O save us, Lord; thy suppliants hear;
And in our aid, great King, appear.

PSALM XXVI.

LORD, judge my cause: thy piercing eye
Beholds my soul's integrity.
How can I fall,

When I, and all

My hopes on thee rely? Examine, try my reins and heart! Thou mercy's source, my object art; Nor from thy truth

Have I in youth,

Or will in age depart.

Men sold to sin offend my sight;
I hate the two-tongu'd hypocrite;
Those who devise

Malicious lies,

And in their crimes delight.

But will with hands immaculate,
And offerings at thy altar wait:
Thy praise disperse

In grateful verse;

Thy noble acts relate.

Thy house, in my esteem, excels;
The mansion where thy glory dwells.
My life O close

Not up with those,
Whose sins thy grace expels !

Who guiltless blood with pleasure spill; Subverting bribes their right-hands fill;

Bold in offence.

But innocence

And truth shall guard me still.

Redeem; O with thy grace sustain !
My feet now stand upon the plain.
Thy justice I
Will magnify,

With those who fear thy name.

PSALM XXXV.

LORD, plead my cause against my foes;
With such as fight against me, fight:
Arise; thy ample shield oppose,

And with thy sword defend my right.
Address thy spear; those in their way
Encounter who my soul invade:
To her O let thy Spirit say,

I am thy God and saving aid.
Let those, who my disgrace contrive,

Hang down their heads, for flight design'd: Who seek my fall, let angels drive

Like chaff before the blust'ring wind. Obscure and slippery be their path; Let winged troops pursue their foil;' Since they for me with causeless wrath Have digg'd a pit, and pitch'd a toil, Let sudden ruin them destroy;

Mesh'd in the nets themselves had laid: Then in the Lord my soul shall joy,

And glory in his timely aid.

Defeat.

My bones shall say, O who like thee,
That arm'st the weak against the strong;
That dost the poor and needy free

From outrage, and too powerful wrong
False witnesses against me stood,
Who unknown accusations brought:
That evil rendered for good,

And closely my confusion sought.
I in their sickness did condole;
Unfeignedly in sackcloth mourn'd:
With fasting humbled my sad soul,
And often to my prayers return'd:
Him visited both night and day,

As if an ancient friend or brother:
In black upon the earth I lay,

And wept as for my dying mother. Yet these rejoiced in my woe;

False comforters about me crowd; And lest I should their cunning know, They rent their clothes and cried aloud. Like hypocrites at feasts, they jeer;

?

Whose gnashing teeth their hate profess,
O Lord, how long wilt thou forbear,
And only look on my distress?

O save from those who smile and kill,
My darling from the lion's jaws :

I in the great assembly will

Then praise thy name with full applause. Let not my causeless enemies

Rejoice in my afflicted state;

Nor wink at me with scornful eyes,
Who swell with undeserved hate.
Of peace they speak not; rather they
The peaceable with fraud pursue :

Who wry their mouths at me, and say, Ha! ha! our eyes thy ruin view. This seen, O stand no longer mute; Nor, Lord, desert my innocence : Awake, arise: O prosecute

My cause, and plead in my defence. With justice judge: nor let them say In triumph, We our wish possess : Nor in their mirthful hearts, ha! ha! We've swallowed him in his distress. Wrath and confusion seize on those Who in my tribulation joy; Let them who glory in my woes,

Be clothed with shame and infamy. Let those eternally rejoice,

Who favour and assist my right; For ever with exalted voice,

The goodness of our God recite: And say, O magnify his name

Who glories in his servant's peace. My tongue his justice shall proclaim, Nor ever in his praises cease.

PSALM XLII.

LORD! as the hart emboss'd with heat

Brays after the cool rivulet,

So sighs my soul for thee.

My soul thirsts for the living God:

When shall I enter his abode,

And there his beauty see?

Tears are my food both night and day; While, Where's thy God? they daily say, My soul in plaints I shed;

When I remember, how in throngs

We fill'd thy house with praise and songs; How I their dances led.

My soul, why art thou so deprest ?
Why, O! thus troubled in my breast,
With grief so overthrown?
With constant hope on God await:
I yet his name shall celebrate,
For mercy timely shown?

My fainting heart within me pants :
My God, consider my complaints;
My songs shall praise thee still.
Even from the vale where Jordan flows;
Where Hermon his high forehead shows,
From Mitsar's humble hill.

Deeps unto deeps enraged call,

When thy dark spouts of waters fall,

And dreadful tempest raves: For all thy floods upon me burst, And billows after billows thrust To swallow in their graves.

But yet by day the Lord will charge
His ready mercy to enlarge

My soul, surprised with cares:
He gives my songs their argument ;—
God of my life, I will present

By night to thee my prayers: