Your hands devoutly raise From Sion's towers, Το you, and yours Propitious prove. PSALM CXXXIV. ALL ye, who God's domestics are, Look while ye stand, or kneel, or sit, Look ye be clean, for holiness Becomes God's holy place; Watch well, and pray that filthiness SANDYS. Then God, who made the world, and stays On Sion, grace shall send, Till he shall bless, and we shall praise, LORD COLERAine. PSALM CXXXIV. BEHOLD, bless ye the Lord, all ye Ev'n you that in God's temple be, 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; 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 Be the Lord your only theme, Who asserts his just command He, who bade the wat❜ry deep Thee, O Sun, whose pow'rful ray You, O Moon, and Stars, whose light He with food sustains, O Earth, Lift your voice, and thankful sing And his mercy knows no end. MERRICK. |