts 142. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and thy law is the truth 142. For still I think with my self that thy justice goodness and fidelity are unchangeable and whatsoever Thou hast said in thy Law is the very truth upon which we may certainly depend and never be deceived 143. Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me yet thy commandments are my delights 143. And therefore though I am unexpectedly 1 Sam. XX. 3. involved in very sore straits and difficulties yet I do not forsake but find great consolation in the study of thy Commandments 144. The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting give me understanding and I shall live 144. Especially in this consideration which comes often into my mind Verse 140 142. that all the declarations Thou hast made of thy will to us are so just and true that they will never fail our expectation O give me wisedom to order my life according to them and then it shall not be in the power of my enemies to make me miserable KOPH XIX 145. I cried with my whole heart hear me O LORD I will keep thy statutes 145. I have besought thy favour in this sorrowfull and distressed condition with most vehement cries and hearty affection Be pleased to rescue me out of it O Lord and I promise with the greater care to observe thy Statutes 146. I cried unto thee save me and I shall keep thy testimonies 146. I have made it my constant business to cry unto Thee for help from whom alone I seek it deliver me I again beseech Thee and I will not fail to make good my promise of observing thy Testimonies 147. I prevented the dawning of the morning and cried I hoped in thy word 147. I have sent up early cries unto Thee before the morning light appeared constantly expecting the performance of thy promise to me 148. Mine eyes prevent the night watches that I might meditate in thy word 148. Nor have I been less forward in the study of my duty then in the imploring of thy mercy but have awaked before all the watches were set to meditate in thy word 149. Hear my voice according unto thy loving kindness O LORD quicken me according to thy judgment 149. Let my prayer prevail with Thee O Lord for that favour and kindness which I have oft experienced and preserve my life as Thou hast done hitherto by such means as Thou judgest best for me 150. They draw nigh that follow after mischief they are far from thy law 150. I am closely beset Thou seest and in danger to be seized 1 Sam. XXIII 26. by those who as they persecute me and seek my ruin so care not by what wicked arts they compass their design for they have no regard at all to thy Law 151. Thou art near O LORD and all thy commandments are truth 151. My onely comfort is that they cannot approach so near to hurt me as Thou O Lord art to defend and preserve me and that all thy promises annexed to thy Commandments still I think of that Ver. 142. shall faithfully be fulfilled 152. Concerning thy testimonies I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever 152. This hath ever been my support long before I fell into these troubles that whatsoever Thou hast testified to be thy will and pleasure is firm and stedfast and shall never fail those that depend upon it Verse 144. RESH XX. 153. Consider mine affliction and deliver me for I do not forget thy law 153. Shew then that Thou dost not neglect me but art as mindfull of me as I am of thy Law in this afflicted condition out of which I beseech Thee to deliver me for none of the evils that have befaln me have made me forget my duty to Thee 153. Consider mine affliction and deliver me for I do not forget thy law 154. I appeal to Thee whether I have not a righteous cause beseeching Thee to doe me justice upon my enemies 1 Sam. XXIV 15. and rescue me from their persecutions for I am in great danger of perishing but depend upon thy promise for my safety 155. Salvation is far from the wicked for they seek not thy statutes 155. Far be it from Thee to afford any help to the wicked for they have no regard to thy Statutes but seek onely how they may satisfie their own lewd and cruel desires 156. Great are thy tender mercies O LORD quicken me according to thy judgments 156. To which I oppose the bowels of thy compassion O Lord whose tender mercies are many and great and will preserve my life I hope according to thy wonted care over me and kindness to me Ver. 149. 