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6 Wilt thou not turn again and quicken us: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

7 Shew us thy mercy, O Lord: and grant us thy falva. tion.

8 I will hearken what the Lord God will fay concerning me: for he shall speak peace unto his people, and to his faints, that they turn not again.

9 For his falvation is nigh them that fear him: that glory may dwell in our land.

10 Mercy and truth are met together: righteousness and peace have kiffed each other.

Truth fhall flourish out of the earth :"and righteouf nefs hath looked down from heaven.

12 Yea, the Lord fhall fhew loving kindness: and our land fhall give her increase. 13 Righteousness shall go

his going in the way.

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Bow

before him and he shall direct

MORNING PRAYE R.

Pfalm lxxxvi. Inclina, Domine.

OW down thine ear, O Lord, and hear me : for I am poor and in mifery.

2 Preferve thou my foul, for I am holy: my God, fave thy fervant that putteth his truft in thee.

3 Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I will call daily upon thee.

4 Comfort the foul of thy fervant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my foul.

5 For thou, Lord, art good and gracious: and of great mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

PRACTICAL

OBSERVATIONS.

2.

Pfalm lxxxv.] In this pfalm we have two principal inftructions: 1. That God makes men, and fometimes his own people and his church, feel the effects of his wrath for the punishment of their fins; and that the end which he propofes by it is, to recover men from their errors. That when he fees men humbled, he is reconciled to them, and is always ready to deliver them that fear him, and to beflow on them his choiceft blefings, both temporal and spiritual.

PRAC

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6 Give ear, Lord, unto my prayer: and ponder the voice of my humble defires.

7 In the time of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou hearest me.

8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord: there is not one that can do as thou doeft.

9 All nations whom thou haft made fhall come and worfhip thee, O Lord: and fhall glorify thy Name.

10 For thou art great, and doeft wondrous things: thos art God alone.

11 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and I will walk in thy truth: O knit my heart unto thee, that I may fear thy Name. 12 I will thank thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart and will praise thy Name for evermore.

13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou haft delivered my foul from the nethermost hell.

14 O God, the proud are rifen against me: and the congregations of naughty men have fought after my soul, and have not fet thee before their eyes.

15 But thou, O Lord God, art full of compaffion and mercy long-fuffering, plenteous in goodnefs and truth.

16 O turn thee then unto me, and have mercy upon me: give thy ftrength unto thy fervant, and help the fon of thine handmaid.

17 Shew fome token upon me for good, that they who hate me may fee it, and be afhamed: becaufe thou, Lord, haft holpen me, and comforted me.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Pfalm lxxxvi.] This prayer, and the example of king David, fhould excite and encourage thofe who are in affliction and diftrefs to call upon God for help, with profound humility, and firm confidence in his mercy and power; befeeching him, not only to deliver them from the evils which prefs fore upon them, but, above all, to give them grace to pleafe and obey him, as David did in this prayer: Teach me thy way, o Lord; and I will walk in thy truth: O knit my heart unto thee, that I may fear thy name." We ought likewife, in our troubles, to meditate upon God's infinite goodness, and confider," that he is full of compaffon and mercy, long-fuffering, and plenteous in goodness and truth," and always ready to give tokens of his favour to thofe that ferve him. This will fupport us under all our trials, fill us with joy and confolation,

and

HER

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Pfalm lxxxvii. Fundamenta ejus.

ER foundations are upon the holy hills: the Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

2 Very excellent things are spoken of thee: thou city of God.

3 I will think upon Rahab and Babylon with them that

know me.

4 Behold ye the Philistines alfo and they of Tyre, with the Morians, lo, there was he born.

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5 And of Sion it shall be reported, that he was born in her and the most High shall stablish her.

6 The Lord fhall rehearse it when he writeth up the people that he was born there.

7 The fingers alfo and trumpeters fhall he rehearse: all my fresh fprings fhall be in thee.

Pfalm lxxxviii. Domine Deus.

God of falvation, I have

before thee: O let my prayer enter into thy prefence, incline thine ear unto my calling.

