UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. SAN DIEGO 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 ! SAN DIEGO 
 
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 UNIVERS TY OF CAUFORN A SAN o EGO 
 
 Social Sciences & Humanities Library 
 
 University of California, San Diego 
 Please Note: This item is subject to recall. 
 
 Date Due 
 
 NOV 3 
 
 Cl 39 (5/97) 
 
 UCSD Lib.
 
 THE PSALMS AT WORK
 
 THE 
 
 PSALMS AT WORK 
 
 BEING THE ENGLISH CHURCH PSALTER 
 WITH NOTES ON THE USE OF THE PSALMS 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES L. MARSON 
 
 A vthor of 
 " The Following of Christ" 
 
 NEW, ENLARGED, AND 
 REVISED EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62 PATERNOSTER ROW 
 1909
 
 TO 
 
 S. J. P. 
 
 WITH AN OLD FRIEND'S GRATEFUL LOVE
 
 PREFACE 
 
 IN presenting a fourth edition of The Psalms at Work, 
 like the former editions somewhat enlarged, the 
 collector must own to some delay. Another author 
 has stepped into the breach, and by a daring piece of 
 free trade, has incorporated almost the whole of the 
 second edition into a work of his own and cried it 
 freely before the public. He was not aware of the 
 third edition or he could have enjoyed more freely still 
 his powers of digestion and assimilation. So far from 
 repining at this treatment, the collector of The Psalms 
 at Work begs to thank him for diffusing the idea so 
 widely, and in the name of Bishop Alexander and Dr. 
 Ker, who being dead cannot express their gratitude 
 for a similar treatment, to assure him that both he and 
 any other man is welcome to our labours, provided 
 that he will so use them as to deepen men's awe 
 and wonder at these marvels of David and their 
 vast effect upon the human life. Perhaps it would 
 not be extravagant to ask that he too should put into 
 the common pot as freely as he has taken from it ? 
 The Psalms at Work was intended to start folk hunting 
 for themselves and not merely to set them feasting 
 or vending the venison which others have found. 
 Nor is it quite enough to add no more than water 
 vii
 
 Preface 
 
 and a little thickening to the savoury meat already 
 cooked. But these notes are not profound. They are 
 in the nature of the case not original, and the collector^ 
 as he said at the first, has only gathered them 
 in the highways, and tried to give them shortly, 
 accurately and without homily or exclamation, in 
 the hope that the text will gain to the user what it 
 continues to gain to the annotator a feeling that 
 some great words are alive and cannot grow old or 
 die ; but build or level, quicken or destroy, spur or 
 restrain, as with a living will and master the children 
 of men. Such are the Psalms of David. 
 
 C. L. M. 
 
 HAMBRIDGE, TAUNTON. 
 
 via
 
 THE FIRST DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm i. 
 
 r 
 
 Beatus vir, qui 
 
 1 Blessed is the man that 
 hath not walked in the counsel 
 of the ungodly, nor stood in the 
 way of sinners : and hath not 
 sat in the seat of the scornful. 
 
 2 But his delight is in the 
 law of the Lord : and in his 
 law will he exercise himself day 
 and night. 
 
 3 And he shall be like a tree 
 planted by the waterside : that 
 will bring forth his fruit in due 
 season. 
 
 4 His leaf also shall not 
 
 non abiit, etc. 
 
 wither : and look, whatsoever 
 he doeth, it shall prosper. 
 
 5 As for the ungodly, it is 
 not so with them : but they are 
 like the chaff, which the wind 
 scattereth away from the face 
 of the earth. 
 
 6 Therefore the ungodly shall 
 not be able to stand in the judg- 
 ment : neither the sinners in the 
 congregation of the righteous. 
 
 7 But the Lord knoweth the 
 way of the righteous : and the 
 way of the ungodly shall perish. 
 
 to Mass, first Sunday in 
 Easter Day Matins ; 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit 
 Advent (e). 1 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins ; 
 Martyrs and All Saints Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday Vespers. 
 
 This psalm is called by St. Basil the Great a short 
 introduction to the whole book, an opinion adopted 
 by the whole Church as shewn by the liturgical uses 
 to which it has been put. 
 
 1 (e) means in the first Prayer Book of Edward VI., 1549. 
 A I
 
 Day i] Psalm i. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Among those who have written comments, medi- 
 tations, and explanations of the Psalter, the following 
 are among the most celebrated : Origen (third century), 
 Eusebius Pamphilius, St. Athanasius, Apollinarius 
 Laodicensis, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Hilary of 
 Poictiers, St. Chrysostom in fourth century, Theodore, 
 Arnobius junior, and Cassiodorus (fifth century), St. 
 Gregory Turonensis (sixth century), Bede (seventh 
 century), to Albertus Magnus, Hugo of St. Victor, St. 
 Bonaventura (thirteenth century), Luther, Melanch- 
 thon, Zuinglius, and Card Bellarmine in later times. 
 
 The poet Phineas Fletcher, author of the Purple 
 Inland and Vicar of Hilgay, wrote a commentary upon 
 this psalm called The Way to Blessedness, 1632. 
 Ruskin thought that this and seven other psalms 
 (viii., xii., xiv., xv., xix., xxiii., and xxiv.) sufficed for 
 personal guidance. 
 
 Verse 1. Erasmus, hi 1516, dedicated his com- 
 mentary upon this psalm to Beatus Rhenanus, the 
 corrector of Froben's press, a learned Alsatian critic 
 and historian, whose character was described by the 
 text. 
 
 Verse 2. This is one of St. Jerome's favourite texts. 
 He may almost be said to have moulded his life upon 
 it, so much is it woven into his writings. Robert 
 Burton (1576-1639) quotes it as one of the cures of 
 melancholy in his Anatomy, " that maze of remedies 
 for a labyrinth of diseasements," as Lamb calls it. It 
 is probably this verse which set the custom of night 
 prayers in the monastic life, for St. Basil cites it in his 
 Shorter Rules, as pointing to this practice. The 
 learned and pious Bishop Beveridge (1636-1708) 
 who refused to succeed the non-juror Ken published 
 a sermon upon the same verse. He defended the 
 old version of the psalms the Prayer Book version 
 with such success that no serious attempt has been 
 made since to change it for any other translation. 
 
 2
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm i. [Day I 
 
 Verse 4. Archbishop Seeker's remarks upon this 
 verse, with an explanation from Kimchi the Jewish 
 doctor, and from rabbins older than himself, " that 
 even the idle talk of a good man ought to be re- 
 garded," inspired James Boswell to his task of record- 
 ing so many reports of Dr. Johnson's conversation. 
 The verse is thus the seed from which the greatest 
 of all biographies grew. 
 
 The Prayer Book version of the psalms is taken 
 from St. Jerome's translation (fourth century) which 
 was used by the Church in France, introduced there 
 by St. Gregory of Tours in the sixth century. It 
 passed into England before St. Augustine, and was 
 frequently Englished both in Anglo - Saxon and 
 mediaeval times. Tyndale and Coverdale's version 
 based on these, was almost immediately revised by 
 John Rogers (the first man burnt under Queen Mary), 
 and again corrected by Archbishop Cranmer, and 
 published by authority in 1541. Since that time it 
 was revised by Bishop Guest, and its melodious roll has 
 so endeared it to the Church that all attempts to 
 revise the version have failed. In substance there- 
 fore, and often in detail, the version has been used for 
 over a thousand years. 
 
 The Psalter is chanted through weekly by the 
 Greek and Roman Churches, and monthly with us. 
 But many pious people, such as St. Margaret of 
 Scotland (tenth century ), Nicholas Ferrar (1592-1637), 
 and George Herbert (1593-1633), recited the whole 
 Psalter daily. The great importance of the Psalter 
 has been acknowledged in England from the first 
 planting of the Faith. St. Gregory the Great (601) 
 instructed St. Augustine that all under Church rule 
 should sing psalms early and late. The Council of 
 Cloves Hoo (747) classed psalmody with prayer and 
 fasting. St. Dunstan's Canons (tenth century) 
 ordered that sick men might use the Psalter instead 
 
 3
 
 Day l] 
 
 Psalm ii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 of fasting. Two hundred psalms, or the fine of a 
 penny (a workman's day's pay), were equivalent for 
 each fast day. In the earlier Church the working 
 people knew the psalms so well that they were used 
 to chant and hum them in field, house, and street, 
 just as they now use the far inferior hymns. 
 
 Psalm ii. 
 
 Quare fremuerunt gentes ? 
 
 1 Why do the heathen so 
 furiously rage together : and 
 why do the people imagine a 
 vain thing ? 
 
 2 The kings of the earth stand 
 up, and the rulers take counsel 
 together : against the Lord, and 
 against his Anointed. 
 
 3 Let us break their bonds 
 asunder : and cast away their 
 cords from us. 
 
 4 He that dwelleth in heaven 
 shall laugh them to scorn : the 
 Lord shall have them in 
 derision. 
 
 5 Then shall he speak unto 
 them in his wrath : and vex 
 them in his sore displeasure. 
 
 6 ' ' Yet have I set my King : 
 upon my holy hill of Sion. 
 
 7 " I will preach the law, 
 whereof the Lord hath said unto 
 
 me : Thou art my Son, this day 
 have I begotten thee. 
 
 8 "Desire of me, and I shall 
 give thee the heathen for thine 
 inheritance : and the utmost 
 parts of the earth for thy 
 possession. 
 
 9 ' ' Thou shall bruise them 
 with a rod of iron : and break 
 them in pieces like a potter's 
 vessel." 
 
 10 Be wise now therefore, O 
 ye kings : be learned, ye that 
 are judges of the earth. 
 
 1 1 Serve the Lord in fear : and 
 rejoice unto him with reverence. 
 
 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be 
 angry, and so ye perish from the 
 right way : if his wrath be 
 kindled (yea, but a little) 
 blessed are all they that put 
 their trust in him. 
 
 Lititrgical use. Proper Psalm for Easter Morning. 
 Latins. Sunday Matins ; Christmas ; Circumcision ; 
 Good Friday ; Easter ; Martyrs. 
 Greeks. Saturday Vespers. 
 
 This has been from the earliest times a psalm of 
 4
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm ii. [Day I 
 
 good heart in hard times. When the Apostles 
 St. Peter and St. John had drawn upon themselves 
 the threats of Jewish persecution by their use of that 
 miracle done on the lame man at the Beautiful Gate, 
 they heartened the little Church (Acts v. 23-31) by 
 chanting this psalm. It Avas sung by the Jews at 
 the siege of Jerusalem. It inspired many martyrs. 
 St. Athanasius in the fourth century used it as a 
 trumpet call against the enemies of the Faith. It 
 summoned the nations to the First Crusade in 1095. 
 It was said in 1188, by Papal Order, for the liberation 
 of Jerusalem. It was a favourite psalm of Savonarola 
 in the fifteenth century, who used it on two great 
 occasions : when the fear of the French invasion was 
 upon Florence ; and again in 1496, to rally the 
 Republic when the plague, the Pisan War, the 
 death of Piero Capponi, and the Imperial League 
 seemed to overwhelm everything, when the people 
 were " furiously raging in streets, houses, shops, and 
 markets " against the preacher and his followers. 
 Within one generation Luther found consolation in 
 the belief that the gathering of hostile princes and 
 " rage of our enemies is not aimed at us but at the 
 Lord and His Christ." Erasmus wrote a meditation 
 upon it. It was a constant source of comfort to pious 
 persons in the distractions of the seventeenth century, 
 and inspired the opponents of the triumphant Deism 
 of the eighteenth century. 
 
 Verse 1. A favourite royalist text. The motto for 
 one of Van Mildert's Boyle Lectures. This learned 
 Bishop of Durham (1765-1836) was one of the 
 founders of Durham University, and, while rector 
 of St. Mary-le-Bow, traced the opposition of the 
 heathen to the gospel from Pentecost to Constantine's 
 time. 
 
 Verse 4. With these words Sir Thomas Browne 
 (1 605-1 682) confutes the vulgar error that our Lord 
 
 5
 
 Day I] Psalm il. [Morning Prayer 
 
 never laughed, " nor need we be afraid to ascribe that 
 unto the incarnate Son which sometimes is ascribed 
 to the incarnate Father." 
 
 Verse 6. It was the thought expressed in his sermon 
 upon this text the divine order of kings that 
 caused the good John Lake (16241 689) to become a 
 non-juror. 
 
 Verse 7. St. Paul uses this verse in his sermon at 
 Antioch to illustrate his teaching that the Godhead of 
 Christ was part of historical Jewish teaching. It is 
 used on the same lines in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 and consequently was a Catholic motto in the Arian, 
 Socinian, and Deist Controversies. Although the 
 words are usually applied to the birth of our Lord, 
 yet they are also reported in an early Christian tradi- 
 tion to have been heard amid bright light at His 
 baptism. 
 
 Verse 8. A famous verse in missionary annals. 
 Bishop Smalbroke (1672-1749), the opponent of 
 Whiston and Woolston, pleaded for the Society for 
 Propagating the Gospel, from this verse. So did many 
 others (e.g. Bishop Barrington of Durham, William 
 Jackson of Oxford). Consequently many mission 
 stations owe their life to this verse. 
 
 Verse 9. Not only used in the Revelation of St. 
 John to the Church at Thyatira ; of the child of the 
 woman clothed with the sun ; and of him who rode on 
 the white horse ; but a constant answer of Churchmen 
 to those who asserted that the Faith had no political 
 side to it, and of Puritans to those who doubted their 
 right to govern the nations. 
 
 Verses 10-12. Baxter, preaching at Worcester 
 Cathedral before the judges in 1654, wished "that 
 each man present could, when he forgot Christ, see 
 written on the wall, ' Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, 
 and thou perish,' and on the tester of his bed, as often 
 as he lay down in an unregenerate state." 
 
 6
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm iii. 
 
 [Day I 
 
 Verse 11. In 1750 Thomas Seeker (1693-1768), then 
 Bishop of Oxford and afterwards Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, preached his celebrated earthquake 
 sermon, which allayed the very serious panic caused 
 by the earthquake in the March of that year, when 
 thousands encamped in the parks. This was also the 
 motto of Dr. Rennell's thanksgiving for the victory of 
 the Nile, 1798. 
 
 Psalm iii. 
 
 A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son. 
 Domine, quid multiplicati? 
 
 1 Lord, how are they in- 
 creased that trouble me : many 
 are they that rise against me. 
 
 2 Many one there be that say 
 of my soul : "There is no help 
 for him in his God.'"' 
 
 3 But thou, O Lord, art my 
 defender : thou art my wor- 
 ship, and the lifter up of my 
 head. 
 
 4 I did call upon the Lord 
 with my voice : and he heard 
 me out of his holy hill. 
 
 5 I laid me down and slept, 
 
 and rose up again : for the Lord 
 sustained me. 
 
 6 I will not be afraid for ten 
 thousands of the people : that 
 have set themselves against me 
 round about. 
 
 7 Up, Lord, and help me, O 
 my God : for thou smitest all 
 mine enemies upon the cheek- 
 bone ; thou hast broken the teeth 
 of the ungodly. 
 
 8 Salvation belongeth unto 
 the Lord : and thy blessing is 
 upon thy people. 
 
 Liturgical use. Second Mass, Easter Day (1549). 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins ; Martyrs ; Daily Morning 
 Hymn in Monasteries. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday Vespers. 
 
 By reason of the fury of the Norsemen, Archbishop 
 Elphege and the Council of Haba (eleventh century) 
 ordered that in all churches, every day and at each of 
 the hours of prayer, the whole congregation should 
 prostrate themselves and sing, Domine quid multiplicati 
 
 7
 
 Day i] Psalm IV. [Morning Prayer 
 
 This was also one of the psalms appointed to be sung 
 after the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588), before 
 the extent of the victory was fully realised, and when 
 England was still nervous about those who had set 
 themselves against her round about. It was one of 
 the psalms of faith and comfort dwelt upon by Church- 
 men in the trying and tyrannical time between the 
 fall of the Rump Parliament and the restoration of 
 the king. 
 
 So far from poetry tiring me, because religious, I 
 can read, and I can say it seriously, the homely vei'sion 
 of the psalms in our Prayer Books, for an hour or two 
 together sometimes, without sense of weariness (Charles 
 Lamb to Bernard Barton). 
 
 Verse 1. In 1106 the unfortunate Emperor Henry 
 vi. had been forced to abdicate, to resign all his 
 possessions, and to withdraw from the Mass " The 
 Holy Child was born for all sinners, but for me alone it 
 seems as if He had not been born." His very son 
 revolted against him ; and he did winter penance for 
 the Pope, barefoot, in Aachen. He wrote a pathetic 
 letter to Hugh of Clugny, his friend and godfather, 
 saying how David's words had been realised in him : 
 Lord, how are they increased that trouble me. 
 
 Verse 6. Bishop Bedell (1571-1642), who died from 
 the hardships he endured in Ireland in the rebellion 
 of 1641, comforted his fellow-prisoners with this verse. 
 
 Verse 8. The Gaelic incantation called St. Patrick's 
 breastplate ends with the words of this verse. 
 
 Psalm iv. 
 
 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David. 
 Cum invocarem. 
 
 I Hear me when I call, O 
 God of my righteousness : thou 
 
 hast set me at liberty when I 
 was in trouble ; have mercy
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm iv. 
 
 [Day I 
 
 upon me and hearken unto my 
 prayer. 
 
 2 O ye sons of men, how 
 long will ye blaspheme mine 
 honour : and have such pleasure 
 in vanity, and seek after 
 leasing ? 
 
 3 Know this also, that the 
 Lord hath chosen to himself 
 the man that is godly : when 
 I call upon the Lord, he will 
 hear me. 
 
 4 Stand in awe, and sin not : 
 commune with your own heart, 
 and in your chamber, and be 
 still. 
 
 5 Offer the sacrifice of right- 
 eousness : and put your trust in 
 the Lord. 
 
 6 There be many that say : 
 " Who will shew us any good ? " 
 
 7 Lord, lift thou up : the 
 light of thy countenance upon 
 us. 
 
 8 Thou hast put gladness in 
 my heart : since the time that 
 their corn, and wine, and oil 
 increased. 
 
 9 I will lay me down in 
 peace, and take my rest : for 
 it is thou, Lord, only that 
 makest me dwell in safety. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for third Sundayin Advent (e). 
 
 Latins. Compline and Easter Eve. 
 
 Greeks. Sattmlay Vespers, and late Evensong. 
 
 This is the evening psalm of Christendom. A great 
 body of devout and homiletic literature has gathered 
 round this psalm, particularly among our people on 
 the fourth and sixth verses. The Vulgate version of 
 the former is, Irascimini et nolite pcccare : quce dicitis in 
 cordibus vestris, et in cubilibus vestris compungimini. This 
 was explained commonly as, Be wroth (with yourselves) 
 and sin not (further) ; say in your hearts whatever 
 you say ; repent in your beds. The seventh verse is, 
 Signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui Domine. There 
 is stamped on us the light of Thy countenance, O 
 Lord. This verse was a text for Charlemagne in his 
 struggle against images in churches. His Capitulare 
 on the subject is almost a series of sermons, pleading 
 against things which " dim instead of reveal the light 
 of God's countenance." 
 
 Verse 8. St. Augustine, made glad by his conversion 
 to the Catholic Faith, wished the Manichseans could
 
 Day i] 
 
 Psalm v. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 witness his delight as he read this psalm, and was 
 glad at corn, wine, oil, and all such things, as they 
 falsely thought to be Satan in solution, the works not 
 of God, but of the devil. 
 
 Verse 9- St. Gregory Naziaiizen tells a story of his 
 sister, St. Gorgonia, when she was dying : Her 
 father, marking her lips a little to move, put his ear 
 near to (for his virtue and compassion made him bold 
 and hardy), and, listening, he heard it was a verse of 
 a psalm which she muttered, and such a verse as was 
 most agreeable to such as were departing, and in her 
 a testimony wherewith she left this life. And blessed 
 be that person who yieldeth up his life with those 
 words of hers, which were these : I will lay me down 
 in peace and take my rest : for it is Thou, Lord, only 
 that makest me dwell in safety. This psalm, used 
 by Christians every evening of their lives, is naturally 
 and beautifully used last in the evening of life. 
 
 Psalm v. 
 To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A Psalm of David. 
 
 Verba mea auribus. 
 
 1 Ponder my words, O Lord : 
 consider my meditation. 
 
 2 O hearken thou unto the 
 voice of my calling, my King, 
 and my God : for unto thee will 
 I make my prayer. 
 
 3 My voice shalt thou hear 
 betimes, O Lord : early in the 
 morning will I direct my prayer 
 unto thee, and will look up. 
 
 4 For thou art the God that 
 hast no pleasure in wicked- 
 ness : neither shall any evil 
 dwell with thee. 
 
 5 Such as be foolish shall 
 not stand in thy sight : for thou 
 hatest all them that work 
 vanity. 
 
 6 Thou shalt destroy them 
 that speak leasing : the Lord 
 will abhor both the bloodthirsty 
 and deceitful man. 
 
 7 But as for me, I will 
 come into thine house, even 
 upon the multitude of thy 
 mercy : and in thy fear will I 
 worship toward thy holy temple. 
 
 8 Lead me, O Lord, in thy 
 
 10
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm v. 
 
 [Day I 
 
 righteousness, because of mine 
 enemies : make thy way plain 
 before my face. 
 
 9 For there is no faithfulness 
 in his mouth : their inward 
 parts are very wickedness. 
 
 10 Their throat is an open 
 sepulchre : they flatter with 
 their tongue. 
 
 11 Destroy thou them, O 
 God ; let them perish through 
 their own imaginations : cast 
 them out in the multitude of 
 
 their ungodliness ; for they have 
 rebelled against thee. 
 
 12 And let all them that put 
 their trust in thee rejoice : they 
 shall ever be giving of thanks, 
 because thou defendest them ; 
 they that love thy Name shall 
 be joyful in thee ; 
 
 13 For thou, Lord, wilt give 
 thy blessing unto the righteous : 
 and with thy favourable kind- 
 ness wilt thou defend him as 
 with a shield. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to Mass on fourth Sunday in 
 Advent (e). 
 
 Latin*?. Lauds on Mondays ; Martyrs. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday Vespers. 
 
 This psalm is the first in the book to come in 
 the English Dirge for the Dead, 1545. This began 
 with the invocation : In the Name of the Father, 
 etc. Next were said Psalms cxvi., xli., and cxlvi. 
 without Gloria. After some versicles and prayers 
 came Psalms v., xxvii., and xlii., also without 
 Gloria, but with the antiphon : I believe verily to see 
 the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. 
 After this came three lessons (from Job x., St. John v., 
 and 1 Cor. xv.). After this came three more psalms ; 
 Psalms xxx., Isaiah xxxviii. 10-20, and Psalm Ixxi. ; 
 these had Gloria and the antiphon : I am the Resur- 
 rection and the Life. Certain Prayers and the Grace 
 ended the Dirge, as in the Burial Office. There were 
 many other Dii'ges even in England, but the psalms 
 given here reappear in most of them. The very 
 name Dirge is from the eighth verse of this psalm, Dirige 
 in conspcctu luo viam meam, which is the usual antiphon 
 in Choir Offices for the Dead. 
 
 Among other famous commentators upon this and 
 ii
 
 Day i] Psalm vi. [Evening Prayer 
 
 the two following psalms is Asterius, the fourth-century 
 Arian philosopher; a Cappadocian whose learning 
 St. Jerome so approved that he allowed him a place 
 among Church writers. Unfortunately Asterius 
 sacrificed to Caesar in the Maximian persecution, and 
 presumed very insolently upon the generous acknow- 
 ledgment of his services. 
 
 Verse 7. St. Louis ix., the Saint-crusader, who died 
 25th August 1270, sang in the night the French hymn, 
 Nous irons en Jerusalem, and when he woke at noon 
 repeated this verse, the last words he ever spoke, 
 dying shortly after on a bed of ashes. 
 
 The practice of singing the psalms antiphonally 
 and adding the Gloria at the end of each one was 
 introduced by St. Sylvester, Bishop of Rome (314-336) 
 at the time of Constantine. A century later Cassian, 
 a Bethlehem monk, records this habit with some 
 dislike, and says that it is not to be found anywhere 
 in the East. At first the Greek and Eastern Churches 
 were content with one Gloria at the end of the last 
 psalm, but gradually the newer distinctive Christian 
 sense of the Psalter was felt to need some outward 
 expression. Gloria declares the use of the psalm to be 
 more than merely historical or literary, and rules out 
 entirely any unchristian meanings of the letter. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm vi. 
 
 To the chief Musician, on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm 
 of David. 
 
 Domine, ne in furore. 
 
 1 O Lord, rebuke me not 
 in thine indignation : neither 
 chasten me in thy displeasure. 
 
 2 Have mercy upon me, O 
 
 Lord, for I am weak : O Lord, 
 heal me, for my bones are 
 vexed. 
 
 3 My soul also is sore 
 
 .2
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm vi. [ Da y l 
 
 troubled : but, Lord, how long 
 wilt thou punish me ? 
 
 4 Turn thee, O Lord, and 
 deliver my soul : O save me for 
 thy mercy's sake. 
 
 very trouble : and worn away 
 because of all mine enemies. 
 
 8 Away from me, all ye that 
 work vanity : for the Lord 
 hath heard the voice of my 
 
 5 For in death no man weeping. 
 
 remembereth thee : and who j 9 The Lord hath heard my 
 will give thee thanks in the pit? petition : the Lord will receive 
 
 6 I am weary of my groaning ; : my prayer. 
 
 every night wash I my bed : 
 
 10 All mine enemies shall be 
 
 and water my couch with my confounded, and sore vexed : 
 tears. ! they shall be turned back, and 
 
 7 My beauty is gone for put to shame suddenly. 
 
 Liturgical use. First penitential psalm and there- 
 fore proper psalm for Ash Wednesday. Introit for 
 Ash Wednesday Mass (e). 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins, and Visitation of the 
 sick. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday Vespers. 
 
 The penitential psalms are vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., 
 cii., cxxx., and cxliii. 
 
 The beautiful petition in our Litany, " Remember 
 not, Lord, our offences . . . for ever," was sung as an 
 antiphon before and after these psalms. 
 
 By these seven psalms has been expressed most of 
 the lamentation, mourning, woe, and humiliation of 
 the Church. Fast days and times of humiliation 
 have always been the fitting season for their use. 
 Each one was considered to be an antidote to one 
 of the seven deadly sins, this being Contra Tram, a 
 remedy for wrath, and it was recited by many 
 bearded lips in the ages of wrath, and is still used by 
 pious modern men against our tamer angers. . St. 
 Ambrose, who loved simplicity, severity, and restraint 
 in poetry, had an especial love for this psalm. Henry 
 ii. sang it at his penance for the wrathful murder of 
 St. Thomas of Canterbury, walking barefoot in the
 
 Day i] Psalm vi. [Evening Prayer 
 
 rain from St. Dunstan's Church to the scene of the 
 martyrdom. Bishop Fisher, who had much delighted 
 in the seven psalms and preached upon them, at 
 length, before Princess Margaret, Henry vn.'s mother, 
 was fortified and prepared for death by the same 
 psalms. William Hunnis, Queen Elizabeth's chapel- 
 master, turned them into metre under the title of 
 "Seven Sobs of a Sorrowful Soul for Sin." 
 
 This was the favourite psalm of Catharine de 
 Medici, wife of Henry n. of France, the authoress of 
 St. Bartholomew, who in Elizabeth's time tried to 
 hold the balance of power in France, playing each 
 party against the rest in the interests of law and 
 moderation, and being in turn detested by each. 
 
 St. Gregory of Nyssa (fourth century), brother to St. 
 Basil the Great, divided the psalms into five books. His 
 theory was that these five books represent different 
 stages of spiritual learning. The whole treatise is 
 concluded by a meditation upon this psalm, which 
 seems to have been his favourite. 
 
 Among the other commentators upon this psalm 
 are Anastasius of Sinai, a recluse of the seventh 
 century ; and the poet, soldier, and divine, John Donne 
 (1573-1631). 
 
 Verse 1. Dominc nc in furore tuo arguas me is the 
 motto King Edward in. chose for the florins of 1344. 
 He was then in great commercial difficulties. 
 
 Verses 2 and 3 are inserted in the pathetic journal of 
 Jane Welsh Carlyle (1855), at a time when she was 
 so ill and unhappy that "sleep has come to look to 
 me the highest virtue and the greatest happiness." 
 
 Verse 4. Calvin's usual expression when he was in 
 any trouble of mind. 
 
 Verse 5. A verse often used to deepen men's horror 
 
 of hell: but St. Cyprian gave it a pleasanter turn 
 
 when he made it a basis for re-admitting the lapsed 
 
 to Communion against protests of the Novatian 
 
 14
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm vii. 
 
 [Day i 
 
 Puritans. St. Boniface, Wilfrid of Crediton (680-755), 
 also uses it in his circular letter to the English 
 asking for help in the work of evangelising Germany, 
 reminding them that help should be sent while it is 
 day. The letter was well responded to, and this 
 verse can thus claim to have effected much of our 
 eighth-century missionary work. 
 
 Psalm vii. 
 
 Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the Lord, concerning 
 the words of Cush the Benjamite. 
 
 Domine, Deus meus. 
 
 1 O Lord my God, in thee 
 have I put my trust : save me 
 from all them that persecute 
 me, and deliver me ; 
 
 2 Lest he devour my soul, 
 like a lion, and tear it in pieces : 
 while there is none to help. 
 
 3 O Lord my God, if I have 
 done any such thing : or if there 
 be any wickedness in my hands ; 
 
 4 If I have rewarded evil 
 unto him that dealt friendly 
 with me : yea, I have delivered 
 him that without any cause is 
 mine enemy ; 
 
 5 Then let mine enemy per- 
 secute my soul, and take me : 
 yea, let him tread my life down 
 upon the earth, and lay mine 
 honour in the dust. 
 
 6 Stand up, O Lord, in thy 
 wrath, and lift up thyself, 
 because of the indignation of 
 mine enemies : arise up for me 
 
 in the judgment that thou hast 
 commanded. 
 
 7 And so shall the congrega- 
 tion of the people come about 
 thee : for their sakes therefore 
 lift up thyself again. 
 
 8 The Lord shall judge the 
 people ; give sentence with me, 
 O Lord : according to my right- 
 eousness, and according to the 
 innocency that is in me. 
 
 9 O let the wickedness of 
 the ungodly come to an end : 
 but guide thou the just. 
 
 10 For the righteous God : 
 trieth the very hearts and reins. 
 
 1 1 My help cometh of God : 
 who preserveth them that are 
 true of heart. 
 
 12 God is a righteous Judge, 
 strong, and patient : and God 
 is provoked every day. 
 
 13 If a man will not turn, he 
 will whet his sword : he hath
 
 Day I] 
 
 Psalm vii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 bent his bow, and made it 
 ready. 
 
 14 He hath prepared for him 
 the instruments of death : he 
 ordaineth his arrows against the 
 persecutors. 
 
 15 Behold, he travaileth 
 with mischief: he hath con- 
 ceived sorrow, and brought 
 forth ungodliness. 
 
 1 6 He hath graven and 
 
 digged up a pit : and is fallen 
 himself into the destruction 
 that he made for other. 
 
 17 For his travail shall come 
 upon his own head : and his 
 wickedness shall fall on his own 
 pate. 
 
 1 8 I will give thanks unto 
 the Lord, according to his 
 righteousness : and I will praise 
 the Name of the Lord most High. 
 
 Liturgical use. No special use other than in the 
 monthly order. 
 
 Latins. Matins on Sunday. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday at Vespers. 
 
 Except for St. Basil the Great's commentary, this 
 psalm has met with comparatively little attention 
 among the greatest Christian writers. Even cele- 
 brated sermons upon it are rare, except perhaps 
 upon the ninth verse, which was a text used by 
 Hall Bishop of Chester in his fasting sermon on 
 the plague, 1666, and by Dr. Cooper's on the 
 American rebellion, 1776. Jewel and Beveridge have 
 also sermons on the eleventh verse. But it was a 
 favourite psalm among the Fifth Monarchy men. 
 Sir Harry Vane (1613-1662) uses it in his Valley of 
 Jehosaphat, to support the belief in an immediate 
 advent of Christ and His Monarchy. 
 
 Verses 3 and 4. St. Ambrose comments on these verses 
 as the chief Old Testament example of the spirit of 
 patience, expressed in a way that both foresees and 
 anticipates the New Testament teaching. He also 
 says that any one with his five wits ought to blush if 
 he does not end his day with psalmody, for even the 
 tiniest birds mark the coming both of night and day 
 with holy devoutness and sweet song. 
 
 Verse 1 %. Dens index iu&tus fortis patiens is the motto 
 j6
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm viii. 
 
 [Day I 
 
 chosen by Edward the Black Prince for the coins 
 of 1362. 
 
 Verse 16. This is Capgrave's commentary upon the 
 fate of King Richard n. 
 
 Psalm viii. 
 
 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David. 
 Domine, Dominus noster. 
 
 1 O Lord our Governor, how 
 excellent is thy Name in all the 
 world : thou that hast set thy 
 glory above the heavens ! 
 
 2 Out of the mouth of very 
 babes and sucklings hast thou 
 ordained strength, because of 
 thine enemies : that thou might- 
 est still the enemy, and the 
 avenger. 
 
 3 For I will consider thy 
 heavens, even the works of thy 
 fingers : the moon and the stars, 
 which thou hast ordained. 
 
 4 What is man, that thou art 
 mindful of him : and the son of 
 man, that thou visitest him ? 
 
 5 Thou madest him lower 
 than the angels : to crown him 
 with glory and worship. 
 
 6 Thou makest him to have 
 dominion of the works of thy 
 hands: and thou hast put all 
 things in subjection under his 
 feet ; 
 
 7 All sheep and oxen : yea, 
 and the beasts of the field ; 
 
 8 The fowls of the air, and 
 the fishes of the sea : and what- 
 soever walketh through the 
 paths of the seas. 
 
 9 O Lord our Governor : 
 how excellent is thy Name in 
 all the world ! 
 
 Liturgical use. First psalm for Ascension Day at 
 Matins. Introit for second Mass on Christinas 
 morning (e). 
 
 Latins. Ascension Day ; Adult Baptism ; Martyrs ; 
 Our Lady ; All Saints and Trinity-tide. 
 
 (.1 reeks. Saturday evening. 
 
 St. Paul uses this whole psalm in his great resurrec- 
 tion passage (1 Cor. xv.), the lesson which has been 
 read at the burial of our fathers since 154-9, arid before 
 then in the Dirges, and which will probably be read 
 B 17
 
 Day i] Psalm viii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 over ourselves. This passage was such a favourite of 
 Bishop Ken's (1637-1711) that his Greek Testament 
 opens to this day at this place ; and Bishop Berkeley 
 (1685-1753) was discoursing upon it to his family, 
 in Oxford, when he died. Thomas Fuller (l608-l66l) 
 calls this psalm a nocturnal, and says of it : " When I 
 cannot sleep, may I with this psalmist entertain my 
 waking with good thoughts ! Not to use them as 
 opium, to invite my corrupt nature to slumber, but 
 to bolt out bad thoughts, which otherwise would 
 possess my soul." 
 
 Verse 2. Quoted by Christ against the Pharisees 
 in defence of the little children. This verse also 
 secured to St. Martin of Tours the election to that 
 bishopric. Bishop Defeiisor despised the saint for his 
 mean and unkempt appearance. At the Mass the 
 sub-deacon came in late, and could not find the 
 Epistle book, and so opened a Psalter and read 
 the psalm. At the words, " Still the enemy and 
 avenger" (Defcnsorenf), the people all shouted to- 
 gether and regarded the words as an augury from 
 heaven, and forthwith they elected Martin to the 
 vacant see. This verse also accounts for that form of 
 exorcism which endured for many ages, and which 
 cast out devils by the cries of little children. Marcion, 
 the heretic, explains that new-born infants utter the 
 seven Greek vowels, a, e, e, i, o, u, 6, which signify 
 the seven heavens and consequently put demons to 
 flight. 
 
 Verse 5 is quoted by the writer of the Hebrews in 
 defence of our Lord's superiority to the angels (Heb. 
 ii. 6-9). Gloria et honore cum coronasti Domitie. Philip 
 Howard, Lord Arundel inscribed these words on the 
 mantelpiece in his dungeon, June 1587. He added : 
 /// monona u'feniu cril instils. He died in 1597, having 
 been kept a prisoner in the Tower for his zeal in the 
 Roman Catholic cause. 
 
 18
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm ix. 
 
 [Day 2 
 
 Verse 6. The motto of the Butchers' Company is, 
 Omnia subiecisti sub pedibus, oves et boves. 
 
 THE SECOND DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm ix. 
 
 To the chief Musician, upon Muth-labben, A Psalm of David. 
 Confitebor tibi. 
 
 world in righteousness : and 
 minister true judgment unto 
 the people. 
 
 9 The Lord also will be a 
 
 I I will gi%-e thanks unto 
 thee, O Lord, with my whole 
 heart : I will speak of all thy 
 marvellous works. 
 
 2 I will be glad and rejoice 
 in thee : yea, my songs will I 
 make of thy Name, O thou most 
 Highest. 
 
 3 While mine enemies are 
 driven back : they shall fall 
 and perish at thy presence. 
 
 4 For thou hast maintained 
 my right and my cause : thou 
 art set in the throne that judgest 
 right. 
 
 5 Thou hast rebuked the 
 heathen, and destroyed the 
 ungodly : thou hast put out 
 their name for ever and ever. 
 
 6 O thou enemy, destructions 
 are come to a perpetual end : 
 even as the cities which thou 
 hast destroyed ; their memorial 
 is perished with them. 
 
 7 ISut the Ixml shall endure 
 for ever : he hath also prepared 
 his seat for judgment. 
 
 8 For he shall judge the 
 
 defence for the oppressed : even 
 a refuge in due time of trouble. 
 
 10 And they that know thy 
 Name will put their trust in 
 thee : for thou, Lord, hast 
 never failed them that seek 
 thee. 
 
 11 O praise the Lord which 
 dwelleth in Sion : shew the 
 people of his doings. 
 
 12 For, when he maketh 
 inquisition for blood, he re- 
 membereth them : and for- 
 getteth not the complaint of 
 the poor. 
 
 13 " Have mercy upon me, 
 O Lord ; consider the trouble 
 which I suffer of them that hate 
 me : thou that liftest me up 
 from the gates of death. 
 
 14 That I may shew all thy 
 praises within the ports of the 
 daughter of Sion : I will rejoice 
 in thy salvation."
 
 Day 2] Psalm IX. [Morning Prayer 
 
 15 The heathen are sunk j 1 8 For the poor shall not 
 down in the pit that they made : I alway be forgotten : the patient 
 in the same net which they hid abiding of the meek shall not 
 privily, is their foot taken. ! perish for ever. 
 
 16 The Lord is known to 19 Up, Lord, and let not 
 
 execute judgment : the ungodly 
 is trapped in the work of his 
 own hands. 
 
 17 The wicked shall be turned 
 into hell : and all the people 
 that forget God. 
 
 man have the upper hand : let 
 the heathen be judged in thy 
 sight. 
 