157. Many are my persecutours and mine enemies yet do I not decline from thy testimonies 157. I am not discouraged either by the number or the strength which are both very great of those that persecute me with a deadly enmity which doth not move me in the least to depart from thy Testimonies XIX Lev. 18. by seeking their destruction as they do mine 1 Sam. XXIV XXVI 158. I beheld the transgressours and was grieved because they kept not thy word 158. It onely provokes my sorrow to see that there is no faith nor truth nor gratitude in them 1 Sam. XXIV 17 c. XXVI 2. and troubles me beyond measure that they have no regard to what Thou commandest or forbiddest 159. Consider how I love thy precepts quicken me O LORD according to thy loving kindness 159. Such is the love I have to thy Precepts which I beseech Thee let the world see Thou dost observe and both preserve my life O Lord and according to the exceeding greatness of thy goodness deliver me out of this sad condition 160. Thy word is true from the beginning and every one of thy righteous judgements endureth for ever 160. As I doubt not Thou wilt for none of thy promises have ever failed but the very first of them which Thou madest to our Forefather Abraham XII Gen. 2. hath been faithfully fulfilled and so shall every thing else which Thou hast resolved and declared to be thy will be punctually performed to the end of the world SCHIN XXI 161. Princes have persecuted me without a cause but my heart standeth in awe of thy word 161. The Rulers and prime Counsellours of the Kingdom persecute me for pretended crimes of which as I am not
the perpetual desolations even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary 3. Make haste good Lord to come and visit the ruins of our Countrey and City which have lasted exceeding long and will never be repaired without thy powerfull help which we implore against the Authours of them who to all the other mischiefs they have done have with a peculiar spite not onely defaced but utterly destroyed thy dwelling-place 4. Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations they set up their ensigns for signs 4. They are thy Enemies therefore as well as ours whose fury and rage so transports them that they roar rather then shout whilst they triumph in those places where thy people were wont to meet to praise thy Name There they have set up their Banners in token of their Victory and bragg as if their Gods were superiour unto Thee 5. A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees 5. Every one of them laid about him and bestirred himself with all his might as if he hoped to get renown by the mischief he did which was committed with no more remorse then if they had been lopping off boughs in the thickets of a Forrest where they may be spared 6. But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers 6. Just so methinks I see as if it were now a doing how they hacked and hewed with Axes and knocked down with Hammers the curious carved Work of the Temple whose elegance would have moved any but Barbarians to have preserved it with as great a zeal as they imployed to beat it in pieces 7. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary they have defiled by casting down the dwelling-place of thy name to the ground 7. But so mad was their rage it was not satisfied with this but set fire unto thy holy place And what that did not consume they pull'd down till they had utterly profaned the habitation consecrated to thy Majesty by laying it level with the ground 8. They said in their hearts Let us destroy them together they have burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land 8. Nor did all this give a stop unto their fury but they rather grew the more outragious For designing quite to destroy our Religion both in this and in future Generations they left not so much as one place wherein we might meet to say our Prayers or hear the Law throughout the Land 9. We see not our signs there is no more any prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long 9. And which is the saddest thing of all Thou seemest to have left us too and we see no token of thy Divine presence with us So far we are from beholding any miraculous works as our Fathers did for our deliverance that there is not so much as a Prophet to be found to give us any advice or speak a word of comfort to us not a man among us that can tell when these calamities will have an end 10. O God how long shall the adversary reproach shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever 10. What a reproach is this O God which hath quite tired our patience and makes us cry unto Thee to make haste to avenge thy self of these insulting Enemies Stop their blasphemous mouths O God and let them not say any more as they have done too long that Thou art not able to deliver us 11. Why withdrawest thou thy hand even thy right hand pluck it out of thy bosom 11. For we are confounded and know not what to say while Thou thus withdrawest thy powerfull presence from us that mighty power which was wont to do such wonders for us exert it again we beseech Thee and stretch it out for the destruction of those who have spoken of it so contemptuously 12. For God is my King of old working salvation in the midst of the earth 12. Why should I despair of it since the great God whom they deride hath many Ages ago undertaken the Government and Protection of us working for us such deliverances in this Land which now lyes waste as astonished all the world 13. Thou didst divide the Sea by thy strength thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters 13. Thou art that God to whose power the raging Sea is subject which at thy command retired and opened a way for us to pass thorough but came back again with its wonted violence and overwhelmed the Egyptians who like so many Sea-monsters thought to have devoured us 14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness 14. Pharaoh that fierce Tyrant as terrible as the vastest Whales Thou didst utterly destroy there with all his stern Captains and Commanders whom the Sea spewed up XIX Exod. 30. to find their Tombs in the bellies of the wild Beasts and Birds which people the neighbouring Wilderness 15. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the floud thou driedst up mighty rivers 15. Where when our Fathers wanted drink Thou madest water to gush out of a Rock XVII Exod. 6. XX. Numb 9. which followed them in a full stream till they came to the borders of Canaan And then Thou driedst up the waters of Jordan at a time when they ran violently and as if many Rivers had been joined in one it overflowed all its Banks III. Josh 15 17. 16. The day is thine the night also is thine thou hast prepared the light and the sun 16. And still there are such instances of thy power which the whole world if they would but mind have alway before their eyes For as Thou didst sometimes change the dry Land into a River and a River into dry Land so Thou dost continually change the Day into Night and the Night into Day having settled the Moon to govern the one and the Sun to govern the other in their turns 17. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth thou hast made summer and winter 17. By thy Almighty wisedom also it is that the motion of the Sun not onely makes the days and nights but the different climates of the Earth and the seasons of the year which are sometimes hot and sometimes cold sometimes flourishing as we see in the Summer with all manner of fruit and sometimes stript as we see in the Winter of all its ornaments that afterward it may be the more fruitfull 18. Remember this that the enemy hath reproached O LORD and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name 18. And we sure have indured a very tedious winter wherein all things have lookt most ruefully May it please Thee now to return like the Sun unto us and let thy Enemies know Thou hast not forgotten how they have reproached Thee O Lord whom they ought to have honoured as the mighty Creatour of all things but wilt vindicate thy glory by punishing these insolent people who foolishly puft up
with their Victories have despised and derided thy omnipotent Majesty 19. O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever 19. Deliver we beseech Thee thy Church which like a Turtle-dove can do nothing but meekly mourn and make her silent complaints unto Thee from those violent men who like Birds of prey seek utterly to destroy her Let them not take away its life and being but though we be at present deserted by Thee yet hear our crys and at last relieve a poor helpless company who flee unto Thee and depend upon Thee alone for safety 20. Have respect unto the covenant for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty 20. Though we are unworthy to be regarded by Thee yet have regard unto thy own promises wherein Thou hast engaged thy self unto our Fathers to give to them and their posterity the Land of Canaan which is so far from being now inhabited by thy people that every blind corner of it is a den of thieves and murtherers who have filled it with rapine and cruelty 21. O let not the oppressed return ashamed let the poor and needy praise thy name 21. O let not thy poor afflicted servant who implores thy aid against these barbarous oppressours be denied his suit and go away ashamed to see himself disappointed of his hope but let him and all the rest of thy miserable people who were never in greater need of thy help be restored to praise thy goodness in their ancient possessions from whence they have been thus long banished 22. Arise O God plead thine own cause remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily 22. Appear O God in our behalf and thereby vindicate thy self from reproach let me again beseech Thee to shew that Thou art not unmindfull of all the scoffs which prosperous fools belch out against Thee every day 23. Forget not the voice of thine enemies the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually 23. It is time to punish all the insulting language of thy Enemies for the insolent braggs and furious threats of those that oppose Thee increase still more and more and rise up to a greater height of audacious impiety PSALM LXXV To the chief Musician Al-taschith A Psalm or Song of Asaph ARGUMENT I take this Psalm to have been made by Asaph the Seer mentioned 2 Chron. XXIX 30. see Psal LXXIII after the great deliverance which by the strange destruction of Senacherib's Army God gave the good King Hezekiah For whose use Asaph composed this Psalm and delivered it to the chief Master of the Musick in the Tabernacle that he might therein make his publick profession of his obligations to Almighty God and his resolution to serve Him and to depend upon Him as he advises all men else to do if they would not be undone or if they hoped for any good of which He is the sole and absolute Dispenser If Al-taschith be more then a note that this Psalm was to be sung like to the LVII and those that follow it may signifie as much as thou shalt not or wilt not destroy And be applied either to Senacherib who the Prophet told them should not accomplish his design of destroying them as he had done other Nations 2 King XIX 17. 