2 For my foul is full of trouble: and my life draweth nigh unto hell.

3 I am counted as one of them that go down into the pit: and I have been even as a man that hath no ftrength. 4 Free among the dead, like unto them that are wounded, and lie in the grave: who are out of remembrance, and are cut away from thy hand.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.. and afford us, even in the midst of our trouble, reason to praise and blefs him.

Pfalm lxxxvii.] This pfalm, which defcribes the glory of the Ifraelites, is still better fuited to the Chriftian church. The Holy Ghoft foretells therein that the pagans, and the most diftant nations, fhould be one day admitted into the divine covenant, and numbered among the worfhippers of the true God. This is our happiness, through the coming of our Lord Jefus Chrift; and for this we ought to return continual thanks to God.

PRAC

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5 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit: in a place of darkness, and in the deep.

6 Thine indignation lieth hard upon me and thou haft vexed me with all thy ftorms.

7 Thou haft put away mine acquaintance far from me: and made me to be abhorred of them.

8 I am fo faft in prifon: that I cannot get forth.

9 My fight faileth for very trouble: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have ftretched forth my hands unto thee. 10 Doft thou fhew wonders among the dead: or shall the dead rife up again, and praife thee?

II Shall thy loving kindness be fhewed in the grave: or thy faithfulnefs in deftruction?

12 Shall thy wondrous works be known in the dark: and thy righteoufnefs in the land where all things are forgotten?

13 Unto thee have I cried, O Lord: and early fhall my prayer come before thee.

14 Lord, why abhorrest thou my foul: and hideft thou thy face from me?

15 I am in mifery, and like unto him that is at the point to die: even from my youth up thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind.

16 Thy wrathful difpleasure goeth over me: and the fear of thee hath undone me.

17 They came round about me daily like water: and compaffed me together on every side.

18 My lovers and friends haft thou put away from me: and hid mine acquaintance out of my fight.

PRACTICAL

OBSERVATIONS.

Pfalm lxxxviii.] The reading and meditating on this pfalm is very proper for the confort and instruction of those that are overwhelmed with deep forrow. The condition of the prophet, who fpeaks here may convince them, that the faints have undergone the like trials; that they have been, as it were, forfaken and deprived of all comfort, fo that for a cosfiderable time God feemed to purfue them in his wrath, and fcourge them feverely. Wherefore, thofe that fear God should not lofe courage when they are expofed to outward afflictions, and even inwardly troubled for want of comfort and by the terrors they feel in their foul. But they ought

19h

EVENING PRAYER,

Pfalm. Ixxxix. Mifericordias Domini.

fong fhall be alway of the loving-kindness of the Lord with my mouth will I ever be fhewing thy truth from one generation to another.

2 For I have faid, Mercy fhall be fet up for ever: thy truch halt thou ftablish in the heavens.

3 I have made a covenant with my chofen: I have fworn unto David my fervants

4 Thy feed will I stablish for eyer: and fet up thy throne from one generation to another.

5 O Lord, the very heavens fhall praife thy wondrous works and thy truth in the congregation of the faints.

6 For who is he among the clouds: that shall be compared unto the Lord.

7 And what is he among the gods: that shall be like unto the Lord?

8 God is very greatly to be feared in the council of the faints and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about him.

9 O Lord God of hofts, who is like unto thee: thy truth most mighty Lord, is on every fide.

10 Thou ruleft the raging of the sea: thou stilleft the waves thereof when they arife.

I Thou haft fubdued Egypt, and deftroyed it: thou haft fcattered thine enemies abroad with thy mighty arm.

12 The heavens are thine, the earth alfo is thine: thou haft laid the foundation of the round world, and all that therein is.

13 Thou haft made the north and the fouth: Tabor and Hermon fhall rejoice in thy Name.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATION S.

to reprefent to God their fad condition, wait with patience for his confo-
lation, and remember likewife, that anguifh of spirit does not hinder
God from beholding them in his mercy. This we are more certainly
affured of, by the terrors which our Lord felt in his foul at the time of his
paffion, than by the example of the prophet who speaks in this pfalm.
3 S

14 Thou

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