What, though, in solemn silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What, though no real voice, nor sound,
Amid their radiant orbs be found?
In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,

For ever singing, as they shine,

The hand that made us is divine."

ADDISON.

PSALM XX.

People.

JEHOVAH hear thee in the troublous day,
And be the name of Jacob's God thy stay;
Let him support thee from his holy place,
And send, from Sion's mount, his aiding grace:
Note all thy gifts, and hy burnt-offerings own,
In flames ascended, sunk in ashes down.

May he with prudent skill thy thought inspire,
Fulfil thy mind, and grant thy heart's desire:
If he will save, who shall our hosts annoy?
We'll raise our banners with loud-shouting joy;
May thine orisons needful succours bring:
Save thou, O Lord, our heaven-anointed king.

61.

David.

The Lord will save me, now I surely know,
From holy heav'n his gracious ear will bow,
His strong right hand shall lay the tyrants low.

People.

In chariots they, or foaming steeds, confide,
But we have on Jehovah's name rely'd:
Vain are their foaming steeds, their chariots all,
Plung'd headlong in the sordid dust they fall:
But, whilst our foes sink in each routed band,
We rise, and in our ranks erected stand.

All.

Save us, Jehovah; heavenly Sovereign, hear,
When in thine house we ask thy favouring ear.

WHEATLAND AND SILVESTER.

PSALM XXIII.

THIS psalm is a happy specimen of Hebrew poetry, and has been elegantly translated into verse, by Addison and others. It must have been composed after all David's first troubles were over; most probably in the beginning of his reign.-GEDDES.

62

Although the lyric poetry of the Hebrews is always occupied upon serious subjects, nor ever descends to that levity which is admitted into that of other nations, the character of sweetness is by no means inconsistent with it. The sweetness of the Hebrew ode consists in the gentle and tender passions which it excites; in the gay and florid imagery, and in the chaste and unostentatious diction which it employs. The passions which it generally affects are those of love, tenderness, hope, cheerfulness, and pensive sorrow. In the sixty-third psalm the Royal Prophet, supposed to be then an exile in the wilderness, expresses most elegantly the sentiments of tenderness and love. The voice of grief and complaint is tempered with the consolations of hope in the eightieth psalm: and the ninety-second consists wholly of joy, which is not the less sincere, because it is not excessive. The sweetness of all these, in composition, sentiment, diction, and arrangement, has never been equalled by the finest productions of all the heathen muses and graces united. Though none of the above are deficient in imagery, I must confess I have never met with any image so truly pleasing and delightful as the following description of the Deity in the character of a shepherd:

63

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want: "In tender grass he giveth me to lie down ; "He guideth me to streams that gently flow." LOWTH, Lect. 25.

This psalm, says Michaelis, is deserving of all the commendation which our author (Bishop Lowth) has bestowed upon it. If I am not mistaken, it was composed by David, when he was expelled from the holy city and temple: for in the 6th verse he hopes for a return to the house of God. Since, of all the divine mercies, he particularly commemorates this, that, in time of necessity, he wants for nothing, and is even received to a banquet in the sight of his enemies, I conceive it to relate to that time, when, flying from the contest with his disobedient son, he pitched his camp beyond Jordan, and was in danger of seeing his little army perish for want of provision in that uncultivated region, or of being deserted by all his friends. Affairs, however, turned out quite different: for what he could not foresee or hope, the Almighty performed for him. The veteran soldiers flowed in to him from every quarter, and his whole camp was so liberally supported by the good and opulent citizens, that in this very situation he was enabled to collect an army, and risk the event of a battle. See 2 Sam. xvii. 26-29.

64

We

He therefore compares himself to a sheep, and the Almighty to a shepherd: a very obvious figure, and which every day occurred to his sight during his stay in those desert parts. The sheep, timid, defenceless, exposed to all the beasts of prey, and possessed of little knowledge or power of foreseeing or avoiding danger, are indebted for life, safety, and every thing to the care of the shepherd. must remember also, that the exiled king had formerly himself been a shepherd. The recollection, therefore, of his past life breaks in upon his mind. "Jehovah," says he, "is my shepherd, I shall want nothing." It is his province to provide for my existence, and to procure for me those blessings which I am unable to obtain for myself. The tender herb is more grateful to sheep than that which is seeded; in meadows, therefore, covered with the green and tender grass, he supposes Jehovah to cause him to rest under his care. He was expelled to Lebanon, from the tops of which cataracts of melted snow are constantly falling: these are dangerous for sheep to approach, nor, is the water sufficiently wholesome. He therefore adds, that he is led to waters gently flowing, where the clear stream

This metaphor, says Dr. Geddes, naturally occurred to David, from his first pastoral condition, and is most happily applied.