2 Chron. XXVII 14. or to God who had not given him Commission as he pretended to destroy Jerusalem 2 King XVIII 25. but would defend it 2 King XIX 34. and not suffer it to be laid desolate Symmachus gives a more spiritual sense of the word and calls this a triumphal Song concerning Immortality Because it contains as Theodoret explains it a prediction of the righteous judgment of God in the destruction of the wicked and rewarding the lovers of vertue which should admonish us not to suffer any godly thoughts we have in our mind to perish but to preserve them whole and intire that we may inherit immortality What is to be understood by a Psalm-Song see in the Argument of Psalm LXVII 1. UNto thee O God do we give thanks unto thee do we give thanks for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare 1. UNTO Thee O God the righteous Judge who art the sole Authour of this great deliverance do I and all my people give most solemn thanks Nor can we ever thank Thee enough but we must again and again renew our acknowledgments unto Thee whose Almighty Power is still ready at hand we clearly see by the wonders Thou hast done to succour all those who gratefully commemorate thy benefits 2. When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly 2. And I will not content my self with these verbal praises alone but as soon as I shall meet with a fit opportunity and we can have our solemn Assemblies again which by this invasion have been interrupted 2 Chron. XXXII 1. I will perfect the Reformation which I have begun and see that equal Justice be done to all my people as well as that they be preserved in thy true Religion 3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved I bear up the pillars of it Selah 3. The whole Country hath been in a miserable confusion while their hearts melted with fear of an utter desolation But as then I supported their spirits and incouraged the Great men and the Officers to doe their duty 2 Chron. XXXII 6 7 8. So I will hereafter establish such Magistrates and Judges as shall bring all into better order 4. I said unto the fools Deal not foolishly and to the wicked Lift not up the horn 4. I have told them my mind already and do still solemnly proclaim and declare that I will proceed with the utmost severity against the contemners of thy Laws and therefore I advise them not to be so madly rude and insolent For the proudest of them all shall know that it is safest for them to be more modest then to glory as they do in their impiety or to boast of the power they have to be injurious to their neighbours 5. Lift not up your horn on high speak not with a stiff neck 5. Do not vaunt of this I once more advise you nor bear your selves high as if you would out-brave Heaven it self be not refractory and stubborn nor arrogantly say that you will have your way and that none shall curb you 6. For promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south 6. For which way soever you turn your selves whether to the East or to the West or to the mountainous Desarts that lie on the North and South of us in vain do you think to escape the righteous judgment of God 7. But God is the judge he putteth down one and setteth up another 7. Who being the Sovereign Lord and Governour of the world easily lays those low that proudly exalt themselves against his Authority and lifts up those that
his lawfull successour in the Kingdom 2 King XXIV 20. XXV 6 7. IV. Lam. 20. 39. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant thou hast prophaned his crown by casting it to the ground 39. Thou seemest not to regard the Covenant made with that thy faithfull Servant which Thou promisedst not to break Ver. 34. and instead of raising his Family higher then all other Kings Ver. 27. hast suffered it to lose all its Authority which together with the royal Diadem is vilely trodden under foot 40. Thou hast broken down all his hedges thou hast brought his strong holds to ruine 40. Thou hast broken down all the walls of Jerusalem 2 King XXV 10. and made all his fortified places a mere desolation 41. All that pass by the way spoil him he is a reproach to his neighbours 41. So that he hath no defence against those who have a mind to make a prey of him 2 King XXIV 2. and is now scorned and derided by those who formerly dreaded him 42. Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice 42. Thou hast made his adversaries whom Thou promisedst to depress Ver. 23. far stronger then himself they have executed all that they designed and now triumph in his ruin 43. Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword and hast not made him to stand in the battel 43. His forces have done him no service but being shamefully routed durst never rally again to make any opposition to their enemies 44. Thou hast made his glory to cease and cast his throne down to the ground 44. Thou hast put out that splendour which we thought should have been perpetual Ver. 37 38. and hast utterly overturned his Kingdom 45. The days of his youth hast thou shortned thou hast covered him with shame Selah 45. Thou hast made a speedy end of the reign of Jehojachin who in his youth is made a slave 2 King XXIV 8 c. and 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 King XXV 6 7. 46. How long LORD wilt thou hide thy self for ever shall thy wrath burn like fire 46. O what a 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 47. Remember how short my time is wherefore hast thou made all men in vain 47. Our natural weakness pleads for some mercy and imboldens us to beseech Thee that since we must not onely 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 onely to be miserable and to die 48. What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Selah 48. For where is the man whose constitution is so firm that he shall not yield to death For what ability have we though our enemies should not thus destroy us to defend our selves from the power of the grave 49. LORD where are thy former loving-kindnesses which thou swarest unto David in thy truth 49. 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-kindness which we beseech Thee now restore unto us 50. Remember LORD the reproach of thy servants how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people 50. 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 51. Wherewith thine enemies have reproached O LORD wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed 51. Who are thy enemies as well as ours and have blasphemed Thee O Lord and mockt 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 saidest should last for ever 52. Blessed be the LORD for evermore Amen and amen 52. But let them laugh on neither their scoffs nor our calamity shall hinder us from praising the Lord and speaking good of Him continually in assured hope that He will at last deliver us Let it be so we beseech Thee Let it be so as we desire and hope that we may ever praise Thee for our happy restauration The End of the THIRD Book of Psalms The Fourth BOOK OF PSALMS PSALM XC A Prayer of Moses the man of God ARGUMENT Here begins the FOVRTH 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 Authour 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 Saint Hierom and Saint Hilary also follow that he was the Authour also of the Ten next immediately insuing 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 onely the Title expresly gives it to that Moses who was the Man of God as their Law giver is called XXXIII Deut. 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 XIV Numb that He shortned their lives to seventy or eighty years at the most and suffered them not to arrive at the age of their Ancestours 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 Progenitours in former Generations This is the substance of the Psalm which the Collectour 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 Authour 1. LORD thou hast been our dwelling-place
the service of Devils but offered their bloud the bloud of innocent babes even of their own sons and daughters as I said upon the Altars of the Idols of Canaan prophaning thereby the holy Land with the most impious and unnatural Murthers 39. Thus were they defiled with their own works and went a whoring with their own inventions 39. Besides other abominable works wherewith they defiled themselves such as Whoredom and all manner of beastly lusts which were the filthy vices of those Nations whom God cast out before them XVIII Lev. 24 25 27 28 c. 40. Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance 40. And so contrary to nature as well as his Law that the Lord was exceeding angry with them II. Judg. 14 20. and the more because He had made them his people whom He now abominated as impure and unclean though once they had been very dear unto Him 41. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen and they that hated them ruled over them 41. And thereupon delivered them up to the power of those impious Nations with whom they contracted friendship when they should have destroyed them III. Judg. 3 5. IV. 2. XIII 1. who retaining still their ancient hatred exercised a rigorous tyranny over them IV. Judg. 3. 