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'Lord's song in a strange land? How can they tune their voices to festive and eucharistic strains, when God, by punishing them for their sins, calleth to mourning and weeping? But then, Israel in Babylon foresaw a day of redemption; and so doth the church in the world; a day when she shall triumph, and her enemies shall lick the dust. No circumstances, therefore, should make us forget her, and the promises concerning her.

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5. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.' 6. 'If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.'

The whole nation may be supposed in these words to declare, as one man, that neither the afflictions nor the allurements of Babylon should efface from their minds the remembrance of Jerusalem, or prevent their looking forward to her future glorious restoration. If any temptation should induce them to employ their tongues and their hands in the service of Babel rather than in that of Zion, they wish to lose the use of the former and skill of the latter. The thoughts and affections of true penitents, both in prosperity and adversity, are fixed upon their heavenly country and city; they had rather be deprived of their powers and faculties, than of the will to use them aright; and the hope of glory, hereafter to be revealed in the church, is the flower and crown of their joy.

7. Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof,'

The people of God beseech him to take their cause in hand, and to avenge them on their adversaries, particularly on the Edomites, who, though their brethren according to the flesh, being descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob, yet in the day of Jerusalem's affliction, when the Chaldeans came against it, were aiding and encouraging those pagans to destroy it utterly. Edom is charged with this unnatural behaviour, and threatened for it, by God himself, in the prophecy of Obadiah, ver. 10, &c. For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried Div. No. XXV...

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away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger: neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction-For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee, thy reward shall return upon thine own head-but upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.' It may be observed, that the Jews afterwards acted the same part toward the Christian church, which the Edomites had acted toward them, encouraging and stirring up the Gentiles to persecute and destroy it from off the face of the earth. And God remembered' them for the Christians' sakes, as they prayed him to remember 'Edom' for their sakes. Learn we hence, what a crime it is, for Christians to assist the common enemy, or call in the common enemy to assist them, against their brethren.

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8. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us. 9. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.'

The subject of these two verses is the same with that of many chapters in Isaiah and Jeremiah, namely, the vengeance of heaven executed upon Babylon by Cyrus, raised up to be king of the Medes and Persians, united under him for that purpose. The meaning of the words, 'happy shall he be,' is, He shall go on and prosper, for the Lord of hosts shall go with him, and fight his battles against the enemy and oppressor of his people, empowering him to recompense upon the Chaldeans the works of their hands, and to reward them as they served Israel. The slaughter of the very infants, mentioned in the last verse, is expressly predicted by Isaiah, ch. xiii, 16. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before, their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.' The destruction was to be universal, sparing neither sex nor age. Terrible, but just, are thy judgments, O Lord! The fall of the mystical Babylon' is described, Rev. xviii. in terms and phrases, borrowed

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from this and other prophecies, relating, primarily, to the ancient city called by that name. Whoever will carefully read over the chapter referred to, with the three subsequent ones concerning the triumph of Messiah, and the glory of the new Jerusalem, will be able to form proper ideas of the world and the church, and will know where to choose his portion.

PSALM CXXXVIII.

ARGUMENT.

[This Psalm containeth, 1-3. a resolution to praise God for a deliverance vouchsafed; 4, 5. aprophecy that the kings of the earth should glorify Jehovah for his mercy, shown, 6. in exalting the humble, and abasing the proud; 7, 8. an act of faith and confidence in God.]

1. I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.' 2. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name, for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name;' or thou hast magnified thy name, even thy word, above all.

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In these verses we evidently hear the voice of one whom God had delivered from a state of great affliction and danger, and who therefore determines to make the due acknowledgments in public; to give thanks before the gods,' that is, before kings' and 'rulers' in the great congregation; to worship in the temple,' and there to set forth the loving-kindness' and 'truth' of Jehovah, in having accomplished the promised salvation, and thereby magnified' his holy 'name' and his faithful word' over every thing that opposeth itself against it. The Christian church cannot find stronger and more emphatical terms, in which to express her sense of the greatest of all mercies, the redemption of the world by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and his exaltation above every name that is named in heaven and earth.'

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3. In the day when I cried, thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.' 4. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.' 5. Yea, they shall sing in ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD:

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From this part of the Psalm it appears to be a prophetical one. The deliverance which it celebrates is of such a nature, that, when the glad tidings of it should be published to the world, we are told, it should induce the nations, with their princes, to adore Jehovah, to walk in his ways, and to chant forth his praises. The call of the Gentiles to the Gospel is here foretold in words which cannot be mistaken; and the redemption of the church, in Christ her head, is spoken of as the subject of thanksgiving among the kings of the earth. In the day when I cried, thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.' For this reason, All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord,' &c.

6. Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly but the proud he knoweth afar off.'

Humility is the way to salvation and glory. It is said of our blessed Lord, that because he humbled himself, therefore God highly exalted him:' and the great potentates of the world must tread in his steps, if they would be exalted with him. As to the proud, God knoweth' and he detesteth them; he beholdeth and keepeth them at a distance.'

7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.'

Who doth not 'walk in the midst of trouble,' while his pilgrimage is prolonged on the earth? Who hath not enemies' encompassing him on every side? O how comfortable, then, the reflection that he is with us, who can 'revive' the dead; that we are under the protection of an 'arm' which is almighty! Yes, blessed Lord, we believe that this saying of thy holy Psalmist will be verified to every child of thine, even as it was to him, and to thy Son Jesus, in whose person he might speak it, as a prophet. Great indeed were the troubles,' in the midst of which the true David walked' up and down amongst us. He carried all our sorrows, because he bare all our sins. • Yet didst thou revive him;' thou didst raise him from the dead, and exalt him to thy throne in heaven, where he ever liveth to make intercession for us, that we, who, in the days of our flesh, do also 'walk in the midst of

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trouble,' may be revived by thy Spirit, the giver of life and holiness.

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8. The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.'

In troublous times, and the days of affliction, we must look back on that which God hath already done for us, and from thence draw an argument, that he will 'perfect' that which remains, and not leave his work unfinished: we must remember, that his mercies fail not after a time, but endure for ever' the same; and when we call to mind that we are the work of his own hands,' how can we think he will forsake us' unless we utterly and

finally forsake him?

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TWENTY-NINTH DAY.-MORNING PRAYER.

PSALM CXXXIX.

ARGUMENT.

[It seems evident, from the latter part of this noble and instructive Psalm, that the author penned it at a time when he was persecuted and calumniated, as an appeal to the all-seeing Judge between him and his adversaries. He takes the opportunity of expatiating in the sublimest manner, 1-12. on the omnipresence and omniscience of him who, 13-16. formeth man in the womb by his power, and, 17, 18. preserveth him through life by his providence. He then, 19, 20. expresseth his confidence that God, as knowing all things, would deliver him from his enemies; 21, 22. he declareth his zeal and fidelity in the service of his divine Master, by whom, 23, 24. he petitioneth to be proved, purified and perfected in the way of holiness.]

1. 'O LORD, thou hast searched me and known me.' 2. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising, thou understandest my thoughts afar off. 3 Thou compassest my path, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.' 4.For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether,' or When there is not a word in my tongue, lo, O LORD, &c.

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