10 For to me belong all the beasts of the forest,

The cattle upon the hills of oxen.*

11 I know every fowl of the mountains,

And every reptile of the field is by my side. [A]

12 If I were hungered, I would not tell thee; For to me belongs the world and all-its-store.

13 Shall I eat the flesh of bulls,

And drink the blood of goats?

14 The sacrifice for God is thanksgiving,
And the offering for the Highest, thy vows.

15 And call upon me in the day of distress ; Then I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify

me.

16 But to the impious God saith,

What concerns it thee, to recite my statutes,
And why takest thou my covenant in thy mouth?

* i. e. Where oxen range.

17. Whereas thou hatest instruction,

And castest my words behind thee,

18 If thou didst spy a thief, instantly thou-becamesthis accomplice, [C] ·

And thou hast-taken-thy-share with-the-adulter

ers.

19 Thy mouth hath-been-fruitful in mischief, [C] And thy tongue frameth deceit.

20 Thou sittest [D], and speakest against thy brother,

Against the son of thy mother thou pourest-out

abuse.

21 These things thou hast done, and I was still; Thou hast thought that I AM is such an one as thyself. [E]

I will-call-thee-to account, and I will be thy adversary to thy face. [F]

22 Now consider this, ye that forget God,

Lest I [G] tear in pieces, and there be no deli

verer.

23 He who sacrificeth praise, shall-be-deemed-to-ho

nour me,

And him that sets-in-order [H] his course, I will visit with the salvation of God.

PSALMS LI. LII. LIII. LIV.

[See Notes.]

PSALM LV.

THAT Absalom's rebellion gave occasion to the LVth psalm may seem not improbable, when we recollect the particulars of that story, as it is related in the XVth chapter of the 2d book of Samuel. The consternation and distress expressed in verses 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, describe the king's state of mind when he fled from Jerusalem, and marched weeping up the mount of Olives. "The iniquity cast upon the Psalmist "answers to the complaints, artfully raised against

"the king by his son, of a negligent administration

"of justice, and to the reproach of cruelty cast

66

upon him by Shimei," 2 Sam. XV, 2. 4. & XVI, 7. 8. The equal, the guide, and the familiar friend, we find in Achitophel, the confidential counsellor, first of David, afterwards of Absalom. The " but66 tery mouth and oily words" describe the insidious character of Absalom, as it is delineated by the historian, 2 Sam. XV, 5. 9. Still, the believer, accustomed to the double edge of the prophetic style, in reading this Psalm, notwithstanding its agreement with the occurrences of David's life, will be led to think of David's great descendant, who endured a bitterer agony, and was the victim of a baser treachery, in the same spot where David is supposed to have uttered these complaints.

PART I. SUPPLICATION.

1 Give ear, O God, unto my prayer,

And hide not thyself from my supplication.

2 Hearken unto me, and answer me;

I am brought low with my anxiety [A], and am distracted.

3 With the cry of the enemy, with the oppression

of the impious;

Who cast iniquity upon me,* and [as] in wrath wreck their spite upon me.

4 My heart is sore within me,

The terrors of death are fallen upon me.

5 Fear and dismay are come upon mc, Convulsive tremblings come over me.

6 And I say, Oh, that I had the pinion of the dove, That I might flee away, and be at rest.

7 Lo, I would get far away,

I would lodge a wanderer in the wilderness.

*«Cast iniquity upon me," literally, "slide iniquity upon me," i.e. by oblique and artful insinuations they asperse my character. The sentiment of the whole line I take to be this, that the enemies of the Psalmist, by sly insinuations, brought him under the suspicion of the worst enemies, and then wrecked their malice upon him, under the colour of a just resentment.

I