 20 Put them in fear, O Lord : 
 that the heathen may know 
 themselves to be but men. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning. 
 
 This and the next psalm are united in the Septu- 
 agint and Vulgate, which causes the confusion of two 
 numberings. This is the first of the alphabetical 
 psalms (though very imperfect). The others are 
 xxv., xxxiv., xxxviii., cxi., cxii., cxix., and cxlv. 
 
 The proper psalms, for King Charles the Martyr at 
 Matins, are ix., x., and xi. on 80th January. 
 
 Verse 5. In one of St. Anthony's sermons there is a 
 tale of how a huge phantom came and complained 
 that he, the devil, was abused overmuch by monks, 
 and unjustly, for that Christ had made him weak, 
 rebuked and destroyed him, that " his name was put 
 out," for the whole world was being filled with 
 gospel. St. Anthony agreed that the devil had 
 spoken the truth for once, and told his hearers that 
 unless we co-operate with the devil, he has no real 
 power over us, and that many so-called struggles with 
 the devil are but our own disorders. 
 
 Verse 10. Dante quotes this verse to St. James in 
 Paradise, and it is also the foundation of many 
 ancient Collects. 
 
 Verse 11. De Berulle (1575-1629) was stirred up 
 by this verse to found the Oratorian Order. He was 
 a native of Champagne, almoner to Henry iv. of 
 20
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm x. 
 
 [Day 2 
 
 France, and a cardinal. He brought Henrietta 
 Maria to England for her marriage with King 
 Charles i. 
 
 Verse 12. Bishop Laud quoted this verse upon the 
 scaffold on Tower Hill, 10th January 1644. He read 
 his speech with unfaltering voice, clear eye, and face 
 so ruddy that his enemies falsely declared that he 
 had painted it, so as to shew no fear. " He pluckt 
 down Puritans and Property," says Fuller, " to build 
 up Paul's and Privilege." He was a martyr to his 
 grand sense of the equality of men before the law. 
 
 Psalm x. 
 
 Ut quid, Domine? 
 I Why standest thou so far ] 6 For he hath said in his 
 
 off, O Lord : and hidest thy 
 face in the needful time of 
 trouble ? 
 
 2 The ungodly for his own 
 
 heart, " Tush, I shall never be 
 cast down : there shall no harm 
 happen unto me." 
 
 7 His mouth is full of cursing, 
 
 lust doth persecute the poor : deceit, and fraud : under his 
 let them be taken in the crafty tongue is ungodliness and vanity, 
 wiliness that they have imagined. 8 He sitteth lurking in the 
 3 For the ungodly hath made i thievish corners of the streets : 
 boast of his own heart's desire : and privily in his lurking dens 
 
 and speaketh good of the covet- 
 ous, whom God abhorreth. 
 
 4 The ungodly is so proud, 
 that he careth not for God : 
 neither is God in all his 
 thoughts. 
 
 5 His ways are always griev- 
 ous : thy judgments are far 
 above out of his sight, and 
 therefore defieth he all his 
 enemies 
 
 doth he murder the innocent ; 
 his eyes are set against the 
 poor. 
 
 9 For he lieth waiting secretly, 
 even as a lion lurketh he in his 
 den : that he may ravish the 
 poor. 
 
 10 He doth ravish the poor : 
 when he getteth him into his 
 net. 
 
 11 He falleth down, and
 
 Day 2] Psalm X. [Morning Prayer 
 
 humbleth himself: that the J the matter into thine hand: 
 
 congregation of the poor may the poor committeth himself 
 
 fall into the hands of his unto thee ; for thou art the 
 
 captains. helper of the friendless. 
 
 12 He hath said in his heart, 17 Break thou the power of 
 " Tush, God hath forgotten : he the ungodly and malicious : 
 hideth away his face, and he take away his ungodliness, and 
 will never see it." thou shall find none. 
 
 13 Arise, O Lord God, and 18 The Lord is King for ever 
 lift up thine hand : forget not and ever : and the heathen are 
 the poor. perished out of the land. 
 
 14 Wherefore should the 19 Lord, thou hast heard the 
 wicked blaspheme God : while desire of the poor : thou pre- 
 he doth say in his heart, " Tush, parest their heart, and thine ear 
 
 thou God carest not for it." 
 
 hearkeneth thereto ; 
 
 15 Surely thou hast seen it : 20 To help the fatherless 
 for thou beholdest ungodliness and poor unto their right : that 
 and wrong. the man of the earth be no more 
 
 1 6 That thou mayest take exalted against them. 
 
 Latins. Part of Psalm ix., Matins on Sunday. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning. 
 
 The Medieval Psalters were of two kinds, the 
 liturgical arranged as service books, with antiphons, 
 prayers, canticles, calendar, Creed, Litany, and 
 other passages, and the non -liturgical or private 
 Psalter. The former contained these extra canticles 
 Coiifitebor tibi (Isa. xii. 16), Ego dixi (Isa. xxxviii. 
 10-20), Exultavit (1 Sam. ii. 1-10), Contemns Domino 
 (Ex. xv. 1-1.9), Domine audivi (Hab. iii. 2-19), 
 Audite cceli (Deut. xxxii. 1-43), and sometimes also 
 hymns were added. Thus the Psalter was a complete 
 book of private devotion. It was divided into eight 
 sections or nocturns, that being the number of 
 blessedness: (1) Ps. i.-xxvi. ; (2) xxvii.-xxxviii. ; (3) 
 xxxix.-lii. ; (4) liii.-lxviii. ; (5) Ixix.-lxxx. ; (6) Ixxxi.- 
 xcvii. ; (7) xcviii.-cix. ; (8) cx.-cl. This was one 
 nocturn for each day of the week and one section
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xi. 
 
 [Day 2 
 
 spread over the week. The initial letter is larger in 
 the illuminated MSS. of the opening psalm of each 
 part. The oldest English Psalter is of the seventh 
 century (B. Mus. MS. Vesp. A. 1). 
 
 When the Reformation denied to the people the 
 use of Latin, the Psalter was a great miss. It had 
 been rendered easy by the interlinear English, and 
 was not by any means a sealed book to the laity. 
 The loss of the Psalter meant the loss of all private 
 devotion, and the people became secularised. To 
 remedy this, and to counteract the popular ballads, 
 the dance songs of the people, metrical psalms were 
 put forth on all sides. Coverdale's ghostly psalms 
 (1540), Sterndale's nineteen psalms in the metre of 
 "Chevy Chase" (1550), Sir Philip Sidney, Queen 
 Elizabeth, and others all tried their hands at what 
 were called Beza's ballets or Geneva gigs. 
 
 Verse 20. This verse inspired the great St. Hugh, 
 Bishop of Lincoln, to defy Jordan of the Tower, who 
 had wronged two young orphans, and with many 
 retainers threatened violence to all who opposed 
 him. 
 
 Psalm xi. 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 In Domino confide. 
 
 1 In the Lord put I my trust : 
 how say ye then to my soul, 
 that she should flee as a bird 
 unto the hill? 
 
 2 For lo, the ungodly bend 
 their bow, and make ready their 
 arrows within the quiver : that 
 they may privily shoot at them 
 which are true of heart. 
 
 3 For the foundations will be 
 cast down : and what hath the 
 righteous done ? 
 
 4 The Lord is in his holy 
 temple : the Lord's seat is in 
 heaven. 
 
 5 His eyes consider the poor : 
 and his eyelids try the children 
 of men.
 
 Day 2] 
 
 Psalm xii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 6 The Lord alloweth the 
 righteous : but the ungodly, and 
 him that delighteth in wicked- 
 ness doth his soul abhor. 
 
 7 Upon the ungodly he shall 
 rain snares, fire, and brimstone, 
 
 storm and tempest : this shall 
 be their portion to drink. 
 
 8 For the righteous Lord 
 loveth righteousness : his count- 
 enance will behold the thing 
 that is just. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to Mass of St. John the 
 Evangelist (e). Matins of King Chai'les with ix. and x. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins ; Matins of Martyrs. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning. 
 
 This was regarded as a psalm to be sung against 
 heretics. This is probably why Mary Queen of Scots 
 recited it at her execution. 
 
 Verse 8. Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, preached 
 a lay-sermon to the Parisians from this text in 1357, 
 after Poictiers. He stood on a kind of platform 
 outside St. Germain's Abbey, and spoke eloquently 
 of the woes and wrongs of France and of his desire 
 to right them. The audience wept. He thus crept 
 into the hearts of the men of Paris, who, under 
 Marcel, favoured him in the Civil War which followed. 
 The same verse appears in one of President Lincoln's 
 anti-slavery manifestos. Indeed this psalm and the 
 next helped forward not a little the anti-slavery 
 movement in America. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xii. 
 
 To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. 
 Salvum me fac. 
 
 I Help me, Lord, for there is 
 not one godly man left : for the 
 faithful are minished from among 
 
 the children of men. 
 
 2 They talk of vanity every 
 one with his neighbour : they do 
 but flatter with their lips, and 
 
 dissemble in their double heart. 
 24
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xii. 
 
 [Day 2 
 
 3 The Lord shall root out all 
 deceitful lips : and the tongue 
 that speaketh proud things ; 
 
 4 Which have said, "With 
 our tongue will we prevail : we 
 are they that ought to speak, 
 who is lord over us ? " 
 
 5 Now for the comfortless 
 troubles' sake of the needy : and 
 because of the deep sighing of 
 the poor, 
 
 6 " I will up," saith the Lord : 
 " and will help every one from 
 
 him that swelleth against him, 
 and will set him at rest." 
 
 7 The words of the Lord are 
 pure words : even as the silver, 
 which from the earth is tried, 
 and purified seven times in the 
 fire. 
 
 8 Thou shall keep them, O 
 Lord : thou shalt preserve him 
 from this generation for ever. 
 
 9 The ungodly walk on every 
 side : when they are exalted, the 
 children of men are put to rebuke. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning. 
 
 This is the psalm used by the modern Jews at 
 circumcision. 
 
 There is an interesting old picture of this psalm to 
 be found in the Utrecht Eadwine and Harley Psalters. 
 A number of maimed and ragged men are singing it, 
 and the angels with them. Christ is coming out of 
 heaven with a long crossed spear, which he presents 
 to "St. Michael. He falls upon a jeering and armed 
 crowd of knights, who are standing idle, while some 
 labourers grind a mill. At a forge the words of the 
 Lord are being tried, and the ungodly are also going 
 round and round in a profitless circle (in circuitii). 
 
 St. Thomas a Kempis was so fond of the Choir 
 Offices that he was always the first to come to the 
 choir and the last to leave it. While the psalms were 
 being chaunted, he made a special practice of standing 
 very upright, often on tiptoe, with his eyes towards 
 heaven. He never leant against the pillars or walls 
 or supported himself in any way. He hated to see 
 any one inattentive at this time. His own prayer is 
 expressive of his actions in the matter. " When I am 
 dull and lazy, during the recital of the Divine Office, 
 
 25
 
 Day 2] Psalm xiii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 rouse me by David's words inspired by the Holy 
 Ghost, sung to the music of psaltery and harp, and 
 disclose to me the manna which underlies the dry 
 letter of the words and the precious spices which are 
 stored in a casket of small account. Many secret 
 things, rightly hidden from the lazy and inattentive, 
 are plainly to be seen by him who prays devoutly 
 and meditates thoughtfully. If at Matins I am lazy, 
 pluck me smartly by the ear, that I may lose no 
 time in waking to hear what the Lord would say to 
 me in the Holy Scripture which is being read, and in 
 the hymns and canticles which are being sung ; that 
 so my heart may be lifted up to my God in heaven, 
 and I may forget those things which are being done 
 on earth." 
 
 Psalm xiii. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 Usque quo, Domine ? 
 
 1 How long wilt thou forget have prevailed against him " : 
 me, O Lord, for ever : how long for if I be cast down, they 
 wilt thou hide thy face from me ? ; that trouble me will rejoice 
 
 2 How long shall I seek j at it. 
 
 counsel in my soul, and be so 
 vexed in my heart : how long 
 shall mine enemies triumph 
 over me ? 
 
 3 Consider, and hear me, O 
 Lord, my God : lighten mine 
 eyes, that I sleep not in death. 
 
 4 Lest mine enemy say, ' ' I 
 
 5 But my trust is in thy 
 mercy : and my heart is joyful 
 in thy salvation. 
 
 6 I will sing of the Lord, 
 because he hath dealt so 
 lovingly with me : yea, I will 
 praise the Name of the Lord 
 most Highest. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for first Sunday after Epi- 
 phany (e). 
 
 Latins. Sunday at Matins. 
 Greeks. Late evensong in Lent. 
 26
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm xiii. C Da y 2 
 
 A commendatory psalm for the dying. 
 
 Calvin's last words. His friend Beza thus writes of 
 him : " In spite of his manifold afflictions he uttered 
 no syllable save what was worthy of a Christian, but 
 just raised his eyes to heaven and said, Usque quo, 
 DoHiine ? And even this was in his mouth but a mark 
 of the sorrow he felt for the calamities of his brethren 
 rather than for any of his own." 
 
 Verse 3. St. Gregory of Decapolis tells a story of a 
 noble Saracen who beheld the Lamb of God in a vision, 
 and thereupon sought out the Christians to learn their 
 Way. He was christened and abode for three years at 
 Decapolis, where he learnt the whole Psalter by heart. 
 He then returned to his own people and publicly pro- 
 fessed his faith. He was heard with fury, then thrown 
 out of the house, and finally stoned to death. He re- 
 peated the psalms In te Domine Speravi (xxxi.), Miserere 
 (li.), and died at last with the words upon his lips, 
 " Lighten mine eyes." 
 
 Among other seemingly harmless devotions, before 
 the Reformation, were " Barnard's Verses." These, 
 though apparently not by St. Bernard, were much 
 objected to by the Reformers and Cranmer. Marshall 
 and others speak of them with contempt. They began, 
 Illum'uia ociilox tneos. 
 
 Disraeli was asked to name the poet of the English 
 people, and immediately answered " David." The 
 great influence of the psalms in England is probably 
 owing to our rule of reciting the Psalter monthly. 
 The psalms do not always come appropriately for the 
 season or hour, but they are more widely known and 
 consequently effect more. Charlemagne, who was in 
 many other ways of close spiritual kin with our people, 
 was like us in his great veneration for the Psalter. 
 When his campaigns were arranged (as in 799 A.D.), 
 he had the whole Psalter intoned three times through, 
 to invoke God's blessing upon his arms. 
 
 27
 
 Day 2] 
 
 Psalm xiv. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 Psalm xiv. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, 
 i Dixit insipiens. 
 
 1 The fool hath said in his 
 heart : "There is no God." 
 
 2 They are corrupt, and be- 
 come abominable in their 
 doings : there is none that 
 doeth good, no not one. 
 
 3 The Lord looked down 
 from heaven upon the children 
 of men : to see if there were 
 any that would understand, and 
 seek after God. 
 
 4 But they are all gone out 
 of the way, they are altogether 
 become abominable : there is 
 none that doeth good, no not 
 one. 
 
 5 Their throat is an open 
 sepulchre, with their tongues 
 have they deceived : the poison 
 of asps is under their lips. 
 
 6 Their mouth is full of 
 cursing and bitterness : their 
 feet are swift to shed blood. 
 
 7 Destruction and unhappi- 
 ness is in their ways, and the 
 way of peace have they not 
 known : there is no fear of God 
 before their eyes. 
 
 8 Have they no knowledge, 
 that they are all such workers 
 of mischief : eating up my 
 people as it were bread, and 
 call not upon the Lord ? 
 
 9 There were they brought in 
 great fear, even where no fear 
 was : for God is in the genera- 
 tion of the righteous. 
 
 10 As for you, ye have made 
 a mock at the counsel of the 
 poor : because he putteth his 
 trust in the Lord. 
 
 1 1 Who shall give salvation 
 unto Israel out of Sion ? When 
 the Lord turneth the captivity 
 of his people : then shall Jacob 
 rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning. 
 
 A psalm which has greatly exercised the critics. It 
 is the Jehovist form of Elohist, Psalm liii. By some 
 St. Paul is said to have composed it (in Rom. iii. 10, 
 etc.); but yet it is found in some MSS. of LXX., Vulgate, 
 Arabian, Syrian, and Coptic Psalters. The word for 
 fool here is nabal, which means outworn, or decayed. 
 It is one of the four Hebrew words so translated ; 
 28
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm XIV. [Day 2 
 
 the others mean one easily persuaded, one languid 
 through fat, and one twisted out of all sense by 
 panic. 
 
 This psalm was one of Queen Elizabeth's delights, 
 probably it expressed her view of the stormy and un- 
 godly age in which she lived, with promise of better 
 things to come. She turned it into verses, beginning, 
 " Fooles, that true fayth yet never had," and ending 
 with " Prayse to God." As this was printed in 1578 
 it is easy to see that she meant, by her version of the 
 sixth verse, her Romish enemies. 
 
 " How can that cruell sort be good, 
 Of God's clere folcke vvhych sucke the blood?" 
 
 Bacon quotes this psalm in his essay " Of Atheism," 
 in the sense that the fool " rather saith it by rote 
 to himselfe as he that would have, then that he can 
 thoroughly beleeve it, or be persuaded of it." So the 
 Mediffttioties Sacra- on the same subject. 
 
 There has probably never been in England so fierce 
 and widespread an outburst of atheism as that which 
 was bred in the anti-Puritan reaction of the Restoration 
 time, and which was the natural outcome of the dis- 
 tracted state of religion. Many of the greatest scholars 
 of the time chose this psalm as the motto for their 
 assaults upon this position. Among these was brave 
 Thomas Tenison (1636-1715), who served the 
 people in the plague, attended Monmouth on the 
 scaffold, confuted Hobbes, was one of the Seven 
 Bishops in the Tower, who as Archbishop did justice, 
 and who was one of the founders of the S.P.G. 
 Others were Robert South (1634 17l6),the public orator 
 of Oxford, a wise and modest wit ; Charles Leslie 
 (1650-1722), the non-juror opponent of the Whig 
 bishops and of Defoe, and the chaplain of James Stuart ; 
 Richard Bentley (1662-1742), the great classical scholar 
 29
 
 Day 2] Psalm XIV. [Evening Prayer 
 
 and critic, afterwards the Master of Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, who in 1692 delivered the Boyle Lectures 
 on this psalm on the confutation of atheism. Samuel 
 Scattergood (1646- 1696) and William Talbot (ob. 1730), 
 Bishop of Durham, wrote from the same. So did 
 Thomas Brett (1667-1743), the non-juring bishop ; S. 
 Chandler (1693-1766), the Presbyterian writer; Lewis 
 Atterbury (ob. 1693), father of Pope's Jacobite friend 
 Bishop Atterbury ; and a host of lesser men of the 
 same period pleaded the same cause. 
 
 Verse 11. The captivity of Sion was the phrase 
 used by the persecuted English Churchmen during 
 the outlawry of the Liturgy by Cromwell. John 
 Evelyn went to church on Christmas Day 1652, and 
 wrote : " No more notice taken of Christmas Day in 
 churches. I went to London, where Dr. Wild preach'd 
 the funeral sermon of Preaching, this being the last 
 day, after which Cromwell's Proclamation was to take 
 place, that none of the Church of England should dare 
 either to preach or administer Sacraments, teach e 
 schoole, etc., on paine of imprisonment or exile. So 
 this was the mournfullest day that in my life I had 
 scene, or the Church of England herselfe since the 
 Reformation ; to the greate rejoicing both of Papist 
 and Presbyter. So pathetic was his discourse, that it 
 drew many teares from the auditory. Myself, wife, 
 and some of our family receiv'd the Communion ; God 
 make me thankfull, who hath hitherto provided for us 
 the food of our soules as well as bodies ! The Lord 
 Jesus pity our distress' d Church, and bring back the 
 Captivity of Sion ! "
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm XV. [Day 3 
 
 THE THIRD DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xv. 
 
 A Psalm of David. 
 Domine, quis habitabit ? 
 
 1 Lord, who shall dwell in 
 thy tabernacle : or who shall 
 rest upon thy holy hill ? 
 
 2 Even he, that leadeth an un- 
 corrupt life : and doeth the thing 
 which is right, and speaketh the 
 truth from his heart. 
 
 3 He that hnth used no 
 deceit in his tongue, nor done 
 evil to his neighbour : and hath 
 not slandered his neighbour. 
 
 4 He that setteth not by him- 
 
 self, but is lowly in his own 
 eyes : and maketh much of 
 them that fear the Lord. 
 
 5 He that sweareth unto his 
 neighbour, and disappointeth 
 him not : though it were to his 
 own hindrance. 
 
 6 He that hath not given his 
 money upon usury : nor taken 
 reward against the innocent. 
 
 7 Whoso doeth these things : 
 shall never fall. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to third Sunday after 
 Epiphany (e) ; Ascension-day morning. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins; Easter Eve; Matins of 
 Martyrs ; Michaelmas ; All Saints, etc. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning. 
 
 Called the gentleman's psalm, as describing that 
 chai'acter. St. Basil the Great wrote a graphic treatise 
 upon it, a homily against usurers which gives a 
 lively picture of the social life of the fourth century, 
 and the vigorous way in which the Church interfered 
 in that life. From this can be seen the importance of 
 this psalm in the long battle of the Church against 
 usury. The Council of Cealchythe, 785 A.D., which in 
 King Oflfa's reign forbade interest in England, cites 
 this psalm and St. Augustine's comment upon it. 
 The same passage is referred to by every writer upon 
 the subject down to the time of Jeremy Bentham, 
 when the protest against usury practically ceased, and
 
 Day 3 ] 
 
 Psalm xvi. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 the imperial civilisation begins again which Renan 
 accused the Church of putting back for a thousand 
 years. The whole question is treated in the lectures 
 of George Downame (ob. 16.53), the Cambridge 
 Professor of Logic, Chaplain to James i. and Bishop 
 of Derry. One of the last books which Erasmus 
 wrote was a Commentary upon this psalm (1536). 
 This was written at Basle after the murder of his 
 friends Fisher and More, and was called of the Purity 
 of the Christian Church, and is more allegorical and 
 mystic than most of the works of that writer. Three 
 years before he had written an exposition of the twenty- 
 third psalm at the request of the good Thomas Bulleyn 
 (father of Anne), to whom the work was dedicated. 
 The great wit and scholar thus returned at the last 
 to draw comfort and counsel from the Psalter 1 . 
 
 Psalm xvi. 
 
 Michtam of David (or a Golden Psalm of David). 
 Conserva me, Domine. 
 
 1 Preserve me, O God : for 
 in thee have I put my trust. 
 
 2 O my soul, thou hast said 
 unto the Lord: "Thou art my 
 God, my goods are nothing 
 unto thee. 
 
 3 All my delight is upon the 
 saints, that are in the earth : and 
 upon such as excel in virtue. " 
 
 4 But they that run after 
 another god : shall have great 
 trouble. 
 
 5 Their drink-offerings of 
 Wood will I not offer : neither 
 make mention of their names 
 within my lips. 
 
 6 The Lord himself is the 
 portion of mine inheritance, 
 and of my cup : thou shall 
 maintain my lot. 
 
 7 The lot is fallen unto me 
 in a fair ground : yea, I have 
 a goodly heritage. 
 
 8 I will thank the Lord for 
 giving me warning : my reins 
 also chasten me in the night- 
 season. 
 
 9 I have set God always be- 
 fore me : for he is on my right 
 hand, therefore I shall not fall. 
 
 10 Wherefore my heart was 
 glad, and my glory rejoiced :
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm Xvi. [I*iy 3 
 
 12 Thou shalt shew me the 
 path of life ; in thy presence is 
 the fulness of joy : and at thy 
 right hand there is pleasure for 
 
 evermore. 
 
 my flesh also shall rest in 
 hope. 
 
 II For why? thou shalt not 
 leave my soul in hell : neither 
 shalt thou sutler thy Holy One 
 to see corruption. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for first Mass, Easter Day (e). 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins ; Many Martyrs ; Visitation 
 of sick. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning. 
 
 Pico della Mirandola (146.3-1494), one of the 
 brightest of the scholars of the Revival of Letters in 
 Italy, who was held in great reverence by the Oxford 
 Reformers of 1498, wrote a commentary on this psalm, 
 which is full of the hope, unworldliness, and joy of that 
 new young time. Sir Thomas More translated it into 
 English. This was the psalm chaunted by Hugh 
 M'Kail, a Genevan rebel minister who endured the 
 torture of the boot in the time of Claverhouse. 
 Thomas Dale (17.97-1870), Dean of Rochester and 
 translator of Sophocles, wrote of this as the Golden 
 Psalm. 
 
 I'erse. 1. The Beauchamp family have for their 
 motto, Fortuna mea in bello campo, which seems to be 
 connected with this verse. But the Vulgate version 
 isJ'i/Hcx ceciderunt ini/ii in pm'daris. 
 
 In 146'4 poor King Henry vi. was committed 
 to the Tower by the Yorkists and shewn in his 
 desolation and mental weakness to visitors. When 
 asked to justify his "usurpation," he would still 
 answer with dignity that his grandfather and his 
 father had worn the crown in peace, and himself for 
 forty years, receiving the homage of all England : so 
 I may say " the lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground, 
 yea, I have a goodly heritage and my help cometh 
 of God who preserveth them that are true of heart." 
 
 I'crxcx .9 and 10. When St. Oswald, Archbishop of 
 
 <-: 33
 
 Day 3] 
 
 Psalm Xvii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 York (ob. 992), was a boy at a Benedictine school his 
 studies were much interrupted by a vision of a glorious 
 form, who was in reality but the Prince of Darkness, 
 and whose hatred of learning and science is so often 
 manifested under the mantle of religion. The boy at 
 last made the holy sign, chaunted these two verses, 
 overcame the temptation to false vision and idleness, 
 and grew up learned, saintly, and an ornament to his 
 Church and nation, the second saint of his name. 
 
 Verses 10 and 11. St. Paul (Acts xiii.), preaching at 
 Antioch in Pisidia, cites this verse as part of the 
 testimony of David to the Resurrection. 
 
 The Septuagint, Vulgate, and English versions differ 
 so radically with the Hebrew (which contains here no 
 thought of any future life) that not a few scholars 
 have accused the Jews of wilfully corrupting the 
 Hebrew text. Dr. Benjamin Kennicott (1718-1783), 
 the Radcliffe Librarian of Oxford and expert upon 
 Hebrew manuscripts, held strongly that this was the 
 case. Dr. Prideaux (1648-1724), the Orientalist, held 
 the same. But these opinions are not endorsed by 
 modern scholars ; the controversies are hushed, and 
 the boundless hopes of the psalm as it stands are 
 allowed to be those of the Christian and not of the 
 Jewish Church. 
 
 Psalm xvii. 
 
 A Prayer of David. 
 
 Exaudi, Domine. 
 
 1 Hear the right, O j 
 consider my complaint : and 
 hearken unto my prayer, that 
 goeth not out of feigned lips. 
 
 2 Let my sentence come forth 
 from my presence ; and let thine 
 
 eyes look upon the thing that is 
 equal. 
 
 3 Thou hast proved and visited 
 mine heart in the night-season ; 
 thou hast tried me, and' shall 
 find no wickedness in me : for I 
 
 34
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xvii. 
 
 [Day 3 
 
 utterly purposed that my mouth 
 shall not offend. 
 
 4 Because of men's works, 
 that are done against the words 
 of thy lips : I have kept me 
 from the ways of the de- 
 stroyer. 
 
 5 O hold thou up my goings 
 in thy paths : that my footsteps 
 slip not. 
 
 6 I have called upon thee, O 
 God, for thou shalt hear me : 
 incline thine ear to me, and 
 hearken unto my words. 
 
 7 Shew thy marvellous loving- 
 kindness, thou art the Saviour of 
 them which put their trust in 
 thee : from such as resist thy 
 right hand. 
 
 8 Keep me as the apple of an 
 eye : hide me under the shadow 
 of thy wings. 
 
 9 From the ungodly that 
 trouble me : mine enemies com- 
 pass me round about to take 
 away my soul. 
 
 10 They are inclosed in their 
 
 own fat : and their mouth 
 speaketh proud things. 
 
 1 1 They lie waiting in our 
 way on every side : turning their 
 eyes down to the ground ; 
 
 12 Like as a lion that is 
 greedy of his prey : and as it 
 were a lion's whelp, lurking in 
 secret places. 
 
 13 Up, Lord, disappoint him, 
 and cast him down : deliver my 
 soul from the ungodly, which is 
 a sword of thine ; 
 
 14 From the men of thy hand, 
 O Lord, from the men, I say, 
 and from the evil world : which 
 have their portion in this life, 
 whose bellies thou fillest with 
 thy hid treasure. 
 
 15 They have children at 
 their desire : and leave the rest 
 of their substance for their babes. 
 
 1 6 But as for me, I will be- 
 hold thy presence in righteous- 
 ness : and when I awake up after 
 thy likeness, I shall be satisfied 
 with it. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning ; Saturdays in Lent, 
 noontide. 
 
 This is the psalm, says St. Jerome, to which the 
 Church betakes herself when her enemies begin to 
 persecute her. The desires of those enemies (all 
 granted) being far outweighed by her power to behold 
 God's presence, which (says Walafridus Strabus, the 
 old monk of St. Gall, in the ninth century) she would 
 
 35
 
 Day 3] Psalm Xvii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 never be able to behold at all, unless she were first 
 made graciously righteous. 
 
 Verse 5. This verse came as a message to William 
 Ewart Gladstone when he introduced his Home Rule 
 Bill to Parliament. 
 
 Verse 7. Captain Allen Gardiner left England in 
 1 8/>0 on a mission to Patagonia. After a year's 
 gallant effort he and his five companions were starved 
 to death at Spanish Harbour, and this verse was in his 
 mind as he made his last entry in his diary. " Great 
 and marvellous are the loving-kindnesses of my 
 gracious God unto me. He has preserved me hitherto, 
 and for four days, although without any bodily food, 
 without any feeling of hunger and thirst." 
 
 Verse 8. Custodi me ut pupillum oculi, the motto 
 of Pope Anastasius iv. (1153). He was one of the 
 opponents of Frederick Barbarossa, and was elected 
 at the death of St. Bernard, whose last entreaties for 
 reform he inherited, but did not survive to execute, 
 even if he had been made of the stern stuff that was 
 required for that purpose. The motto points rather 
 to a devout and retiring character. 
 
 Verse. 16. A favourite quotation of St. Bonaventura 
 (1221-1274), the Seraphic doctor, and most learned of 
 the early Franciscans. As a boy when sick he was 
 cured by St. Francis himself. " In him Adam seemed 
 not to have sinned." He might have been Pope after 
 Clement iv. but refused. St. Thomas Aquinas was 
 profoundly influenced by this verse. He was once 
 asked for a sight of the books whence his deep learn- 
 ing was derived, and shewed a crucifix ; hence he, 
 not inappropriately, is known to us chiefly in his hymn, 
 " In the Lord's Atoning Grief." 
 
 The verse has been a great favourite with many 
 modern writers, among whom may be mentioned 
 Henry More the Platonist and John Howe, Crom- 
 well's chaplain, Joseph Milner, Charles Simeon, 
 36
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xvili. 
 
 [Day 
 
 Archbishop Tait, and Julius Hare. Of the last, who 
 died on 6th May 1 855, Dr. Whewell writes that he had 
 such a special delight, that he thanked warmly those 
 who read it to him on his death-bed. " With these 
 sounds of glory ringing in his ears, he fell into that 
 sleep from which he was to awake in the likeness 
 of Christ." So Tennyson's shepherd at Freshwater, 
 when asked if he knew anything of the good Shepherd, 
 replied : " Fourscore yeai's He has known me, and it 
 is well I should know something of Him. Here 1 
 behold His face in righteousness, and when I wake 
 up after His likeness, I shall be satisfied." 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xviii. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, 
 who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day 
 that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, 
 and from the hand of Saul : And he said, 
 
 Diligam te, Domine. 
 
 1 I will love thee, O Lord, 
 my strength ; the Lord is my 
 stony rock, and my defence : 
 my Saviour, vny God, and my 
 might, in whom I will trust, my 
 buckler, the horn also of my 
 salvation, and my refuge. 
 
 2 I will call upon the Lord, 
 which is worthy to be praised : 
 so shall I be safe from mine 
 enemies. 
 
 3 The sorrows of death com- 
 passed me : and the overflowings 
 of ungodliness made me afraid. 
 
 4 The pains of hell came 
 about me : the snares of death 
 overtook me. 
 
 5 In my trouble I will call 
 upon the Lord : and complain 
 unto my God. 
 
 6 So shall he hear my voice 
 out of his holy temple : and my 
 complaint shall come before him, 
 it shall enter even into his ears. 
 
 7 The earth trembled and 
 quaked : the very foundations 
 also of the hills shook, and were 
 removed, because he was wroth. 
 
 37
 
 Psalm xviii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 8 There went a smoke out in 
 his presence : and a consuming 
 fire out of his mouth, so that 
 coals were kindled at it. 
 
 9 He bowed the heavens also, 
 and came down : and it was 
 dark under his feet. 
 
 10 He rode upon the cheru- 
 bims, and did fly : he came 
 flying upon the wings of the 
 wind. 
 
 11 He made darkness his 
 secret place : his pavilion round 
 about him with dark water, and 
 thick clouds to cover him. 
 
 12 At the brightness of his 
 presence his clouds removed : 
 hail-stones, and coals of fire. 
 
 13 The Lord also thundered 
 out of heaven, and the Highest 
 gave his thunder : hail -stones, 
 and coals of fire. 
 
 14 He sent out his arrows, 
 and scattered them : he cast 
 forth lightnings, and destroyed 
 them. 
 
 15 The springs of waters were 
 seen, and the foundations of the 
 round world were discovered, at 
 thy chiding, O Lord : at the 
 blasting of the breath of thy dis- 
 pleasure. 
 
 16 He shall send down from 
 on high to fetch me : and shall 
 take me out of many waters. 
 
 17 He shall deliver me from 
 my strongest enemy, and from 
 them which hate me : for they 
 are too mighty for me. 
 
 1 8 They prevented me in the 
 day of my trouble : but the Lord 
 was my upholder. 
 
 19 He brought me forth also 
 into a place of liberty : he 
 brought me forth, even because 
 he had a favour unto me. 
 
 20 The Lord shall reward me 
 after my righteous dealing : ac- 
 cording to the cleanness of my 
 hands shall he recompense me. 
 
 21 Because I have kept the 
 ways of the Lord : and have not 
 forsaken my God, as the wicked 
 doth. 
 
 22 For I have an eye unto all 
 his laws : and will not cast out 
 his commandments from me. 
 
 23 I was also uncorrupt before 
 him : and eschewed mine own 
 wickedness. 
 
 24 Therefore shall the Lord 
 reward me after my righteous 
 dealing : and according unto the 
 cleanness of my hands in his eye- 
 sight. 
 
 25 With the holy thou shall 
 be holy : and with a perfect man 
 thou shalt be perfect. 
 
 26 With the clean thou shalt 
 be clean : and with the froward 
 thou shalt learn frowardness. 
 
 27 For thou shalt save the 
 people that are in adversity : and 
 shalt bring down the high looks 
 of the proud. 
 
 28 Thou also shalt light my 
 candle : the Lord my God shall 
 make my darkness to be light.
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xviii. 
 
 29 For in ihee I shall discom- 
 fit an host of men : and with the 
 help of my God I shall leap over 
 the wall. 
 
 30 The way of God is an 
 undefiled way : the word of 
 the Lord also is tried in the 
 fire ; he is the defender of all 
 them that put their trust in 
 him. 
 
 31 For who is God, but the 
 Lord : or who hath any strength, 
 except our God ? 
 
 32 It is God, that girdeth 
 me with strength of war : and 
 maketh my way perfect. 
 
 33 He maketh my feet like 
 harts' feet : and setteth me up 
 on high. 
 
 34 He teacheth mine hands to 
 fight : and mine arms shall break 
 even a bow of steel. 
 
 35 Thou hast given me the 
 defence of thy salvation : thy 
 right hand also shall hold me 
 up, and thy loving correction 
 shall make me great. 
 
 36 Thou shall make room 
 enough under me for to go : 
 that my footsteps shall not 
 slide. 
 
 37 I will follow upon mine 
 enemies, and overtake them : 
 neither will I turn again till I 
 have destroyed them. 
 
 38 I will smite them, that 
 they shall not be able to stand : 
 but fall under my feet. 
 
 39 Thou hast girded me with 
 
 strength unto the battle : thou 
 shalt throw down mine enemies 
 under me. 
 
 40 Thou hast made mine 
 enemies also to turn their backs 
 upon me : and I shall destroy 
 them that hate me. 
 
 41 They shall cry, but there 
 shall be none to help them : 
 yea, even unto the Lord shall 
 they cry, but he shall not hear 
 them. 
 
 42 I will beat them as small 
 as the dust before the wind : I 
 will cast them out as the clay in 
 the streets. 
 
 43 Thou shalt deliver me from 
 the strivings of the people : and 
 thou shalt make me the head of 
 the heathen. 
 
 44 A people whom I have not 
 known : shall serve me. 
 
 45 As soon as they hear of 
 me, they shall obey me : but 
 the strange children shall dis- 
 semble with me. 
 
 46 The strange children shall 
 fail : and be afraid out of their 
 prisons. 
 
 47 The Lord livelh, and 
 blessed be my strong helper : 
 and praised be the God of my 
 salvation. 
 
 48 Even the God that seeth 
 that I be avenged : and subdueth 
 the people unto me. 
 
 49 It is he that delivereth me 
 from my cruel enemies, and 
 setteth me up above mine adver- 
 
 39
 
 Day 3l 
 
 Psalm xviii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 saries : thou shalt rid me from 51 Great prosperity giveth he 
 
 the wicked man. unto his King : and sheweth 
 
 50 For this cause will I give loving-kindness unto David his 
 
 thanks unto thee, O Lord, Anointed, and unto his seed for 
 
 among the Gentiles : and sing evermore, 
 praises unto thy Name. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning. 
 
 This psalm has been largely used in England in 
 public fasts and thanksgivings for deliverance after 
 great perils. John Dolben, the cavalier soldier, who 
 rose to be Archbishop of York, used it in thanks- 
 giving in 1666 at the end of the great plague. It 
 was used for the phantom Popish plot of 1678 ; for 
 the great storm of 1704; the plague of 1721 which 
 followed the South Sea trouble ; for the earthquake 
 year when Lisbon was destroyed (1756) ; for the battles 
 of Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), the American 
 War (1781), and on many other occasions of a like 
 nature. 
 
 It has been a favourite psalm with poets and 
 mystics. 
 
 Verse 10. Kirke White (1785-1806) challenged any 
 other translator to excel Sternholcl and Hopkins' 
 spirited rendering of these words : 
 
 "On cherubs and on cherubims 
 
 Full royally he rode, 
 And on the wings of mighty winds 
 Came flying all abroad." 
 
 Shakespeare was thinking of this passage in 
 Macbeth : 
 
 " Pity, like a new-born naked babe 
 
 Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, horsed 
 Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 
 Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 
 That tears shall drown the wind." 
 40
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Xviii. [ Da X 3 
 
 He has several other allusions to this psalm and 
 often recurs to it, e.g. : 
 
 " O war ! thou son of hell, 
 Whom angry heavens do make their minister, 
 Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part 
 Hot coals of vengeance." 
 
 I'crxe 11. A stronghold of the mystics, who all 
 agree in finding God in the Divine darkness, whether 
 like Clement of Alexandria they explain it as the 
 hidden and dark wisdom of His intimates, or with 
 St. Augustine as the darkness of sacraments and the 
 hope hidden in the hearts of the faithful. Even 
 Theodore of Mopsuestia, the leader of literal interpre- 
 tations, is a mystic here. "See now," says Molinos, 
 " if darkness be not to be esteemed and embraced." 
 John Norris (1657-1711) wrote thus: 
 
 " Tho' Light and Glory be th' Almighty's throne, 
 Darkness is His Pavilion." 
 
 Verses 13 and 14. Becle relates that St. Chad used 
 to remain prostrate in church in prayer during great 
 gales and storms, giving these verses as his reason. 
 He was a Northumbrian, trained in Ireland, and first 
 bishop and founder of Lichfield. He died of the 
 plague in 672. 
 
 Verse 29. " By the help of God and your holiness," 
 wrote Mary Queen of Scots to the Pope, " I shall leap 
 over the wall," meaning English opposition to the 
 autocracy of the Roman pontiff; but the gallant lady 
 lost her life in the leap. 
 
 Verse 39- In 507 A.D., Clovis, King of the Franks, 
 sent to the tomb of St. Martin at Tours to inquire 
 of God concerning his conflict with Alaric. As the 
 messengers entered the holy place they heard the 
 monks chaunting this verse, and they took the words 
 as an omen of a victory which indeed came to pass.
 
 Day 4] 
 
 Psalm xix. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 Verse 49. Among the many noble figures of the 
 Restoration is Gilbert Sheldon (1.598-1678), the 
 devoted chaplain of King Charles i. After many 
 sufferings he saw his old master's son restored, and 
 first welcomed him with a sermon from this text. He 
 was made Bishop of London and Master of the Savoy, 
 and in his lodgings the Savoy Conference took place. 
 He protected the Separatists, remained at his post 
 through the plague, and largely helped to rebuild St. 
 Paul's after the fire. When Chancellor of Oxford he 
 built the Sheldonian Theatre, and died Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. 
 
 THE FOURTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xix. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 Coeli enarrant. 
 
 1 The heavens declare the [ 
 glory of God : and the firma- 
 ment sheweth his handy-work. 
 
 2 One day telleth another : 
 and one night certifieth another. 
 
 3 There is neither speech nor 
 language : but their voices are 
 heard among them. 
 
 4 Their sound is gone out into 
 all lands : and their words into 
 the ends of the world. 
 
 5 In them hath he set a taber- 
 nacle for the sun : which cometh 
 forth as a bridegroom out of 
 his chamber, and rejoiceth as 
 a giant to run his course. 
 
 6 It goeth forth from the 
 uttermost part of the heaven, 
 
 and runneth about unto the end 
 of it again : and there is nothing 
 hid from the heat thereof. 
 
 7 The law of the Lord is an 
 undefiled law, converting the 
 soul : the testimony of the Lord 
 is sure, and giveth wisdom unto 
 the simple. 
 
 8 The statutes of the Lord 
 are right, and rejoice the heart : 
 the commandment of the Lord 
 is pure, and giveth light unto 
 the eyes. 
 
 9 The fear of the Lord is 
 clean, and endureth for ever : 
 the judgements of the Lord are 
 true, and righteous altogether. 
 
 10 More to be desired are 
 
 42
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xix. 
 
 [Day 4 
 
 they than gold, yea, than much 
 fine gold : sweeter also than 
 honey, and the honeycomb. 
 
 11 Moreover, by them is thy 
 servant taught : and in keeping 
 of them there is great reward. 
 
 12 Who can tell how oft he 
 offendeth : O cleanse thou me 
 from my secret faults. 
 
 13 Keep thy servant also from 
 
 presumptuous sins, lest they get 
 the dominion over me : so shall 
 I be undefiled, and innocent 
 from the great offence. 
 
 14 Let the words of my mouth, 
 and the meditation of my heart : 
 be alway acceptable in thy 
 sight, 
 
 150 Lord : my strength, and 
 my redeemer. 
 
 Liturgical use. First psalrn Christmas Matins. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins ; Christmas ; Circumcision ; 
 Ascension-tide ; Trinity ; Matins of Our Lady. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning. 
 
 Chosen as a Christmas psalm because of St. 
 Augustine's constant teaching that the sun is Christ ; 
 the bridal union that of the Divine and human 
 natures. Though the most emphatic, he was not 
 the first to expound this allegory, for St. Ambrose in 
 the hymn Veni Redemptor has this verse : 
 
 Procedens e thalamo suo 
 Pudoris aula regia 
 Gemma gigas substantiic 
 Alacris ut cur rat viain. 
 
 The Alexandrine school saw in this psalm a proof 
 of the mystic number of seven being written large 
 in the world : seven great archangels, seven planets, 
 seven Pleiades, seven stars of the bear, seven ages of 
 man, seven organs of sense in the head, and seven 
 epochs of creation. The students of Nature equally 
 delight in it. Ruskin has quite a commentary upon 
 it in the fifth volume of Modern Painters. Kant 
 admired beyond all else the starry heavens and the 
 mind of man here united. Isaac Barrow (1630-1677), 
 a mathematician second only to his pupil Newton, and 
 Charles Pritchard, Savilian professor at Oxford, first 
 43
 
 fray 4] Psalm xix. [Morning Prayer 
 
 English schoolmaster to teach science, saw in it 
 a union of science and religion. It has been a 
 favourite psalm with the poets Milton, Addison, 
 Thomson, Wordsworth ; and many others have cited it 
 in their poems. Spenser alludes to it : 
 
 " Phoebus fresh as bridegroom to his mate 
 Came dancing forth, shaking his dewy hair." 
 
 Shakespeare so loved it, that he re-echoes it in 
 many passages : 
 
 "See how the morning opens her golden gates, 
 And takes her farewell of the glorious sun ! 
 How well resembles it the pride of youth, 
 Trimmed like a younker, prancing to his love." 
 
 And 
 
 ' ' The glorious sun 
 
 Stays in his course and plays the alchemist ; 
 Turning with splendour of his precious eye 
 The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold." 
 
 And this with an echo of the third verse : 
 
 " Look, how the floor of heaven 
 Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold ; 
 There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st 
 But in his motion like an angel sings, 
 Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubins : 
 Such harmony is in immortal souls ; 
 But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay 
 Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it." 
 
 Verse 1. This is a common dial motto, Cteli 
 enarrant gloriam Dei ct operationem manuinn cjnx 
 annunciat firmament um. 
 
 Verse 2 is also a dial motto, Dies Diem docel Disce ! 
 
 e.g. at Barniston Church, Yorks. Nox nodi indicnt 
 
 scientiam is the sub-title of the best poem of William 
 
 Habington (1 605-1 654), "When I survey the bright 
 
 44
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm xix. [Day 4 
 
 celestial sphere." Castara, the lady of his poems, 
 was his wife, Lucy Herbert, daughter of William 
 first baron Powis. 
 
 Verse .'>. The Belgian Bell Founder, Hemony, of 
 the sixteenth century, used to inscribe this legend 
 upon his bells, XOH sun! loquelcr, m-qnc sermoiies quorum 
 IHUI audiantur races conun. 
 
 Archbishop Tillotson and S. T. Coleridge delighted 
 in the teaching (ver. 11) that greatness and goodness 
 are not means but ends. Stevenson is thought to 
 have an echo of the psalm in his lines : 
 
 "To make this earth our heritage 
 A cheerful and a changeful page ; 
 God's bright and intricate device 
 Of days and seasons doth suffice." 
 
 Verse 4. Justinianus of Genoa, in his polyglot 
 Psalter of 1562, cannot resist enlarging upon this 
 verse, In Jlnca orbis terra; verba eornm, in praise of his 
 fellow-countryman, Christopher Columbus, who, though 
 born of the meanest of the people, had discovered the 
 ends of the world in America. His digression is the 
 most interesting part of his book. 
 
 Verse 13. From presumptuous sins. This doubtful 
 translation of the Hebrew is one of the constant 
 witnesses to the imperial influence of St. Augustine. 
 The LXX. and Vulgate have " foreign or alien things " ; 
 but the saint commenting upon " so shall I be innocent 
 from the great offence," writes : " What offence are we 
 to consider ? I may be quite wrong in what I say, 
 but I will not hide my opinion. The great offence I 
 think is pride. This is what it means here and else- 
 where by these words." From this gloss the whole 
 of Western thought has a bias in this direction. 
 
 45
 
 Day 4] 
 
 Psal 
 
 m xx. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 Psalm xx. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 Exaudiat te Dominus. 
 
 helpeth his Anointed, and will 
 hear him from his holy heaven : 
 even with the wholesome 
 strength of his right hand. 
 
 7 Some put their trust in 
 chariots, and some in horses : 
 but we will remember the Name 
 of the Lord our God. 
 
 8 They are brought down, 
 and fallen : but we are risen, 
 and stand upright. 
 
 9 Save, Lord, and hear us, 
 O King of heaven : when we 
 call upon thee. 
 
 1 The Lord hear thee in the 
 day of trouble : the Name of the 
 God of Jacob defend thee : 
 
 2 Send thee help from the 
 sanctuary : and strengthen thee 
 out of Sion ; 
 
 3 Remember all thy offerings : 
 and accept thy burnt sacrifice ; 
 
 4 Grant thee thy heart's de- 
 sire : and fulfil all thy mind. 
 
 5 We will rejoice in thy salva- 
 tion, and triumph in the Name 
 of the Lord our God : the Lord 
 perform all thy petitions. 
 
 6 Now know I, that the Lord 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for fifth Sunday after 
 Epiphany (e) ; King's Accession. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins ; Visitation of sick. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning ; Dawn in Lent. 
 
 Because of the sixth and ninth verses the latter 
 of which would be better translated " O Lord save 
 the King/' as in LXX. and Vulgate this psalm has 
 supplied the form in which the Church always prays 
 for the chief ruler of the State. It is the basis of 
 prayers for the King, gives the versicle and respond 
 in the daily office, and inspired the National Anthem. 
 It has constantly voiced the feelings of nations loyal 
 to their leaders, particularly in great crises in history. 
 It was used in 1594 and again in 1598 as a public 
 thanksgiving for Queen Elizabeth's escape from 
 twenty-six attempts made upon her life. It was used 
 in thanksgiving after the battle of Blenheim in 1 704, 
 on the accession of all our kings since Charles 11., for 
 46
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm XX. [Day 4 
 
 the volunteer movement of 1798. It was sung at 
 the thanksgiving for Waterloo, when the French 
 eagles were deposited in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 
 and Bishop Howley (1766-1848), afterwards arch- 
 bishop, preached upon the fifth and sixth verses. 
 
 This patriotic use of the psalm is not of course 
 peculiar to our people or to modern times. When 
 Constantinople was the bulwark of Christendom 
 against the Mahomedans, and Charlemagne was 
 grappling with the Moors in the ninth century, 
 this psalm stirred up the enthusiasm for the defence. 
 Michael Balbus gave the people of Constantinople 
 the seventh verse as their motto, and successfully 
 defended them. From that time until the dreadful 
 disaster of 2{)th May 1453, when the infidels gained 
 the capital, the psalm was as prominent in the 
 Eastern Empire as it is in our own history. 
 
 The same verse has done duty in many spiritual 
 and literal battles. Hilarion (291-371), founder of 
 the monastic life in Palestine, whose bones lie buried 
 in Cyprus, was much assailed by the malice and mis- 
 trust of Satan, and repelled him with this weapon. 
 He taught the use of it to his contemporary and 
 pupil St. Anthony of the desert (251-356), who only 
 twice left his desert retreat, where his austere life bore 
 witness for a century against the luxury of civilisation. 
 St. Patrick with the same words defied the kings 
 of the old religions, when, at the sacrifice of Tara, he 
 lit a fire for the Lord of lords for the glory of the 
 Resurrection, before any of the pagan fires were 
 kindled. Aldhelm the Abbot (eleventh century) 
 chaunted the same as he rode through the flood- 
 waters of the Tagus and shamed the army of 
 Alphonso the Valiant into crossing for the assault 
 upon the Moors. St. Woolos of Newport in Mon- 
 mouth, when won from being a robber to become 
 a hermit, began his new life with this same psalm. 
 47
 
 Day 4] 
 
 Psalm xxi. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 Psalm xxi. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 Domine, in virtute tua. 
 
 1 The King shall rejoice in 
 thy strength, O Lord : exceed- 
 ing glad shall he be of thy 
 salvation. 
 
 2 Thou hast given him his 
 heart's desire : and hast not 
 denied him the request of his 
 lips. 
 
 3 For thou shalt prevent him 
 with the blessings of goodness : 
 and shalt set a crown of pure 
 gold upon his head. 
 
 4 He asked life of thee, and 
 thou gavest him a long life : 
 even for ever and ever. 
 
 5 His honour is great in thy 
 salvation : glory and great wor- 
 ship shalt thou lay upon him. 
 
 6 For thou shalt give him 
 everlasting felicity : and make 
 him glad with the joy of thy 
 countenance. 
 
 7 And why ? because the 
 King putteth his trust in the 
 Lord : and in the mercy of 
 
 the most Highest he shall not 
 miscarry. 
 
 8 All thine enemies shall feel 
 thy hand : thy right hand shall 
 find out them that hate thee. 
 
 9 Thou shalt make them like 
 a fiery oven in time of thy 
 wrath : the Lord shall destroy 
 them in his displeasure, and 
 the fire shall consume them. 
 
 10 Their fruit shalt thou root 
 out of the earth : and their 
 seed from among the children 
 of men. 
 
 1 1 For they intended mis- 
 chief against thee: and imagined 
 such a device as they are not 
 able to perform. 
 
 12 Therefore shalt thou put 
 them to flight : and the strings 
 of thy bow shalt thou make 
 ready against the face of them. 
 
 13 Be thou exalted, Lord, in 
 thine own strength : so will wi- 
 sing, and praise thy power. 
 
 Liturgical use. Ascension Day Matins ; King's 
 Accession. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Matins ; Martyrs ; Ascension. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning ; Dawn in Lent. 
 
 This, like the last, is in use another psalm of loyalty 
 
 and co-operation around a chosen leader. To the 
 
 pre-Reformation Churchmen this use would have 
 
 appeared almost profane, for to them the rejoicing 
 
 48
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm XXL P a X 4 
 
 was in the Incarnation ; the heart's desire was " to eat 
 this Passover"; the request, the peace "not as the 
 world giveth " ; the crown, the Apostles ; the life, 
 that of the Resurrection ; and the joy and glory those at 
 God's right hand. But in 1586, when the Armada was 
 being prepared, it seemed only natural to Englishmen 
 to have this psalm sung throughout the country "for 
 the preservation of Her Majesty and the realm from 
 the traitorous and bloody practices of the Pope and 
 his adherents." This angry language was provoked 
 by the fact that even "Catholike gentlewomen were 
 urged to imitate Judith and destroy Holofernes the 
 Master Heretike to wit, Queen Elizabeth." Such 
 a use, though less sublime, perhaps, comes nearer to 
 the first intention of the poem. "David's life and 
 history," says Carlyle, " as written for us in those 
 psalms of his, I consider to be the truest emblem 
 ever given of a man's moral progress and warfare here 
 below. All earnest souls will ever discern in it the 
 struggle of an earnest human soul towards what is 
 good and best. Struggle often baffled, sore baffled, 
 down as into entire wreck ; yet a struggle never 
 ended ; ever with tears, repentance, true unconquerable 
 purpose, begun anew. Poor human nature ! Is not a 
 man's walking always that a succession of falls ? Man 
 can do no other. In this wild element of a life he 
 has to struggle onwards ; now fallen, deep-abased ; 
 and ever with tears, repentance, with bleeding heart 
 he has to rise again, struggle again still onwards." 
 This extract gives much of that poetry of literal 
 interpretation which caused our English divines to use 
 the psalm for national purposes. 
 
 Verses 6 and 1. Laud s text for the accession sermon 
 of King James i. 
 
 Laud (1573-1645), then a young fellow of St. John's, 
 and Proctor, preached from these for the accession 
 of King James i. This sermon was one of his first 
 D 49
 
 Day 4] 
 
 Psalm xxii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 prominent actions which brought him into conflict 
 with the Vice-chancellor, George Abbot, on the 
 question of the Visible Church and Apostolic Succes- 
 sion. Launcelot Andrews (1555-1626) used the same 
 psalm for thanksgiving at the defeat of the Gowrie 
 Conspiracy in 1600. He was then prebendary of 
 St. Paul's Cathedral. So did Archbishop William 
 Wake (1657-1737) at the accession of George i. 
 (1714), when a restoration of the Stuart Dynasty 
 seemed not improbable. Wake was then Bishop of 
 Lincoln and was zealous for inter-communion with 
 the Gallican Church, which he had leamt to know 
 and love while he was chaplain to the embassy in 
 Paris. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 Psalm xxii. 
 
 To the chief Musician, upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. 
 
 Deus, Deus meus. 
 
 1 My God, my God, look 
 Upon me ; why hast thou for- 
 saken me : and art so far from 
 my health, and from the words 
 of my complaint ? 
 
 2 O my God, I cry in the 
 daytime, but thou hearest not : 
 and in the night-season also I 
 take no rest. 
 
 3 And thou continuest holy : 
 O thou worship of Israel. 
 
 4 Our fathers hoped in thee : 
 they trusted in thee, and thou 
 didst deliver them. 
 
 5 They called upon thee, 
 and wore holpen : they put 
 
 their trust in thee, and were 
 not confounded. 
 
 6 But as for me, I am a 
 worm, and no man : a very 
 scorn of men, and the outcast 
 of the people. 
 
 7 All they that see me laugh 
 me to scorn : they shoot out 
 their lips, and shake their heads, 
 saying, 
 
 8 "lie trusted in God, that 
 he would deliver him : let him 
 deliver him, if he will have 
 him." 
 
 9 But thou art he that took 
 me out of my mother's womb : 
 
 5
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xxii. 
 
 [Day 4 
 
 thou wast my hope, when I 
 hanged yet upon my mother's 
 breasts. 
 
 10 I have been left unto 
 thee ever since I was born : 
 thou art my God even from my 
 mother's womb. 
 
 11 O go not from me, for 
 trouble is hard at hand : and 
 there is none to help me. 
 
 12 Many oxen are come 
 about me : fat bulls of Basan 
 close me in on every side. 
 
 13 They gape upon me with 
 their mouths : as it were a 
 ramping and a roaring lion. 
 
 14 I am poured out like 
 water, and all my bones are 
 out of joint : my heart also in 
 the midst of my body is even 
 like melting wax. 
 
 15 My strength is dried up 
 like a potsherd, and my tongue 
 cleaveth to my gums : and thou 
 shall bring me into the dust of 
 death. 
 
 1 6 For many dogs are come 
 about me : and the council of 
 the wicked layeth siege against 
 me. 
 
 17 They pierced my hands 
 and my feet ; I may tell all my 
 bones : they stand staring and 
 looking upon me. 
 
 1 8 They part my garments 
 among them : and cast lots 
 upon my vesture. 
 
 19 But be not thou far from 
 me, O Lord : thou art my 
 
 succour, haste thee to help 
 me. 
 
 20 Deliver my soul from the 
 sword : my darling from the 
 power of the dog. 
 
 21 Save me from the lion's 
 mouth : thou hast heard me 
 also from among the horns of 
 the unicorns. 
 
 22 I will declare thy Name 
 unto my brethren : in the midst 
 of the congregation will I praise 
 thee. 
 
 23 O praise the Lord, ye that 
 fear him : magnify him, all ye 
 of the seed of Jacob, and fear 
 him, all ye seed of Israel ; 
 
 24 For he hath not despised, 
 nor abhorred, the low estate of 
 the poor : he hath not hid his 
 face from him, but when he 
 called unto him he heard him. 
 
 25 My praise is of thee in 
 the great congregation : my 
 vows will I perform in the 
 sight of them that fear him. 
 
 26 The poor shall eat, and 
 be satisfied : they that seek 
 after the Lord shall praise] him ; 
 your heart shall live for ever. 
 
 27 All the ends of the world 
 shall remember themselves and 
 be turned unto the Lord : and 
 all the kindreds of the nations 
 shall worship before him. 
 
 28 For the kingdom is the 
 Lord's : and he is the Governour 
 among the people. 
 
 29 All such as be fat upon
 
 Day 4] 
 
 Psalm xxii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 earth : have eaten, and wor- 
 shipped. 
 
 30 All they that go down 
 into the dust shall kneel be- 
 fore him : and no man hath 
 quickened his own soul. 
 
 31 My seed shall serve him : 
 
 they shall be counted unto the 
 Lord fora generation. 
 
 32 They shall come, and 
 the heavens shall declare his 
 righteousness : unto a people 
 that shall be born, whom the 
 Lord hath made. 
 
 Liturgical use. Good Friday Matins ; Introit for 
 Gocd Friday Mass (e). 
 
 1 Mt ins. Friday at Prime ; Good Friday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning. 
 
 The great association of this psalm which overpowers 
 all others is that it was quoted by Christ upon the 
 cross. It lias been suggested that our Lord repeated 
 the Psalter from this point to Psalm xxxi. 6, when 
 He gave up the ghost. But this view is not held 
 by the Church, because several of the intervening 
 psalms have no liturgical Passion use. The minute 
 particulars and exact applicability of the psalm to 
 the great Passion have had two effects, to strengthen 
 the faith of believers and to cause unbelievers to 
 question the historic narratives of the Passion. This 
 psalm has therefore been from the first a great source 
 of strength to the Church in her controversy with the 
 Jews. Justin Martyr (second century), St. Cyprian 
 (third century), and countless other writers use it to 
 prove that a crucified Messiah is pointed to in the 
 Old Testament traditions. On the other hand, Marcion, 
 the heretic (second century), expunged the division of 
 the garments from his version of the Gospels, and made 
 other alterations because of this psalm. In this he 
 has had many favourers in modern times. The fact 
 that the psalm ends in triumph caused it to be used 
 for the Easter Communion in the African Church and 
 also among the Scottish Presbyterians, both having 
 regard to the explanation of St. Augustine. Some of 
 his comments are exceedingly beautiful. "' My vesture.' 
 52
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm XXH. [Day 4 
 
 There was there," says the evangelist, "a coat woven 
 from above, that is from heaven woven by the Father, 
 that is by the Holy Ghost. What is that coat but 
 charity, which none may divide ? What is that coat 
 but unity." The garments are the Sacraments, the 
 unicorns are the proud. The great congregation is 
 the Church Triumphant. The psalm should be 
 written on our foreheads to teach Donatus, with his 
 particular Redemption, that all the ends of the world 
 share in the ransom. 
 
 Richard Cceur de Lion had this psalm in his mind 
 when he ordered out the crusaders to battle and 
 scarcely one-fifth appeared. He knew his crusade 
 had failed, and cried out : " My God, why hast Thou 
 forsaken me ? Oh, how unwilling should I be to 
 forsake Thee in so forlorn and dreadful a position 
 were I Thy Lord and Advocate, as Thou art 
 mine." 
 
 Verses 2 and 3. These were the dying meditation 
 of Dr. Thomas Newton (1704-1782), the art-loving 
 Bishop of Bristol, who was the mouthpiece of Reynolds, 
 West, and other artists in their fruitless request to 
 be allowed to decorate the interior of St. Paul's. 
 Newton came under the lash of Dr. Johnson for his 
 peevish censure upon the Lives of the Poets. 
 
 Verse 12. It is an instance of how long use of the 
 psalms has made them unconsciously part of our 
 mental furniture that Shakespeare should see nothing 
 strange in making Anthony say : 
 
 " Oh that I were 
 Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar 
 The horned herd ! " 
 
 A. and C. in. xi. 
 
 Verse 21. This verse evidently gave the Lion and 
 Unicorn to be the supporters of the Royal Arms. The 
 same verse was the subject of a sermon by Gilbert 
 
 53
 
 Day 4] 
 
 Psalm xxiii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 Bumet (16431715), who played a great part in the 
 history of his time. He had been an opponent of 
 severe measures in Scotland, was an intermediary 
 between the Court and the Presbyterians as king's 
 chaplain, rebuked Charles n. for profligacy, ridiculed 
 Titus Oates, attended Lord Russell on the scaffold, and 
 was ejected from his Rolls Chaplaincy by Charles for 
 a sermon on this psalm. He was outlawed by James, 
 made Bishop of Salisbury under William, was chaplain 
 to Peter the Great, and wrote the history of his own 
 times in Clerkenwell at the end of his life. 
 
 Verse 26. Ede.nt pauperes et saturabtintnr et laudabioit 
 Domintim qui requirunt eum. Gloria. This was a 
 mediaeval grace upon fast days, the object of a 
 fast being not only to subdue the flesh to the spirit, 
 but to extend sympathy and to show mercy to the 
 hungry poor. 
 
 Verses 27 and 28. Such a constant text for mission- 
 ary sermons that much of the work of our great 
 societies may be said to have begun here. 
 
 Psalm xxiii. 
 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Dominus regit me. 
 
 1 The Lord is my shepherd : 
 therefore can I lack nothing. 
 
 2 He shall feed me in a 
 green pasture : and lead me forth 
 beside the waters of comfort. 
 
 3 He shall convert my soul : 
 and bring me forth in the paths 
 of righteousness, for his Name's 
 sake. 
 
 4 Yea, though I walk through 
 the valley of the shadow of 
 death, I will fear no evil : for 
 
 thou art with me ; thy rod and 
 thy staff comfort me. 
 
 5 Thou shalt prepare a table 
 before me against them that 
 trouble me : thou hast anointed 
 my head with oil, and my cup 
 shall be full. 
 
 6 But thy loving-kindness 
 and mercy shall follow me all 
 the days of my life : and I will 
 dwell in the house of the Lord 
 for ever.
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Xxiii. t^ay 4 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for Septuagesima (e). 
 
 Latins. Thursday, Prime. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning ; Visitation of sick ; 
 Burial of priests. 
 
 This is a poet's psalm. It suggested to David's 
 Son and Lord His most tender metaphor, and so 
 to the rest of the New Testament writers much of the 
 imagery of their pages ; for example, the writer to the 
 Hebrews on the great Shepherd of the sheep, and St. 
 John the Divine with the Lamb that " shall lead us 
 to living waters." From these it passed into Christian 
 art from the young strong shepherds of the Catacombs, 
 to the symbols of the Agnus Dei on the latest altars, 
 to the newest of bishop's crooks, and into Christian 
 literature from the early Shepherd down to the 
 children's hymns. Most people learn it, with the 
 Lord's prayer, at their mother's knees, as Ruskin did. 
 It is the first of the seven Consolitorie psalms, as Sir 
 Richard Baker (1568-1645) calls them (xxiii., xxvii., 
 xxx., xxxiv., Ixxxiv., ciii., and cxvi.). He had been 
 high sheriff of Oxford and Sir Henry Wotton's Oxford 
 friend, yet he wrote his chronicle in the Fleet prison 
 for debtors, where he spent the last ten years of his 
 life, and found the consolation he speaks about. It 
 was the last utterance of Edward Irving (1834), who 
 repeated it in Hebrew. 
 
 Four well-known versions of the psalm stand out 
 pre-eminent from the rest. George Herbert's (1593- 
 1633) version, "The God of Love my Shepherd is," 
 was read by King Charles in prison, and comes 
 in his book The Temple. John Byrom (1692-1763), 
 Jacobite, physician, shorthand teacher, poet, and 
 mystic, wrote the version, " The Lord is my Shepherd, 
 His goodness my song." Joseph Addison (1672-1719), 
 the Oxford scholar and prince of English essayists, 
 published in his Spectator his statelier version, "The 
 Lord my pasture shall prepare." Sir Henry William 
 
 55
 
 Day 5] 
 
 Psal 
 
 Xxv. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 Baker (1821-1877), of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 and Vicar of Moiiklands, the promoter and editor 
 of Hymns Ancient and Modern, wrote " The King 
 of Love my Shepherd is," and died repeating the 
 verse beginning " Perverse and foolish oft I strayed." 
 Two other memorable versions are that of Sir 
 Philip Sidney and his sister the Countess of Pem- 
 broke, and the still more bold and poetic version by 
 Francis Davidson (1602), beginning, " God, who the 
 universe doth hold in His fold." The allusions to 
 the psalm are too countless among the poets even 
 to summarise. 
 
 The fourth verse, with its teaching about death, 
 " only the umbra mortis, or shadow of death," as Laud 
 said on the scaffold, has of course a history of its own ; 
 but it has never been used more nobly than by St. 
 Francis of Assisi, who went alone, barefooted and 
 bareheaded, into the camp of the Saracens, chauntirig 
 it, although he knew that a price was set upon every 
 Christian head. He wished to convert rather than 
 crusade against the Mahomedans. To the honour of 
 the Moslem knights he was courteously received, 
 listened to with patience, and sent home safely. 
 This incident has often been celebrated by the 
 Italian painters. 
 
 THE FIFTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xxiv. 
 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Domini est terra. 
 
 I The earth is the Lord's, 
 and all that therein is : the 
 compass of the world, and they 
 that dwell therein. 
 
 2 For he hath founded it 
 upon the seas : and prepared it 
 upon the floods. 
 
 3 Who shall ascend into the
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xxiv. 
 
 5 
 
 hill of the Lord : or \vho shall 
 rise up in his holy place ? 
 
 4 Even he that hath clean 
 hands, and a pure heart : and 
 that hath not lift up his mind 
 unto vanity, nor sworn to de- 
 ceive his neighbour. 
 
 5 He shall receive the bless- 
 ing, from the Lord : and 
 righteousness from the God of 
 his salvation. 
 
 6 This is the generation of 
 them that seek him : even of 
 them that seek thy face, O 
 Jacob. 
 
 7 Lift up your heads, O ye 
 gates, and be ye lift up, ye 
 everlasting doors : and the King 
 of glory shall come in. 
 
 8 " Who is the King of 
 glory : " it is the Lord strong 
 and mighty, even the Lord 
 mighty in battle. 
 
 9 Lift up your heads, O ye 
 gates, and be ye lift up, ye 
 everlasting doors : and the 
 King of glory shall come in. 
 
 10 "Who is the King of 
 glory : " even the Lord of hosts, 
 he is the King of glory. 
 
 Liturgical use. Ascension Day, Evensong ; Introit 
 for Sexagesima (e). 
 
 Latins. Monday, Prime ; Matins of Martyrs ; Second 
 Matins, Easter Eve ; Trinity Sunday ; Dedication of 
 a church ; Our Lady ; St. Michael ; All Saints ; 
 Burial of children, at the church ; Churching of 
 women. 
 
 Greeks. Sunday morning ; Burial of priests. 
 
 This psalm is the foundation of the old Christian 
 drama of the Harrowing of Hell, which is to be found 
 in the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Parliament of Devils, 
 and in many other ancient and mediaeval books. The 
 story is, that on Good Friday, when the spirits and 
 souls of the departed were keeping watch in the land 
 of Darkness, they saw a purple light in the sky and 
 looked at one another in surprise. David said, " Did I 
 not say that the Lord was my light ?" And Isaiah, "Did 
 1 not say, Arise, shine, for thy light is come ? " And 
 each great prophet who had foreseen that day joyfully 
 remembered his old inspiration. But Satan in fear 
 ordered his company to make fast the brazen gates 
 and to bar them with the iron bars of cruelty. But 
 
 57
 
 Day 5] Psalm Xxiv. [Morning Prayer 
 
 the light grew stronger and Christ was seen with a 
 great company advancing to the rescue. And all this 
 white host shouted to lift up the gates and let in the 
 King of glory. At this Satan and his men replied in 
 scorn : " Who is the King of glory ? " Then at the last 
 the bars were burst and the bra/en gates broken, and 
 our Lord took poor sinful Adam by the hand and 
 gave him to the tender care of the angels. In 
 allusion to this parable and poem this psalm is sung 
 outside the Rood Screen on Palm Sunday, before the 
 gates open for the Mass. There are allusions to the 
 same in Handel's Messiah and elsewhere. Dionysius 
 the Areopagite and others say that as Christ ascended 
 into heaven each choir and rank of the angels 
 chaunted to those above them in joyful wonder, 
 "Who is the King of glory?" Hence the Ascension 
 Day use and the allusions to the psalm in the literature 
 of this season, e.g. in the Venerable Bede's hymn. 
 
 Bishop John Hacket (1592-1670), the munificent 
 benefactor to Trinity College, Cambridge, and restorer 
 of Lichfield Cathedral, used this psalm and some others 
 (xxiv., cii., cxxii., and cxxxii.) to reconsecrate the 
 cathedral after the impieties of the Commonwealth, 
 and " reconciled it from much bloodshed and confusion, 
 according to piety and best antiquity." 
 
 Verses 3-5. The mystics have one thing in common, 
 they had observed the conditions laid down once for 
 all for the mystic in Psalm xxiv. (Inge). 
 
 Verse 9- On 10th Dec. 1854, Archdeacon Hare 
 preached for the last time in his life in the chapel 
 of Lincoln's Inn, and " left on those who heard the 
 impression that they were listening to one whose 
 voice they were not likely to hear again."
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xxv. 
 
 [Days 
 
 Psalm xxv. 
 A Psalm of David. 
 Ad te, Domine, levavi. 
 
 1 Unto thee, O Lord, will I 
 lift up my soul ; my God, I 
 have put my trust in thee : O let 
 me not he confounded, neither 
 let mine enemies triumph over 
 me. 
 
 2 For all they that hope in 
 thee shall not be ashamed : but 
 such as transgress without a 
 cause shall be put to confusion. 
 
 3 Shew me thy ways, O 
 Lord : and teach me thy paths. 
 
 4 Lead me forth in thy truth, 
 and learn me : for thou art the 
 God of my salvation ; in thee 
 hath been my hope all the day 
 long. 
 
 5 Call to remembrance, O 
 Lord, thy tender mercies : and 
 thy loving - kindnesses, which 
 have been ever of old. 
 
 6 O remember not the sins 
 and offences of my youth : but 
 according to thy mercy think 
 thou upon me, O Lord, for thy 
 goodness. 
 
 7 Gracious and righteous is 
 the Lord : therefore will he 
 teach sinners in the way. 
 
 8 Them that are meek shall 
 he guide in judgment : and such 
 as are gentle, them shall he 
 learn his way. 
 
 9 All the paths of the Lord 
 
 are mercy and truth : unto such 
 as keep his covenant, and his 
 testimonies. 
 
 10 For thy Name's sake, O 
 Lord : be merciful unto my sin, 
 for it is great. 
 
 1 1 What man is he, that 
 feareth the Lord : him shall he 
 teach in the way that he shall 
 choose. 
 
 12 His soul shall dwell at 
 ease : and his seed shall inherit 
 the land. 
 
 13 The secret of the Lord is 
 among them that fear him : and 
 he will shew them his covenant. 
 
 14 Mine eyes are ever looking 
 unto the Lord : for he shall 
 pluck my feet out of the net. 
 
 15 Turn thee unto me, and 
 have mercy upon me : for I am 
 desolate, and in misery. 
 
 1 6 The sorrows of my heart 
 are enlarged : O bring thou me 
 out of my troubles. 
 
 17 Look upon my adversity 
 and misery : and forgive me all 
 my sin. 
 
 1 8 Consider mine enemies, 
 how many they are : and they 
 bear a tyrannous hate against 
 me. 
 
 19 O keep my soul, and 
 deliver me : let me not be con- 
 
 59
 
 y 5] Psalm XXV. [Morning Prayer 
 
 founded, for I have put my 
 trust in thee. 
 
 20 Let perfectness and 
 
 me : for my hope hath been in 
 thee. 
 
 21 Deliver Israel, O God: 
 
 righteous dealing wait upon out of all his troubles. 
 
 IMI'DIS. Prime, Tuesday. 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning, third hour ; Late even- 
 song in Lent. 
 
 From the fifth verse of this psalm the second Sunday 
 in Lent is called Reininiscere, the opening word of the 
 Introit to the Mass, and from the fourteenth vei'se the 
 third Sunday in Lent is called Ociili from a similar 
 use. 
 
 This gives the psalm a penitential association, and is 
 probably why Theodulf in the Capitula, and Ai-chbishop 
 jEIfric (ob. 1051), recommended it (with xxvi. and li.) 
 to the clergy for their private prayers. The seventh 
 verse Dufcis ct red us Don/inns in particular, and the 
 whole psalm, seem to have suggested the celebrated 
 hymn, Jesu, dulcis memoria (Jesu, the very thought of 
 Thee), which is often attributed to St. Bernard. 
 
 Joinville notices that St. Louis of France (1226) was 
 crowned on Advent Sunday when the Mass began 
 with Ad te, levavi animam meam, and what follows is 
 this : " Fair Sire God, I will lift up my soul unto Thee, 
 I put my trust in Thee ; " words which seemed to 
 strike the keynote of the reign of that noble prince, 
 pious Crusader and Defender of the poor : for " he had 
 perfect trust in God, even to his death, for at the 
 moment of his dying, in his last words, he invoked 
 God and his saints, especially Monseigneur St. James 
 and Madame Ste. Genevieve." 
 
 On llth May 16'41, that noble gentleman Thomas 
 Wentworth, Lord Strafford, was beheaded under a 
 cruel Act of Attainder, to which King Charles i. con- 
 sented in a forlorn hope of preventing further blood- 
 shed. Strafford, the best and most merciful governour 
 of Ireland, who suppressed disorder and piracy, 
 60
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xxvi. 
 
 [>ay 5 
 
 established the linen industry, and caused the Puritan 
 land-grabbers to disgorge their plunder, was accused 
 of proposing to bring Irish troops to quell English 
 rebels. Had the king acted upon his advice he 
 would have behaved both more moderately in his 
 demands and more resolutely in his defence of those 
 demands. 
 
 This psalm was the cordial of Robert Mossom, one 
 of the brave priests who carried on the public 
 service of the Church even in London itself after 
 Cromwell had forbidden entirely the use of the 
 Prayer Book. Mossom was Vicar of St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, London Warfe. He died Bishop of Derry 
 in 1679- 
 
 Psalm xxvi. 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Judica me, Domine. 
 
 1 Be thou my judge, O Lord, 
 for I have walked innocently : 
 my trust hath been also in the 
 Lord, therefore shall I not fall. 
 
 2 Examine me, O Lord, and 
 prove me : try out my reins and 
 my heart. 
 
 3 For thy loving-kindness is 
 
 7 That I may shew the voice 
 of thanksgiving : and tell of all 
 thy wondrous works. 
 
 8 Lord, I have loved the 
 habitation of thy house : and 
 the place where thine honour 
 dwelleth. 
 
 9 O shut not up my soul with 
 
 ever before mine eyes : and I ; the sinners : nor my life with 
 
 will walk in thy truth. 
 
 4 I have not dwelt with vain 
 persons : neither will I have 
 fellowship with the deceitful. 
 
 5 I have hated the congrega- 
 tion of the wicked : and will 
 not sit among the ungodly. 
 
 6 I will wash my hands in 
 innocency, O Lord : and so will 
 I go to thine altar ; 
 
 61 
 
 the bloodthirsty. 
 
 10 In whose hands is wicked- 
 ness : and their right hand is 
 full of gifts. 
 
 1 1 But as for me, I will walk 
 innocently : O deliver me, and 
 be merciful unto me. 
 
 12 My foot standeth right : 
 I will praise the Lord in the 
 congregations.
 
 t>ay 5] Psalm XXvi. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for Quinquagesima (e). 
 
 Latins. Wednesday, Prime. 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning. 
 
 The ceremonial washing of the priest's fingers, 
 after he makes the oblations at the Mass, is always 
 accompanied by the latter half of this psalm, and is 
 called the Lavabo. 
 
 " Our hands are washed with the unseen water when 
 we think holy thoughts about the works of God, 
 and then alone do we approach the heavenly altar, 
 which so far as we are unworthy we do not get near, 
 although God suffers us to do temporal injury to his 
 sacraments." 
 
 There has been a constant appeal to this psalm 
 by those who love to see churches honourably and 
 worthily cared for and decorated. Domine dilcxi 
 decorem domns tuce has been a favourite motto with 
 many great Christians, among others Charlemagne, 
 who took great interest in public worship. " Although 
 he was a master at reading and psalming yet he 
 would not read aloud in Church, nor sing in his 
 resonant voice, save with all the rest, and in 
 obedience to the precentor." He was careful to 
 explain that decorem did not include statues. The 
 Abbot Turketul (tenth century), who so largely built 
 Croyland, was another who was " stimulated by this 
 holy desire " to undertake this work at the instigation 
 of the Psalmist ; and innumerable other builders who 
 beheld the houses not made with hands have written 
 their love in stone and marble, without those " gifts " 
 which St. Augustine explains to be alms to purchase 
 the praise of men. The sects have used this psalm 
 largely to support their theories that the Church con- 
 sists only of the good and earnest, those who love 
 Christ and behave like Him. It was the same with 
 the ancient Montanists, "that unpitying Phrygian 
 sect," and the Donatists, who also appealed to this 
 62
 
 Kvcning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xxvii. 
 
 psalm, especially to the fourth verse, for their ex- 
 clusiveness. 
 
 Verse 11. In innoccntid ined ingressus sum was the 
 motto of tall stalwart Pope Innocent vin. (1485), 
 whose innocence was nominal. He was the ally of 
 Lorenzo dei Medici, and though himself fleshly and 
 incompetent was used as an instrument of Italian 
 peace. The same motto was also a favourite of his 
 contemporary the platonist Pico della Mirandola, who 
 tried to reconcile wisdom and piety against the 
 growing materialism of the Aristotelians. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xxvii. 
 A Psalm of David. 
 Dominus illuminatio. 
 
 1 The I/jrd is my light, and 
 mv salvation ; whom then shall 
 I fear : the Lord is the strength 
 of my life ; of whom then shall 
 I be afraid ? 
 
 2 When the wicked, even 
 mine enemies, and my foes, 
 came upon me to eat up my 
 flesh : they stumbled and fell. 
 
 3 Though an host of men 
 were laid against me, yet shall 
 not my heart be afraid : and 
 though there rose up war against 
 me, yet will I put my trust in 
 him. 
 
 4 One thing have I desired 
 of the Lord, which I will 
 require : even that I may 
 dwell in the house of the 
 
 Lord all the days of my 
 life, to behold the fair beauty 
 of the Lord, and to visit his 
 temple. 
 
 5 For in the time of trouble 
 he shall hide me in his taber- 
 nacle : yea, in the secret place 
 of his dwelling shall he hide me, 
 and set me up upon a rock of 
 stone. 
 
 6 And now shall he lift up 
 mine head : above mine enemies 
 round about me. 
 
 7 Therefore will I offer in his 
 dwelling an oblation with great 
 gladness : I will sing, and speak 
 praises unto the Lord. 
 
 8 Hearken unto my voice, O 
 Lord, when I cry unto thee :
 
 Day 5] Psalm XXvil. [Evening Prayer 
 
 have mercy upon me, and hear j Lord : and lead me in the right 
 me. way, because of mine enemies. 
 
 9 My heart hath talked of 14 Deliver me not over into 
 thee, Seek ye my face : Thy the will of mine adversaries : 
 face, Lord, will I seek. for there are false witnesses 
 
 10 O hide not thou thy face risen up against me, and such 
 from me : nor cast thy servant ' as speak wrong. 
 
 away in displeasure. 15 I should utterly have 
 
 1 1 Thou hast been my fainted : but that I believe 
 succour : leave me not, neither verily to see the goodness of 
 forsake me, O God of my I the Lord in the land of the 
 salvation. living. 
 
 12 When my father and my 1 6 O tarry thou the Lord's 
 mother forsake me : the Loid leisure : be strong, and he shall 
 taketh me up. I comfort thine heart ; and put 
 
 13 Teach me thy way, O thou thy trust in the Lord. 
 
 Liturgical use. Dirge (see Ps. v.). 
 
 Latins, Monday Matins ; Good Friday Matins ; 
 Easter Eve. 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning ; Visitation of the sick. 
 
 This psalm, David's wonder song of " the strange- 
 ness of his salvation, so far beyond all that his enemies 
 looked for," has caught the imagination of men in 
 darkness and difficulty and lifted them to "the desire 
 of wisdom that bringeth to a kingdom." Especially 
 the first, fourth, fifth, ninth, and fifteenth verses have 
 been celebrated in use as texts for great sermons by 
 men of all schools. It was a psalm which fortified 
 many of the saints against death (Peter Balsam, 
 Magloire of Brittany, etc.) ; cheered St. Anselm 
 (1033-1109) in his investiture exile. It was a 
 favourite with Richard Pococke (1704-1765), the 
 Oriental scholar and intrepid tr/aveller, who died 
 Bishop of Meath. The verse (4) Unam pctii a Domino 
 comforted the dying Bishop Hannington (18471885), 
 who was speared by order of the King of Uganda. 
 
 Verse 1. This is the Restoration Motto of Oxford 
 64
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm XXviii. [Day 5 
 
 University, no doubt a inotto that presents the whole 
 psalm of victory, joy, and patience. 
 
 Verse 12. This comforted Ma'ry Bosanquet, when at 
 the age of twenty-two she was cast out of her father's 
 house for Methodism. She afterwards married John 
 William Fletcher of Madeley (1729-1785). 
 
 Verse 15. Credo viderc bona Domini in terra viventium 
 is the antiphon for Dirges for the Dead, and conse- 
 quently has been often used by those who are under 
 sentence of death. Richard Reynolds, a martyr for 
 the political autocracy of the Pope, was executed at 
 Tyburn (where now Connaught Square stands). He 
 repeated these words for his last speech. The same 
 are not uncommonly to be found on old tombs, e.g. 
 upon the marble tomb in Rochester of the white 
 monk Bishop Lowe (ob. 1467), who kept the lamp of 
 learning alight in a dark and disturbed time. 
 
 Verse 16. When poor King George in. recovered in 
 1789 from the madness which was so cruelly treated 
 at that time, his domestic chaplain, Bishop Porteous, 
 chose this text to comfort the unhappy king. He was 
 then Bishop of London and a low church leader, and 
 an early patron of the Church Missionary Society. 
 
 Psalm xxviii. 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Ad te, Domine. 
 I Unto thee will I cry, O my hands towards the mercy- 
 
 Lord my strength : think no 
 scorn of me ; lest, if thou make 
 as though thou nearest not, I 
 
 seat of thy holy temple. 
 
 3 O pluck me not away, 
 neither destroy me with the 
 
 become like them that go down ungodly and wicked doers : 
 
 into the pit. which speak friendly to their 
 
 2 Hear the voice of my i neighbours, but imagine mis- 
 
 humble petitions, when I cry 
 
 chief in their hearts. 
 
 unto thee : when I hold up 4 Reward them according to 
 E 65
 
 Days] 
 
 Psalm xxviii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 their deeds : and according to 
 the wickedness of their own 
 inventions. 
 
 5 Recompense them after the 
 work of their hands : pay them 
 that they have deserved. 
 
 6 For they regard not in their 
 mind the works of the Lord, 
 nor the operation of his hands : 
 therefore shall he break them 
 down, and not build them up. 
 
 7 Praised be the Lord : for 
 he hath heard the voice of my 
 humble petitions. 
 
 8 The Lord is my strength, 
 and my shield ; my heart hath 
 trusted in him, and I am helped : 
 therefore my heart danceth for 
 joy, and in my song will I 
 praise him. 
 
 9 The Lord is my strength : 
 and he is the wholesome defence 
 of his Anointed. 
 
 10 O save thy people, and 
 give thy blessing unto thine 
 inheritance : feed them, and set 
 them up for ever. 
 
 Latins. Monday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning. 
 
 This psalm, though it has, as a whole, less extended 
 use, has contributed two verses to the Te Denni 
 laudamus, that great hymn said to have been composed 
 by St. Ambrose and St. Augustine at the baptism of 
 the latter in Milan, 386 A.D. The difference between 
 "Govern them and lift them up for ever" and this 
 tenth verse " feed them " (due to the LXX. " shepherd 
 them ") is less than appears at first, for right ruling 
 implies food for the people and is not narrowed into 
 mere police work. The psalm verses in the Te Dcinn 
 are 11, 12, 14, 22, 23, 27, 28, and 29, more than a 
 quarter of the whole hymn. 
 
 Verses 1 and 2 were regarded by Albertus Magnus 
 (1205-1280) as the type and model of all prayer. He 
 was a Suabian by birth and chief of the Dominicans, 
 and was so learned that it was said, " God had 
 never divulged so many of His secrets to one of 
 His creatures," and consequently he had practised 
 magic. 
 
 Verse 8. Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376) 
 chose for the silver coins he struck in Guienne, to 
 66
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xxix. 
 
 [Day 5 
 
 celebrate his victories over the French, Doininns adhttor 
 mciifi ct protector incus : in ipxo xpcraril cor ntcuin. 
 
 Hippolytus (third century) in the preface to his 
 commentary 011 the Psalms notes that David " intro- 
 duced a new style of joyous praise into the worship of 
 God," and in another place he notices that the same 
 element of joy, and even dancing, in worship, is un- 
 known in the earlier books. 
 
 Psalm xxix. 
 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Afferte Domino. 
 
 1 Bring unto the Lord, O ye 
 mighty, bring young rams unto 
 the Lord : ascribe unto the Lord 
 worship and strength. 
 
 2 Give the Lord the honour 
 due unto his Name : worship the 
 Lord with holy worship. 
 
 3 It is the Lord, that com- 
 mandeth the waters : it is the 
 glorious God, that maketh the 
 thunder. 
 
 4 It is the Lord, that ruleth 
 the sea ; the voice of the Lord 
 is mighty in operation : the 
 voice of the Lord is a glorious 
 voice. 
 
 5 The voice of the Lord 
 breaketh the cedar trees : yea, 
 the Lord breaketh the cedars of 
 Libanus. 
 
 6 He maketh them also to 
 skip like a calf: Libanus also, 
 and Sirion, like a young unicorn. 
 
 7 The voice of the Lord 
 divideth the flames of fire ; 
 the voice of the Lord shaketh 
 the wilderness : yea, the Lord 
 shaketh the wilderness of Cades. 
 
 8 The voice of the Lord 
 maketh the hinds to bring forth 
 young, and discovereth the thick 
 bushes : in his temple doth every 
 man speak of his honour. 
 
 9 The Lord sitteth above the 
 water-flood : and the Lord re- 
 maineth a King for ever. 
 
 10 The Lord shall give 
 strength unto his people : the 
 Lord shall give his people the 
 blessing of peace. 
 
 Liturgical use. 
 
 Latins. Monday Matins ; Epiphany Matins ; Adult 
 Baptism. 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning. 
 67
 
 Day 5] Psalm XXIX. [Evening Prayer 
 
 This psalm of rejoicing and reverence in storm and 
 thunder, because of its immense simplicity, has given 
 great delight to those who like to find mystical 
 meanings in every sincere poem. St. Basil vies with 
 St. Augustine in explanation of what is meant by the 
 cedars, flames, winds, and water-flood upon the method 
 of worship taught, and the sacramental symbolism 
 implied. The " Lord inhabiting the water-flood " of 
 baptism was an explanation which caused this psalm 
 to be sung at the mediaeval baptisms. It was sung at 
 the christening of Clovis and of ^Ethel (597) and at 
 all the great baptisms in the warfare of the Church 
 with northern barbarism. The eighth verse gave the 
 name and title to George Herbert's Sacred Poems 
 and Private Ejaculations, called The Temple (1633). 
 He is referring to this when he writes in the Church 
 Porch : 
 
 "Though private prayer be a brave design 
 Yet public hath more promises, more love." 
 
 Even Keble in his Psalter, although he says in the 
 preface that " a combination of reserve with openness 
 is of the essence of poetry," in his version of this 
 psalm, does not seem to admit the allegorical inter- 
 pretations of earlier writers at all ; so far had the 
 England of the earlier nineteenth century left the 
 mystical method of Christendom. "We believe," 
 says Bishop William Stubbs, " that the same Spirit 
 who taught the Hebrews to sing psalms, the wonderful 
 life and application of whose truth two thousand 
 years of sin and repentance, hope, faith, and love 
 have not exhausted, has taught the Church of the 
 Redeemed to interpret them." 
 
 68
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xxx. 
 
 [Day 6 
 
 THE SIXTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xxx. 
 
 A Psalm and Song at the Dedication of the house of David. 
 Exaltabo te, Domine. 
 
 1 I will magnify thee, O Lord, 
 for thou hast set me up : and not 
 made my foes to triumph over me. 
 
 2 O Lord my God, I cried un- 
 to thee : and thou hast healed me. 
 
 3 Thou, Lord, hast brought 
 my soul out of hell : thou hast 
 kept my life from them that go 
 down to the pit. 
 
 4 Sing praises unto the Lord, 
 O ye saints of his : and give 
 thanks unto him for a remem- 
 brance of his holiness. 
 
 5 For his wrath endureth but 
 the twinkling of an eye, and in 
 his pleasure is life : heaviness 
 may endure for a night, but joy 
 cometh in the morning. 
 
 6 And in my prosperity I 
 said, I shall never be removed : 
 thou, Lord, of thy goodness hast 
 made my hill so strong. 
 
 7 Thou didst turn thy face 
 from me : and I was troubled. 
 
 8 Then cried I unto thee, O 
 Lord : and gat me to my Lord 
 right humbly. 
 
 9 What profit is there in my 
 blood : when I go down to the 
 pit? 
 
 10 Shall the dust give thanks 
 unto thee : or shall it declare 
 thy truth ? 
 
 11 Hear, O Lord, and have 
 mercy upon me : Lord, be thou 
 my helper. 
 
 12 Thou hast turned my 
 heaviness into joy : thou hast 
 put off my sackcloth, and girded 
 me with gladness. 
 
 1 3 Therefore shall every good 
 man sing of thy praise without 
 ceasing : O my God, I will give 
 thanks unto thee for ever. 
 
 Liturgical use. Dirge (see Ps. v.). 
 
 Latins. Monday Matins ; Easter Eve. 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning : Mesorion of third hour. 
 
 The musical psalms, so called from their titles, are 
 xxx., xlviii., Ixvii., Ixviii., Ixxxv., and xcii. It was a 
 pious and modest use of this psalm to express English 
 thanksgiving after the Crimean War, 1856; and we 
 probably owe the choice to Archbishop Sumner 
 69
 
 Day 6] 
 
 Psalm xxxi. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 (1780-1862), that moderate Whig Archbishop. The 
 fifth verse gave to the older commentators the thought 
 of Easter and the Resurrection, often alluded to in 
 Latin Easter hymns. 
 
 Francis Atterbury (1662-1732), the Jacobite Bishop 
 of Rochester, who died in banishment in the service 
 of Charles James Stuart, Dr. Thomas Arnold (1795- 
 1842), Charles Simeon (1759-1836), and many others 
 have published noteworthy sermons on the sixth and 
 seventh verses. 
 
 Psalm xxxi. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 In te, Domine, speravi. 
 
 I In thee, O Lord, have I 
 put my trust : let me never be 
 put to confusion, deliver me in 
 thy righteousness. 
 
 2. Bow down thine ear to me : 
 make haste to deliver me. 
 
 3 And be thou my strong 
 rock, and house of defence : 
 that thou mayest save me. 
 
 4 For thou art my strong 
 rock, and my castle : be thou 
 also my guide, and lead me for 
 thy Name's sake. 
 
 5 Draw me out of the net, 
 that they have laid privily for 
 me : for thou art my strength. 
 
 6 Into thy hands I commend 
 my spirit : for thou hast re- 
 deemed me, O Lord, thou God 
 of truth. 
 
 7 I have hated them that hold 
 of superstitious vanities: and 
 my trust hath been in the Lord. 
 
 8 I will be glad, and rejoice 
 
 in thy mercy : for thou hast 
 considered my trouble, and hast 
 known my soul in adversities. 
 
 9 Thou hast not shut me up 
 into the hand of the enemy : but 
 hast set my feet in a large room. 
 
 10 Have mercy upon me, O 
 Lord, for I am in trouble : and 
 mine eye is consumed for very 
 heaviness ; yea, my soul and my 
 body. 
 
 11 For my life is waxen old 
 with heaviness : and my years 
 with mourning. 
 
 12 My strength faileth me, 
 because of mine iniquity : and 
 my bones are consumed. 
 
 13 I became a reproof among 
 all mine enemies, but especially 
 among my neighbours : and they 
 of mine acquaintance were 
 afraid of me ; and they that 
 did see me without conveyed 
 themselves from me. 
 
 70
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xxxi. 
 
 [Day 6 
 
 14 I am clean forgotten, as a 
 dead man out of mind :' I am 
 become like a broken vessel. 
 
 15 For I have 
 blasphemy of the 
 
 heard the 
 multitude : 
 
 and fear is on every side, while 
 they conspire together against 
 me, and take their counsel to 
 take away my life. 
 
 16 But my hope hath been 
 in thee, O Lord : I have said, 
 Thou art my God. 
 
 17 My time is in thy hand; 
 deliver me from the hand of 
 mine enemies : and from them 
 that persecute me. 
 
 1 8 Shew thy servant the light 
 of thy countenance : and save 
 me for thy mercy's sake. 
 
 19 Let me not be confounded, 
 O Lord, for I have called upon 
 thee : let the ungodly be put to 
 confusion, and be put to silence 
 in the grave. 
 
 20 Let the lying lips be put 
 to silence : which cruelly, dis- 
 
 dainfully, and despitefully, speak 
 against the righteous. 
 21 O how plentiful is 
 
 thy 
 
 goodness, which thou hast laid 
 up for them that fear thee : and 
 that thou hast prepared for them 
 that put their trust in thee, even 
 before the sons of men ! 
 
 22 Thou shalt hide them 
 privily by thine own presence 
 from the provoking of all men : 
 thou shalt keep them secretly 
 in thy tabernacle from the strife 
 of tongues. 
 
 23 Thanks be to the Lord : 
 for he hath shewed me marvel- 
 lous great kindness in a strong 
 city. 
 
 24 And when I made haste, I 
 said : I am cast out of the sight 
 of thine eyes. 
 
 25 Nevertheless, thou heardest 
 the voice of my prayer : when I 
 cried unto thee. 
 
 26 O love the Lord, all ye 
 his saints : for the Lord pre- 
 serveth them that are faithful, 
 and plenteously rewardeth the 
 proud doer. 
 
 27 Be strong, and he shall 
 establish your heart : all ye that 
 put your trust in the Lord. 
 
 Latim. Monday Matins ; Daily Compline (vers. 
 1-7). 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning ; Late evensong in Lent. 
 
 The fact that this psalm contains our Lord's last 
 words gives it the greatest prominence in the minds of 
 dying Christians. This would have been still more 
 universal, except that He inserted the word " Father" 
 before " into thy hands I commend my spirit," thus 
 not only enlarging the thought of the passage, but
 
 Day 6] Psalm XXXI. [Morning Prayer 
 
 reasserting the point at issue between Himself and 
 His accusers. For centuries it was regarded as part 
 of a holy death to make this act of commendation, 
 and the list of those who did so passes the limit even 
 of a summary. SS. Polycarp the Martyr, Basil, 
 Epiphanius, Nicholas, Martial, and Valeria; the mai'tyrs 
 at Limoges, Bernard and Catharine of Siena. Of 
 kings, Arthur, Charlemagne, St. Louis, our Henry v., 
 and Mary Queen of Scots ; Conradine, Northumber- 
 land, Suffolk, and Essex on the scaffold ; Huss, Luther, 
 Melanchthon, Ridley, Knox, Bishop Jewel, Thomas 
 Cromwell ; Columbus, Tasso, Silvio Pellico, and George 
 Herbert. The Romanists, John Houghton, Robert 
 Lawrence, Austin Webster, Cuthbert Maine, John 
 Nelson, and Edmund Campion ; Eleanore de Roye, 
 Princesse de Conde, and countless others who were 
 divided in time and life and aim, but united in this 
 practical piety. 
 
 The whole psalm has supplied many with food for 
 meditation in their last time. Savonarola wrote one 
 of his commentaries upon it, between his torture 
 and execution, 1498. St. Francis Xavier, the heroic 
 Jesuit missionary, taken from the height of his fame 
 as an advocate and sent penniless to the heathen, 
 died with the opening words on his lips, In te, Domine, 
 speravi non confundar in ceternum. He was bent on 
 reaching China, but only got as far as the island of 
 Sancian, where he died on the sand, leaning on his 
 crucifix (1552). The motto of the House of Strath- 
 more is In te, Domine, speravi, which also is the heraldic 
 motto of the Lyons of Strathmore ; and Experance en 
 Dieii of the Percies of Northumberland. The Te Deum 
 ends with the same cry. With some it has been only a 
 cry of desire, as with Sir John Harrington (I56l-l6l2), 
 the courtier of Elizabeth and friend of Essex. " I 
 have spent my time, my fortune, and almost my 
 honesty, to buy false hopes, false friends, and shallow
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm XXxii. [Day 6 
 
 praise. Oh that I could boast with Chaunter David, 
 /// /c. Domiiic. fipcravi ! " 
 
 Verse 7. This was the text of Dr. Peter Smart 
 (27th July 1628) in his assault upon Cosin's ritual in 
 Durham. He was deprived, fined, and imprisoned 
 for his offence, and this was called in Parliament the 
 " Counter-Reformation." He was restored by the 
 Long Parliament, took the Covenant, and obtained 
 much plundered preferment. 
 
 Verse 22. Dean Stanley had a particular affection 
 for Charles Wesley's finest hymn on Catholic love 
 (17.)5), which was inspired by this verse. It begins: 
 " Weary of all this wordy strife." It is not in the 
 ordinary hymn books. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xxxii. 
 
 A Psalm of David, Maschil (or A Psalm of David giving 
 instruction). 
 
 Beati, quorum. 
 I Blessed is he whose un- 1 5 I w ^^ acknowledge my sin 
 
 righteousness is forgiven : and 
 whose sin is covered. 
 
 2 Blessed is the man unto 
 
 unto thee : and mine unright- 
 eousness^ have I not hid. 
 
 6 I said, I will confess my sins 
 
 whom the Lord imputeth no I unto the Lord : and so thou 
 
 sin : and in whose spirit there 
 is no guile. 
 
 3 For while I held my 
 tongue : my bones consumed 
 away through my daily com- 
 
 forgavest the wickedness of my 
 
 sin. 
 
 7 For this shall every one 
 that is g'dly make his prayer 
 unto thee, in a time when thou 
 
 plaining. mayest be found : but in the 
 
 4 For thy hand is heavy upon great water-floods they shall not 
 
 me day and night : and my come nigh him. 
 
 moisture is like the drought in 8 Thou art a place to hide me 
 
 summer. in, thou shall preserve me from 
 
 73
 
 Day 6] 
 
 Psalm xxxii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 trouble : thou shalt compass me 
 about with songs of deliver- 
 ance. 
 
 9 I will inform thee, and 
 teach thee in the way wherein 
 thou shalt go : and I will guide 
 thee with mine eye. 
 
 10 Be ye not like to horse and 
 mule, which have no understand- 
 ing : whose mouths must be 
 
 held with bit and bridle, lest 
 they fall upon thee. 
 
 11 Great plagues remain for 
 the ungodly : but whoso putteth 
 his trust in the Lord, mercy 
 embraceth him on every side. 
 
 12 Be glad, O ye righteous, 
 and rejoice in the Lord : and be 
 joyful, all ye that are true of 
 heart. 
 
 Liturgical use. Ash Wednesday Matins ; Introit on 
 first Sunday in Lent (e) ; Second penitential psalm. 
 
 Latim. Monday Matins ; All Saints' Day ; Visita- 
 tion of the sick. 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning; Mesorion of third hour; 
 After baptism. 
 
 The penitential psalms are vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., 
 cii., cxxx., cxliii. This one is the antidote to the 
 deadly sin of pride. St. Augustine of Hippo (354 430), 
 to whom much was forgiven, used to repeat this psalm 
 weeping. He wrote it over his bed that he might see 
 it first when he awoke. At the end of his life, during 
 the siege of Hippo, he had all the seven psalms in- 
 scribed in four columns over his bed, and used to gaze 
 on them and weep as he lay dying. It is commonly 
 used as a preparation for confession and for death, for 
 which purposes St. Louis ix. (1270) recited it, and Sir 
 Thomas More read it with his daughter (1535) before 
 his execution, for denying the Act of Supremacy. 
 That is also why Piers Ploughman heard Hope blow 
 his horn with it, which set all the saints in heaven 
 a-singing. 
 
 Luther declared that the best psalms were the last 
 four of the penitential psalms, which he used to call 
 the Pauline psalms. 
 
 Isaak Walton (1593-1683) hoped that he should 
 attain to this guileless spirit before he died, a spirit 
 74
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm XXxill. [Day 6 
 
 which he had almost more than any other of our 
 writers. 
 
 St. Hilary of Poictiers (fourth century) wrote a 
 special interpretation of this psalm. And of the 
 greater writers who have commented upon the seven, 
 the best known are Gregory the Great (sixth century ), 
 Alcuin (eighth century), Gerson (fourteenth century), 
 Bishop Fisher (1459-1535), and John Donne (1573- 
 1631). The poet and preacher Archbishop Leighton 
 (l6l 1-1684), the brave and humorous Principal of 
 Edinburgh University, who laboured for peace in 
 the worst time of the least peaceable country, 
 astonished his clergy by " a new strain," as his friend 
 Burnet calls it, a suggestion that instead of quartering 
 soldiers and levying fines, that they should humble 
 themselves with prayer and fasting. To emphasise 
 this new strain he wrote two meditations, one upon 
 the psalm and one upon the De Profundis. He im- 
 pressed upon the noisy theologians the need of " the 
 ingenuous voice of confession," which had more effect 
 than " even to bellow like a beast, which roaring did 
 not move the Divine compassion nor atone His dis- 
 pleasure." Leighton wished to die in an inn, and did 
 so in the Bell Inn, in Warwick Lane, London. Some 
 of the thoughts of these meditations were derived from 
 sermons by James Ussher (1581-1656), the Archbishop 
 of Armagh, who also recommended this psalm to his 
 clergy, but lived largely away from his diocese, and 
 supported penal laws against Roman Catholics, which 
 he defended on this authority. 
 
 Psalm xxxiii. 
 
 Exultate justi. 
 
 I Rejoice in the Lord, O ye 
 
 sing praises unto him with the 
 
 righteous : for it becometh well 
 
 lute, and instrument of ten 
 
 the just to be thankful. 
 
 strings. 
 
 2 Praise the Lord with harp : 
 
 3 Sing unto the Lord a new 
 
 75
 
 Day 6] 
 
 Psalm XXXlii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 song : sing praises lustily unto 
 him with a good courage. 
 
 4 For the word of the Lord 
 is true : and all his works are 
 faithful. 
 
 5 He loveth righteousness and 
 judgement : the earth is full of 
 the goodness of the Lord. 
 
 6 By the word of the Lord 
 were the heavens made : and 
 all the hosts of them by the 
 breath of his mouth. 
 
 7 He gathereth the waters of 
 the sea together, as it were 
 upon an heap : and layeth up 
 the deep, as in a treasure-house. 
 
 8 Let all the earth fear the 
 Lord : stand in awe of him, all 
 ye that dwell in the world. 
 
 9 For he spake, and it was 
 done : he commanded, and it 
 stood fast. 
 
 10 The Lord bringeth the 
 counsel of the heathen to 
 nought : and maketh the 
 devices of the people to be of 
 none effect, and casteth out the 
 counsels of princes. 
 
 11 The counsel of the Lord 
 shall endure for ever : and the 
 thoughts of his heart from 
 generation to generation. 
 
 12 Blessed are the people, 
 whose God is the Lord Jehovah : 
 and blessed are the folk, that 
 
 he hath chosen to him to be his 
 inheritance. 
 
 13 The Lord looked down 
 from heaven, and beheld all the 
 children of men : from the 
 habitation of his dwelling he 
 considereth all them that dwell 
 on the earth. 
 
 14 He fashioned all the hearts 
 of them : and understandeth all 
 their works. 
 
 15 There is no king that can 
 be saved by the multitude of 
 an host : neither is any mighty 
 man delivered by much strength. 
 
 1 6 A horse is counted but a 
 vain thing to save a man : 
 neither shall he deliver any man 
 by his great strength. 
 
 17 Behold, the eye of the 
 Lord is upon them that fear 
 him : and upon them that put 
 their trust in his mercy ; 
 
 1 8 To deliver their soul from 
 death : and to feed them in the 
 time of dearth. 
 
 19 Our soul hath patiently 
 tarried for the Lord : for he is 
 our help, and our shield. 
 
 20 For our heart shall rejoice 
 in him : because we have hoped 
 in his holy Name. 
 
 21 Let thy merciful kindness, 
 O Lord, be upon us : like as 
 
 we do put our trust in thee. 
 Liturgical use. Introit of Whit Sunday (e). 
 Latins. Monday Matins ; for Many Martyrs. 
 Greeks. Monday morning. 
 76
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xxxiv. 
 
 [Day 6 
 
 The Americans use this for Trinity Sunday. The 
 mystic interpreters urged their hearers not to turn 
 their hearts to organa flicatrica stage tools in reading 
 this psalm, but to understand by the cithara, Psaltery, 
 and decachord, things wholly allegorical. St. Augus- 
 tine will not even allow the horse, of verse sixteen, 
 to be other than worldly largeness ; and the waters of 
 the sea which are gathered into a bottle are the floods 
 which threatened to overwhelm the martyrs. In spite 
 of this St. Gregory maintained the lawfulness of organs, 
 and allowed them to the west on the authority of this 
 psalm, and St. Thomas Aquinas refused to condemn 
 them. The mysterious decachord or instrument of ten 
 strings, being unlike any earthly instrument and com- 
 posed of the Divine number three and the perfect 
 number seven, kept the imagination perpetually on the 
 alert, and possibly resulted in that series of keyed instru- 
 ments of which the pianoforte is the surviving type. 
 The viols had six strings only, and the lute with eleven 
 had five duplicates, so that it only had six pitches. 
 The archlute had as many as twenty-four, with eleven 
 doubles, so that experiments in that way did not 
 prove satisfactory. The decachord is mentioned in 
 Psalm xcii. 3 and Psalm cxliv. 9. 
 
 Psalm xxxiv. 
 
 A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before 
 
 Abimelech ; who drove him away, and he departed. 
 
 Benedicam Domino. 
 
 1 I will always give thanks 
 unto the Lord : his praise shall 
 ever be in my mouth. 
 
 2 My soul shall make her 
 boast in the Lord : the humble 
 shall hear thereof, and be 
 glad. 
 
 3 O praise the Lord with 
 
 me : and let us magnify his 
 Name together. 
 
 4 I sought the Lord and he 
 heard me : yea, he delivered 
 me out of all my fear. 
 
 5 They had an eye unto him 
 and were lightened : and their 
 faces were not ashamed. 
 
 77
 
 Day 6] 
 
 Psalm xxxiv. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 6 Lo, the poor crieth, and- 
 the Lord heareth him : yea, and 
 saveth him out of all his 
 troubles. 
 
 7 The angel of the Lord 
 tarrieth round about them that 
 fear him : and delivereth them. 
 
 8 O taste, and see, how 
 gracious the Lord is : blessed is 
 the man that trusteth in him. 
 
 9 O fear the Lord, ye that 
 are his saints : for they that fear 
 him lack nothing. 
 
 10 The lions do lack and 
 suffer hunger : but they who 
 seek the Lord shall want no 
 manner of thing that is good. 
 
 11 Come, ye children, and 
 hearken unto me : I will teach 
 you the fear of the Lord. 
 
 12 What man is he that 
 lusteth to live : and would fain 
 see good days ? 
 
 13 Keep thy tongue from 
 evil : and thy lips, that they 
 speak no guile. 
 
 14 Eschew evil, and do 
 good : seek peace, and ensue 
 
 15 The eyes of the Lord are 
 over the righteous : and his ears 
 are open unto their prayers. 
 
 1 6 The countenance of the 
 Lord is against them that do 
 evil : to root out the remem- 
 brance of them from the earth. 
 
 17 The righteous cry, and 
 the Lord heareth them : and 
 delivereth them out of all their 
 troubles. 
 
 1 8 The Lord is nigh unto 
 them that are of a contrite 
 heart : and will save such as be 
 of an humble spirit. 
 
 19 Great are the troubles of 
 the righteous : but the Lord 
 delivereth him out of all. 
 
 20 He keepeth all his bones : 
 so that not one of them is 
 broken. 
 
 21 But misfortune shall slay 
 the ungodly : and they that 
 hate the righteous shall be 
 desolate. 
 
 22 The Lord delivereth the 
 souls of his servants : and all 
 they that put their trust in him 
 shall not be destitute. 
 
 All 
 
 Many Martyrs ; 
 
 it. 
 
 7,rt////.v. Monday Matins ; 
 Saints. 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning. 
 
 This has been called the invitation psalm, and since 
 the time of the Apostolical constitutions used as an 
 invitation to the Blessed Sacrament. It is so recom- 
 mended by St. Cyril, St. Jerome, and many others, 
 principally of course for the eighth verse. 
 
 Among the Egyptian martyrs, in the worst persecu- 
 78
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm XXxiv. [ Da y 6 
 
 tion, that of Diocletian, was St. Theodore a bishop, 
 who was brought into Alexandria to be examined, and 
 was ordered to be scourged as a preliminary. He 
 chaunted this psalm as the blows fell upon him : " Lo, 
 the poor crieth." But before the discipline was over 
 he was saved out of all his troubles by dying under the 
 rods. 
 
 Among the Christian missionaries in the warfare witli 
 the Norsemen is St. Evroult, founder of the Abbey 
 of Ouche (sixth century), who with three monks pene- 
 trated into that forest to settle, and serve God. One of 
 the inhabitants, a robber, came and warned him that 
 no one lived on that barren place except by plunder. 
 St. Evroult replied with dignity that Almighty God 
 had brought them thither not to usurp the place, but 
 to bewail their sins, and that He would prepare them 
 a table, to which the robber might come if he would 
 eschew evil ; else, he added, the same passage contains 
 a terrible threat. The robber, touched to the heart, 
 came next day with three cakes and a honeycomb, and 
 Hung himself at St. Evroult's feet and promised to 
 amend his life. In this he was the first of many 
 similar brethren (see Ps. xli.). 
 
 This psalm is associated with John, first Bishop of 
 Holar, in Iceland, who in a dream heard David sing, 
 and reproduced the music on a harp to King Swegen. 
 He was the friend of Saemund, the poet and col- 
 lector of the Edda, and he died 23rd April 1121, sing- 
 ing this psalm. " As he had this psalm in his mouth, 
 and was uttering these blessed words, his saintly spirit 
 left his body and was borne by angels to that joy 
 which is prepared by Almighty God, where he may 
 always give thanks unto Him, with other saints." 
 
 Verse 3. Magni/icate Dominum mecuni is a church 
 bell motto, e.g. on a 1709 bell at Peterborough. 
 
 Verne 5. When Bishop Fisher ascended the scaffold 
 the south-east sun shined very brightly upon 
 79
 
 Day 6] Psalm XXxiv. [Evening Prayer 
 
 him and he was heard to say, Accedite ad cum <-t 
 illuminamini ct fades vestrce non confundcnlur. 
 
 Verse 10. In 5 1 3 Caesarius, Bishop of Aries, had spent 
 all his revenues ransoming captives and maintaining 
 those who could not find ransom. His steward pointed 
 out one day that if the captives were fed his barn 
 would be bare. Caesarius quoted this verse and ordered 
 the last grain to be got ready for the poor. Next day 
 three corn vessels came in from the King of Burgundy 
 for Caesarius' benefice. 
 
 St. Columba had a presentiment of his approach- 
 ing end. On Saturday, 8th June 597 A.D., he walked 
 out with some of his brethren at lona and thanked 
 God, as he looked in at the granaiy, for the corn 
 he had been able to lay up for the winter. On 
 his return he began to transcribe this psalm, but 
 coming to the tenth vei'se, he remarked that he might 
 as well stop here. " The next words belong rather 
 to my successor than to myself." At the midnight 
 Matins he was found on the altar step, dying indeed, 
 but smiling and blessing the brethren, and " doubtless 
 seeing the holy angels coming to meet him." He w r as 
 the son of an Ulster chief, and had been a great builder 
 of churches. 
 
 Nicholas Brady's version of this psalm, " Through 
 all the changing scenes of life," was written in 1696. 
 The author (1659-1726) was educated at Westminster 
 and Christchurch, and was chaplain to Ormonde's 
 Horse. He held livings at Richmond, Stratford, and 
 Clapham, and was a strong supporter of the House of 
 Orange. A contemporary of his, Increase Mather of 
 Harvard, published in 1696 a volume called A/igelo- 
 graphia (sermons on ver. 7). He was employed to 
 give the thanks of the colony to James n. for his 
 declaration of liberty of conscience. 
 
 80
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm XXXV. 
 
 [Day 7 
 
 THE SEVENTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xxxv. 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Judica, Domine. 
 
 1 Plead thou my cause, O 
 Lord, with them that strive 
 with me : and fight thou against 
 them that fight against me. 
 
 2 Lay hand upon the shield 
 and buckler : and stand up to 
 help me. 
 
 3 Bring forth the spear, and 
 stop the way against them that 
 persecute me : say unto my soul, 
 I am thy salvation. 
 
 4 Let them be confounded, 
 and put to shame, that seek 
 after my soul : let them be 
 turned back, and brought to 
 confusion, that imagine mischief 
 for me. 
 
 5 Let them be as the dust 
 before the wind : and the angel 
 of the Lord scattering them. 
 
 6 Let their way be dark and 
 slippery : and let the angel of 
 the Lord persecute them. 
 
 7 For they have privily laid 
 their net to destroy me without 
 a cause : yea, even without a 
 cause have they made a pit for 
 my soul. 
 
 8 Let a sudden destruction 
 come upon him unawares, and 
 his net, that he hath laid 
 
 F 8l 
 
 privily, catch himself: that he 
 may fall into his own mischief. 
 
 9 And, my soul, be joyful in 
 the Lord : it shall rejoice in his 
 salvation. 
 
 10 All my bones shall say, 
 Lord, who is like unto thee, 
 who deliverest the poor from 
 him that is too strong for him : 
 yea, the poor, and him that is 
 in misery, from him that spoileth 
 him ? 
 
 11 False witnesses did rise 
 up : they laid to my charge 
 things that I knew not. 
 
 12 They rewarded me evil for 
 good : to the great discomfort 
 of my soul. 
 
 13 Nevertheless, when they 
 were sick, I put on sackcloth, 
 and humbled my soul with 
 fasting : and my prayer shall 
 turn into mine own bosom. 
 
 14 I behaved myself as though 
 it had been my friend, or my 
 brother : I went heavily, as one 
 that mourneth for his mother. 
 
 15 But in mine adversity they 
 rejoiced, and gathered them- 
 selves together : yea, the very 
 abjects came together against
 
 Day 7] 
 
 Psalm xxxv. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 me unawares, making mouths 
 at me, and ceased not. 
 
 1 6 With the flatterers were 
 busy mockers : who gnashed 
 upon me with their teeth. 
 
 17 Lord, how long wilt thou 
 look upon this : O deliver my 
 soul from the calamities which 
 they bring on me, and my 
 darling from the lions. 
 
 1 8 So will I give thee thanks 
 in the great congregation : I 
 will praise thee among much 
 people. 
 
 19 O let not them that are 
 mine enemies triumph over me 
 ungodly : neither let them wink 
 with their eyes that hate me 
 without a cause. 
 
 20 And why? their commun- 
 ing is not for peace : but they 
 imagine deceitful words against 
 them that are quiet in the 
 land. 
 
 21 They gaped upon me with 
 their mouths, and said : " Fie 
 on thee, fie on thee, we saw it 
 with our eyes." 
 
 22 This thou hast seen, O 
 Lord : hold not thy tongue 
 
 then, go not far from me, O 
 Lord. 
 
 23 Awake, and stand up to 
 judge my quarrel : avenge thou 
 my cause, my God, and my 
 Lord. 
 
 24 Judge me, O Lord my 
 God, according to thy righteous- 
 ness : and let them not triumph 
 over me. 
 
 25 Let them not say in their 
 hearts, "There, there, so would 
 we have it " : neither let them 
 say, " We have devoured him." 
 
 26 Let them be put to con- 
 fusion and shame together, that 
 rejoice at my trouble : let 
 them be clothed with rebuke 
 and dishonour, that boast them- 
 selves against me. 
 
 27 Let them be glad and 
 rejoice, that favour my righteous 
 dealing : yea, let them say 
 alway, "Blessed be the Lord, 
 who hath pleasure in the 
 prosperity of his servant." 
 
 28 And as for my tongue, it 
 shall be talking of thy righteous- 
 ness : and of thy praise all the 
 day long. 
 
 Latins. Monday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning. 
 
 This psalm is a cry of a persecuted and insurgent 
 people. Hence it was the motto of .James Graham, 
 first Marquis of Montrose (1612-1650), in his gallant 
 attempt to deliver the kingdom from the military 
 tyranny of the Commonwealth. His declaration was 
 that he had come to assist good subjects and to 
 82
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm XXXV. [Day 7 
 
 preserve them from oppression. Upon his banners he 
 had inscribed : Judge thou, O Lord, and avenge my 
 cause (ver. 23). Though he had, at first, been a 
 Covenanter, he found that there was neither civil nor 
 religious freedom to be found among the king's 
 enemies. His last gallant effort to set free the 
 oppressed, after the murder of Charles i., is a shameful 
 story of insolence and perfidy. He was invited to 
 the Scotch mainland, deserted, taken by David 
 Leslie and carried in a high cart into Edinburgh, and 
 on 21st May 1650 hanged on a gallows thirty feet 
 high, his head and limbs cut off, and his body buried 
 under the gallows, as excommunicated by the 
 Presbyterians. He warned the people that the 
 ministers would bring them to the most insupportable 
 servitude ever people had submitted to, and said that 
 he was prouder to have his head set on the Tolbooth 
 than he could have been to have his picture in the 
 king's bedchamber ; and he wished he had flesh 
 enough not only for four cities, but for all Christendom, 
 as a testimony for the cause for which he suffered. 
 
 There is a celebrated passage of Richard Hooker's 
 (1554- 1600) which is quoted in many books upon 
 the psalms. It is almost a literal translation from 
 Torquemada, the Dominican Inquisitor (1420-1498). 
 " What is there necessary for man to know, which the 
 Psalms are not able to teach ? They are, to beginners, 
 an easy and familiar introduction ; a mighty augmen- 
 tation of all virtue and knowledge in such as are 
 entered before ; a strong confirmation to the most 
 perfect amongst others. Heroical magnanimity, 
 exquisite justice, grave moderation, exact wisdom, 
 patience unfeigned, unwearied patience, the mysteries 
 of God, the sufferings of Christ, the terrors of wrath, 
 the comforts of grace, the works of Providence over 
 this world, and the promised joys of the world which 
 is to come, all good necessarily to be either known or 
 
 83
 
 Day 7] 
 
 Psalm XXXvi. [Morning Prayer 
 
 done or had, this one celestial fountain yieldeth. 
 Let there be any grief or disease incident unto the 
 soul of man, any wound or sickness named, for which 
 there is not in this treasure-house a present comfort- 
 able remedy at all times ready to be found. Hereof 
 it is that we covet to make the Psalms especially 
 familiar unto us all." 
 
 This psalm is called in Scotland the psalm of James 
 Stewart of the Glens, who was hanged wrongfully for 
 the murder of Colin Campbell of Glenure, the Red 
 Fox, in 1752. He repeated this psalm at the 
 gallows. 
 
 Psalm xxxvi. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord. 
 Dixit injustus. 
 
 1 My heart sheweth me the 
 wickedness of the ungodly : 
 that there is no fear of God 
 before his eyes. 
 
 2 For he flattereth himself in 
 his own sight : until his abomin- 
 able sin be found out. 
 
 3 The words of his mouth 
 are unrighteous, and full of 
 deceit : he hath left off to behave 
 himself wisely, and to do good. 
 
 4 He imagineth mischief upon 
 his bed, and hath set. himself 
 in no good way : neither doth 
 he abhor any thing that is evil. 
 
 5 Thy mercy, O Lord, 
 reacheth unto the heavens : and 
 thy faithfulness unto the clouds. 
 
 6 Thy righteousness standeth 
 like the strong mountains : thy 
 
 judgements are like the great 
 deep. 
 
 7 Thou, Lord, shall save both 
 man and beast ; How excellent 
 is thy mercy, O God : and the 
 children of men shall put their 
 trust under the shadow of thy 
 wings. 
 
 8 They shall be satisfied with 
 the plenteousness of thy house : 
 and thou shalt give them drink 
 of thy pleasures, as out of the 
 river. 
 
 9 For with thee is the well 
 of life : and in thy light shall 
 we see light. 
 
 10 O continue forth thy 
 loving-kindness unto them that 
 know thee : and thy righteousness 
 unto them that are true of heart.
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm XXXvi. 
 
 [Day 7 
 
 II O let not the foot of pride 
 come against me : and let not 
 the hand of the ungodly cast me 
 down. 
 
 12 There are they fallen, all 
 that work wickedness : they are 
 cast down, and shall not be 
 able to stand. 
 
 Latins. Monday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Monday morning. 
 
 This psalm, perhaps more than any other, seems to 
 be an epitome and anticipation of the teaching of 
 St. John the Divine. It might almost be called St. 
 John's psalm. The very application of the words is 
 in St. John's style. The ninth verse, for instance, in 
 lumine tuo videbimus lumen, is directly glanced at in 
 the Lumen de Lumine (Light of Light) used of Christ 
 by the Nicene Creed. Piers Ploughman heard all 
 the saints in heaven sing the seventh verse for joy 
 over the sinner that repents. 
 
 Verse 8 is associated with St. Cuthbert (ob. 687), 
 who when his monks were much discouraged at the 
 barrenness of Fame Island, promised them, on the 
 strength of these words, a supply of sweet water. 
 This was shortly discovered. St. Cuthbert died on 
 this island and his bones were removed to Durham in 
 the reign of Henry i. 
 
 Verse 9 has done much to fortify the opinion 
 of those who, like Bishop Butler, held that eternal life 
 is possible to animals ; and from the same source have 
 been drawn many noble pleas for mercy to these our 
 fellow-creatures. Among the latter is the sermon by 
 Josias Shute (1588-1643) to the East India Company, 
 where he says : " David will rather venture on a lion 
 than lose a lamb : Jacob will endure heat by day and 
 cold by night rather than neglect his flocks : Moses 
 will fight with odds rather than the cattle shall 
 perish with thirst." This merciful man died Arch- 
 deacon of Colchester. 
 
 From a very early date this psalm has supplied 
 materials for some of the great hymns of the Church. 
 
 85
 
 Day 7] 
 
 Psalm XXXvii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 The second-century hymn, which Keble translates 
 " Hail Gladdening Light," St. Ambrose's Splendor 
 Paternce glorice, St. Bernard's Jesu, dulcedo cordiitm, 
 and many more contain echoes of it. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xxxvii. 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Noli aemulari. 
 
 1 Fret not thyself because of 
 the ungodly : neither be thou 
 envious against the evil doers. 
 
 2 For they shall soon be cut 
 down like the grass : and be 
 withered even as the green 
 herb. 
 
 3 Put thou thy trust in the 
 Lord, and be doing good : 
 dwell in the land, and verily 
 thou shall be fed. 
 
 4 Delight thou in the Lord : 
 and he shall give thee thy 
 heart's desire. 
 
 5 Commit thy way unto the 
 Lord, and put thy trust in him : 
 and he shall bring it to pass. 
 
 6 He shall make thy righteous- 
 ness as clear as the light : and 
 thy just dealing as the noon- 
 day. 
 
 7 Hold thee still in the Lord, 
 and abide patiently upon him : 
 but grieve not thyself at him, 
 whose way doth prosper, against 
 the man that doeth after evil 
 counsels. 
 
 86 
 
 8 Leave off from wrath, and 
 let go displeasure : fret not thy- 
 self, else shalt thou be moved to 
 do evil. 
 
 9 Wicked doers shall be 
 rooted out : and they that 
 patiently abide the Lord, those 
 shall inherit the land. 
 
 10 Yet a little while, and the 
 ungodly shall be clean gone : 
 thou shalt look after his place, 
 and he shall be away. 
 
 11 But the meek-spirited 
 shall possess the earth : and 
 shall be refreshed in the 
 multitude of peace. 
 
 12 The ungodly seeketh 
 counsel against the just : and 
 gnasheth upon him with his 
 teeth. 
 
 13 The Lord shall laugh him 
 to scorn : for he hath seen that 
 his day is coming. 
 
 14 The ungodly have drawn 
 out the sword, and have bent 
 their bow : to cast down the 
 poor and needy, and to slay
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm XXXvii. 
 
 [Day 7 
 
 such as are of a right con- 
 versation. 
 
 15 Their sword shall go 
 through their own heart : and 
 their bow shall be broken. 
 
 16 A small thing that the 
 righteous hath : is better than 
 great riches of the ungodly. 
 
 17 For the arms of the un- 
 godly shall be broken : and the 
 Lord upholdeth the righteous. 
 
 1 8 The Lord knoweth the 
 days of the godly : and their in- 
 heritance shall endure for ever. 
 
 19 They shall not be con- 
 founded in the perilous time : 
 and in the days of dearth they 
 shall have enough. 
 
 20 As for the ungodly, they 
 shall perish ; and the enemies 
 of the Lord shall consume as 
 the fat of lambs : yea, even as 
 the smoke, shall they consume 
 away. 
 
 21 The ungodly borroweth, 
 and payeth not again : but the 
 righteous is merciful, and liberal. 
 
 22 Such as are blessed of 
 God shall possess the land : 
 and they that are cursed of 
 him shall be rooted out. 
 
 23 The Lord ordereth a good 
 man's going : and maketh his 
 way acceptable to himself. 
 
 24 Though he fall, he shall 
 not be cast away : for the Lord 
 upholdeth him with his hand. 
 
 25 I have been young, and 
 now am old : and yet saw I | 
 
 87 
 
 never the righteous forsaken, 
 nor his seed begging their 
 bread. 
 
 26 The righteous is ever 
 merciful, and lendeth : and his 
 seed is blessed. 
 
 27 Flee from evil, and do the 
 thing that is good : and dwell 
 for evermore. 
 
 28 For the Lord loveth the 
 thing that is right : he forsakeih 
 not his that be godly, but they 
 are preserved for ever. 
 
 29 The unrighteous shall be 
 punished : as for the seed of 
 the ungodly, it shall be rooted 
 out. 
 
 30 The righteous shall in- 
 herit the land : and dwell 
 therein for ever. 
 
 3 1 The mouth of the righteous 
 is exercised in wisdom : and 
 his tongue will be talking of 
 judgement. 
 
 32 The law of his God is in 
 his heart : and his goings shall 
 not slide. 
 
 33 The ungodly seeth the 
 righteous : and seeketh occasion 
 to slay him. 
 
 34 The Lord will not leave 
 him in his hand : nor condemn 
 him when he is judged. 
 
 35 Hope thou in the Lord, 
 and keep his way, and he shall 
 promote thee, that thou shalt 
 possess the land : when the un- 
 
 ;odly shall perish, thou shalt 
 see it.
 
 Day 7] 
 
 Psalm XXXVli. [Evening Prayer 
 
 36 I myself have seen the 
 ungodly in great power : and 
 flourishing like a green bay-tree. 
 
 37 I went by, and lo, he was 
 gone : I sought him, but his 
 place could nowhere be found. 
 
 38 Keep innocency, and take 
 heed unto the thing that is right : 
 for that shall bring a man peace 
 at the last. 
 
 39 As for the transgressors, 
 they shall perish together : and 
 
 the end of the ungodly is, they 
 shall be rooted out at the last. 
 
 40 But the salvation of the 
 righteous cometh of the Lord : 
 who is also their strength in the 
 time of trouble. 
 
 41 And the Lord shall stand 
 by them, and save them : he 
 shall deliver them from the 
 ungodly, and shall save them, 
 because they put their trust in 
 him. 
 
 Latins. Monday Matins. 
 
 ( i reeks. Monday morning. 
 
 This psalm has been called " a draught against 
 grumbling," and .also the "mirror of Providence." It 
 is alphabetical, a pair of verses going to a letter. Its 
 moral epigrams have made it, in use and work, more 
 to be taken as affording texts and mottoes than as 
 expressing one great aspiration. For this reason it 
 has had an immense popularity among modern sermon- 
 writers in our swifter and less continuous times. 
 
 Emmanuel the Fortunate (1495-1521), King of 
 Portugal, took for his motto verse three, Spera hi 
 Dunn-no, and by a play upon the first word took the 
 sphere for his device. The churches of his reign are 
 surmounted by a sphere instead of the cross. 
 
 Verse 5 was a favourite motto with the great 
 African explorer David Livingstone (1818-1873), who 
 did so much to discover Central Africa. He was for 
 seventeen years a missionary, and for sixteen a pro- 
 fessional explorer. 
 
 Verse 1 1 being incorporated in the Beatitudes 
 has necessarily had less of the attention of Christen- 
 dom than if it had no New Testament version. 
 But Fuller (l()08-lfj(jl), that great royalist parson, 
 comforted many distressed souls in the decline
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm XXXvIi. [ Da 3 r 7 
 
 of the Commonwealth by his "Mixed Contemplations" : 
 " I was much affected with reading that distich in 
 Ovid, as having something extraordinary therein : 
 
 Tarpeia quondam pr&dixit ab ilice comix, 
 Est bate, non poltiit dicere, dixit erit. 
 
 The crow sometimes did sit and spell on top of Tarpie Hall, 
 She could not say, All's well ! all's well ! but said, It shall 
 it shall ! 
 
 But what do I listen to the language of the crow 
 whose black colour hath a cast of hell therein, in 
 superstitious soothsaying ? Let us hearken to what 
 the dove of the Holy Spirit saith, promising God's 
 servants that, though the present times be bad, the 
 future will be better. 'The meek shall inherit the 
 earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance 
 of peace '" (Ps. xxxvii. 11). * 
 
 Verse 23. One cannot but think of the descrip- 
 tion in The Netecomu of the old colonel in the 
 Grey Friars' Almshouse, in the black gown of 
 the pensioners with the Order of the Bath on his 
 breast, standing among the Poor Brethren and re- 
 peating the responses of the Founder's psalm. 
 
 Verse 24 was St. Gregory Nazianzen's comment 
 on the death of his sister Gorgonia (fourth century). 
 It was also applied by Henry of Blois, Bishop of 
 Winchester, to St. Thomas of Canterbury when he 
 heard of the martyrdom (1170). 
 
 Verse 25. Langland (fourteenth century) makes Piers 
 the Ploughman conclude from this that "the Book 
 banneth beggary." 
 
 Verse 27. A favourite verse of St. Benedict of Aniane 
 (ninth century), a contemporary and friend of Alcuin's. 
 He was Charlemagne's cup-bearer, who, being saved 
 from drowning, became a monk of such austerity as 
 to court derision. His house was of wood, the vest- 
 ments coarse, and the chalice of wood and glass. He 
 89
 
 Day 8] 
 
 Psalm XXXviii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 reformed the monasteries of Acquitaine, making the 
 monks labour at farming. He was used to say this 
 verse : " If you think you cannot keep many command- 
 ments, keep only this one little one." 
 
 William of Newburgh sums up the history of 
 William Rufus (1199) in verses 36-37 when he heard 
 of the death of this most ferocious of men. The thirty- 
 eighth verse is a favourite one for the preachers of 
 funeral sermons, particularly in the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries, from Fuller to Wesley. Sir 
 Walter Scott (1771-1832), when he lay dying, "while 
 the Tweed murmured through the woods and a 
 September sun lit up the towers," called his son-in- 
 law and said to him : " Be a good man : only that can 
 comfort you when you come to lie here ! " evidently 
 paraphrasing this celebrated verse. 
 
 THE EIGHTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xxxviii. 
 
 A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. 
 Domine, ne in furore. 
 
 I Put me not to rebuke, O gone over my head : and are 
 like a sore burden, too heavy 
 for me to bear. 
 
 5 My wounds stink, and are 
 corrupt : through my foolishness. 
 
 6 I am brought into so great 
 trouble and misery : that I go 
 mourning all the day long. 
 
 7 For my loins are filled with 
 a sore disease ; and there is no 
 whole part in my body. 
 
 8 I am feeble, and sore 
 
 Lord, in thine anger : neither 
 chasten me in thy heavy dis- 
 pleasure. 
 
 2 For thine arrows stick fast 
 in me : and thy hand presseth 
 me sore. 
 
 3 There is no health in my 
 flesh, because of thy displeasure : 
 neither is there any rest in my 
 bones, by reason of my sin. 
 
 4 For my wickednesses are 
 
 90
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm XXXviii. 
 
 [Day 8 
 
 smitten : I have roared for 
 the very disquietness of my 
 heart. 
 
 9 Lord, thou knowest all my 
 desire : and my groaning is not 
 hid from thee. 
 
 10 My heart panteth, my 
 strength hath failed me : and 
 the sight of mine eyes is gone 
 from me. 
 
 11 My lovers and my neigh- 
 bours did stand looking upon 
 my trouble : and my kinsmen 
 stood afar off. 
 
 12 They also that sought 
 after my life laid snares for 
 me : and they that went about 
 to do me evil talked of wicked- 
 ness, and imagined deceit all 
 the day long. 
 
 13 As for me, I was like a 
 deaf man, and heard not : and 
 as one that is dumb, who doth 
 not open his mouth. 
 
 14 I became even as a man 
 that heareth not : and in whose 
 
 15 For in thee, O Lord, have 
 I put my trust : thou shalt 
 answer for me, O Lord my God. 
 
 1 6 I have required that they, 
 even mine enemies, should not 
 triumph over me : for when 
 my foot slipped, they rejoiced 
 greatly against me. 
 
 17 And I, truly, am set in 
 the plague : and my heaviness 
 is ever in my sight. 
 
 1 8 For I will confess my 
 wickedness : and be sorry for 
 my sin. 
 
 19 But mine enemies live, 
 and are mighty : and they that 
 hate me wrongfully are many in 
 number. 
 
 20 They also that reward evil 
 for good are against me : be- 
 cause I follow the thing that 
 good is. 
 
 21 Forsake me not, O Lord 
 my God : be not thou far from 
 me. 
 
 22 Haste thee to help me : 
 O Lord God of my salvation. 
 
 mouth are no reproofs. 
 
 Liturgical use. Ash Wednesday Matins. 
 
 Latins. Monday Matins ; Good Friday Matins ; 
 Visitation of the sick. 
 
 Greeks. Monday evening ; Dawn in Lent. 
 
 The third penitential psalm (vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., 
 cii., cxxx., cxliii.). This is the antidote against the 
 deadly sin of Gula, gluttony, a term which includes 
 drunkenness. 
 
 The penitential psalms have long ago minted 
 phrases which are in current circulation. Some 
 may be gathered from our version, such as : " Presseth
 
 Day 8] Psalm XXXviii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 me sore " ; " My foot slipped " ; " Make haste to help 
 me," and so on. The Vulgate in the tenth verse has, 
 Lumen oculorum the light of mine eyes is not with me 
 which seems to be the original of that famous phrase. 
 
 This is a poet's psalm, as well as a popular one. 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1540) turned it into verse 
 of ten-syllable lines. He first introduced the sonnet 
 into England, had been a suitor of Anne Boleyn's, and, 
 though he passed through many perils, escaped death 
 by violence. He had a love for the seven psalms and 
 for Psalmxxxvii., part of which also he turned into verse. 
 
 In his letter to his son, which he desires him to 
 read, he tells him that he has "been in a thousand 
 dangers and hazards, enmities, hatreds, prisonments, 
 despites, and indignations, but that God hath of His 
 goodness chastised me and not cast me clean out of 
 His favour ; which thing I can impute to nothing but 
 to the goodness of my good father " (Sir Henry Wyatt). 
 
 Edmund Spenser (1552-15.99) also wrote a version 
 of the penitential psalms, which is lost. 
 
 Verse 15 gives the refrain to George Herbert's 
 beautiful poem, "The Quip." The World, Beauty, 
 Money, Glory, and Wit in turn jeer at the poet, 
 Avho replies to all, "Thou shalt answer, Lord, for 
 me." 
 
 " Yet when the houre of Thy designe 
 
 To answer these fine things shall come, 
 Speak not at large, say, I am thine, 
 
 And then they have their answer home." 
 
 The same text is among the last recorded sayings of 
 John Wesley (1703-1791). 
 
 The opening words, Dotnine ne in furore tuo argitax 
 me, neque in ird iua corripias me, are not uncommon as 
 a mediaeval inscription, particularly in bequests and 
 memorials, e.g. on the paten left to Yeovil Church by 
 the vicar, John Glanvill, 1407. The words are a prayer 
 92
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm XXxix. 
 
 [Day 8 
 
 to be spared from torment and from hell-fire, both of 
 which are now supposed to be too heavy for the be- 
 littled white-washed souls of modern men to endure. 
 
 Psalm xxxix. 
 
 To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. 
 Dixi custodian. 
 
 1 I said, " I will take heed to 
 my ways : that I offend not in 
 my tongue. 
 
 2 "I will keep my mouth 
 as it were with a bridle : while 
 the ungodly is in my sight." 
 
 3 I held my tongue, and 
 spake nothing : I kept silence, 
 yea, even from good words ; but 
 it was pain and grief to me. 
 
 4 My heart was hot within 
 me, and while I was thus 
 musing the fire kindled : and 
 at the last I spake with my 
 tongue ; 
 
 5 "Lord, let me know mine 
 end, and the number of my 
 days : that I may be certified 
 how long I have to live. 
 
 6 Behold, thou hast made my 
 days as it were a span long : 
 and mine age is even as nothing 
 in respect of thee ; and verily 
 every man living is altogether 
 vanity. 
 
 7 For man walketh in a vain 
 shadow, and disquieteth him- 
 self in vain : he heapeth up 
 riches, and cannot tell who 
 shall gather them. 
 
 8 And now, Lord, what is 
 my hope : truly my hope is 
 even in thee. 
 
 9 Deliver me from all mine 
 offences : and make me not a 
 rebuke unto the foolish. 
 
 10 I became dumb, and 
 opened not my mouth : for it 
 was thy doing. 
 
 11 Take thy plague away 
 from me : I am even consumed 
 by the means of thy heavy 
 hand. 
 
 12 When thou with rebukes 
 dost chasten man for sin, thou 
 makest his beauty to consume 
 away, like as it were a moth 
 fretting a garment : every man 
 therefore is but vanity. 
 
 13 Hear my prayer, O Lord, 
 and with thine ears consider 
 my calling : hold not thy peace 
 at my tears. 
 
 14 For I am a stranger with 
 thee : and a sojourner, as all 
 my fathers were. 
 
 15 O spare me a little, that 
 I may recover my strength : 
 before I go hence, and be no 
 more seen." 
 
 93
 
 Day 8] Psalm XXXIX. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Liturgical use. Burial of the dead. 
 
 Latins. Tuesday morning. 
 
 Greeks. Monday evening. 
 
 The ancient burial psalms of the English were cxiv., 
 xxv., cxviii., xlii., cxxxii., cxxxix., cxlviii., cxlix., cl., 
 and the seven of penitence. In 1549 the burial psalms 
 were cxvi., cxxxix., and cxlvi., of which only the second 
 followed the ancient use ; xlii. was used at the requiem 
 also. For one hundred and nine years the psalms were 
 then banished from funerals (1552-1661), when the 
 two now in use were inserted, because Laud, feeling 
 the need of psalms, had used these for burials. 
 
 St. Ambrose (fourth century) was stirred up by this 
 psalm to write his book of the Offices, being much 
 moved by its holy tone, patience, apt speech, and by 
 that contempt of riches which is the foundation of all 
 virtue. It was also a favourite of Robert Leighton 
 (l6l 1-1 684), Archbishop of Glasgow, and a famous 
 preacher. 
 
 There is a story related by Socrates Scholasticus 
 (and referred to by Robert Browning in his " Jocoseria ") 
 that St. Isidore gave the first verse of this psalm as 
 a lesson to a pupil of his, Pambo by name. The 
 scholar never came for a second lesson for nineteen 
 years, and when asked the reason said that he had not 
 yet learnt his first lesson. 
 
 Verse 4. John Keble (1792-1866) used to say that 
 this verse contained the secret of all poetry, strong 
 feeling, meditative reason, and, lastly, expression. 
 
 Verse 7. G. Cavendish (1557) sums up the life of 
 Cardinal Wolsey with a passage of great eloquence 
 applicable to all history : " Who list to read and 
 consider, with an indifferent eye, this history, may 
 behold the wondrous mutability of vain honours, the 
 brittle assurance of abundance, the uncertainty of 
 dignities, the flattering of feigned friends, and the 
 tickle trust to worldly princes, whereof this Lord 
 94
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm xl. [Day 8 
 
 Cardinal hath felt both of sweet and the sour in each 
 degree ; as fleeting from honours, losing of riches, 
 deposed from dignities, forsaken of friends, and the 
 inconstantness of princes' favour, of all which things 
 he hath had in this world the full felicity, as long as 
 fortune smiled upon him ; but when she began to 
 frown, how soon was he deprived of all these dream- 
 ing joys and vain pleasures. The which in twenty 
 years with great travail, study, and pains, obtained, 
 were in one year and less, with heaviness, care, and 
 sorrow, lost and consumed. O madness ! O foolish 
 desire ! O fond hope ! O greedy desire of vain 
 honours, dignities, and riches ! O what inconstant 
 trust and assurance in rolling fortune ! Wherefore 
 the prophet said full well, Thcsanrizat, ct igtiorat cui 
 
 I'crsc 10. Among the last words of John Calvin, who 
 died of the asthma (1564). 
 
 Psalm xl. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 Expectans expectavi. 
 
 1 I waited patiently for the 5 Blessed is the man that 
 Lord : and he inclined unto hath set his hope in the Lord : 
 me, and heard my calling. I and turned not unto the proud, 
 
 2 He brought me also out of and to such as go about with lies, 
 the horrible pit, out of the 6 O Lord my God, great are 
 mire and clay : and set my feet the wondrous works which thou 
 upon the rock, and ordered ; hast done, like as be also thy 
 
 thoughts which are to us-ward : 
 and yet there is no man that 
 ordereth them unto thee. 
 
 7 If I should declare them, 
 and speak of them : they should 
 be more than 1 am able to 
 express. 
 
 my goings. 
 
 3 And he hath put a new 
 song in my mouth : even a 
 thank-diving unto our God. 
 
 4 Many shall see it, and 
 U-ar : and shall put their trust 
 in the Lord. 
 
 95
 
 Day 8] 
 
 Psalm xl. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 8 Sacrifice, and meat-offering, 
 thou wouldest not : but mine 
 ears hast thou opened. 
 
 9 Burnt-offerings, and sacri- 
 fice for sin, hast thou not re- 
 quired : then said I, " Lo, I come. 
 
 jo In the volume of the 
 book it is written of me, that I 
 should fulfil thy will, O my God : 
 I am content to do it ; yea, thy 
 law is within my heart." 
 
 ill have declared thy right- 
 eousness in the great congrega- 
 tion : lo, I will not refrain my 
 lips, O Lord, and that thou 
 knowest. 
 
 12 I have not hid thy 
 righteousness within my heart : 
 my talk hath been of thy truth, 
 and of thy salvation. 
 
 13 I have not kept back thy 
 loving mercy and truth : from 
 the great congregation. 
 
 14 Withdraw not thou thy 
 mercy from me, O Lord : let 
 thy loving-kindness and thy truth 
 alway preserve me. 
 
 15 For innumerable troubles 
 are come about me ; my sins 
 
 have taken such hold upon me 
 that I am not able to look up : 
 yea, they are more in number 
 than the hairs of my head, and 
 my heart hath failed me. 
 
 1 6 O Lord, let it be thy 
 pleasure to deliver me : make 
 haste, O Lord, to help me. 
 
 1 7 Let them be ashamed, and 
 confounded together, that seek 
 after my soul to destroy it : let 
 them be driven backward, and 
 put to rebuke, that wish me 
 evil. 
 
 1 8 Let them be desolate, and 
 rewarded with shame : that 
 say unto me, ' ' Fie upon thee, 
 fie upon thee." 
 
 19 Let all those that seek 
 thee be joyful and glad in thee : 
 and let such as love thy sal- 
 vation say alway, " The Lord 
 be praised." 
 
 20 As for me, I am poor 
 and needy : but the Lord 
 careth for me. 
 
 21 Thou art my helper and 
 redeemer : make no long tarry- 
 ing, O my God. 
 
 Liturgical use. Good Friday Matins. 
 
 Latins. Tuesday Matins ; Good Friday. 
 
 Greeks. Monday evening. 
 
 The use of this psalm is explained by the comments 
 upon it in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The opening 
 words were the last spoken by St. Francis de Sales, 
 who added: Advesperascit cl im-liiiala cat jam (Hex. He 
 was born in the diocese of Geneva in 1 ~)6~, and 
 96
 
 Kvening Prayer] Psalm xli. [Day 8 
 
 laboured to counteract the power of Calvin and 
 Xuinglius, with great success. He was made first 
 coadjutor and then bishop, and died in Lyons in 1622. 
 
 Amongst the smallest books in the British Museum 
 are two the size of a postage stamp (64mo). They 
 were printed in Birmingham in 1855. One is this 
 psalm and one Psalm cxlv. (I will magnify Thee, O 
 God my King). They have no note nor comment, and 
 are chosen apparently one for sorrow and one for happi- 
 ness, as expressing the gamut of human life. 
 
 There is a beautiful rabbinic legend quoted by the 
 old Guardian (No. 138) that Adam saw the spirits of 
 all his sons pass before him. The most beautiful of 
 all, he was told, was but to live one year. He prayed, 
 and obtained his prayer, that three score and ten of 
 his own years should be given to this spirit, and thus 
 Adam fell short of a thousand years by David's 
 seventy. This story not only shows the high opinion 
 that the rabbins entertained of the sweet Psalmist of 
 Israel, but also that the completeness of human life 
 is the measure of the psalms. 
 
 This was a psalm which kept the sculptor 
 Benvenuto Cellini from despair when he was in the 
 prison at Nonor in 1538. He was imprisoned in a 
 cell where a man had lately been starved to death, 
 and he narrowly escaped a like evil death in the 
 same place. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xli. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A 1'salm of David. 
 Beatus qui intelligit. 
 
 keep him alive, that he may be 
 blessed upon earth : and deliver 
 
 1 Blessed is he that consider- 
 eth the poor and needy : the 
 Lord shall deliver him in the 
 time of trouble. 
 
 2 The Lord preserve him, and 
 
 not thou him into the will of his 
 
 3 The Lord comfort him, 
 
 G 97
 
 Day 8] 
 
 Psalm xli. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 when he lieth sick upon his 
 bed : make them all his bed in 
 his sickness. 
 
 4 I said, "Lord, be merciful 
 unto me : heal my soul, for I 
 have sinned against thee." 
 
 5 Mine enemies speak evil of 
 me : " When shall he die, and 
 his name perish ?" 
 
 6 And if he come to see me, 
 he speaketh vanity : and his 
 heart conceiveth falsehood with- 
 in himself, and when he cometh 
 forth he telleth it. 
 
 7 All mine enemies whisper 
 together against me : even 
 against me do they imagine 
 this evil. 
 
 8 " Let the sentence of guilti- 
 ness proceed against him : and 
 
 now that he lieth, let him rise 
 up no more." 
 
 9 Yea, even mine own familiar 
 friend, whom I trusted : who 
 did also eat of my bread, hath 
 laid great wait for me. 
 
 10 But be thou merciful unto 
 me, O Lord : raise thou me 
 up again, and I shall reward 
 them. 
 
 11 By this I know thou 
 favourest me : that mine enemy 
 doth not triumph against me. 
 
 12 And when I am in my 
 health, thou upholdest me : and 
 shalt set me before thy face for 
 ever. 
 
 13 Blessed be the Lord God 
 of Israel : world without end. 
 Amen. 
 
 Liturgical use. Dirge (see Ps. v.). 
 
 Latins. Tuesday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Monday evening. 
 
 This is Judas Iscariot's psalm, because of the applica- 
 tion by our Lord (St. John xiii. 18) to that Apostle. 
 For this reason it was chosen by St. Ambrose in 
 Milan, for Wednesday use, the day of the betrayal. 
 St. Augustine comments upon it, as prophetic of the 
 resurrection, as appears more particularly in his Latin 
 version, e.g. vivificet make him alive, for keep him 
 alive in verse two, and so on. Hence it passed into 
 the Dirge for the Dead. 
 
 Because of the Judas application, it has figured in 
 many conspiracies the ninth verse in particular. 
 The citizens of Utrecht tried to warn Florence Count 
 of Holland, in 1296, of a nobles' conspiracy against 
 him, by presenting him with a paper, whereon this 
 98
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm xli. [f>ay 8 
 
 verse was inscribed. But the unhappy man neglected 
 the warning and was stabbed in twenty places. 
 Bishop Racket preached upon the same verse at 
 the thanksgiving after the Gowrie Conspiracy. 
 
 The first verse is one of the offertory sentences in 
 the Communion Office, and has been used as a motto, 
 title, and provocative to many good works, such as 
 in spital sermons, pleas for the dispensaries which 
 sprang up in the middle of the eighteenth century, 
 and the charity schools, which mostly began in the 
 latter end of the same and beginning of the next 
 century. 
 
 This psalm marks the end of the first book of the 
 psalms (vide end of volume). This division was made 
 by St. Gregory of Nyssa in Cappadocia (339-395), the 
 brother of St. Basil the Great, who took a prominent 
 part in the Council of Constantinople, 382. He con- 
 siders that the five books represent five stages in the 
 holy life. The first dissuades from vice and per- 
 suades to virtue ; the second represents the thirst and 
 ardour for righteousness ; the third describes the state 
 of those who have knowledge of holy things ; the 
 fourth raises men above earthly things, and the fifth 
 book elevates the mind to the summit of perfection. 
 
 The healing well of St. Evroult (vide Ps. xxiv.) 
 sprang from this psalm. One day a poor man asked 
 for food and was denied, for there was but half a loaf 
 left among all the brethi'en. St. Evrpult quoted the 
 opening words of the psalm and added : " Never will 
 He who made all fail to feed those for whom He 
 condescended to shed His precious blood, when nailed 
 to the tree." A messenger was sent after the poor 
 man with the half loaf, and where he overtook him 
 and gave him the loaf, he planted his staff in the 
 ground. From that hour and place a sudden and 
 noble stream gushed out and has never failed. 
 
 99
 
 Day 8] 
 
 Psalm xlii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 Psalm xlii. 
 
 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. 
 Quemadmodum. 
 
 1 Like as the hart desireth ' 
 the water-brooks : so longeth \ 
 my soul after thee, O God. 
 
 2 My soul is athirst for God, 
 yea, even for the living God : 
 when shall I come to appear 
 before the presence of God ? 
 
 3 My tears have been my 
 meat day and night : while they 
 daily say unto me, Where is 
 now thy God? 
 
 4 Now when I think there- 
 upon, I pour out my heart by 
 myself: for I went with the 
 multitude, and brought them 
 forth into the house of God ; 
 
 5 In the voice of praise and 
 thanksgiving : among such as 
 keep holy-day. 
 
 6 Why art thou so full of 
 heaviness, O my soul : and why 
 art thou so disquieted within me ? 
 
 7 Put thy trust in God : for I 
 will yet give him thanks for the 
 help of his countenance. 
 
 8 My God, my soul is vexed 
 within me : therefore will I 
 remember thee concerning the 
 land of Jordan, and the little 
 hill of Hermon. 
 
 9 One deep calleth another, 
 because of the noise of the water- 
 pipes : all thy waves and storms 
 are gone over me. 
 
 10 The Lord hath granted his 
 loving-kindness in the daytime : 
 and in the night-season did I 
 sing of him, and made my 
 prayer unto the God of my 
 life. 
 
 ill will say unto the God 
 of my strength, Why hast thou 
 forgotten me : why go I thus 
 heavily, while the enemy op- 
 presseth me ? 
 
 12 My bones are smitten 
 asunder as with a sword : while 
 mine enemies that trouble me 
 cast me in the teeth ; 
 
 13 Namely, while they say 
 daily unto me : Where is now 
 thy God ? 
 
 14 Why art thou so vexed, O 
 my soul : and why art thou so 
 disquieted within me ? 
 
 15 O put thy trust in God: 
 for I will yet thank him, which 
 is the help of my countenance, 
 and my God. 
 
 Liturgical use. Requiem Introit(e) ; Dirge (see Ps. v.). 
 Latins. Tuesday Matins ; Baptism of adults, 
 Greeks. Monday evening. 
 
