PSALM CIV.

HIS has been called the Hymn of Creation, as the Hundred and Third Psalm is the Hymn of Life. It is possible that the omission of a title here was intended to show that both were by the same author-a supposition confirmed by the correspondence in the beginning and ending of both: "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" The former Psalm celebrates God's mercies in the kingdom of grace; the latter, His goodness in the kingdom of creation, and the one call to gratitude and praise re-echoes and supplements the other.

The close correspondence between the successive parts of this Psalm and the narrative of creation in the First Chapter of Genesis has often been observed. The account of the Six Days' work is here set to immortal music.

Among the numerous versions of this Psalm the highest place by common consent is given to that by Sir Robert Grant.

First Version. L.M.

The Glory of God in Creation and Providence.

The earth with its store

Of wonders untold,
Almighty! Thy power

Hath founded of old;
Hath stablished it fast

By a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast,
Like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care

Second Version, continued.

What tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air,

It shines in the light,
It streams from the hills,
It descends to the plain,

And sweetly distils

In the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust,

And feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust,

Nor find Thee to fail ;
Thy mercies how tender,
How firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender,
Redeemer, and Friend.
O measureless might!
Ineffable love!
While angels delight

To hymn Thee above,
The humbler creation,

Though feeble their lays,
With true adoration

Shall lisp to Thy praise.

SIR R. GRANT.

任

PSALM CV.

E made known His ways unto Moses; His acts unto the children of Israel." These words

from the Hundred and Third Psalm might be the motto of Psalms cv. and cvi., of which

two the former takes the history as illustrating the goodness of God; the latter, as showing the perverseness of His people.

It is probable that both Psalms were composed at the period of the return from the Captivity.

There is a striking likeness to both combined in the solemn Psalm of the Levites recorded in the ninth chapter of Nehemiah.

First Version. C.M.

GIVE

God's Conduct of Israel.

IVE thanks to God, invoke His name, And tell the world His grace; Sound through the earth His deeds of That all may seek His face.

[fame,

His covenant, which He kept in mind

Through numerous ages past;

To numerous ages yet behind

In equal force shall last.

He sware to Abraham and his seed,
And made the blessing sure ;
Gentiles the ancient promise read,
And find His truth endure.

The Lord Himself chose out their way,
And marked their journeys right;
Gave them a leading cloud by day,
A fiery guide by night.

They thirst, and waters from the rock
In rich abundance flow;

And following still the course they took,
Ran all the desert through.

O wondrous stream! O blessèd type
Of overflowing grace!

So Christ, our rock, maintains our life
Through all this wilderness.

Thus guarded by the Almighty hand,
The chosen tribes possessed
Canaan, the rich, the promised land,
And their enjoyed there rest.
Then let the world forbear its rage,
The Church renounce her fear;
Israel must live through every age,
And be the Almighty's care.

DR. WATTS.

HIS Psalm, like the preceding, commemorates the dealings of Jehovah with His people Israel, while it impressively sets forth the fickleness and ingratitude with which His mercies were received.

In adapting the Psalm to Christian uses, modern paraphrasts have found the faithfulness of God a more congenial theme than the faithlessness of His people. No better versions, perhaps, within brief compass can be found than the two by Dr. Watts here given.

This Psalm, with its Doxology, closes the Fourth Book.

Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Hallelujah.

The Fifth Book.

PSALM CVII.

HERE can be little doubt that this Fifth Book of the Psalter was compiled some time after the others; from which it differs, most of all, in its miscellaneous character. One of the latest of the prophets, or perhaps Ezra, the inspired scribe, gathered the waifs and fragments of Divine song which as yet had found no place in the collection, including also the "Songs of Degrees"-a small but priceless "hymn-book within a hymn-book "-with that wonderful acrostic, the Hundred and nineteenth Psalm, and the succession of Hallelujah-Psalms at the close of the Book. With these are inserted several Psalms bearing the name of David-more than in any other Book excepting the First-but not always, as will be seen, with sufficient reason.

This Hundred and seventh Psalm is general rather than historical in its character, and its authorship is quite unknown. In a succession of vivid pictures, each closed with a summons to "praise Jehovah for His goodness," the Psalm "describes various incidents of human life; it tells of the perils which befall men, and the goodness of God in delivering them, and calls upon all who have experienced His care and protection gratefully to acknowledge them. Such a Psalm," continues Dean Perowne, "would have been admirably adapted to be sung in the Temple-worship, at the offering of the Thankofferings."

Of the paraphrases that follow, and that well express the spirit of the Psalm, that by Addison is adapted from No. 489 of the Spectator, where it consists of ten stanzas, forming a record of personal experience in his travels.