evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall com. pass me about?

6. They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

7. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him :

8. (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever :)

9. That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.

10. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.

11. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations: they call their lands after their own names.

12. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

13. This their way is their folly yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.

14. Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

15. But God will redeem my soul from the

power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.

16. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

17. For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.

18. Though while he lived he blessed his soul and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.

19. He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.

20. Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

PSALM L. 97.

Psalm composed by David, to encourage and to instruct the people who accompanied him, when, having left Jerusalem on foot to avoid Absalom, he halted at some distance from the town. 2 Sam. xv. 13-17.

A Psalm of Asaph.

A Psalm of gathering.

1. THE mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

2. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

3. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

4. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

5. Gather my saints together unto me: those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

6. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.

7. "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; 0 Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.

8. “ I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

9. "I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.

10. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

11. "I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

12. "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

13. "Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

14. "Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most high:

15. "And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee: and thou shalt glorify me."

"What

16. But unto the wicked God saith, hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? 17. "Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.

18. "When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.

19. "Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.

20. "Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's

son.

21. "These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes..

22. "Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

23. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversatiou aright will I shew the salvation of God."

PSALM LI. 93.

David having sent Joab to destroy the remains of the Ammonites, who had begun a war against him by maltreating his ambassadors, remained himself at Jerusalem, where he fell into a grievous crime, terminating in the unjust death of Uriab. On being called to repentance by the prophet Nathan, David composed this deeply penitential psalm, and changed the prophet's name to Jedediah or beloved, for his faithfulness as a reprover. 2 Sam. xi. and xii. 1-25.

To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. To the giver of victory, &c.

1. HAVE mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the mul titude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be e justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.