 100
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm xlH. C Da y 8 
 
 This psalm gave the hart to early Christian pictorial 
 design, on the walls of the catacombs and elsewhere. 
 It is also the source of the buck or hart in more 
 modern heraldry ; and in Tate and Brady's version, " As 
 pants the hart for cooling streams," is known to all 
 lovers of hymns. It was formerly used in the English 
 Burial Service, of the dead thirsting for the better 
 portion which is to be theirs after the Great Day, of 
 the dead singing through the night, vexed and dis- 
 quieted but yet comforted by their faith. The mystic 
 character of the psalm has made it a favourite of 
 many deep and poetic writers, e.g. St. Jerome, and 
 the Venerable Bede who turned it into verse. The 
 deep which calls to deep has been interpreted in 
 many ways. Is it the inner meaning of the Old 
 Testament, calling in the cataract voices of prophets 
 to the New ? or the deep of man's misery to God's 
 mercy? or judgement to mercy? or man preaching 
 faith and truth to man ? or is it pang calling to pang, 
 and horror to horror of hell-flames, as St. Augustine 
 suggests in his second interpretation ? The Jordan 
 land, too, did it mean the baptismal waters, and 
 Hermon, the curse of sin now removed ? St. Maur 
 (sixth century), following the Latin Fathers in his 
 interpretation, named his little cell Hermon, and used 
 to retire there from the cares of his bishopric, and 
 finally was buried there. He was a young Italian 
 noble when he joined St. Benedict, but, on the death 
 of his master, left Italy for the Loire country, where 
 he founded that congregation, whose name sounds 
 dear to scholars. His shrine now stands where his 
 Hermon cell once was placed. 
 
 William Lord Russell, from the time of his imprison- 
 ment for complicity in the Rye House Plot looked 
 upon himself as a dead man, and read particularly in 
 the Psalms and in Baxter's Dying Thoughts. " Be not 
 cast down, O departing soul, nor by unbelief dis- 
 101
 
 bay 8] 
 
 Psalm xliii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 quieted within me. Trust in God, for thou shalt 
 quickly by experience be taught to give Him thanks 
 and praise, who is the health of my countenance and 
 my God." On his way to the scaffold Lord Russell 
 was singing psalms a great part of the way, and said 
 he hoped to sing better soon. 
 
 Psalm xliii. 
 
 Judica me, Deus. 
 
 4 And that I may go unto 
 the altar of God, even unto the 
 God of my joy and gladness : 
 and upon the harp will I give 
 thanks unto thee, O God, my 
 God. 
 
 5 Why art thou so heavy, O 
 my soul : and why art thou so 
 disquieted within me ? 
 
 6 O put thy trust in God : 
 for I will yet give him thanks, 
 which is the help of my coun- 
 tenance, and my God. 
 
 1 Give sentence with me, O 
 God, and defend my cause 
 against the ungodly people : O 
 deliver me from the deceitful 
 and wicked man. 
 
 2 For thou art the God of 
 my strength, why hast thou put 
 me from thee : and why go I 
 so heavily, while the enemy 
 oppresseth me ? 
 
 3 O send out thy light and 
 thy truth, that they may lead 
 me : and bring me unto thy 
 holy hill, and to thy dwelling. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to Mass of third Sunday 
 in Lent (e). 
 
 Latins. Tuesday at Lauds. 
 
 Greeks. Monday evening. 
 
 Pope Caelestine i. (422432) lived in the dreadful 
 days of the Vandal Aleman, Gothic, and Hunnish 
 invasions, when the whole Roman Empire seemed 
 shaken to pieces, when Aetius refused to defend 
 Britain against the Picts, and every province in turn 
 was harried and wasted. The Church was distracted 
 by Arian, Nestorian, and Pelagian heresies, and 
 every wild misbelief flourished. This Pope then
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm xllii. [ Da X 8 
 
 enjoined the use of the Psalms in alternate verses 
 between clergy and people, and also fixed upon this 
 psalm to be said by each priest as part of the secret 
 devotions before the Mass. Though saintly com- 
 mentators have told us that the deceitful and wicked 
 man prayed against, by each man, is himself, yet 
 there is little doubt that Caelestine aimed at a more 
 objective enemy. The psalm had been sung at 
 St. Augustine's baptism, when the Te Deum was 
 composed. Caelestine was pope when that doctor 
 died. 
 
 When Henry of Richmond landed at Milford 
 Haven in 1485 he straightway knelt upon the shore, 
 raised his grey eyes to heaven, and recited, Judica me, 
 Dens ; and he seems to have retained a love of this 
 psalm to the end of his days. He was a young man 
 with fine hair, a long neck, bright complexion, and 
 smiling mouth, but afterwards became an austere, 
 thin-lipped, almost monkish-looking king, tamed by 
 the difficulties of his uncertain position. Cardinal 
 Manning wrote about the fifth verse, concerning his 
 Oxford days : " The Psalms and Lessons were always a 
 delight. This verse always seemed a voice to me. 
 Every day in the daily Mass it comes back to me." 
 
 Among other lovers of this psalm was Nathaniel 
 Homes, a seventeenth-century Calvinist divine, who 
 wrote a folio commentary upon it called Soul- 
 Cordials against Sore Discomforts. This man, having 
 passed through the phases of Presbyterian and 
 Independent, made himself into a sort of diocesan 
 over a large area, excommunicating whom he would 
 and refusing even baptism to those children whose 
 parents did not satisfy him of their repentance. He 
 was ejected from his many cures at the Restoration, 
 and died very rich at a green old age. His con- 
 temporaries were divided about his character. To 
 some he was a profound divine : to others a mutable 
 103
 
 Day 
 
 Psalm xliv. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 and fantastical person, but all acknowledged the 
 audacity of his discipline in examining the lives and 
 conversation of the laity. 
 
 THE NINTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xliv. 
 
 To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. 
 Deus, auribus. 
 
 1 We have heard with our ! puttest them to confusion that 
 ears, O God, our fathers have hate us. 
 
 told us : what thou hast done 9 We make our boast of God 
 in their time of old ; | all day long : and will praise 
 
 2 How thou hast driven out , thy Name for ever. 
 
 the heathen with thy hand, and 10 But now thou art far oft", 
 planted them in : how thou hast j and puttest us to confusion : and 
 
 destroyed the nations, and cast 
 them out. 
 
 3 For they gat not the land 
 
 goest not forth with our armies. 
 II Thou makest us to turn 
 our backs upon our enemies : 
 
 in possession through their own so that they which hate us spoil 
 sword : neither was it their ' our goods. 
 
 own arm that helped them ; 12 Thou lettest us be eaten 
 
 4 But thy right hand, and j up like sheep : and hast 
 
 thine arm, and the light of scattered us among the heathen. 
 
 thy countenance : because thou 
 hadst a favour unto them. 
 
 5 Thou art my King, O God : 
 send help unto Jacob. 
 
 6 Through thee will we over- 
 throw our enemies : and in Thy 
 Name will we tread them under, 
 that rise up against us. 
 
 7 For I will not trust in my 
 bow : it is not my sword that 
 shall help me ; 
 
 8 But it is thou that savest 
 
 us from our 
 
 and 
 
 13 Thou sellest thy people 
 for nought : and takest no 
 money for them. 
 
 14 Thou makest us to be 
 rebuked of our neighbours : to 
 be laughed to scorn, and had in 
 derision of them that are round 
 about us. 
 
 15 Thou makesl us to be a 
 byword among the heathen : 
 and that the people shake their 
 heads at us. 
 
 1 6 My confusion is daily be- 
 
 104
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xliv. 
 
 [Day 9 
 
 fore me : and the shame of my 
 face hath covered me ; 
 
 17 For the voice of the 
 slanderer and blasphemer : for 
 the enemy and avenger. 
 
 1 8 And though all this be 
 come upon us, yet do we not 
 forget thee ; nor behave our- 
 selves frowardly in thy covenant. 
 
 19 Our heart is not turned 
 back : neither our steps gone 
 out of thy way ; 
 
 20 No, not when thou hast 
 smitten us into the place of 
 dragons : and covered us with 
 the shadow of death. 
 
 21 If we have forgotten the 
 Name of our God, and holden 
 up our hands to any strange 
 
 god : shall not God search it 
 out? for he knoweth the very 
 secrets of the heart. 
 
 22 For thy sake also are we 
 killed all the day long : and are 
 counted as sheep appointed to be 
 slain. 
 
 23 Up, Lord, why sleepest 
 thou : awake, and be not absent 
 from us for ever. 
 
 24 Wherefore hidest thou thy 
 face : and forgettest our misery 
 and trouble ? 
 
 25 For our soul is brought 
 low, even unto the dust : our 
 belly cleaveth unto the ground. 
 
 26 Arise, and help us : and 
 deliver us for thy mercy's sake. 
 
 Latins. Tuesday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Monday evening. 
 
 The passage in the additional prayers of the Litany, 
 which begins, " O God, we have heard with our ears," 
 is taken from this psalm and represents the psalmody 
 by which ancient Litanies were followed. The 
 words were inserted by Cranmer in 1544, from the 
 lesser Litany of Sarum. The prayer and respond are 
 a condensed form of the whole psalm, being the 
 first and last verses, and contain the famous phrase, 
 Opus operation. 
 
 The last literary work of the great St. Ambrose 
 was a commentary on this psalm. His secretary, 
 Paulinus, saw a flame like a little shield envelop his 
 head and pass into his mouth. His face became 
 white like snow, but he regained his colour ; but the 
 terrified scribe could write no more that day, and 
 the saint shortly after passed away (397 A.D.).
 
 Day 9] Psallll xlv. [Morning Prayer 
 
 This was the psalm chosen for the daily use of the 
 English troops in France in 1589, who were helping 
 Henry of Navarre against the Leaguers in that 
 campaign which was decided by the battles of Arques 
 and Ivry. 
 
 Among the other royalist clergy in the Civil Wai- 
 was John Bramhall (1594-1 663), who had been 
 chaplain to Wentworth and was impeached by the 
 Irish Commons for his vigorous opposition to the 
 Covenant. He preached a public thanksgiving 
 sermon in York Cathedral for the victory of 
 Adwalton Moor, when the Earl of Newcastle defeated 
 the Fairfaxes, 30th June 1643, and took for his text 
 verses seven and eight of this psalm. When Matthew 
 Wren (1585-1667), the learned bishop of Ely and 
 friend of Laud, was liberated from his eighteen years' 
 imprisonment in the Tower, he preached a sermon 
 contrasting the Covenant of verse eighteen with the 
 Scottish Covenant. Pepys calls him " poor Bishop 
 Wren," and his hard case excited much sympathy from 
 his contemporaries. 
 
 Psalm xlv. 
 
 To the chief Musician, upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, 
 Maschil, A Song of loves. 
 
 Eructavit cor meum. 
 
 1 My heart is inditing of a : 4 Gird thee with thy sword 
 good matter : I speak of the upon thy thigh, O thou most 
 things which I have made unto Mighty : according to thy wor- 
 the King. I ship and renown. 
 
 2 My tongue is the pen : of a | 5 Good luck have thou with 
 
 ready writer. 
 
 3 Thou art fairer than the 
 children of men : full of grace 
 are thy lips, because God hath 
 
 thine honour : ride on, because 
 of the word of truth, of meek- 
 ness, and righteousness ; and 
 thy right hand shall teach thee 
 
 blessed thee for ever. | terrible things. 
 
 106
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xlv. 
 
 [Day 9 
 
 6 Thy arrows are very sharp, 
 and the people shall be subdued 
 unto thee : even in the midst 
 among the King's enemies. 
 
 7 Thy seat, O God, endureth 
 for ever : the sceptre of thy 
 kingdom is a right sceptre. 
 
 8 Thou hast loved righteous- 
 ness, and hated iniquity : where- 
 fore God, even thy God, hath 
 anointed thee with the oil of 
 gladness above thy fellows. 
 
 9 All thy garments smell of 
 myrrh, aloes, and cassia : out of 
 the ivory palaces, whereby they 
 have made thee glad. 
 
 10 Kings' daughters were 
 among thy honourable women : 
 upon thy right hand did stand 
 the queen in a vesture of gold, 
 wrought about with divers 
 colours. 
 
 1 1 Hearken, O daughter, and 
 consider, incline thine ear : for- 
 get also thine own people, and 
 
 is thy Lord God, and worship 
 thou him. 
 
 13 And the daughter of Tyre 
 shall be there with a gift : like 
 as the rich also among the people 
 shall make their supplication be- 
 fore thee. 
 
 14 The King's daughter is all 
 glorious within : her clothing is 
 of wrought gold. 
 
 15 She shall be brought unto 
 the King in raiment of needle- 
 work : the virgins that be her 
 fellows shall bear her company, 
 and shall be brought unto thee. 
 
 1 6 With joy and gladness shall 
 they be brought : and shall enter 
 into the King's palace. 
 
 1 7 Instead of thy fathers thou 
 shalt have children : whom thou 
 mayest make princes in all 
 lands. 
 
 1 8 I will remember thy Name 
 from one generation to another : 
 therefore shall the people give 
 
 thanks unto thee, world without 
 end. 
 
 thy father's house. 
 
 12 So shall the King have 
 pleasure in thy beauty : for he 
 
 Liturgical use. Christmas Day Matins. 
 
 Latins. Tuesday Matins ; Christmas Day ; Circum- 
 cision ; Festivals of Our Lady ; Apostles and evan- 
 gelists. 
 
 (V reeks. Monday evening. 
 
 The custom of singing the Gloria after each psalm 
 was enjoined upon the Western Church, it is said, by 
 Pope Silvester (314336), Constantine's pope. 
 
 This psalm has been said to be the origin of our 
 coronation ceremonies, but was rather itself suggested 
 107
 
 Day 9] Psalm xlv. [Morning Prayer 
 
 by these more ancient rites of sword, sceptre, and 
 unction. This psalm has been a great stronghold of 
 mystical interpretation, a method to which modern 
 Christians are assuredly pledged by the recital of 
 Gloria at the end of each psalm (see xv.), in the West 
 more than in the East. But from St. Basil until Pas- 
 chasius Rhadbertus, in the ninth century and onwards, 
 the mystical foi'ce of this psalm has been universally 
 admitted and, by its proper use, is authoritative. The 
 Good Word (or Good Matter) of the verse was a great 
 stronghold of St. Athanasius and the Catholics against 
 the Arian heretics. In Chaucer's time (wV/e "Sompnour's 
 Tale," 226), the psalm was said " for soules," i.e. for the 
 dead. 
 
 St. Columba, the sixth-century missionary from 
 Donegal to Scotland, was at his evening prayers near 
 the mouth of the Ness, when he was interrupted by 
 a body of hostile Picts. With his tremendous voice 
 he raised this psalm and they fled in amazement. 
 
 Verse 8. "I have loved righteousness and hated 
 iniquity, and therefore I die in exile," were the last 
 words of Pope Gregory vn. (Hildebrand), the sternest 
 and most logical of all the Ultramontanes, whose 
 masterful insistence upon the temporal power caused 
 not only disputes with Henry iv. of Germany and 
 William the Conqueror of England, Spain, France, and 
 the Eastern Churches, but laid the foundation of all 
 the great quarrels between Church and State to this 
 day. 
 
 Verse 11. John Capgrave (1. "93- 1464), the Augus- 
 tinian friar and chronicler, quotes this verse upon the 
 baptism of little Henry vi. Those who are regenerate 
 in baptism are to forget the house of wrath. 
 
 1 08
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xlvi. 
 
 [Day 9 
 
 Psalm xlvi. 
 
 To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon 
 Alamoth. 
 
 Deus noster refugium. 
 
 1 God is our hope and 
 strength : a very present help in 
 trouble. 
 
 2 Therefore will we not fear, 
 though the earth be moved : 
 and though the hills be carried 
 into the midst of the sea. 
 
 3 Though the waters thereof 
 rage and swell : and though the 
 mountains shake at the tempest 
 of the same. 
 
 4 The rivers of the flood 
 thereof shall make glad the city 
 of God : the holy place of the 
 tabernacle of the most Highest. 
 
 5 God is in the midst of her, 
 therefore shall she not be re- 
 moved : God shall help her, 
 and that right early. 
 
 6 The heathen make much 
 ado, and the kingdoms are 
 moved : but God hath shewed 
 
 his voice, and the earth shall 
 melt away. 
 
 7 The Lord of hosts is with 
 us : the God of Jacob is our 
 refuge. 
 
 8 O come hither, and behold 
 the works of the Lord : what 
 destruction he hath brought upon 
 the earth. 
 
 9 He maketh wars to cease in 
 all the world : he breaketh the 
 bow, and knappeth the spear in 
 sunder, and burneth the chariots 
 in the fire. 
 
 10 " Be still then, and know 
 that I am God : I will be 
 exalted among the heathen, 
 and I will be exalted in the 
 earth." 
 
 1 1 The Lord of hosts is with 
 us : the God of Jacob is our 
 refuge. 
 
 Latim. Matins on Tuesday ; Epiphany ; Dedication 
 festivals ; Feasts of Our Lady. 
 
 Greeks. Monday evening ; Mesorion of first 
 hour. 
 
 This is, naturally, a psalm for stormy weather, and 
 has come to men's mouths most in the worst times of 
 stress and disturbance, of persecution and revolution. 
 It is the foundation of Luther's hymn, Ein feste Burg 
 ist wiser Golf, which played so large a part in German 
 109
 
 Day 9] Psalm xlvi. [Morning Prayer 
 
 history, and has been called the Marseillaise of the 
 Reformation, a comparison which suggests a great 
 contrast. The psalm was sung in thanksgiving by the 
 two Houses of Parliament on 19th June 1645. They 
 attended a service of thanksgiving for the victory at 
 Naseby, and having heard much Presbyterian preach- 
 ing in the Grey Friars' Church, dined together in the 
 Grocers' Hall, Poultry, and there sang this psalm. 
 The epitaph on the tomb of Blanche Lady Arundel is : 
 " God was our refuge and strength : the Lord of armies 
 was with us ; the God of Jacob was our Protector." 
 With a handful of men she defended Wardour Castle 
 against Hungerford and the rebel army, and held it 
 for the king. She obtained honourable terms, not 
 honourably kept. Her husband was killed fighting 
 for the king at Oxford. Her portrait survives in 
 Arundel Castle, and shews her as a large-eyed lady, 
 with a flexible, humorous mouth. 
 
 The psalm was used for the earthquakes of 1692, and 
 for the great storm of 1704 ("Such as of late o'er pale 
 Britannia passed "), and for Marlborough's victory of 
 Oudenarde, llth July 1708. It has also been sung in 
 English churches as a thanksgiving for peace, e.g. for 
 the Treaty of Ryswick, 1697, Utrecht, 1713, at the 
 close of the Seven Years' War, 1763, and the peace of 
 Amiens, 1802. 
 
 Verse 10. Vincent of Lerins (ob. 450 A.D.) chose 
 the quiet abbey in the island off Cannes, as his lot in 
 life, that he might without distraction practise the 
 psalm, Vacate et videte quoniam ego sum Deus ; and so, 
 after divers and sad storms in the wars of the world he 
 sheltered himself "in the most certain port of the 
 religious life." He had been a soldier, like many 
 others of the Church's saints. This verse may almost 
 be said to be the recruiting verse of the monastic life. 
 
 no
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xlvii. 
 
 [Day 9 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 Psalm xlvii. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. 
 Omnes gentes, plaudite. 
 
 1 O clap your hands together, 
 all ye people : O sing unto God 
 with the voice of melody. 
 
 2 For the Lord is high, and 
 to be feared : he is the great 
 King upon all the earth. 
 
 3 He shall subdue the people 
 under us : and the nations under 
 our feet. 
 
 4 He shall choose out an 
 heritage for us : even the worship 
 of Jacob, whom he loved. 
 
 5 God is gone up with a merry 
 noise : and the Lord with the 
 sound of the trump. 
 
 6 O sing praises, sing praises 
 unto our God : O sing praises, 
 sing praises unto our King, 
 
 7 For God is the King of all 
 the earth : sing ye praises with 
 understanding. 
 
 8 God reigneth over the 
 heathen : God sitteth upon his 
 holy seat. 
 
 9 The princes of the people 
 are joined unto the people of 
 the God of Abraham : for God, 
 which is very high exalted, doth 
 defend the earth, as it were with 
 a shield. 
 
 Liturgical use. Ascension-day evening ; Introit to 
 Ascension Mass (e). 
 
 Lai his. Tuesday Matins ; Epiphany ; Trinity 
 Sunday ; Apostles and evangelists. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning. 
 
 Verse 7. Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504-1574) 
 chose this verse as the motto for his metrical Psalms, 
 which were his exercise in his religious exile (1557). 
 The same motto has since served for many Psalters, 
 e.g. Helmore's. Parker was the translator for the 
 bishop's bible of Genesis, Exodus, St. Matthew, and 
 St. Mark, and the Pauline epistles, except Romans and 
 1 Corinthians. He was a Norfolk and Cambridge 
 man, who became Anne Boleyn's chaplain and was 
 deprived under Queen Mary, but amply repaid under 
 Elizabeth for his services to her mother. 
 HI
 
 Day 9] 
 
 Psalm xlviii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 Psalm xlviii. 
 A Song and Psalm for the sons of Koran. 
 
 Magnus Dominus. 
 
 1 Great is the Lord, and 
 highly to be praised : in the city 
 of our God, even upon his holy 
 hill. 
 
 2 The hill of Sion is a fair 
 place, and the joy of the whole 
 earth : upon the north-side lieth 
 the city of the great King ; God 
 is well known in her palaces as 
 a sure refuge. 
 
 3 For, lo, the kings of the 
 earth : are gathered, and gone 
 by together. 
 
 4 They marvelled to see such 
 things : they were astonished, 
 and suddenly cast down. 
 
 5 Fear came there upon them, 
 and sorrow : as upon a woman 
 in her travail. 
 
 6 Thou shall break the ships of 
 the sea : through the east-wind. 
 
 7 Like as we have heard, so 
 have we seen in the city of 
 
 Lord of hosts, in the city of our 
 God : God upholdeth the same 
 for ever. 
 
 8 We wait for thy loving- 
 kindness, O God : in the midst 
 of thy temple. 
 
 9 O God, according to thy 
 Name, so is thy praise unto the 
 world's end : thy right hand is 
 full of righteousness. 
 
 10 Let the Mount Sion re- 
 joice, and the daughter of Judah 
 be glad : because of thy judge- 
 ments. 
 
 11 Walk about Sion, and go 
 round about her : and tell the 
 towers thereof. 
 
 12 Mark well her bulwarks, 
 set up her houses : that ye may 
 tell them that come after. 
 
 13 For this God is our God 
 for ever and ever : he shall be 
 
 the our guide unto death. 
 
 Liturgical use. Whit Sunday morning. 
 
 Latins. Matins on Tuesday ; Christmas Day ; Whit 
 Sunday ; Trinity Sunday ; Dedication feast. 
 
 Occasion. Thanksgiving for the deliverance from 
 Sennacherib. 
 
 This is the psalm in which the Church celebrates 
 her victories over the world, that is to say, over the 
 unchristian order of society. It was used to com- 
 memorate the victories of St. Athanasius (fourth 
 113
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xlix. 
 
 [Day 9 
 
 century), Constantine (ditto), St. Bernard (1091-1153), 
 and St. Thomas of Canterbury (1118-1170). 
 
 Verse 7. When this verse was applied to Christ, "it 
 made the Arians frenzied with rage, that He should 
 be regarded as the God, who upholds the world." 
 
 Verses 1013. These are the verses which explain 
 the liturgical uses of the psalm. The Church, bom 
 on Whit Sunday, is the Christian Sion, and the abiding 
 Comforter then given to Her is remembered in these 
 words. 
 
 Psalm xlix. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. 
 Audite hcEc, omnes. 
 
 1 O hear ye this, all ye people : : 
 ponder it with your ears, all ye 
 that dwell in the world ; 
 
 2 High and low, rich and 
 poor : one with another. 
 
 3 My mouth shall speak of 
 wisdom : and my heart shall 
 muse of understanding. 
 
 4 I will incline mine ear to 
 the parable : and shew my dark 
 speech upon the harp. 
 
 5 Wherefore should I fear in 
 the days of wickedness : and 
 when the wickedness of my heels 
 compasseth me round about ? 
 
 6 There be 1 some that put 
 their trust in their goods : and 
 boast themselves in the multitude 
 of their riches. 
 
 7 But no man may deliver 
 his brother : nor make agree- 
 ment unto God for him ; 
 
 8 For it cost more to redeem 
 
 H I 
 
 their souls : so that he must let 
 that alone for ever ; 
 
 9 Yea, though he live long i 
 and see not the grave. 
 
 10 For he seeth that wise men 
 also die, and perish together : as 
 well as the ignorant and foolish, 
 and leave their riches for other. 
 
 11 And yet they think that 
 their houses shall continue for 
 ever : and that their dwelling" 
 places shall endure from one 
 generation to another ; and call 
 the lands after their own names. 
 
 12 Nevertheless, man will not 
 abide in honour : seeing he may 
 be compared unto the beasts 
 that perish ; this is the Way of 
 them. 
 
 13 This is their foolishness! 
 and their posterity praise their 
 saying. 
 
 14 They lie in the hell like
 
 Day 9] 
 
 Psalm xlix. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 sheep, death gnaweth upon 
 them, and the righteous shall 
 have domination over them in 
 the morning : their beauty shall 
 consume in the sepulchre out of 
 their dwelling. 
 
 1 5 But God hath delivered my 
 soul from the place of hell : for 
 he shall receive me. 
 
 1 6 Be not thou afraid, though 
 one be made rich : or if the 
 glory of his house be increased ; 
 
 17 For he shall carry nothing 
 away with him when he dieth : 
 
 neither shall his pomp follow 
 him. 
 
 1 8 For while he lived, he 
 counted himself an happy man : 
 and so long as thou doest well 
 unto thyself, men will speak 
 good of thee. 
 
 19 He shall follow the genera- 
 tion of his fathers : and shall 
 never see light. 
 
 20 Man being in honour hath 
 no understanding : but is com- 
 pared unto the beasts that 
 perish. 
 
 Latins. Matins on Tuesday. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning. 
 
 This is the psalm which contained for Matthew 
 Arnold's " Obermann once more " the whole message 
 of David's land. 
 
 " While we believed, on earth He went 
 
 And open stood His grave ; 
 Men call'd from chamber, church, and tent, 
 And Christ was by to save. 
 
 "Now He is dead! Far hence He lies 
 
 In the lorn Syrian town, 
 And on His grave, with shining eyes, 
 The Syrian stars look down. 
 
 " In vain men still, with hoping new, 
 
 Regard His death-place dumb, 
 And say the stone is not yet to, 
 And wait for words to come. 
 
 "Ah, from that silent sacred land 
 
 Of sun and arid stone, 
 And crumbling wall, and sultry sand, 
 Comes now one word alone ! 
 114
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm 1. 
 
 [ Da y IO 
 
 "From David's lips this word did roll, 
 
 "Pis true and living yet : 
 No man can save his brothers soul, 
 Nor fay his brother's debt. 
 
 "Alone, self-poised, henceforward man 
 
 Must labour ! must resign 
 His all too human creeds, and scan 
 Simply the way Divine." 
 
 The psalm has been called the Church's message on 
 Dives and Lazarus, from St. Basil's commentary. 
 
 Henry Lok (1.597), an Elizabethan courtier, trans- 
 lated this psalm with some others into English verse, 
 and thought the book of Ecclesiastes was a com- 
 mentary upon it, a conclusion parallel to that of the 
 individualist poet quoted above. 
 
 The first verse opens St. Gregory Nazianzeii's first 
 invective against Julian. This saint, whose father 
 became Bishop of Nazianzum, was born in 318. He 
 attacked the subtle policy of keeping Christians out 
 of the schools of learning, by which the Church was 
 to be brought into contempt, and helped to lay and 
 uphold the tradition of a learned clergy. 
 
 THE TENTH DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm 1. 
 
 A Psalm of Asaph. 
 Deus deortim. 
 
 I The Lord, even the most 
 mighty God, hath spoken : and 
 called the world, from the rising 
 up of the sun, unto the going 
 down thereof. 
 
 2 Out of Sion hath God 
 appeared : in perfect beauty. 
 
 3 Our God shall come, and 
 shall not keep silence : there 
 shall go before him a consum-
 
 Day 10 j 
 
 Psalm 1. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 ing fire, and a mighty tempest 
 shall be stirred up round about 
 him. 
 
 4 He shall call the heaven 
 from above : and the earth, that 
 he may judge his people. 
 
 5 Gather my saints together 
 unto me : those that have made 
 a covenant with me with sacri- 
 fice. 
 
 6 And the heaven shall de- 
 clare his righteousness : for God 
 is Judge himself. 
 
 7 Hear, O my people, and I 
 will speak : I myself will testify 
 against thee, O Israel ; for I am 
 God, even thy God. 
 
 8 I will not reprove thee be- 
 cause of thy sacrifices, or for thy 
 burnt-offerings : because they 
 were not alway before me. 
 
 9 I will take no bullock out 
 of thine house : nor he-goat out 
 of thy folds. 
 
 10 For all the beasts of the 
 forest are mine : and so are the 
 cattle upon a thousand hills. 
 
 ill know all the fowls upon 
 the mountains : and the wild 
 beasts of the field are in my 
 sight. 
 
 12 If I be hungry, I will 
 not tell thee : for the whole 
 world is mine, and all that is 
 therein. 
 
 13 Thinkest thou that I will 
 eat bulls' flesh : and drink the 
 blood of goats ? 
 
 14 Offer unto God thanks- 
 
 giving : and pay thy vows unto 
 the most Highest. 
 
 15 And call upon me in the 
 time of trouble : so will I hear 
 thee, and thou shall praise me. 
 
 16 But unto the ungodly said 
 God : Why dost thou preach my 
 laws, and takest my covenant in 
 thy mouth ; 
 
 17 Whereas thou hatest to be 
 reformed : and has cast my 
 words behind thee ? 
 
 1 8 When thou sawest a thief, 
 thou consentedst unto him : 
 and hast been partaker with the 
 adulterers. 
 
 19 Thou hast let thy mouth 
 speak wickedness : and with thy 
 tongue thou hast set forth deceit. 
 
 20 Thou satest, and spakest 
 against thy brother : yea, and 
 hast slandered thine own mother's 
 son. 
 
 21 These things hast thou 
 done, and I held my tongue, 
 and thou thoughtest wickedly, 
 that I am even such a one as 
 thyself : but I will reprove thee, 
 and set before thee the things 
 that thou hast done. 
 
 22 O consider this, ye that 
 forget God : lest I pluck you 
 away, and there be none to de- 
 liver you. 
 
 23 Whoso ofifereth me thanks 
 and praise, he honoureth me : 
 and to him that ordereth his 
 conversation right will I shew 
 the salvation of God. 
 
 116
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm li. 
 
 [Day IO 
 
 Latins. Matins of Tuesday. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning. 
 
 This is a psalm much used in necromancy, its open- 
 ing words, Deux deorum, being regarded as a sign of the 
 Divine power over evil spirits and devils. 
 
 Verse 18 was used in thief-finding. A number of 
 names were placed in a key, which was turned over 
 the verse, Si- vidcbai fit rein currebas cum eo, and the 
 guilty name would leap out ; so with adultery and 
 slander. 
 
 1'erse 14- has been a favourite one for thanks- 
 giving sermons. Pope's friend, Bishop Atterbury, the 
 Jacobite, for example, preached on 29th May, Restora- 
 tion day, a sermon on this text. 
 
 Psalm li. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the 
 prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba. 
 
 Miserere mei, Deus. 
 
 1 Have mercy upon me, O 
 God, after thy great goodness : 
 according to the multitude of thy 
 mercies do away mine offences. 
 
 2 Wash me throughly from 
 my wickedness : and cleanse me 
 from my sin. 
 
 3 For I acknowledge my 
 faults : and my sin is ever before 
 me. 
 
 4 Against thee only have I 
 sinned, and done this evil in thy 
 sight : that thou mightest be 
 justified in thy saying, and clear 
 when thou art judged. 
 
 5 Behold, I was shapen in 
 
 wickedness : and in sin hath my 
 mother conceived me. 
 
 6 But lo, thou requires! truth 
 in the inward parts : and shall 
 make me to understand wisdom 
 secretly. 
 
 7 Thou shalt purge me with 
 hyssop, and I shall be clean : 
 thou shalt wash me, and I shall 
 be whiter than snow. 
 
 8 Thou shalt make me hear 
 of joy and gladness : that the 
 bones which thou hast broken 
 may rejoice. 
 
 9 Turn thy face from my sins : 
 and put out all my misdeeds, 
 
 117
 
 Day 10] 
 
 Psalm li. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 10 Make me a clean heart, O 
 God, and renew a right spirit 
 within me. 
 
 n Cast me not away from 
 thy presence : and take not thy 
 holy Spirit from me. 
 
 12 O give me the comfort of 
 thy help again : and stablish me 
 with thy free Spirit. 
 
 13 Then shall I teach thy 
 ways unto the wicked : and 
 sinners shall he converted unto 
 thee. 
 
 14 Deliver me from blood- 
 guiltiness, O God, thou that art 
 the God of my health : and my 
 tongue shall sing of thy righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 15 Thou shall open my lips, 
 
 O Lord : and my mouth shall 
 shew thy praise. 
 
 1 6 For thou desirest no sacri- 
 fice, else would I give it thee : 
 but thou delightest not in burnt- 
 offerings. 
 
 17 The sacrifice of God is a 
 troubled spirit : a broken and 
 contrite heart, O God, shall thou 
 not despise. 
 
 1 8 O be favourable and 
 gracious unto Sion : build thou 
 the walls of Jerusalem. 
 
 19 Then shall thou be pleased 
 with the sacrifice of righteous- 
 ness, wilh the burnt - offerings 
 and oblations : then shall they 
 offer young bullocks upon thine 
 altar. 
 
 Liturgical uses. Commutation service ; the Fourth 
 penitential psalm (contra luxuriam}, the others being 
 vi., xxxii., xxxviii., cii., cxxx., and cxliii. 
 
 Latins. All week-days at Lauds ; Communion of 
 sick ; Burial processions ; Preces, etc. etc. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning ; Daily nocturns ; Satur- 
 day ; Third hour ; Late evensong ; Visitation of sick ; 
 Confession ; For dying ; Burial of laymen, monks, 
 infants, and priests. 
 
 There is hardly any service in any part of the 
 Catholic Church which does not contain verses of this 
 psalm. Even if our Lord had not alluded to it in the 
 publican's prayer, its own power and beauty would 
 have seized upon the Christian conscience and imagina- 
 tion. It is the supreme type of spiritual repentance, 
 not only of David after his treason, adultery, and 
 murder, but of all the sons of penitence. It is the 
 favourite psalm not of individual Christians but of
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm li. [ Da >' IO 
 
 Christendom. St. Augustine's lectures were so 
 thronged when he reached the Miserere, that he was 
 afraid he could not make himself heard. St. Bernard 
 found it to be the prelude to the monastic life : and 
 when Dante saw the saints like a white rose around 
 the throne of God, St. Bernard pointed out Ruth to 
 him, the ancestress of him who wrote the Miserere. 
 The same poet heard the psalm in purgatory, wailed 
 by those who had put off repentance and died by 
 violence. It was repeated by the excommunicated, 
 when they were absolved, e.g. by King John at 
 Winchester. The earliest English version of the 
 Psalter begins with it. It inspired St. Aldhelm, King 
 Ine's relative (seventh century), the reforming Bishop 
 of Sherborne, as it did Keble, in our own age. St. 
 Dunstan (9-1-988) ordered the sick to say it fifteen 
 times with paternoster to redeem a day's fasting. 
 Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans, whose Capitula were 
 introduced in 994 into England, wished all Mass 
 priests to say this psalm once or twice a day. 
 Savonarola, between his torture and execution (1498), 
 wrote a commentary upon it, which some people, 
 inspired perhaps by Dean Colet, wished to introduce 
 into the English Prayer Book, the opening words of 
 which meditation Cranmer repeated on his knees in 
 St. Mary's before he was burnt. It has been the last 
 psalm of countless people on scaffolds ; e.g. Sir Thomas 
 More (15.35), Lady Jane Grey and the Duke of 
 Suffolk (1554), Rowland Taylor (1555), and the 
 Romanist Martyrs in Elizabeth's reign, Alexander 
 Brian, Robert Johnson, and William Filbie. Dr. 
 Arnold of Rugby, when he was dying, chose this psalm 
 instantly for his last meditation. Lucrezia Cenei had 
 only said half the first verse when the axe fell. The 
 Chevalier Bayard, in 1524, was retreating before the 
 generals of Charles v. and was struck on the spine by 
 a stone. He kissed the cross hilt of his sword and 
 119
 
 Day 10] Psalm H. [Morning Prayer 
 
 began the Miserere, and so swooned away. He was 
 buried at Grenoble. Not only human life but human 
 work has been named from this poem the seats in 
 cathedral choir with their carvings, the daggers 
 which hurried men to death, the monastic buttery, all 
 bore this name. Miserere began the religious life of 
 the novice, the Kyrie Eleison of the priest's Mass, 
 the profession of arms for the knight, the scholar's 
 entrance to his university. It was the chaunt of 
 humiliation in plague, defeat, and famine. The men 
 of action and of contemplation equally used it. 
 Cardinal Sadoleto the poet (1477-1547); the Puritan 
 Hildei'sham (1563-1632) wrote at length upon it, the 
 latter making 152 lectures upon the theme. Donne, 
 Bunyan, Paley, Simeon, Pusey, Kingsley, and innumer- 
 able others preached and lectured upon it, including 
 Pope Urban iv., the Corpus Christi Pope, who made a 
 metaphrase of it. In fact, volumes could be made of 
 its use alone. 
 
 Verse 7. This is the verse which names the Asperges, 
 or use of holy water before the Mass or on great 
 occasions, as when the Doges of Venice wedded the 
 sea with rings. Dr. Ker says that in the most northern 
 grave in the world, near Cape Beechy, is buried an 
 English sailor. Above the grave is a copper tablet 
 containing this verse. 
 
 Verse 17 gives a name to the thorough kind of 
 repentance contrition. 
 
 Bernabo Visconti (1385) was dying, filthy and 
 neglected, in Trezzo prison, where so many of his 
 victims had died before. He used to drag himself to 
 the grating and repeat without ceasing, Cor contritum 
 ft humiliatum Deus non despicies. 
 
 Verse 18. When Henry v. was dying in 1416 and 
 
 heard this psalm, he raised himself from his bed and 
 
 said that the great hope of his life had been to lead 
 
 a crusade to restore Jerusalem. "The souls of the 
 
 1 20
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Hi. 
 
 [Day 10 
 
 faithful pilgrims plead ever to God for us in these 
 words," says Capgrave. In the seventeenth century, 
 Allegri, master of the papal choir, composed a musical 
 setting for the Miserere, which was long jealously and 
 exclusively kept there. Mozart, when a boy of 
 fourteen, wrote it down entirely at Tenebroc, and 
 thus the music got known outside. So famous a 
 psalm was, of course, used in necromancy ; it was a 
 cure for the thrush, and would "stent blood" to 
 repeat it. 
 
 Psalm Hi. 
 