42. Their enemies also oppressed them and they were brought into subjection under their hand 42. And so did many other of their neighbouring enemies the Mesopotamians and Moabites III. Judg. 8 12. the Midianites and Amalekites VI. 2 3 c. and such like X. 7 8. who not onely grievously afflicted them but deservedly made those their subjects nay slaves who would not serve their gracious God 43. Many times did he deliver them but they provoked him with their counsel and were brought low for their iniquity 43. Who still continued so kind to them that upon the first sign of their repentance He constantly raised up the spirit of some great Man or other to rescue them from every one of these Oppressours though they as constantly provoked Him again by relapsing to their former Idolatry which in the issue brought them exceeding low X. Judg. 8 9. 44. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry 44. And yet such was his tender compassion towards them He did not absolutely refuse to help even these base revolters X. Judg. 14 15 16. when in their distress they made a lamentable moan and promised amendment 45. And he remembred for them his covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies 45. For He was not unmindfull of the Covenant He had made with their Forefathers XXVI Levit. 42 44 45. XXX Deut. 1 2 3. but let them reap the benefit of it in ceasing to punish them and when they deserved to be utterly destroyed bestowing many and exceeding great blessings on them 46. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives 46. For He inclined the hearts even of those who had subdued and implacably hated them unto some compassion towards them so that they did not indeavour their total extirpation XIII Judg. 1. XIV 2. XV. 9 10 c. 47. Save us O LORD our God and gather us from among the heathen to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise 47. And therefore we humbly hope still in the same great mercies and beseech Thee O most mighty Lord who hast been wont to doe our Nation good to deliver us how unworthy soever from all our present enemies and to restore such of us as are faln into their hands unto their own Country that they may join with us in giving thanks to thy incomparable goodness and setting forth thy praises with the greatest joy and triumph saying 48. Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise ye the LORD 48. Let the great Lord of all the world who hath been so gracious unto Israel as to chuse them for his own peculiar people be most heartily blessed and praised Let all generations bless Him as long as the world shall last and unto all eternity and let all his people concur in these desires and wish it may be so let them all praise the Lord and desire He may be ever praised The End of the FOVRTH Book of Psalms The Fifth BOOK OF PSALMS PSALM CVII ARGUMENT The Fifth Book of Psalms which consists most of Praises and Thanksgivings begins here with an exhortation to those whom God according to the Prayer foregoing CVI. 47. had delivered from Pagan servitude to acknowledge that singular benefit with their hearty Thanksgivings and thence to take occasion to magnifie his mercifull Providence over all other men not onely of that but of all Nations when they addressed themselves unto Him in their distresses For instance Travellers in the desart who have lost their way Prisoners Sick people Mariners Husbandmen even whole Countries the Psalmist shews are made strangely prosperous if they have a regard to God and on the other side fall into great misery if they neglect Him It had been endless to enumerate all other cases but by these any man may understand if he please as he observes in the conclusion how good the Lord is and ready to help those who fly unto Him for succour whatsoever their condition be The Authour of the Psalm is unknown but if I have guessed aright at the connexion of this with the foregoing Psalm it is most probable it was composed by David who having in the CV put them in mind as Theodoret observes of the promises made to the Patriarchs and of the blessings bestowed on their posterity and in the CVI. of their horrid ingratitude for such benefits and the punishments for that cause inflicted upon them declares in this Psalm the inexplicable kindness of God in their freedom from slavery and in his carefull Providence as I said over all mankind which might give them the greater incouragement to hope in Him if they served Him faithfully who had taken them for his peculiar people 1. O Give thanks unto the LORD for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever 1. O Make your gratefull acknowledgments to the great Lord of the world of whose Goodness you and your Forefathers have had such long experience that you may conclude his loving kindness will extend it self to all succeeding ages 2. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy 2. Let them especially call upon one another to give thanks unto his Goodness whom the Lord hath graciously redeemed from a sad Captivity into which they were reduced by their prevailing enemies 3. And gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west from the north and from the south 3. And hath brought them back to their own Country again from all the Lands on every side into