Your hands devoutly raise
To his divine recess,
The world's Creator praise,
And thus the people bless;
The God of love,

From Sion's towers,

Το you, and yours

Propitious prove.

PSALM CXXXIV.

ALL ye, who God's domestics are,
See you with angels wait;
And in your courses, like each star,
By night shine at heav'n's gate.

Look while ye stand, or kneel, or sit,
Ye serve, and bless the Lord;
Look that your hands God's altars fit,
And to his praise accord.

Look

ye be clean, for holiness

Becomes God's holy place;

Watch well, and pray that filthiness
None of God's works deface.

SANDYS.

Then God, who made the world, and stays

On Sion, grace shall send,

Till he shall bless, and we shall praise,
From hence, world without end.

LORD COLERAine.

PSALM CXXXIV.

BEHOLD, bless ye the Lord, all ye
That his attendants are,

Ev'n you that in God's temple be,
And praise him nightly there.
Your hands within God's holy place
Lift up; and praise his name.
From Sion hill the Lord thee bless,
That heav'n and earth did frame.

SCOTS VERSION.

PASLM CXXXVI.

AMONG the historical kind may be enumerated the hundred-and-thirty-sixth Psalm; it celebrates the praises of the Almighty, and proclaims his in

finite power and goodness; beginning with the work of creation, and proceeding to the miracles of the Exodus, the principal of which are related almost in the historical order. The exordium commences with this well-known distich :

"Glorify Jehovah, for he is good;
"For his mercy endureth for ever:"

which, according to Ezra,* was commonly sung by alternate choirs. There is, however, one circumstance remarkable attending it, which is, that the latter line of the distich, being added by the second choir, and also subjoined to every verse, (which is a singular case) forms a perpetual epode. Hence the whole nature and form of the intercalary verse (or burthen of the song) may be collected it expresses in a clear, concise, and simple manner, some particular sentiment, which seems to include virtually the general subject or design of the poem; and it is thrown in at proper intervals, according to the nature and arrangement of it, for the sake of impressing the subject more firmly upon the mind. That the intercalary verse is perfectly congenial to the Idyllium, is evident

* Ezra iii. 10, 11.

from the authority of Theocritus, Bion, Moschus, and even of Virgil. I shall add one or two examples from the Sacred Poetry, which will not lose in a comparison with the most perfect specimens in this department of poetry, which those excellent writers have bequeathed to posterity: and in order to illustrate as well the elegance of the poem in general, as the peculiar force and beauty of the intercalary verse, the order and conduct of the subject must be particularly explained. (See his note on Psalm cvii.)-LOWTH, Lect. 29.

PSALM CXXXVI.

LIFT your voice, and thankful sing
Praises to your Heavenly King;
For his blessings far extend,
And his mercy knows no end.

Be the Lord your only theme,
Who of gods is God supreme;
He, to whom all lords beside
Bow the knee, and vail their pride;

Who asserts his just command
By the wonders of his hand;
He, whose wisdom thron'd on high
Built the mansions of the sky;

He, who bade the wat❜ry deep
Under earth's foundation sleep,
And the orbs that gild the pole
Through the boundless æther roll;

Thee, O Sun, whose pow'rful ray
Rules the empire of the day;

You, O Moon, and Stars, whose light
Gilds the darkness of the night.

He with food sustains, O Earth,
All who claim from thee their birth;
For his blessings far extend,

Lift your voice, and thankful sing
Praise to Heaven's eternal King;
For his blessings far extend,

And his mercy knows no end.

MERRICK.