 To the chief Musician, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when Doeg 
 the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David 
 is come to the house of Ahimelech. 
 
 Quid gloriaris? 
 
 1 Why boastest thou thyself, 
 thou tyrant : that thou canst do 
 mischief ; 
 
 2 Whereas the goodness of 
 God : endureth yet daily ? 
 
 3 Thy tongue imagineth 
 wickedness : and with lies thou 
 cuttest like a sharp razor. 
 
 4 Thou hast loved unright- 
 eousness more than goodness : 
 and to talk of lies more than 
 righteousness. 
 
 5 Thou hast loved to speak 
 all words that may do hurt : O 
 thou false tongue. 
 
 6 Therefore shall God destroy 
 thee for ever : he shall take 
 thee, and pluck thee out of thy 
 
 dwelling, and root thee out of 
 the land of the living. 
 
 7 The righteous also shall see 
 this, and fear : and shall laugh 
 him to scorn ; 
 
 8 ' ' Lo, this is the man that 
 took not God for his strength : 
 but trusted unto the multitude 
 of his riches, and strengthened 
 himself in his wickedness." 
 
 9 As for me, I am like a 
 green olive-tree in the house of 
 God : my trust is in the tender 
 mercy of God for ever and ever. 
 
 10 I will always give thanks 
 unto thee for that thou hast 
 done : and I will hope in thy 
 Name, for thy saints like it well. 
 
 Liturgical me. Introit for St. Stephen's Mass (e). 
 iMtim. Tuesday Matins. 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning. 
 
 131
 
 Day lo] Psalm Hi. [Morning Prayer 
 
 When Charles i. came to the Scotch camp at 
 Newark, though the generals affected to treat him 
 respectfully, the ministers knew no check, and often 
 insulted the unhappy king to his face. One of them, 
 after a railing sermon, ordered Psalm lii. to be sung : 
 
 "Why doest thou, tyrant, boast abroad, 
 
 Thy wicked works to praise? 
 Dost thou not know there is a God 
 Whose mercies last always?" 
 
 Then the king stood up, and, with a meekness and 
 dignity that touched even those rigid enthusiasts, 
 called for Psalm Ivi. instead : 
 
 " Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray, 
 
 For man would me devour ; 
 He fighteth with me day by day, 
 And troableth me each hour." 
 
 This version is Sternhold and Hopkins', of whom 
 Fuller says "that they had drunk more of Jordan 
 than of Helicon/' and who " have in many verses such 
 poor rhyme that two hammers on a smith's anvil 
 would make better music." It is said (falsely said, 
 Fuller declares) that Queen Elizabeth called these 
 versions " Geneva Gigs." " Some have made libellous 
 verses in abuse of them ; and no wonder if songs 
 were made on the translators of the Psalms, seeing 
 drunkards made them on David, the author thereof." 
 " Such as sing them must endeavour to amend them, 
 by singing them with understanding heads and 
 gracious hearts, whereby that which is but bad 
 matter on earth will be made good music in 
 heaven." 
 
 In the life of St. Porphyrius, Bishop of Ga/a, it is 
 told that the great idol temple there took fire, and 
 burnt for many days. The Christians gathered round 
 
 122
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm liii. 
 
 [Day 10 
 
 and chaunted this psalm, esteeming this fire the work 
 of God ; and, indeed, not a few heathen were thus 
 converted. 
 
 Verse 8. In reference to this verse, and its warning 
 against trusting in riches, King Edward vi. put on 
 the English groats, Positi Dcuin adttttor&R meitin. 
 Philip and Mary put the same legend on their 
 shillings as did Elizabeth. The Tudors derived the 
 motto from Henry vi., on whose coins it is found. 
 It was also on the half-groat of Henry v., and the 
 groat of Richard n. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm liii. 
 
 To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David. 
 Dixit insipiens. 
 
 1 The foolish body hath said 
 in his heart : There is no 
 God. 
 
 2 Corrupt are they, and be- 
 come abominable in their wicked- 
 ness : there is none that doeth 
 good. 
 
 3 God looked down from 
 heaven upon the children of 
 men : to see if there were any, 
 that would understand, and seek 
 after God. 
 
 4 But they are all gone out 
 of the way, they are altogether 
 become abominable : there is 
 also none that doeth good, no 
 pot ope. 
 
 5 Are not they without under- 
 standing that work wickedness : 
 eating up my people as if they 
 would eat bread ? they have not 
 called upon God. 
 
 6 They were afraid where no 
 fear was : for God hath broken 
 the bones of him that besieged 
 thee ; thou hast put them to 
 confusion, because God hath 
 despised them. 
 
 7 Oh, that the salvation were 
 given unto Israel out of Sion : 
 Oh, that the Lord would deliver 
 his people out of captivity ! 
 
 8 Then should Jacob rejoice : 
 and Israel should be right glad.
 
 Day 10] Psalm HH. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Latins. On Wednesday at Matins. 
 
 Greeks. On Tuesday morning. 
 
 This psalm, which is the Elohist version of Psalm 
 xiv., is one of the bones of contention among modern 
 critics. 
 
 Verse 1. The discourses upon this verse opened the 
 wide field of controversy upon the ontological argu- 
 ment for the existence of God; St. Anselm, Duns 
 Scotus, and Descartes being among the defenders of 
 that argument. St. Thomas Aquinas and Kant rejected 
 it, and many modern philosophers have practically 
 abandoned it. The argument is briefly this, Can we 
 suppose that the mind fashioned and invented a 
 thought so great that it fills all thought ? Professor 
 Caird sums up and approves the meaning which 
 underlies this "proof": "As spiritual beings, our 
 whole conscious life is based on a universal self- 
 consciousness, an absolute spiritual life, which is not 
 a mere subjective notion or conception, but which 
 carries with it the proof of its necessary existence or 
 reality." 
 
 Verse 3. The Venerable Bede (673-735) has a well- 
 known sermon on Dominus de ccelo prospexit. 
 
 Verses 7 and 8. Henry Burton, an Independent sedi- 
 tious minister, was sentenced by the Star Chamber to 
 deprivation, fine, pillory, loss of ears, and imprisonment 
 in 1636. He was confined in Guernsey and liberated 
 by the Long Parliament. He made a triumphant 
 progress to London, and preached on these verses 
 about England's bondage and hope of deliverance. 
 
 124
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm liv. 
 
 Psalm liv. 
 
 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David, 
 when the Ziphims came and said to Saul, Doth not David 
 hide himself with us ? 
 
 Deus, in Nomine. 
 
 1 Save me, O God, for thy 
 Name's sake : and avenge me 
 in thy strength. 
 
 2 Hear my prayer, O God : 
 and hearken unto the words of 
 my mouth. 
 
 3 For strangers are risen up 
 against me : and tyrants, which 
 have not God before their eyes, 
 seek after my soul. 
 
 4 Behold, God is my helper : 
 the Lord is with them that up- 
 hold my soul. 
 
 5 He shall reward evil unto 
 mine enemies : destroy thou 
 them in thy truth. 
 
 6 An offering of a free heart 
 will I give thee, and praise thy 
 Name, O Lord : because it is 
 so comfortable. 
 
 7 For he hath delivered me 
 out of all my trouble : and 
 mine eye hath seen his desire 
 upon mine enemies. 
 
 Liturgical we. Good Friday morning. 
 
 Latins. Daily at prime ; Easter Eve. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning ; Sixth hour. 
 
 This psalm is associated with the unfortunate Anne 
 Askew, who at the age of twenty-five was burnt for 
 heresy in 1546, although Bishop Bonner had tried to 
 save her. She turned this psalm into verse, which is 
 given by Bishop Bale with a woodcut and Amor vhicil 
 omnia. She had been turned out of doors by her 
 husband Thomas Kyme. 
 
 Salmasius (Claud), professor of history at Leyden 
 and the opponent of the too abusive Milton, died in 
 1 ().").'} saying : " If I had one year more I would spend 
 it in reading David's psalms and Paul's epistles." 
 
 Verse 6. These words decided both popes and 
 councils to make it illegal to devote children of a 
 tender age to the monkish life, until they could give 
 125
 
 Day 10] 
 
 Psalm Iv. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 "a free heart." Unfortunately, they could not con- 
 trol the inside of the monasteries, and hence many a 
 Filippo Lippi was forced to take vows for which he 
 had no call. 
 
 Psalm Iv. 
 
 To the chief Musician on Neginolh, Maschil, A Psalm 
 of David. 
 
 Exaudi, Deus. 
 
 1 Hear my prayer, O God : 
 and hide not thyself from my 
 petition. 
 
 2 Take heed unto me, and 
 hear me : how I mourn in my 
 prayer, and a.m vexed. 
 
 3 The enemy crieth so, and 
 the ungodly cometh on so fast : 
 for they are minded to do me 
 some mischief ; so maliciously 
 are they set against me. 
 
 4 My heart is disquieted 
 within me : and the fear of 
 death is fallen upon me. 
 
 5 Fearfulness and trembling 
 are come upon me : and an 
 horrible dread hath over- 
 whelmed me. 
 
 6 And I said, O that I had 
 wings like a dove : for then 
 would I flee away, and be at 
 rest. 
 
 7 Lo, llien would 1 get me 
 away far off: and remain in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 8 I would make haste to 
 escape : because of the stormy 
 wind and tempest. 
 
 126 
 
 9 Destroy their tongues, O 
 Lord, and divide them : for I 
 have spied unrighteousness and 
 strife in the city. 
 
 10 Day and night they go 
 about within the walls thereof: 
 mischief also and sorrow are in 
 the midst of it. 
 
 1 1 Wickedness is therein : 
 deceit and guile go not out of 
 their streets. 
 
 12 For it is not an open 
 enemy, that hath done me this 
 dishonour : for then I could 
 have borne it. 
 
 13 Neither was it mine 
 adversary, that did magnify 
 himself against me : for then 
 peradventure I would have hid 
 myself from him. 
 
 14 But it was even thou, my 
 companion : my guide, and 
 mine own familiar friend. 
 
 15 We took sweet counsel 
 together ; and walked in the 
 house of God as friends. 
 
 1 6 Let death come hastily 
 upon them, and let them go
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Iv. 
 
 [Day 10 
 
 down quick into hell : for 
 wickedness is in their dwellings, 
 and among them. 
 
 17 As for me, I will call 
 upon God : and the Lord shall 
 save me. 
 
 1 8 In the evening, and 
 morning, and at noonday will I 
 pray, and that instantly : and 
 he shall hear my voice. 
 
 19 It is he that hath delivered 
 my soul in peace from the 
 battle that was against me : for 
 there were many with me. 
 
 20 Yea, even God,, that 
 endureth for ever, shall hear me, 
 and bring them down : for they 
 will not turn, nor tear God. 
 
 21 He laid his hands upon 
 
 such as be at peace with him : 
 and he brake his covenant. 
 
 22 The words of his mouth 
 were softer than butter, having 
 war in his heart : his words 
 were smoother than oil, and yet 
 be they very swords. 
 
 23 O cast thy burden upon 
 the Lord, and he shall nourish 
 thee : and shall not suffer the 
 righteous to fall for ever. 
 
 24 And as for them : thou, 
 O God, shalt bring them into 
 the pit of destruction. 
 
 25 The bloodthirsty and de- 
 ceitful men shall not live out 
 half their days : nevertheless, 
 my trust shall be in thee, O 
 Lord. 
 
 Latins. Matins on Wednesday. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning ; Sixth hour ; Visitation 
 of sick. 
 
 This was the last psalm (his favourite) read by the 
 wretched Darnley, the night he was blown up at 
 Kirk-o'-Field, February 1 567. 
 
 Richard le Scrope (1405), called Saint Richard by 
 the people, was greatly disappointed at the rule of 
 Henry iv., strongly resisted the unlearned Parliament, 
 and joined Northumberland in his rebellion. He was 
 taken by treachery and executed. On his way to 
 execution he sang the psalm Exaudi, and jested at the 
 king's physician on his escape from medicine. At his 
 request the headsman dealt him five wounds. The 
 fifth severed his head. The psalm E.rdiidi was the 
 proper psalm for Sir William, patron of York, whose 
 day it was. 
 
 Dr. Johnson's prayers, composed upon the death of 
 127
 
 Day 10] Psalm Iv. [Evening Prayer 
 
 his dear wife Tetty, and deposited among her memorials, 
 are headed: 8th May 1752 Dens, ExawU, Hen ! 
 
 Verse \, first part, is the motto carved on the 
 Jacobaean reading-pew in Newport Church, Isle of 
 Wight. 
 
 Verse 6. St. Jerome says that this motto was con- 
 stantly in the mouths of the peaceful and pious 
 Egyptian Coenobites while they listened to the words 
 of their " Father," whose praise as a speaker was in 
 the weeping of his hearers. Their holy, obedient, 
 and disciplined life was the loveliest contrast to the 
 fierce anarchy and lust about them. The verse was, 
 at any rate, one which St. Jerome himself repeats 
 again and again. It has also played no small part 
 in literature and art, e.g. Mendelssohn's well-known 
 musical setting ; Browning's " Pompilia," iii. 991-997, 
 and others. 
 
 Verse 15. Hooker deduced from this that it is 
 reasonable to think, that if walking as friends in the 
 house of God made the bond of men's love insoluble, 
 that all piety will be witnessed to and kindled by the 
 use of psalms between clergy, and those "between 
 whom there daily and interchangeably pass in the 
 healing of God himself and in the presence of His 
 holy angels, so many heavenly acclamations, exulta- 
 tions, provocations, petitions, songs of comfort, psalms 
 of praise and thanksgiving." 
 
 Verses 21 and 22. The thanksgiving sermons on the 
 defeat of poor Prince Charles Edward were generally 
 from these verses. 
 
 Verse 25. Giraldus Cambrensis' comment upon the 
 death of King John, and a very apposite one too. 
 The same words formed the fierce retort of old Cecil, 
 Lord Burleigh, to the Earl of Essex, when the latter 
 vehemently opposed the policy of peace with Spain. 
 
 128
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ivi. 
 
 [Day 1 1 
 
 THE ELEVENTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm Ivi. 
 
 To the chief Musician upon Jonath-elem-rechokim, Michtam 
 of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath. 
 
 Miserere mei, Deus. 
 
 1 Be merciful unto me, O 
 God, for man goeth about to 
 devour me : he is daily fighting, 
 and troubling me. 
 
 2 Mine enemies are daily in 
 hand to swallow me up : for 
 they be many that fight against 
 me, O thou most Highest. 
 
 3 Nevertheless, though I am 
 sometime afraid : yet put I my 
 trust in thee. 
 
 4 I will praise God, because 
 of his word : I have put my 
 trust in God, and will not fear 
 what flesh can do unto me. 
 
 5 They daily mistake my 
 words : all that they imagine is 
 to do me evil. 
 
 6 They hold all together, and 
 keep themselves close : and 
 mark my steps, when they lay 
 wait for my soul. 
 
 7 Shall they escape for their 
 wickedness : thou, O God, in 
 
 thy displeasure shalt cast them 
 down. 
 
 8 Thou tellest my flittings ; 
 put my tears into thy bottle : 
 are not these things noted in 
 thy book ? 
 
 9 Whensoever I call upon 
 thee, then shall mine enemies 
 be put to flight : this I know ; 
 for God is on my side. 
 
 10 In God's word will I 
 rejoice : in the Lord's word will 
 I comfort me. 
 
 1 1 Yea, in God have I put 
 my trust : I will not be afraid 
 what man can do unto me. 
 
 12 Unto thee, O God, will I 
 pay my vows : unto thee will I 
 give thanks. 
 
 13 For thou hast delivered 
 my soul from death, and my 
 feet from falling : that I may 
 walk before God in the light of 
 the living. 
 
 Latins. Wednesday morning. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning; Mesorion of sixtli 
 hour. 
 
 Called the medicine psalm, because it was often 
 I 129
 
 Day 1 1 ] 
 
 Psalm Ivii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 recited devoutly in the Middle Ages by those who 
 took physic. 
 
 In the slaughter-shed at Cawnpore was picked up a 
 Bible, with " read Psalm Ivi." written in pencil on 
 the flyleaf, a pathetic message from one victim to 
 another. 
 
 The psalm was Charles i.'s choice, when insulted 
 by the Genevan ministers (vide Ps. lii.). There was 
 a picture of this king at St. John's College, Oxford, 
 noticed by the Spectator. It had the whole Book of 
 Psalms written in the lines of the face ; no doubt 
 because of the king's love of them. Charles n. 
 begged it of the college, and it was given to him with 
 so strong a hint of the loss to the society, that he felt 
 obliged to restore it. 
 
 Verse 8. A favourite verse of James Ussher (1581 
 1656), the Archbishop of Armagh, the most learned 
 patristic scholar and critic of his time. 
 
 Psalm Ivii. 
 
 To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David, when 
 he fled from Saul in the cave. 
 
 Miserere mei, Deus. 
 
 1 Be merciful unto me, O 
 God, be merciful unto me, for 
 my soul trusteth in thee : and 
 under the shadow of thy wings 
 shall be my refuge, until this 
 tyranny be over-past. 
 
 2 I will call unto the most 
 high God : even unto the God 
 that shall perform the cause 
 which I have in hand. 
 
 3 He shall send from heaven : 
 and save me from the reproof 
 of him that would eat me up. 
 
 4 God shall send forth his 
 mercy and truth : my soul is 
 among lions. 
 
 5 And I lie even among the 
 children of men, that are set on 
 fire : whose teeth are spears and 
 arrows, and their tongue a sharp 
 sword. 
 
 6 Set up thyself, O God, 
 above the heavens : and thy 
 glory above all the earth. 
 
 7 They have laid a net for 
 my feet, and pressed down my 
 
 130
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ivii. 
 
 [Day II 
 
 soul : they have digged a pit 
 before me, and are fallen into 
 the midst of it themselves. 
 
 8 My heart is fixed, O God, 
 my heart is fixed : I will sing, 
 and give praise. 
 
 9 Awake up, my glory ; 
 awake, lute and harp : I myself 
 will awake right early. 
 
 10 I will give thanks unto 
 
 thee, O Lord, among the 
 people : and I will sing unto 
 thee among the nations. 
 
 11 For the greatness of thy 
 mercy reacheth unto the 
 heavens : and thy truth unto 
 the clouds. 
 
 12 Set up thyself, O God, 
 above the heavens : and thy 
 glory above all the earth. 
 
 Liturgical use. Easter morning. 
 
 Latins. Wednesday morning. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning ; Mesorion of sixth 
 hour. 
 
 Verse 1. Miserere met, Domine, miserere mei, was the 
 motto of Pope Nicholas in. (1277-1279), the great 
 opponent of Charles of Anjou. 
 
 Verse 1. The last words were in constant use in 
 reference to the enforced signing of the Covenant, 
 29th January 1643. 
 
 Verse 5. This verse was not without reason applied 
 by St. Athanasius to the fiery and persecuting Arians, 
 whose arguments frequently did take sword form. 
 
 Verse 8. These were among the last words of Dr. 
 Robert Sanderson (1587-1663), as Walton tells us in 
 his Life. He was Bishop of Lincoln, ejected by the 
 Parliament visitors and reinstated at the Restoration. 
 He was the author of the second preface to the 
 Prayer Book. This learned and pious man commended 
 to Walton and every one else the frequent use of the 
 Psalms of David, saying " that they were the treasury 
 of Christian comfort, fitted for all persons and 
 necessities : able to raise the soul from dejection by 
 the frequent mention of God's mercies to repentant 
 sinners : to stir up holy desires ; to increase joy ; to 
 moderate sorrow ; to nourish hope and teach us 
 patience by waiting God's leisure ; to beget a trust
 
 Day 11] 
 
 Psalm Iviii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 in the mercy, power, and providence of the Creator ; 
 and to cause a resignation of ourselves to His will ; 
 and then, and not till then, to believe ourselves 
 happy." 
 
 Psalm Iviii. 
 
 To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David. 
 Si vere utique. 
 
 1 Are your minds set upon 
 righteousness, O ye congrega- 
 tion : and do ye judge the thing 
 that is right, O ye sons of 
 men? 
 
 2 Yea, ye imagine mischief 
 in your heart upon the earth : 
 and your hands deal with 
 wickedness. 
 
 3 The ungodly are froward, 
 even from their mother's womb : 
 as soon as they are born, they 
 go astray, and speak lies. 
 
 4 They are as venomous as 
 the poison of a serpent : even 
 like the deaf adder that stoppeth 
 her ears ; 
 
 5 Which refuseth to hear the 
 voice of the charmer : charm he 
 never so wisely. 
 
 6 Break their teeth, O God, 
 in their mouths ; smite the jaw- 
 
 Latins. Wednesday morning. 
 
 Greeks. On Tuesday morning. 
 
 This psalm was much used by St. Bernard in his 
 Crusade sermons. 
 
 Verse 7. A queer piece of natural history came from 
 the Jews with this verse, that the snail (the waster) 
 132 
 
 bones of the lions, O Lord : 
 let them fall away like water 
 that runneth apace ; and when 
 they shoot their arrows let them 
 be rooted out. 
 
 7 Let them consume away 
 like a snail, and be like the 
 untimely fruit of a woman : and 
 let them not see the sun. 
 
 8 Or ever your pots be made 
 hot with thorns : so let in- 
 dignation vex him, even as a 
 thing that is raw. 
 
 9 The righteous shall rejoice 
 when he seeth the vengeance : 
 he shall wash his footsteps in 
 the blood of the ungodly. 
 
 10 So that a man shall say, 
 ' ' Verily there is a reward for the 
 righteous : doubtless there is a 
 God that judgeth the earth."
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm lix. 
 
 [Day ii 
 
 was born big, and crawled until it had worn itself 
 away into slime. By Albertus Magnus' time, however, 
 snails had been observed more carefully, for he says 
 the verse refers to snails when salted. 
 
 Verse 9- St. Hugh of Lincoln, one of the bravest, 
 wisest, and most lovable of all English saints and 
 bishops, used to justify himself by this verse for his 
 tremendous severity of rebuke and fierce indignation 
 against the proud evil-doers of his day. Though he 
 was the great idol of children, the gentlest nurse of 
 lepers, the friend of birds and beasts, and one so 
 careful of the dead that to bury a dead tramp he 
 would keep the king waiting for dinner, yet his 
 rebukes were so severe they seemed almost un- 
 measured. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm lix. 
 
 To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David ; when 
 Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. 
 
 Eripe me de inimicis. 
 
 1 Deliver me from mine 
 enemies, O God : defend me 
 from them that rise up against 
 me. 
 
 2 O deliver me from . the 
 wicked doers : and save me from 
 the blood-thirsty men. 
 
 3 For lo, they lie waiting 
 for my soul : the mighty men 
 are gathered against me, with- 
 out any offence or fault of me, 
 O Lord. 
 
 4 They run and prepare 
 themselves without my fault : 
 
 arise thou therefore to help me, 
 and behold. 
 
 5 Stand up, O Lord God 
 of hosts, thou God of Israel, 
 to visit all the heathen : and 
 be not merciful unto them that 
 offend of malicious wickedness. 
 
 6 They go to and fro in 
 the evening : they grin like 
 a dog, and run about through 
 the city. 
 
 7 Behold, they speak with 
 their mouth, and swords are in 
 their lips : for who doth hear ?
 
 Day n] 
 
 Psalm lix. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 8 But thou, O Lord, shalt 
 have them in derision : and 
 thou shalt laugh all the heathen 
 to scorn. 
 
 9 My strength will I ascribe 
 unto thee : for thou art the 
 God of my refuge. 
 
 10 God sheweth me his good- 
 ness plenteously : and God shall j 
 let me see my desire upon mine ! 
 enemies. 
 
 1 1 Slay them not, lest my | 
 people forget it : but scatter 
 them abroad among the people, 
 and put them down, O Lord, 
 our defence. 
 
 12 For the sin of their mouth, 
 and for the words of their lips, 
 they shall be taken in their 
 pride : and why ? their preach- 
 ing is of cursing and lies. 
 
 13 Consume them in thy 
 wrath, consume them, that 
 they may perish : and know 
 that it is God that ruleth in 
 Jacob, and unto the ends of 
 the world. 
 
 14 And in the evening they 
 will return : grin like a dog, 
 and will go about the city. 
 
 15 They will run here and 
 there for meat : and grudge if 
 they be not satisfied. 
 
 1 6 As for me, I will sing of 
 thy power, and will praise thy 
 mercy betimes in the morning : 
 for thou hast been my defence 
 and refuge in the day of my 
 trouble. 
 
 17 Unto thee, O my strength, 
 will I sing : for thou, O God, art 
 my refuge, and my merciful God. 
 
 Latins. Matins on Wednesday. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning. 
 
 In the time of Henry vin. this psalm was used as 
 a Passion psalm. 
 
 This is one of the vindictive psalms, as they are 
 called, the others being Ixix., Ixxix., and cix., and 
 they have caused no little controversy in every age, 
 especially among us since the English Church has 
 familiarised people with them, by using them on 
 Sundays. The word " vindictive " has only lately 
 acquired the meaning of studied malice. " Vindica- 
 tion is a special virtue in the eyes of St. Thomas 
 Aquinas, opposed to savagery and cruelty on the one 
 hand, and carelessness about evil on the other. He 
 insists, of course, that it must not spring from hate, 
 but from a good motive, charity to the evil-doer (his 
 134
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Ix. [Day 1 1 
 
 amendment or restraint), or for the general peace and 
 welfare. If any defence is made of these psalms, 
 it usually goes on these lines. But if the New 
 Testament were merely a repetition of the Old, it 
 would be unnecessary. These psalms show how 
 widely the two differ in places, even when the words 
 of the Old are weighed impartially, and without 
 modern misconceptions. 
 
 Socrates Scholasticus thus gives the origin of the 
 antiphonal method of singing the psalms. Ignatius, 
 Bishop of Antioch in Syria, third from the Apostle 
 Peter, who also had conversed familiarly with the 
 apostles themselves, saw a vision of angels hymning 
 in alternate chants the Holy Trinity ; after which he 
 introduced the mode of singing he had observed in 
 the vision into the Church of Antioch, whence it 
 passed by tradition to all other churches. 
 
 Psalm Ix. 
 
 To the chief Musician upon Shushan-eduth, Michtam of David, 
 to teach ; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with 
 Aram-zobah, when Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the 
 valley of salt twelve thousand. 
 
 Deus, repulistt nos. 
 
 i O God, thou hast cast us I for such as fear thee : that they 
 out, and scattered us abroad : I may triumph because of the 
 thou hast also been displeased ; 
 
 O turn thee unto us again. 
 
 2 Thou hast moved the land, 
 and divided it : heal the sores 
 thereof, for it shaketh. 
 
 3 Thou hast shewed thy 
 people heavy things : thou hast 
 given us a drink of deadly 
 
 wine. 
 
 4 Thou hast given a token 
 
 truth. 
 
 5 Therefore were thy beloved 
 delivered : help me with thy 
 right hand, and hear me. 
 
 6 God hath spoken in his 
 holiness, I will rejoice, and 
 divide Sichem : and mete out 
 the valley of Succoth. 
 
 7 Gilead is mine, and Man- 
 asses is mine : Ephraim also is 
 
 135
 
 Day II] 
 
 Psalm Ix. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 the strength of my head ; Judah 
 is my law-giver ; 
 
 8 Moab is my wash-pot ; 
 over Edom will I cast out my 
 shoe : Philistia, be thou glad 
 of me. 
 
 9 Who will lead me into the 
 strong city : who will bring me 
 into Edom ? 
 
 10 Hast not thou cast us out, 
 O God : wilt not thou, O God, 
 go out with our hosts ? 
 
 1 1 O be thou our help in 
 trouble : for vain is the help 
 of man. 
 
 12 Through God will we do 
 great acts : for it is he that shall 
 tread down our enemies. 
 
 Latins. Wednesday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning. 
 
 When St. Cuthbert (687) drew near his end he was 
 in his cell off Lindisfarne, alone with his eider ducks. 
 Herefrid and certain monks landed to give him the 
 last Sacrament. At midnight he raised his hands 
 and sped forth his spirit. When Herefrid told the 
 brethren outside, they were just beginning the mid- 
 night psalm, Dcus quare repulisti nos, and a brother 
 went to the higher ground and raised two torches, 
 as a signal to Lindisfarne. The brethren there were 
 chaunting the same psalm when the signal was spied, 
 and they knew that their chief was gone. So this 
 psalm has been called the Dirge of St. Cuthbert, and 
 was the dirge also of Celtic Christianity, which died 
 with him. Two years later the psalm was sung by the 
 Britons, in a mournful and wailing voice, when they 
 were driven across the sea, with Cadwallader their 
 leader, by famine, pestilence, and the invasion of the 
 Saxons. 
 
 This was one of the psalms sung in England in 
 thanksgiving for the victory of Camperdown (llth 
 Oct. 1797), when Duncan captured the Dutch admiral 
 and twelve of his ships. Duncan, although sorely 
 hindered by the mutiny in the fleet, managed to 
 keep up a blockade and prevent the invasion of 
 England. 
 
 Verse 1. When the Supremacy Act was passed, 
 136
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Ixi. [Day II 
 
 Houghton, prior of the Charterhouse, called his 
 brethren together and preached to them upon this 
 verse, and bade them each confess their sins and 
 prepare for death, and himself asked pardon severally 
 of each Carthusian. He was executed with two of 
 his brethren (4th May 1535), explaining to the people 
 that he was no obstinate rebel, but could not offend 
 the majesty of God and disobey His Church. 
 
 Verse 2. The text of a magnificent and brave plea 
 for peace, preached by Joseph Hall (1574-1656), 
 then Bishop of Exeter, before Charles i., in Lent, 
 1641, "On the Mischiefe of Faction and the Remedie 
 of it." He was translated to Norwich, whence he 
 was shortly expelled and imprisoned by the Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 Verse 11. Vana sains hominis, the motto chosen by 
 Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Lord 
 Chancellor of England under Queen Mary. He was 
 a dark-haired, spiritual-faced man, who tried to steer 
 a middle course in the turbulent times, renouncing 
 Roman obedience and trying to save Protestants 
 from the stake on the one hand, and on the other 
 resisting doctrinal changes and at last re-enacting 
 the statute de heretico comburendo. He died in 1555. 
 The motto expresses his all but despair at the con- 
 fusions which he had to face. 
 
 The same words are Dr. Johnson's comment on the 
 death of his wife. 
 
 Psalm Ixi. 
 
 To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David. 
 E.vaudi, Deus. 
 
 1 Hear my crying, O God : 
 give ear unto my prayer. 
 
 2 From the ends of the earth 
 
 will I call upon thee : when my 
 heart is in heaviness. 
 
 3 O set me up upon the rock 
 
 137
 
 Day ii] Psalm Ixi. [Evening Prayer 
 
 that is higher than I : for thou [ 6 Thou shalt grant the King 
 hast been my hope, and a strong | a long life : that his years may 
 
 tower for me against the enemy. 
 
 4 I will dwell in thy taber- 
 nacle for ever : and my trust 
 shall be under the covering of 
 thy wings. 
 
 5 For thou, O Lord, hast 
 heard my desires : and hast 
 given an heritage unto those 
 that fear thy Name. 
 
 endure throughout all genera- 
 tions. 
 
 7 He shall dwell before God 
 for ever : O prepare thy loving 
 mercy and faithfulness, that they 
 may preserve him. 
 
 8 So will I alway sing praise 
 unto thy Name : that I may 
 daily perform my vows. 
 
 Latins. Wednesday morning ; Apostles and evan- 
 gelists ; All Saints. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning ; Visitation of the sick. 
 
 This was a favourite psalm with Calvinist divines 
 of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, who have 
 left sermons and meditations upon it, particularly on 
 the second verse, e.g. R. Taylor, Owen, Simeon, Evans, 
 and Elwin. Hence Toplady composed his celebrated 
 hymn, " Rock of Ages," from the same psalm. He 
 was then a young man of about twenty-five (1765) and 
 held the living of Blagdon in Somerset, where he 
 used to wander about the hills in his surplice. He 
 wrote six other hymns. 
 
 Verse 5. St. Chrysostom set the Christian comment 
 upon this verse, by explaining that the heritage is 
 Christ Himself. A thousand hells are nothing to the 
 evil of being shut out from this heavenly heritage, of 
 being eternally repelled from Christ and hearing from 
 His mouth, " I never knew you." 
 
 Comments of this kind are apt to provoke resent- 
 ment among some, who argue that the author never 
 meant it so. But the practice of singing Gloria after 
 each psalm was intended not only to allow, but to 
 compel a Christian sense to each psalm. 
 
 138
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixii. 
 
 [Day 12 
 
 THE TWELFTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm Ixii. 
 
 To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. 
 
 Nonne Deo? 
 
 1 My soul truly waiteth still 
 upon God : for of him cometh 
 my salvation. 
 
 2 He verily is my strength 
 and my salvation : he is my 
 defence, so that I shall not 
 greatly fall. 
 
 3 How long will ye imagine 
 mischief against every man : ye 
 shall be slain all the sort of you ; 
 yea, as a tottering wall shall ye 
 be, and like a broken hedge. 
 
 4 Their device is only how 
 to put him out whom God will 
 exalt : their delight is in lies ; 
 they give good words with their 
 mouth, but curse with their heart. 
 
 5 Nevertheless, my soul, wait 
 thou still upon God : for my 
 hope is in him. 
 
 6 He truly is my strength and 
 my salvation : be is my defence, 
 so that I shall not fall. 
 
 7 In God is my health, and 
 my glory : the rock of my might, 
 and in God is my trust. 
 
 8 O put your trust in him 
 alway, ye people : pour out your 
 hearts before him, for God is 
 our hope. 
 
 9 As for the children of men, 
 they are but vanity : the children 
 of men are deceitful upon the 
 weights, they are altogether 
 lighter than vanity itself. 
 
 10 O trust not in wrong and 
 robbery, give not yourselves 
 unto vanity : if riches increase, 
 set not your heart upon them. 
 
 1 1 God spake once, and twice 
 I have also heard the same : 
 that power belongeth unto God : 
 
 12 And that thou, Lord, art 
 merciful : for thou rewardest 
 every man according to his 
 work. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for Mass on Easter 
 morning (e). 
 
 Latins. Wednesday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning. 
 
 Verse 10. Among the curious preachers of the 
 seventeenth century was the silver-tongued Humphrey 
 Sydenham (1606-1650), whose sermons (one on this, 
 
 139
 
 Day 12] 
 
 Psalm Ixiii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 called The Rich Man's Warning-Piece, and another 
 in defence of Bruton Organ, called The Well-Tuned 
 Cymbal) were wonderfully cried up by people of under- 
 standing. They are like some other too elaborate 
 forms of art in that elaborate time. 
 
 St. Athanasius' favourite psalm. " Against all 
 attempts upon thy body, thy state, thy soul, thy fame, 
 temptations, tribulations, machinations, defamations, 
 say this psalm." Probably he learnt his great love for it 
 in the desert with St. Anthony. There he had time 
 to meditate upon the corruptions of the world, and 
 particularly of Alexandria, where he was born and 
 where he died (373). 
 
 Verse 1. Alan Gardiner (1794-1851), the missionary 
 to Terra del Fuego, painted these words in red over 
 the cave when he was starved to death (vide xvii.). 
 
 Verse 11. Both Jewish and Christian mystics have 
 appealed largely to this verse, for the outward and 
 inward meaning of God's speech and the double 
 hearing needed for all religious utterance. 
 
 Psalm Ixiii. 
 
 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. 
 Deus, Deus metis. 
 
 1 O God, thou art my God : 
 early will I seek thee. 
 
 2 My soul thirsteth for thee, 
 my flesh also longeth after thee : 
 in a barren and dry land where 
 no water is. 
 
 3 Thus have I looked for thee 
 in holiness : that I might behold 
 thy power and glory. 
 
 4 For thy loving-kindness is 
 better than the life itself: my 
 lips shall praise thee. 
 
 5 As long as I live will I 
 magnify thee on this manner : 
 and lift up my hands in thy 
 Name. 
 
 6 My soul shall be satisfied, 
 even as it were with marrow and 
 fatness : when my mouth praiselh 
 thee with joyful lips. 
 
 7 Have I not remembered 
 thee in my bed : and thought 
 upon thee when I was waking ? 
 
 8 Because thou hast been my 
 
 140
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixiv. 
 
 [Day 12 
 
 helper : therefore under the 
 shadow of thy wings will I 
 rejoice. 
 
 9 My soul hangeth upon thee : 
 thy right hand hath upholden me. 
 
 10 These that seek the hurt 
 of my soul : they shall go under 
 the earth. 
 
 1 1 Let them fall upon the 
 edge of the sword : that they 
 may be a portion for foxes. 
 
 12 But the King shall rejoice 
 in God ; all they that swear 
 by him shall be commended : 
 for the mouth of them that speak 
 lies shall be stopped. 
 
 Latins. Lauds daily. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning. 
 
 This has been called the morning hymn of the Early 
 Church, and the African Church used it as such, as the 
 Apostolical constitutions suggest, and as Cassian recom- 
 mended. It was St. Chrysostom's favourite psalm, and 
 he claimed that the whole spirit of the Psalter was 
 condensed into it. Theodore Beza, after whom the 
 rhymed psalms were called Beza's ballets, used to 
 repeat this psalm again and again to himself on his 
 sleepless nights. 
 
 Verse 8. The last words of John Forrest, the Roman 
 Catholic martyr who was burnt at Smithfield, with 
 the approval of Bishop Latimer, on 22nd May 1538. 
 He was a Franciscan, who was confessor to Catharine 
 of Aragon, and had written a book against the royal 
 supremacy. 
 
 Psalm Ixiv. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 Exaudi, Deus. 
 
 1 Hear my voice, O God, in 
 my prayer : preserve my life 
 from fear of the enemy. 
 
 2 Hide me from the gathering 
 together of the froward : and 
 from the insurrection of wicked 
 doers ; 
 
 3 Who have whet their tongue 
 like a sword : and shoot out 
 their arrows, even bitter words ; 
 
 4 That they may privily 
 shoot at him that is perfect : 
 suddenly do they hit him, and 
 fear not. 
 
 141
 
 Psalm Ixiv. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 5 They encourage themselves 
 in mischief: and commune 
 among themselves how they may 
 lay snares, and say, that no man 
 shall see them. 
 
 6 They imagine wickedness, 
 and practise it : that they keep 
 secret among themselves, every 
 man in the deep of his heart. 
 
 7 But God shall suddenly 
 shoot at them with a swift arrow : 
 that they shall be wounded. 
 
 8 Yea, their own tongues shall 
 make them fall : insomuch that 
 whoso seeth them shall laugh 
 them to scorn. 
 
 9 And all men that see it 
 shall say, "This hath God 
 done " : for they shall perceive 
 that it is his work. 
 
 10 The righteous shall rejoice 
 in the Lord, and put his trust in 
 him : and all they that are true 
 of heart shall be glad. 
 
 Latins. Wednesday at Matins ; Apostles and 
 evangelists. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday morning. 
 
 The proper psalms once appointed to be said on 
 Gunpowder Treason Day were Ixiv., cxxiv., and 
 ex xv. 
 
