AN ESSAY. 11 every parish-clerk, to choose what Psalm and what verses of it . he would propose to the people to sing. Give me leave here to mention several passa ges which were hardly made for christian lips to assume without some alteration : Ps. lxviii. 13, 14, 15, 18. " Though ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold : When the Almighty scat- tered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon. The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan, &c. Why leap ye, ye hills, &c. verse 25. The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after, amongst them were the damsels playing with timbrels: Bless ye God in the congregation, even the Lord from the fountain of Israel There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali. Because of thy temple at Jerusalem kings shall bring presents unto thee. Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one subthit himself with pieces of silver." Ps. lxxi. 2, 3, &c. " Take a psalm, and bring hither the tim- brel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery, blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed on our solemn feast -day, &c." Ps. lxxxiv. 3, 8. " The sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, &c. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them; who passing through the valley of Bacha make it a well, the rain also filleth the pools." Ps. cviii. 2, 7, 8, 9. 00 Awake psaltery and harp, I myself will awake early. God bath spoken in his holiness ; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth ; Gilead is mine, Manasseth is mine, Ephraim also is the strength of mine head, Judah is my lawgiver, Moab is my wash -pot, over Edom will I cast out my shoe, over Phi - listia will I triumph who will bring me into the strong city, who will lead me into Edom." Ps. lxix. S. and cix. are so full of cursings, that they hardly become the tongue of a follower of the blessed Jesus, who dying prayed for his own enemies; " Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Ps. cxxxiv. is suited to the temple or tabernacle worship ; the title is, A Song of Degrees, that is, as interpreters believe, to be sung as the kings of Israel went up by steps or degrees to the house of God : In the two first verses the king calls upon the Levites, " which by night stand in the house of the Lord, to lift up their hands in the sanctuary, and to bless the Lord ;" the 3d verse is an anti - phons or reply of the Levites to the king ; "The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion." It would be endless to give an account of all the paragraphs of ancient songs, which can scarce ever be accommodated to gospel- worship.
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