3 Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of

him?

Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him?

4 Man is like to vanity:

His days are as a shadow that passeth away.

5 Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down: Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. 6 Cast forth lightning, and scatter them:

Shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. 7 Send thine hand from above;

Rid me, and deliver me out of great waters.
From the hand of strange children;

8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity,

And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

9 I will sing a new song unto thee, O God:

Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings
Will I sing praises unto thee.

10 It is he that giveth salvation unto kings,

Who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.

11 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children,

Whose mouth speaketh vanity.

And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:

12 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their

youth;

That our daughters may be as corner-stones,

Polished after the similitude of a palace:

13 That our garners may be full,

Affording all manner of store;

That our sheep may bring forth thousands
And ten thousands in our streets:

14 That our oxen may be strong to labor;

That there be no breaking in, nor going out: That there be no complaining in our streets. 15 Happy is that people that is in such a case;

Yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.

In verse 9, the Psalmist, in exultation, declares that he will sing a new song to the Lord his deliverer, upon the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Shir is the original, translated song, and a derivative of the same is translated sing, in the same verse. The expression, a new song, indicates, probably, a new occasion for singing praises to God.

Upon the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.-Prof. Alexander translates the passage thus: With a lyre of ten (strings) I will play (or make music) to thee. This is certainly the literal meaning of the original, and we perceive no good reason why asor (y) translated in our English version, an instrument of ten strings, should not be referred to the nebhel (3) rendered psaltery. Gesenius and other eminent scholars take the same view. We should prefer to translate nebhel by guitar rather than lyre (vid. Rem. on I Sam. x. 5). This instrument in very early times had five, and subsequently ten and twelve, strings. The last verb in the verse is from zamar, which signifies to shout, to make a tremulous vociferation or sound, and may refer to the voice, or to a musi cal instrument. The same Hebrew word is used in Psalm cxlvi. 2, translated sing, and indicates the exultation by which the Psalmist would praise Jehovah.

In Psalm cxlvii. 1, 7, zamar is translated sing once in each

verse.

In the first part of verse 7 the original for sing is nu (15) and indicates a shout, or song of triumph (vid. Rem. on Ex. xxxii. 18).

Harp (v. 7).-This is the kinnor (vid. Rem. on Gen. iv. 21).

PSALM cxlix. 1–9.

1 Praise ye the Lord.

Sing unto the Lord a new song,

And his praise in the congregation of saints. 2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him;

Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

3 Let them praise his name in the dance:

Let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.

4 For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people:

He will beautify the meek with salvation.

5 Let the saints be joyful in glory:

Let them sing aloud upon their beds.

6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
And a two-edged sword in their hand;
7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen,
And punishments upon the people;

8 To bind their kings with chains,

And their nobles with fetters of iron;

9 To execute upon them the judgment written: This honor have all his saints.

Praise ye the Lord.

This Psalm is full of expressions of triumph and praise to God, in view of the fact that Jerusalem and the Jewish nation, under the administration of Nehemiah, had been fortified and made secure from the attacks of their foes.

Song (v. 1).-Shir is here used. The verb also appears in the first part of the verse. Dance (v. 3), a derivative of hhul (3), the usual term, is employed (vid. Rem. on Ex. xv. 20). Sing (v. 3), properly play in this place, as the term (a derivative of zamar) relates to the performance on the toph and kinnor, mentioned in immediate connection. The toph is a percussion instrument, sometimes called tabret, tabor, and tambou

rine (vid. Rem. on Gen. xxxi. 27). The kinnor is our harp (vid. Rem. on Gen. iv. 21).

PSALM cl. 1-6.

1 Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary:

Praise him in the firmament of his power. 2 Praise him for his mighty acts:

Praise him according to his excellent greatness. 3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: Praise him with the psaltery and harp.

4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance:

Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. 5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals:

Praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

This brief poem contains a remarkably simple, yet pathetic and sublime burst of triumphant praise to Jehovah. It is a kind of halleluyah psalm or doxology, elegantly closing the beautiful melodies of the book.

Sound of the trumpet.-This is the shophar, or crooked trumpet. The phrase might be rendered blast of the trumpet. The original of blast is a derivative of taga (p). By this peculiar sound, the Israelites were called together on important occasions, and but one blast was given. The Psalmist, by a bold personification, would seem to indicate that one tremendous blast was to be made to call all animate and inanimate nature together, for the purpose of uttering the praises of Almighty God.

Psaltery and harp (v. 3.)—These are the nebhel (guitar) and kinnor.

Timbrel (v. 4).—This is the toph, a pulsatile instrument (vid. Rem. on Gen. xxxi. 27).

Dance (v. 4).-For this the same Hebrew word is employed as in Psalm exlix. 3 (ibid).

Stringed instruments (v. 4).—Literally strings. brew term is (minnim), from

The He

(men), meaning a part

or portion, and in the plural strings, evidently indicating all kinds of stringed instruments (vid. Rem. on Gen. iv. 21; Job xxx. 9; Ps. iv. title). The Septuagint has xopdas (chordais), chords, strings.

Organs (v. 4).-It should be organ or pipe, as the original ugabh is in the singular number (vid. Rem. on Gen. iv. 21).

Loud Cymbals (v. 5).-These were pulsatile instruments. The Hebrew term is 33 (siltsley), meaning literally cymbals of sound, probably referring to the smaller instrument of this kind (vid. Rem. on II Sam. vi. 5).

High-sounding cymbals (v. 5).—The same word for cymbals is used in the original as in the first part of the verse. The term translated high-sounding is (truah), and signifies a loud noise, a tumult, indicating that these cymbals were the larger kind, as explained in our remarks on II Sam. vi. 5. The three classes of musical instruments-wind, stringed, and pulsatileare here mentioned. The writer undoubtedly intended to include all kinds of musical instruments of every description. He finally closes the poem by calling upon everything that hath breath to praise the Lord, thus elegantly completing this admirable collection of the songs of Zion.

The Septuagint contains another psalm numbered cli. Dr. A. Clarke's translation of it is the following:

PSALM cli. 1-8.

"A Psalm, in the hand-writing of David, beyond the number of the Psalms, composed by David, when he fought in single combat with Goliath."

1 I was the least among my brethren,

And the youngest in my father's house;