18. For THE LORD is our shield, and the HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, our king: II. 19. Thou spakest sometime in vision unto thy saints, and saidst:

"I have reposed aid upon THE "MIGHTY [One]: I have exalted 20. THE CHOSEN out of the people: I "have found THE BELOVED, my serv

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"ant; with my holy oil have I anointed 21. "Him: Wherefore my hand shall be “established with Him; my arm also 22. “shall strengthen Him: The enemy "shall not deceive Him, nor the son of 23. "wickedness subdue Him: And I will "crush his foes before him, and smite 24. "them that hate Him: My faithfulness "also and my mercy shall be with Him; "and in my name shall his horn be ex25. "alted: And I will set his hand on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers: 26. "He shall call on Me, Thou art MY

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FATHER, MY GOD, and rock of my 27. "salvation: Moreover, I will appoint

"him THE FIRST-BORN, higher than 28. "the kings of the earth: My mercy "will I keep for Him for evermore, and

46

my covenant shall be confirmed with

29. "Him. His seed also will I preserve

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for ever, and his throne as the days of

"Heaven.

31. "

32.

33.

SO. " (If his children forsake my “law, and walk not in my judgments ; "if they break my statutes, and keep "not my commandments: I will visit "their transgression with the rod, and "their iniquity with stripes.) But my 66 mercy will I not break with Him, nor "will I fail in my faithfulness: My "covenant will I not violate, nor alter "the thing that hath issued from my 35. lips: Once have I sworn by my holiness, 36. " that I will not lie unto DAVID: His "seed shall endure for ever, and his 37. "throne as the sun before Me: It shall "be established as the moon, for ever ;

34.

"and as the faithful witness in heaven.” Selah.

III. 38. But Thou hast rejected and abhorred, Thou hast been wrath with thy 39. MESSIAH! Thou hast voided the co

venant of thy servant; Thou hast abased 40. his crown to the ground: Thou hast broken

1

broken all his fences, and ruined his 41. fortresses: All that pass by spoil Him; He is become a reproach to his neigh42. bours; Thou hast exalted the right hand of his enemies; Thou hast made 43. all his enemies to rejoice: Thou hast blunted the edge of his sword, and hast 44. not supported him in the battle: Thou

hast made his glory to cease; and cast 45. down his throne to the ground. The days of his youth hast Thou shortened, and covered him with dishonour. Selah.

46. “How long, O LORD, wilt thou "hide thyself? Shall thy wrath burn 47. "like fire, for ever? Oh! remember "how short my time is, wherefore hast "thou made all the children of Adam, 48. "vanity? What hero liveth, that shall "not see death? [Who] shall rescue his "soul from the [rapacious] hand of "Hades? Selah.

49. "Where are thy mercies of old,

"O LORD, which Thou swarest unto

50. "DAVID in thy faithfulness? Remem“ber, LORD, the reproach of thy serv"ant; [How] I do bear in my bosom

" all

"all [the reproach] of many people ;

51. "wherewith thine enemies have re

52.

proached, O LORD, wherewith they "have reproached the footsteps of thy "MESSIAH!"

Blessed be THE LORD for evermore. Amen and Amen.

REMARKS.

R. David Kimchi, the most learned of the modern Jewish commentators, naturally ascribes the psalm to that" Ethan" of whom such honourable mention is made 1 Kings, iv. 31; where Solomon was reputed "wiser" than the wisest," than Ethan the Ezrahite, "and Heman," &c. who were contemporaries of his father David, and appointed by him to preside over the sacred choir, 1 Chron. vi. 31-44. And surely this hymn, although the only one of Ethan's compositions extant, is sufficient to rank him among the most illustrious of the inspired bards of his age, and second to none, not even to David himself. This obvious and satisfactory determination of its true author, at once explodes all those unsatisfactory and mischievous

chievous guesses before mentioned; and surely the magnificent and comprehensive plan of this most noble and highly wrought composition, describing the fortunes of some mighty personage, stretching into the remotest ages, even to eternity, and expanding into grandeur and dignity inconceivable, is too vast for the puny concerns of a David, a Hezekiah, a Josiah, a Jehoiachim, a Jehoiachin, or a Zedekiah; who were all too shortlived, too insignificant, too worthless, too wicked, or too near the age of the writer, to attract his notice, and the Almighty's patronage, to the end of time, commencing in those very remote periods intimated by the Psalmist, ver. 3, 28, 29, 36, S7, 46, 49, 52.

And here we cannot sufficiently admire the caution and decorum of INFINITE WISDOM, in not communicating " the sure mer"cies of David" in the promised birth of the MESSIAH, of "his seed" according to the flesh, immediately to David, in the first instance, but rather " through the mouth of "two independent and credible witnesses," Nathan and Ethan, before the joyous intelligence

H