Did not the Lord sustain thy steps,
And was not God thy guide?

Affliction is a stormy deep,

Where wave resounds to wave; Though o'er my head the billows roll, I know the Lord can save.

Perhaps, before the morning dawns,
He'll reinstate my peace;
For he, who bade the tempest roar,
Can bid the tempest cease.

In the dark watches of the night
I'll count his mercies o'er;
I'll praise him for ten thousand past,
And humbly sue for more.

Then, O my soul, why thus deprest,
And whence this anxious fear?
Let former favours fix thy trust,
And check the rising tear.

Here will I rest, and build my hopes,

Nor murmur at his rod;

He's more than all the world to me,

"My health, my life, my God!

COTTON.

PSALM XLVI.

It is impossible not to perceive the cool and eritical sobriety every where manifested in the structure of this psalm. Had the author been initiated in those approved rules of composition which we so much respect, he could not have confined himself more rigorously to his subject, nor have written with stricter unity of design.— HURDIS.

PSALM XLVI.

GOD is our refuge, our defence
Rests wholly on his providence;
: Which still affords a present aid,
When greatest troubles us invade :
Therefore we shall not need to fear,
Though the fix'd earth removed were,
Or though the hills, and mountains steep
Lay buried in the angry deep.

Although the roaring waters make

The mountains with their swelling shake;

Yet calmer rivers do embrace
God's city, his fair dwelling place:
Whose tabernacles, by his love,
Are kept that they can never move
For he, when dangers her distress,
His early succour shall address.

The nations rage; the kingdoms are
Disturb'd with strife, and threats of war.
But he the tempest can allay,

And cause the earth to melt away:

The Lord of hosts doth us direct,

Great Jacob's God doth us protect;
Come see, on those our mischiefs wrought,
What desolations he hath brought.

He maketh strife, and wars to cease,
And crowns the bleeding earth with peace;
He breaks the bow, and cracks the spear,
In fire the chariots burned were.
Lo! this is God, whose awful sway
Both earth, and heaven must obey :
The Lord of hosts doth us direct;
Great Jacob's God doth us protect.

PSALM XLIX.

WHEN, or by whom, this beautiful and philoso phical psalm was composed, it is totally uncertain. I should be apt to give it to Solomon, or at least to the author of Ecclesiastes.-GEDDES.

PSALM XLIX.

YE nations, hear: ye sons of earth,
Of highest, or obscurest birth;

Ye, who from wealth's full board are fed,
And ye, who eat with toil your bread;

My words with just attention weigh,
And listen to the hallow'd lay;
My lips shall Wisdom's lessons yield,
My heart, with noblest science fill'd.

Cease, mortals, cease your pride; nor dream
That riches shall from death redeem,

Or from the all-disposing hand

A brother's forfeit life demand.

But, taught the soul's just price to know,
At once the frantic thought forego;
In vain would friendship's zeal essay
The full equivalent to pay;

In vain the flitting breath to save,
And plead exemption from the grave,
Though envy'd Ophir's wealthiest mine
Its treasures to the purchase join.

MERRICK.

PSALM L.

THE inutility of ceremonious observances, without the true worship of the heart: applicable to too many Christians, as well as Jews. Compare Isa. i. 11. Jerem. vii. 22. Hos. vi. 6.—Geddes.

The fiftieth Psalm affords an example of that degree of sublimity, which the mere form and disposition of a lyric poem can impart to a subject not in itself sublime; for its subject is of the didactic kind, and belongs to the moral part of theology. It is at first serious and practical, with very little of sublimity or splendour: it sets forth, that the Divine favour is not to be conciliated by sacrifices,