8 Salvation doth appertain

unto the Lord alone:

Thy blessing, Lord, for evermore thy people is upon.

PSALM IV.

This Psalm was perhaps composed on the same occasion as the former, when David fled from Absalom his son, Here, (1.) David, encouraged by former experience, casts his burden on the Lord, and supplicates a merciful deliverance, ver. 1. (2.) Addressing himself to men, particularly to his persecutors, he reproves their contempt of God and religion, their delight in, and practise of vanity, fraud, and falsehood. -He represents the happiness of saints in having God their protector, and ready to hear their requests.-He recommends a holy filial awe of God, a careful abstinence from sin; a composed trial of, and converse with their own heart, together with a devoting of themselves, and their conduct and substance to the Lord, ver. 2,-5. (3.) To encourage them to the study of practical religion, he remarks what superlative satisfaction and rest himself had found in familiar fellowship with God, and in a believing dependence on him, ver. 6,-8. -¶ While I sing, let me have faith in God, as my own God in Christ. Let me abhor that levity of mind, that deceitfulness, that earthly-mindedness proper to the ungodly, and every remain thereof. Let my soul pant for JEHOVAH, and prefer him to every thing else. Let me, by faith, lay myself down in his arms, his bosom, as all my salvation and comfort.

To the chief Musician on Neginoth, a Psalm of

David.

1 GIVE ear unto me when I call, God of my righteousness:

Have mercy, hear my pray'r, thou hast enlarg'd me in distress.

2 O ye the sons of men, how long
will ye love vanities?

How long my glory turn to shame,
and will ye follow lies?

3 But know, that for himself the Lord
the godly man doth chuse :

The Lord, when I on him do call,
to hear will not refuse.

4 Fear, and sin not, talk with your heart
on bed, and silent be.
5 Off'rings present of right'ousness,
and in the Lord trust ye.

6 O who will shew us any good?
is that which many say:
But of thy countenance the light,
Lord, lift on us alway.

7 Upon my heart, bestow'd by thee,
more gladness I have found,
Than they, ev'n then when corn and wine
did most with them abound.

8 I will both lay me down in peace,
and quiet sleep will take:
Because thou only me to dwell
in safety, Lord, dost make.

. PSALM V.

Here, (1.) the man according to God's heart, in the assured faith of God's hearing his prayers and hating his sins, fixeth a daily, an early, an earnest, a steady, a grace-founded correspondence with God, in his ordinances of meditation, prayer, praise, &c. ver. 1,-7. (2.) Behold him humbly

requesting God's special direction in duties which his enemies had rendered difficult to perform;-supplicating and predicting the ruin of his implacable foes;—and, in the assured faith of obtaining it, imploring comfort and prosperity to his fellow saints, ver. 8,-12.- - While I sing, let my heart and flesh cry out, and my soul pant and wait for the Lord. In the firm faith of infinite mercy to forgive all my crimes, and wash out all my sinful stains, let me blush at, and detest my own abominations. Let me cultivate the closest familiarity with the Lord my God. Let my prayers correspond with his promises, and with the particular conditions of myself or others.

To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, a Psalm of David.

1 GIVE ear unto my words, O Lord; my meditation weigh.

2 Hear my loud cry, my King, my God, for I to thee will

pray.

3 Lord, thou shalt early hear my voice; I early will direct

My prayer to thee, and looking up, an answer will expect.

4 For thou art not a God that doth in wickedness delight:

5

6

Neither shall evil dwell with thee,

nor fools stand in thy sight; All that ill doers are thou hat'st: cutt'st off that liars be:

The bloody and deceitful man abhorred is by thee.

7 But I into thy house will come in thine abundant grace:

And I will worship in thy fear
toward thy holy place.

8 Because of those mine enemies,
Lord, in thy right'ousness

Do thou me lead; do thou thy way
make straight before my face.

9 For in their mouth there is no truth,
their inward part is ill;
Their throat's an open sepulchre,
their tongue doth flatter still.

10 O God, destroy them, let them be
by their own counsel quell'd:
Them for their many sins cast out,
for they 'gainst thee rebell'd.

11 But let all joy that trust in thee,
and still make shouting noise;

For them thou sav'st: let all that love
thy name in thee rejoice.

12 For, Lord, unto the right'ous man
thou wilt thy blessing yield;

With favour thou wilt compass him
about, as with a shield.

PSALM VI.

Observe here, (1.) David, a great saint, under grievous and manifold troubles, sickness of body, conscience-felt charges of guilt, vexation of mind, attended with desertion from God, and contemptuous insults from his enemies, ver. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. (2.) His supplications, with strong cries and tears, to God for mitigation of trouble, support under it, and deliverance from it, ver. 1,-4, 6. (3.) His triumphant separation of himself from the wicked, in the full assurance

of faith, that God had heard, and would graciously grant his requests, and would either convert or destroy his opposers, ver. 8,-10.. - In all my afflictions, let me believe that Jesus was afflicted for me. Let me call my sins to remembrance, spread my case before him, fill my mouth with arguments, implore his abundant, free, and sovereign mercy, my sole and all-comprehensive relief. Nor let me ever expect a comfortable answer to my prayers, while I cultivate an intimacy with profane and wicked men.

1 LORD, in thy wrath rebuke me not,
Nor in thy hot rage chasten me.
2 Lord, pity me, for I am weak:

Heal me for my bones vexed be. 3 My soul is also vexed sore;

But, Lord, how long stay wilt thou make? 4 Return, O Lord, my soul set free;

O save me for thy mercy's sake.

5 Because those that deceased are
Of thee shall no remembrance have;
And who is he that will to thee
Give praises lying in the grave?
6 I with my groaning weary am;
I also all the night my bed

Have caused for to swim, and I
With tears my couch have watered.

7 Mine eye, consum'd with grief, grows old,
Because of all mine enemies.

8 Hence from me, wicked workers all,
For God hath heard my weeping cries.
9 God hath my supplication heard;
My prayer received graciously:

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