 Hence this psalm gave the text of many celebrated 
 sermons on Gunpowder Treason, e.g. by Dr. Isaac 
 Barrow and Bishop Home. The former (l 630-1 677) 
 was Newton's master and predecessor in the Lucasian 
 Chair of Mathematics. He was a lean, small, strong 
 man with grey eyes and auburn hair, who made 
 great use of fruit and tobacco. Bishop Home 
 (1730-1792), a friend to Wesley and an opponent of 
 Law, Newton, Adam Smith, Hume, Swedenborg, and 
 Kennicott, published in 1776 the devoutest of English 
 commentaries upon the Psalms, which will be a com- 
 panion (as his epitaph at Norwich says) "till the 
 Devotion of Earth shall end in the Hallelujahs of 
 Heaven." 
 
 Among the much- wronged minor authors, who out 
 of love for the Psalter published metrical editions, were 
 Vicars the Presbyterian, lampooned in " Hudibras," 
 and Blackmore, William ni.'s physician, whom Pope 
 called "the godless author, who burlesqued a psalm." 
 142
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixv. 
 
 [Day 12 
 
 These poor fellows must have understood this psalm, 
 at any rate. 
 
 Verse 1. This verse (which in the Vulgate ends, 
 sagifffc parvulorvm factte mint plages eorum, their blows 
 are turned into children's arrows) was accepted by St. 
 Ambrose, as a promise of deliverance, when he was 
 threatened with fire, sword, and banishment. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm Ixv. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm and Song of David. 
 Te decet hymnus. 
 
 1 Thou, O God, art praised in 
 Sion : and unto thee shall the 
 vow be performed in Jerusalem. 
 
 2 Thou that nearest the 
 prayer : unto thee shall all flesh 
 come. 
 
 3 My misdeeds prevail against 
 me : O be thou merciful unto 
 our sins. 
 
 4 Blessed is the man, whom 
 thou choosest, and receives! 
 unto thee : he shall dwell in 
 thy court, and shall be satisfied 
 with the pleasures of thy house, 
 even of thy holy temple. 
 
 5 Thou shall show us wonder- 
 ful things in thy righteousness, 
 O God of our salvation : thou 
 that art the hope of all the ends 
 of the earth, and of them that 
 remain in the broad sea. 
 
 6 Who in his strength setteth 
 
 fast the mountains : and is girded 
 about with power. 
 
 7 Who stilleth the raging of 
 the sea : and the noise of his 
 waves, and the madness of the 
 people. 
 
 8 They also that dwell in the 
 uttermost parts of the earth 
 shall be afraid at thy tokens : 
 thou that makest the outgoings 
 of the morning and evening to 
 praise thee. 
 
 9 Thou visitest the earth, and 
 blessest it : thou makest it very 
 plenteous. 
 
 10 The river of God is full 
 of water : thou prepares! their 
 corn, for so thou providest for 
 the earth. 
 
 1 1 Thou waterest her furrows, 
 thou sendest rain into the little 
 valleys thereof : thou makest it 
 
 143
 
 Day 12] 
 
 Psalm Ixv. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 soft with the drops of rain, and the little hills shall rejoice on 
 
 blessest the increase of it. every side. 
 
 12 Thou crownest the year 14 The folds shall be full of 
 with thy goodness : and thy sheep : the valleys also shall 
 clouds drop fatness. stand so thick with corn, that 
 
 13 They shall drop upon the they shall laugh and sing, 
 dwellings of the wilderness : and 
 
 Latins. Wednesday at Lauds. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday evening ; Saturday evening. 
 
 This is the basis of Origen's prayer for the Alex- 
 andrine Church. 
 
 This (with psalms civ. and cxxi.) was a favourite 
 with Henry Vaughan, the Wordsworth of the seven- 
 teenth century, whose intense delight in nature gives 
 his sacred poems some of the freshness of the psalms 
 themselves. 
 
 "Thou waterest every ridge of land, 
 And settlest with Thy secret hand 
 The furrows of it ; then Thy warm 
 And opening showers, restrain'd from harm, 
 Soften the mould, while all unseen 
 The blade grows up alive and green." 
 
 Verse 2. In Erasmus' colloquy of the shipwreck, when 
 all were calling upon St. Nicholas and other saints, one 
 man thought it the safest and surest course to go 
 directly to God Himself by Jesus Christ, according to 
 this verse, thinking perhaps that his own effectual 
 fervent prayer was that of a sufficiently righteous man. 
 
 Verse 11. In stillicidiift eivis Icetabitar germinans bene- 
 dices coronce. Out of these words a prophecy of the 
 birth of Charles vui. was extracted by forming the 
 date mccclllxvv., i.e. 1470. It was a curious instance 
 of ingenuity, and celebrated because it succeeded. 
 
 John Holland, in his Psalmists of Britain, 
 numbers 173 authors of metrical translations from the 
 sixteenth century. Up to the year 1720, Le Long 
 144
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixvi. 
 
 [Day 12 
 
 numbers 1120 editions of the Old Testament made 
 since the year 1475, and counts 500 commentators on 
 the Psalms; but Calmet, not long afterwards, asserted 
 that there were close upon a thousand known. 
 
 Psalm Ixvi. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Song or Psalm. 
 
 Jubilate Deo. 
 
 1 O be joyful in God, all ye 
 lands : sing praises unto the 
 honour of his Name, make his 
 praise to be glorious. 
 
 2 Say unto God, O how 
 wonderful art thou in thy works : 
 through the greatness of thy 
 power shall thine enemies be 
 found liars unto thee. 
 
 3 For all the world shall 
 worship thee : sing of thee, and 
 praise thy Name. 
 
 4 O come hither, and behold 
 the works of God : how wonder- 
 ful he is in his doing toward the 
 children of men. 
 
 5 He turned the sea into dry 
 land : so that they went through 
 the water on foot ; there did we 
 rejoice thereof. 
 
 6 He ruleth with his power 
 for ever ; his eyes behold the 
 people : and such as will not 
 believe shall not be able to 
 exalt themselves. 
 
 7 O praise our God, ye 
 people : and make the voice of 
 his praise to be heard ; 
 
 K I 
 
 8 Who holdeth our soul in 
 life : and suffereth not our feet 
 to slip. 
 
 9 For thou, O God, hast 
 proved us : thou also hast tried 
 us, like as silver is tried. 
 
 10 Thou broughtest us into 
 the snare : and laidest trouble 
 upon our loins. 
 
 n Thou sufferedst men to 
 ride over our heads : we went 
 through fire and water, and thou 
 broughtest us out into a wealthy 
 place. 
 
 12 I will go into thine house 
 with burnt-offerings : and will 
 pay thee my vows, which I 
 promised with my lips, and 
 spake with my mouth, when I 
 was in trouble. 
 
 13 I will offer unto thee fat 
 burnt-sacrifices, with the incense 
 of rams : I will offer bullocks 
 and goats. 
 
 14 O come hither, and 
 hearken, all ye that fear God : 
 and I will tell you what he hath 
 done for my soul.
 
 Day 12] 
 
 Psalm Ixvi. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 15 I called unto him with my 
 mouth : and gave him praises 
 with my tongue. 
 
 1 6 If I incline unto wicked- 
 ness with mine heart : the Lord 
 will not hear me. 
 
 17 But God hath heard me : 
 and considered the voice of my 
 prayer. 
 
 1 8 Praised be God who hath 
 not cast out my prayer : nor 
 turned his mercy from me. 
 
 Liturgical use. Thanksgiving after a storm at sea. 
 
 Latins. Wednesday evening ; Epiphany. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday night ; Saturday night. 
 
 This psalm has been one much used in national 
 thanksgivings, e.g. when we were delivered by 
 Trafalgar from the paralysing fear of Napoleon's 
 invasion in 1805, and from the cholera in 184-9- 
 
 Verse 11. TratutvtBMU per igiiein et aquam ei ediucisti 
 nos in refrigerium. This is the motto Savonarola's 
 Venetian editors chose for his sermons (1543, etc.). 
 It was also St. Basil's text for the forty martyrs, who 
 were exposed to the cold and frozen to death. 
 
 Verse 14. The opening words for the composite 
 psalm of thanksgiving after the defeat of the Great 
 Armada in 1588. 
 
 Verses 16, 17, and 18. This syllogism, without a 
 conclusion in logical form, caused no little debate 
 among the schoolmen, and no less comment. Fuller's 
 note upon it perhaps settled the question of its " bad 
 logic." 
 
 Lord, I find David making a syllogism, in mood 
 and figure, two propositions he perfected. 
 
 ' If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will 
 not hear me. 
 
 ' But verily God hath heard me, He hath attended 
 to the voice of my prayer.' 
 
 Now, I expected that David should have concluded 
 thus : ' Therefore I regard not wickedness in my 
 heart.' But, far otherwise, he concludes : ' Blessed 
 be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor His 
 mercy from me.' Thus David hath deceived, but not 
 146
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixvii. 
 
 [Day 12 
 
 wronged me. I looked that he should have clapped 
 the crown on his own, and he puts it on God's head. 
 I will learn this excellent logic ; for I like David's 
 better than Aristotle's syllogisms, that, whatsoever the 
 premises be, I make God's glory the conclusion. 
 
 Verse 18. Liddon tells us that this verse was so very 
 dear to Dr. Pusey that it is engraved upon his tomb. 
 " And we may be reverently sure that it has a meaning 
 for him now such as it never had before." 
 
 Psalm Ixvii. 
 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song. 
 
 Deus misereatur. 
 
 1 God be merciful unto us, 
 and bless us : and shew us the 
 light of his countenance, and be 
 merciful unto us ; 
 
 2 That thy way may be 
 known upon earth : thy saving 
 health among all nations. 
 
 3 Let the people praise thee, 
 O God : yea, let all the people 
 praise thee. 
 
 4 O let the nations rejoice 
 and be glad : for thou shall 
 
 judge the folk righteously, and 
 govern the nations upon earth. 
 
 5 Let the people praise thee, 
 O God : let all the people praise 
 thee. 
 
 6 Then shall the earth bring 
 forth her increase : and God, 
 even our own God, shall give us 
 his blessing. 
 
 7 God shall bless us : and all 
 the ends of the world shall fear 
 him. 
 
 Liturgical me. Marriage psalm ; Evensong psalm, 
 alternative to Nunc Dimittis ; Introit to Mass on 
 Trinity Sunday (e). 
 
 Latins. -Daily at Lauds. 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday evening ; Saturday evening. 
 
 Bishop Burnet says that the old service of the bless- 
 ing of silver cramp rings by the kings of England 
 began with this psalm. These rings were held to be 
 good against the livid venom of serpents and cramps in 
 the body. 
 
 Every day in the House of Commons this psalm is 
 147
 
 Day 13] Psalm Ixviil. [Morning Prayer 
 
 recited by the Speaker and his chaplain with prayers 
 and collects, a custom which dates from the Restora- 
 tion. From the beginning of Elizabeth's reign until 
 the time of Charles i. it was usual for the whole House 
 to say the Litany kneeling. This gave way to ramb- 
 ling, loose, or odd expressions in affected varieties or 
 tedious tautologies as Gauden described the extempore 
 devotions that were next used. To the general relief 
 a more seemly and dignified service was set forth, and 
 has continued ever since. 
 
 Verse 3. These words decided Pope John vin., in 
 the ninth century, to allow Methodius to evangelise 
 the Bulgarians, who knew neither Latin, Greek, nor 
 Hebrew, and he thus opened the door to foreign 
 missions. This Pope carried the papal claims to their 
 greatest height, anticipating Gregory VH. by two 
 centuries, and even going beyond him in claims, for 
 he declared that the election of the emperor rested 
 with him. This mission is all the more important from 
 the fact that Methodius and his brother Cyrillus were 
 the first to invent an alphabet and reduce the 
 Slavonian language to writing. 
 
 THE THIRTEENTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm Ixviii. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David. 
 Exurgat Deus. 
 
 i Let God arise, and let his 
 enemies be scattered : let them 
 also that hate him flee before 
 
 2 Like as the smoke vanisheth, 
 
 148 
 
 so shalt thou drive them away : 
 and like as wax melteth at the 
 fire, so let the ungodly perish at 
 the presence of God. 
 
 3 But let the righteous be
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm 
 
 [Day 13 
 
 glad and rejoice before God : let 
 them also be merry and joyful. 
 
 4 O sing unto God, and sing 
 praises unto his Name : magnify 
 him that rideth upon the 
 heavens, as it were upon an 
 horse ; praise him in his Name 
 JAH, and rejoice before him. 
 
 5 He is a Father of the 
 fatherless, and defcndeth the 
 cause of the widows : even God 
 in his holy habitation. 
 
 6 He is the God that maketh 
 men to be of one mind in 
 an house, and bringeth the 
 prisoners out of captivity : but 
 letteth the runagates continue in 
 scarceness. 
 
 7 O God, when thou wentest 
 forth before the people : when 
 thou wentest through the wilder- 
 ness, 
 
 8 The earth shook, and the 
 heavens dropped at the presence 
 of God : even as Sinai also was 
 moved at the presence of God, 
 who is the God of Israel. 
 
 9 Thou, O God, sentest a 
 gracious rain upon thine in- 
 heritance : and refreshedst it 
 when it was weary. 
 
 10 Thy congregation shall 
 dwell therein : for thou, O God, 
 hast of thy goodness prepared 
 for the poor. 
 
 1 1 The Lord gave the word : 
 great was the company of the 
 preachers. 
 
 12 Kings with their armies 
 
 did flee, and were discomfited : 
 and they of the household 
 divided the spoil. 
 
 13 Though ye have lien 
 among the pots, yet shall ye be 
 as the wings of a dove : that is 
 covered with silver wings, and 
 her feathers like gold. 
 
 14 When the Almighty 
 scattered kings for their sake : 
 then were they as white as snow 
 in Salmon. 
 
 15 As the hill of Basan, so is 
 God's hill : even an high hill, as 
 the hill of Basan. 
 
 1 6 Why hop ye so, ye high 
 hills? this is God's hill, in 
 the which it pleaseth him to 
 dwell : yea, the Lord will abide 
 in it for ever. 
 
 17 The chariots of God are 
 twenty thousand, even thousands 
 of angels : and the Lord is 
 among them, as in the holy 
 place of Sinai. 
 
 1 8 Thou art gone up on high, 
 thou hast led captivity captive, 
 and received gifts for men : yea, 
 even for thine enemies, that 
 the Lord God might dwell 
 among them. 
 
 1 9 Praised be the Lord daily : 
 even the God who helpeth us, 
 and poureth his benefits upon 
 us. 
 
 20 He is our God, even the 
 God of whom cometh salvation : 
 God is the Lord, by whom \ve 
 escape death. 
 
 149
 
 Day 13] 
 
 Psalm Ixviii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 2 1 God shall wound the head 
 of his enemies : and the hairy 
 scalp of such a one as goeth on 
 still in his wickedness. 
 
 22 The Lord hath said, "I 
 will bring my people again, as 
 I did from Basan : mine own 
 will I bring again, as I did 
 sometime from the deep of the 
 sea. 
 
 23 That thy foot may be 
 dipped in the blood of thine 
 enemies : and that the tongue of 
 thy dogs may be red through 
 the same." 
 
 24 It is well seen, O God, 
 how thou goest : how thou, my 
 God and King, goest in the 
 sanctuary. 
 
 25 The singers go before, the 
 minstrels follow after : in the 
 midst are the damsels playing 
 with the timbrels. 
 
 26 Give thanks, O Israel, 
 unto God the Lord in the con- 
 gregations : from the ground of 
 the heart. 
 
 27 There is little Benjamin 
 their ruler, and the princes of 
 Judah their counsel : the princes 
 of Zabulon, and the princes of 
 Nephthali. 
 
 28 Thy God hath sent forth 
 
 strength for thee : stablish the 
 thing, O God, that thou hast 
 wrought in us, 
 
 29 For thy temple's sake at 
 Jerusalem : so shall kings bring 
 presents unto thee. 
 
 30 When the company of the 
 spear-men and multitude of the 
 mighty are scattered abroad 
 among the beasts of the people, 
 so that they humbly bring pieces 
 of silver : and when he hath 
 scattered the people that de- 
 light in war ; 
 
 31 Then shall the princes 
 come out of Egypt : the 
 Morians' land shall soon stretch 
 out her hands unto God. 
 
 32 Sing unto God, O ye 
 kingdoms of the earth : O sing 
 praises unto the Lord ; 
 
 33 Who sitteth in the heavens 
 over all from the beginning : 
 lo, he doth send out his voice, 
 yea, and that a mighty voice. 
 
 34 Ascribe ye the power to 
 God over Israel : his worship, 
 and strength is in the clouds. 
 
 35 O God, wonderful art 
 thou in thy holy places : even 
 the God of Israel ; he will give 
 strength and power unto his 
 people ; blessed be God. 
 
 Uturgical use. Whit Sunday Matins. 
 Lathis. Wednesday Matins ; Whit Sunday. 
 Greeks. Tuesday night ; Saturday nocturns. 
 This warrior psalm, as Adhelm names it (psalminn 
 sacri certaminis], has chiefly been used at times of
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm Ixviii. [D a y *3 
 
 conflict. Whitsuntide has always been regarded in 
 the Church as a time of strength for battle, and 
 the Comforter cheers men, as a trumpet comforts 
 them. The great warriors, who often had a special 
 devotion to the Holy Ghost, found particular delight 
 in this psalm. It was Charlemagne's favourite ; and 
 he is said to have written the prayer for purity in 
 the Eucharistic Office for the " inspiration of the 
 Holy Spirit " and the Vein, Creator Spiritvs (Come, 
 Holy Ghost), both of which contain echoes of it. 
 
 It was sung by the Christian women under old 
 Publia in defiance of Julian the Apostate (362). 
 They selected all the psalms most likely to goad that 
 Emperor into acts of tyranny. The guard by his 
 orders seized Publia and brought her to the Emperor, 
 still singing this psalm, and he disappointed her, for, 
 instead of a worse punishment, he ordered her ears to 
 be boxed until they were red. 
 
 When St. Anthony was thirty-five years old, he 
 lived in a ruined castle. One day the monks heard 
 so fierce an altercation going on that they feared the 
 people of the country had broken in upon the hermit ; 
 but they found no one, and presently they heard the 
 song of triumph (" Let God arise ") resound from the 
 castle, and knew that Anthony had overcome his 
 ghostly foes. 
 
 St. Dunstan, while he was praying before St. 
 George's altar at Glastonbury, fell into a light sleep, 
 and saw in a vision a huge bear rushing upon him. 
 He seized a staff and smote it, but his staff passed 
 through the vision and struck the walls of the church. 
 In despair he recollected the psalm of holy battle and 
 chaunted it loudly. This put the enemy to flight, and 
 he found that it was just here his devotions had 
 been interrupted by sleep. 
 
 Perhaps Browning alludes to these and similar uses 
 in his quotations of it, " Ring and the Book," ii. 1302.
 
 Day 13] Psalm IxVlii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Savonarola, on his way to the ordeal by fire in the 
 Piazza, in 1497, chaunted this psalm. The enemy were 
 in this case the Franciscan monks, who disputed his 
 mission, and were the allies of the Pope, the Medici, 
 and the Compagnacci, for the destruction of the 
 great leader. 
 
 In 1589 Henry iv. of France and the Huguenots 
 joined battle with the Leaguers at Arques, near Dieppe. 
 The former chaunted this psalm in Marot's version to 
 an austere tune, and timed their singing to the roll of 
 the guns. Que Dieu se monstre settlement, et I' on rerra 
 dans le moment, abandonncr la place. 
 
 On 3rd September 1650, Oliver Cromwell and his 
 army raised this psalm as they fell upon the Scotch 
 at the battle of Dunbar. 
 
 An old west-country recipe for charming a snake 
 is to draw a circle round the reptile, sign the cross, 
 and repeat the first two verses of this psalm. 
 
 Perse 1. When James i. came to the thi-one, he 
 was asked to choose a motto for the coins of the 
 realm. He chose Exurgat Deus et dissipentur inimici. 
 He placed it, for instance, on the fifteen-shilling 
 piece. 
 
 Verse 14. Andronicus, the Eastern Emperour, at the 
 time of our Norman Conquest, when hardly beset by 
 the Mahomedans took (the Sortes Biblicce) the Psalter 
 to inquire of God, and lighting upon this passage 
 was heartened and directed by it. 
 
 Verse 20. Dr. Donne preached from this verse his 
 last sermon, his own funeral sermon (1631), looking 
 the image of death, and speaking in a faint sepulchi-al 
 voice. 
 
 Verse 35. A voice from heaven chaunted this to St. 
 Hugh, the valorous Bishop of Lincoln, and cheered 
 him when he was in low spirits at the disturbed state 
 of England. 
 
 152
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixix. 
 
 [Day 13 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm Ixix. 
 
 To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. 
 Salvum me fac. 
 
 1 Save me, O God : for the 
 waters are come in, even unto 
 my soul. 
 
 2 I stick fast in the deep 
 mire, where no ground is : I am 
 come into deep waters, so that 
 the floods run over me. 
 
 3 I am weary of crying ; my 
 throat is dry : my sight faileth 
 me for waiting so long upon 
 my God. 
 
 4 They that hate me without 
 a cause are more than the hairs 
 of my head : they that are mine 
 enemies, and would destroy me 
 guiltless, are mighty. 
 
 5 I paid them the things that 
 I never took : God, thouknowest 
 my simpleness, and my faults 
 are not hid from thee. 
 
 6 Let not them that trust in 
 thee, O Lord God of hosts, be 
 ashamed for my cause : let not 
 those that seek thee be con- 
 founded through me, O Lord 
 God of Israel. 
 
 7 And why? for thy sake 
 have I suffered reproof : shame 
 hath covered my face. 
 
 8 I am become a stranger 
 unto my brethren : even an 
 alien unto my mother's children. 
 
 I 
 
 9 For the zeal of thine house 
 hath even eaten me : and the 
 rebukes of them that rebuked 
 thee are fallen upon me. 
 
 10 I wept, and chastened 
 myself with fasting : and that 
 was turned to my reproof. 
 
 ill put on sackcloth also : 
 and they jested upon me. 
 
 12 They that sit in the gate 
 speak against me : and the 
 drunkards make songs upon me. 
 
 13 But, Lord, I make my 
 prayer unto thee : in an accept- 
 able time. 
 
 14 Hear me, O God, in the 
 multitude of thy mercy : even 
 in the truth of thy salvation. 
 
 15 Take me out of the mire, 
 that I sink not : O let me be 
 delivered from them that hate 
 me, and out of the deep waters. 
 
 1 6 Let not the water -flood 
 drown me, neither let the deep 
 swallow me up : and let not 
 the pit shut her mouth upon me. 
 
 17 Hear me, O Lord, for thy 
 loving-kindness is comfortable : 
 turn thee unto me according to 
 the multitude of thy mercies. 
 
 1 8 And hide not thy face 
 from thy servant, for I am in 
 
 53
 
 Day 13] 
 
 Psalm Ixix. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 trouble : O haste thee, and hear 
 me. 
 
 19 Draw nigh unto my soul, 
 and save it : O deliver me, 
 because of mine enemies. 
 
 20 Thou hast known my 
 reproof, my shame, and my 
 dishonour : mine adversaries are 
 all in thy sight. 
 
 21 Thy rebuke hath broken 
 my heart ; I am full of heavi- 
 ness : I looked for some to have 
 pity on me, but there was no 
 man, neither found I any to 
 comfort me. 
 
 22 They gave me gall to eat : 
 and when I was thirsty they 
 gave me vinegar to drink. 
 
 23 Let their table be made 
 a snare to take themselves 
 withal : and let the things that 
 should have been for their 
 wealth be unto them an occasion 
 of falling. 
 
 24 Let their eyes be blinded, 
 that they see not : and ever bow 
 thou down their backs. 
 
 25 Pour out thine indignation 
 upon them : and let thy wrath- 
 ful displeasure take hold of 
 them. 
 
 26 Let their habitation be 
 void : and no man to dwell in 
 their tents. 
 
 27 For they persecute him 
 
 whom thou hast smitten : and 
 they talk how they may vex 
 them whom thou hast wounded. 
 
 28 Let them fall from one 
 wickedness to another : and not 
 come into thy righteousness. 
 
 29 Let them be wiped out of 
 the book of the living : and not 
 be written among the righteous. 
 
 30 As for me, when I am 
 poor and in heaviness : thy help, 
 O God, shall lift me up. 
 
 31 I will praise the Name of 
 God with a song : and magnify 
 it with thanksgiving. 
 
 32 This also shall please the 
 Lord : better than a bullock 
 that hath horns and hoofs. 
 
 33 The humble shall consider 
 this, and be glad : seek ye after 
 God, and your soul shall live. 
 
 34 For the Lord heareth the 
 poor : and despiseth not his 
 prisoners. 
 
 35 Let heaven and earth 
 praise him : the sea, and all 
 that moveth therein. 
 
 36 For God will save Sion, 
 and build the cities of Judah : 
 that men may dwell there, and 
 have it in possession. 
 
 37 The posterity also of his 
 servants shall inherit it : and 
 they that love his Name shall 
 dwell therein. 
 
 Liturgical use. Good Friday evening ; Evensong 
 of King Charles. 
 
 Latins. Thursday Matins ; Maundy Thursday. 
 154
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Ixix. [ Da y ! 3 
 
 Greeks. Tuesday night ; Nocturns for Saturday. 
 
 This was a medicine psalm of the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries among those who better understood 
 the mental element in therapeutics. 
 
 Verse 2. St. Gregory the Great lamented that he 
 was so buffeted by the waves of business and sunk by 
 fortune, that he could say of himself: " I am come 
 into deep waters, so that the floods run over me." 
 
 Verse 9- St. John relates (ii. 17) that the disciples 
 applied this verse to Christ, when He had cleansed 
 the Temple. Jewel, the learned apologist of the 
 English Church, preached from this text an im- 
 passioned appeal to Queen Elizabeth and all in 
 authority to bestir themselves against the great decay 
 of learning. He maintained that the connection 
 between the gospel and learning was so great that 
 the ruin of the one meant the downfall of the other. 
 Jewel died in 1571 at the age of forty -nine, and the 
 decay he deplored was the result of the destruction 
 of the monastic schools, which King Edward vi. 
 tried to remedy by his grammar schools, but to very 
 little purpose. 
 
 Verse 19. St. Boniface quoted this verse in his 
 farewell speech to his friends. He was waiting for a 
 number of confirmation candidates, and instead a band 
 of armed heathen appeared, brandishing their weapons, 
 and threatening the missionaries with death. St. 
 Boniface laid his head upon the gospel book and was 
 thus slain. This was in Friesland, at a place called 
 Dockum (755 A.D.). 
 
 Verse 29. Piers Plowman thus condemns the 
 wastrels of his day : Saf Jack the jogelour | and 
 Jonette of the styues | and Danyel the dees playere | and 
 Denote the baude | and also frere Faytour | and folke 
 of thet ordre | that lollers and loseless fer leel men 
 halclen | And Robyn the rybandoui" for his rusty 
 wordes. For Treuthe told me ones' and bade me
 
 Day 13] Psalm Ixx. [Evening Prayer 
 
 tell hit forthere : Dc/cai/it/r dc libro vivciicium ich solde 
 nat dele with hem. 
 
 Psalm Ixx. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. 
 Deus in adjutorium. 
 
 1 Haste thee, O God, to 4 But let all those that seek 
 deliver me : make haste to help | thee be joyful and glad in thee : 
 me, O Lord. I and let all such as delight in thy 
 
 2 Let them be ashamed and salvation say alway, ' ' The Lord 
 confounded that seek after my be praised." 
 
 soul : let them be turned back- 
 ward and put to confusion that 
 wish me evil. 
 
 5 As for me, I am poor and 
 in misery : haste thee unto me, 
 OGod. 
 
 3 Let them for their reward j 6 Thou art my helper, and 
 be soon brought to shame : that my redeemer : O Lord, make no 
 cry over me, There, there. | long tarrying. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for Mass second Sunday 
 after Easter (e). 
 
 Latins. Thursday Matins ; Maundy Thursday. 
 
 Greeks. -- Tuesday night ; Saturday nocturns ; 
 Mesorion of sixth hour ; Late evensong in Lent ; 
 Office for dying. 
 
 The greater use made by the Eastern Church of 
 this psalm would suggest the Eastern origin of the 
 versicles in morning and evening prayer : " O God, 
 make speed to save us/' etc., which is the fact. They 
 came to the West in about 540 A.D., and were first 
 used for noctums, then for all the hours. 
 
 Among the once famous writers on the Psalms 
 was William Nicholson, author of David's Harp strung 
 and timed (1662). He was a Magdalen choir-boy, 
 Croydon schoolmaster, Archdeacon of Brecknock, a 
 refugee, a friend of Clarendon's, and at last Bishop of 
 Gloucester. He was " a person of great erudition, 
 156
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixxi. 
 
 [Day 14 
 
 prudence, modesty, and of a moderate mind," says 
 Wood, meaning by the last term that he was just and 
 fair. He maintained that the older a man gets the 
 more he loves the Psalms. "The best of expositors 
 have presented their thoughts on the Psalms in their 
 riper years, and made them one of their last works." 
 
 Verse 4. Haydn (1732-1809), the musician, was so 
 convinced of the truth of this verse, that he said, when 
 rebuked by some sour persons for the joyful character 
 of his pieces, that all religious things ought to be 
 cheerful, and that for his part he would set the 
 Miserere to an allegro. Bishop Hacket (1592-1670) 
 perhaps had the same psalm in his mind when he 
 composed his motto of " Serve God and be cheerful." 
 To go farther back still, perhaps the same thought 
 inspired St. Patrick of Ireland, who had a habit of 
 saying Deo grottos Thank God whatever happened 
 of pleasant or sad event. And the oldest part of the 
 Mass, which is found wherever the Church exists, and 
 dates without doubt from Apostolic times, perhaps 
 even from the forty days of the first Easter, reminds 
 us that we should at all times and in all places give 
 thanks : Vere dig/mm et iustum est cequuin et salutare, nos 
 tibi .semper et ubique gratias agere, Domine Sancte, Pater 
 Omnipotens, ceterne Deux. 
 
 THE FOURTEENTH DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 Psalm Ixxi. 
 
 In te, Domine, speravi. 
 
 I In thee, O Lord, have I 
 put my trust, let me never be 
 put to confusion : but rid me, 
 and deliver me, in thy righteous- 
 
 ness ; incline thine ear unto me, 
 and save me. 
 
 2 Be thou my stronghold, 
 whereunto I may alway resort :
 
 Day 14] 
 
 Psalm Ixxi. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 thou hast promised to help me, 
 for thou art my house of defence, 
 and my castle. 
 
 3 Deliver me, O my God, 
 out of the hand of the ungodly : 
 out of the hand of the un- 
 righteous and cruel man. 
 
 4 For thou, O Lord God, art 
 the thing that I long for : thou 
 art my hope, even from my 
 youth. 
 
 5 Through thee have I been 
 holden up ever since I was born : 
 thou art he that took me out of 
 my mother's womb ; my praise 
 shall be always of thee. 
 
 6 I am become as it were 
 a monster unto many : but my 
 sure trust is in thee. 
 
 7 O let my mouth be filled 
 with thy praise : that I may sing 
 of thy glory and honour all the 
 day long. 
 
 8 Cast me not away in the 
 time of age : forsake me not 
 when my strength faileth me. 
 
 9 For mine enemies speak 
 against me, and they that lay 
 wait for my soul take their 
 counsel together, saying : God 
 hath forsaken him ; persecute 
 him, and take him, for there is 
 none to deliver him. 
 
 10 Go not far from me, O 
 God : my God, haste thee to 
 help me. 
 
 11 Let them be confounded 
 and perish that are against my 
 soul : let them be covered with 
 
 shame and dishonour that seek 
 to do me evil. 
 
 12 As for me, I will patiently 
 abide alway : and will praise 
 thee more and more. 
 
 13 My mouth shall daily 
 speak of thy righteousness and 
 salvation : for I know no end 
 thereof. 
 
 14 I will go forth in the 
 strength of the Lord God : and 
 will make mention of thy right- 
 eousness only. 
 
 15 Thou, O God, hast taught 
 me from my youth up until now : 
 therefore will I tell of thy 
 wondrous works. 
 
 16 Forsake me not, O God, 
 in mine old age, when I am 
 gray - headed : until I have 
 shewed thy strength unto this 
 generation, and thy power to all 
 them that are yet for to come. 
 
 17 Thy righteousness, O God, 
 is very high : and great things 
 are they that thou hast done ; 
 O God, who is like unto thee ? 
 
 1 8 O what great troubles and 
 adversities hast thou shewed 
 me ! and yet didst thou turn 
 and refresh me : yea, and 
 broughtest me from the deep 
 of the earth again. 
 
 19 Thou hast brought me to 
 great honour : and comforted 
 me on every side. 
 
 20 Therefore will I praise 
 thee and thy faithfulness, O God, 
 playing upon an instrument of
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixxi. 
 
 [Day 14 
 
 musick : unto thee will I sing 22 My tongue also shall talk 
 
 upon the harp, O thou Holy of thy righteousness all the day 
 
 One of Israel. long : for they are confounded 
 
 21 My lips will be fain when and brought unto shame that 
 
 I sing unto thee : and so will my seek to do me evil, 
 soul whom thou hast delivered. 
 
 Liturgical use. Visitation of the sick. 
 
 Latins. Thursday morning ; Maundy Thursday. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 This is one of the Dirge psalms (see note on Ps. v.) 
 in the F^nglish Dirge for the Dead. 
 
 This psalm, though it is one made up out of texts 
 from other psalms, has been much used by Christians 
 in their last hours. Its leading thoughts were em- 
 bodied by Mary Queen of Scots, in a passionate Latin 
 hymn she wrote before her execution : Domine Jesu, 
 .\/>erari in te. 
 
 Bishop Fisher recited it on his way to the scaffold 
 from the Tower ; and the blessed Thomas Cottam on 
 the scaffold in 1568. It was sung to Bishop Jewel on 
 his death-bed, and he joined in as well as his feeble 
 strength would allow him. Indeed, to such as were 
 about him at Monketon Farla he dictated short notes 
 upon this same psalm. Kirke White alludes to it in 
 his prayer found on the flyleaf in his memorandum 
 book. 
 
 It is this "composition psalm" which determined 
 the compilers of our Prayer Book to compose psalms, 
 in the same way, for the King's accession and for 
 thanksgiving after a victory at sea. 
 
 Verse 5. De ventre matrix wea', tu ex protector meus. 
 This was the motto of Pope Sixtus v., the theologian 
 of Trent, the opponent of Henry of Navarre and 
 Elizabeth. He was a pope of great austerity and 
 power, who governed thoroughly. He blessed the 
 Armada in the assault upon England, and also had 
 the Sixtine editions of the Vulgate and LXX. 
 159
 
 Day 14] Psalm Ixxi. [Morning Prayer 
 
 made, and he exterminated the banditti. He died in 
 1590. 
 
 Verse 7. This was used in the Anglo-Saxon office 
 of Prime, very early translated into the English 
 tongue. 
 
 Verse 8. When George Herbert was dying he 
 quoted these words : " Lord, forsake me not when my 
 strength faileth ; but grant me mercy for the merits 
 of my Jesus. And now, Lord Lord, now receive my 
 soul." 
 
 Between our thirteenth and fourteenth verse the 
 Vulgate and one version of the LXX. insert the words, 
 because I knew not learning quoniam non cognovi 
 literaturam ; another version of LXX., the Vatican, 
 reads Trpay/Aaretas, business. For this reason some 
 monastic communities deliberately eschewed learning, 
 e.g. St. Isidore of Seville (seventh century), a learned 
 man himself, an historian and editor, wished his 
 monks to know nothing but their faith ; and perhaps 
 St. Francis, too, discouraged letters in his friaries from 
 the same text. In both cases the followers were 
 drawn by the logic of life into great learning. The 
 Franciscans filled nearly all the principal chairs of 
 Europe. 
 
 "The 71st Psalm was pen'd for old age" was a 
 saying of Lady Waiidesford, whose husband succeeded 
 his friend Straffortl in Ireland, and lost his reputation 
 and life in Dublin. The gallant lady, who often 
 recited the psalm, would add grimly that the way to 
 heaven lay past the gates of hell. 
 
 160
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixxii. 
 
 [Day 14 
 
 Psalm Ixxii. 
 
 A Psalm for Solomon. 
 
 Deus, judicium. 
 
 1 Give the King thy judg- 
 ments, O God : and thy right- 
 eousness unto the King's son. 
 
 2 Then shall he judge thy 
 people according unto right : 
 and defend the poor. 
 
 3 The mountains also shall 
 bring peace : and the little hills 
 righteousness unto the people. 
 
 4 He shall keep the simple 
 folk by their right : defend the 
 children of the poor, and punish 
 the wrong-doer. 
 
 5 They shall fear thee, as 
 long as the sun and moon 
 endureth : from one generation 
 to another. 
 
 6 He shall come down like 
 the rain into a fleece of wool : 
 even as the drops that water the 
 earth. 
 
 7 In his time shall the 
 righteous flourish : yea, and 
 abundance of peace, so long 
 as the moon endureth. 
 
 8 His dominion shall be also 
 from the one sea to the other : 
 and from the flood unto the 
 world's end. 
 
 9 They that dwell in the 
 wilderness shall kneel before 
 him : his enemies shall lick the 
 dust. 
 
 10 The kings of Tharsis and 
 of the isles shall give presents : 
 
 the kings of Arabia and Saba 
 shall bring gifts. 
 
 1 1 All kings shall fall down 
 before him : all nations shall do 
 him service. 
 
 12 For he shall deliver the 
 poor when he crieth : the needy 
 also, and him that hath no 
 helper. 
 
 13 He shall be favourable to 
 the simple and needy : and 
 shall preserve the souls of the 
 poor. 
 
 14 He shall deliver their souls 
 from falsehood and wrong : and 
 dear shall their blood be in his 
 sight. 
 
 15 He shall live, and unto 
 him shall be given of the gold 
 of Arabia : prayer shall be made 
 ever unto him, and daily shall 
 he be praised. 
 
 1 6 There shall be an heap of 
 corn in the earth, high upon the 
 hills : his fruit shall shake like 
 Libanus, and shall be green in 
 the city like grass upon the 
 earth. 
 
 17 His Name shall endure 
 for ever ; his Name shall re- 
 main under the sun among the 
 posterities : which shall be 
 blessed through him ; and all 
 the heathen shall praise him. 
 
 1 8 Blessed be the Lord God, 
 
 161
 
 Day 14] 
 
 Psalm Ixxii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 even the God of Israel : which 
 only doeth wondrous things ; 
 19 And blessed be the Name 
 
 of his Majesty for ever : and all 
 the earth shall be filled with his 
 Majesty. Amen, Amen. 
 
 Latins. Thursday Matins ; Christmas ; Epiphany ; 
 Maundy Thursday ; Trinity Sunday. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 This noble ideal of kingship has moulded the lives 
 of many devout sovereigns, among them King Alfred, 
 and Edmund of Thetford, the martyr and St. Sebastian 
 of England. Of the latter Carlyle says, " How then, 
 may it be asked, did this Edmund rise into favour ? 
 Really, except it were by doing justly and loving 
 mercy to an unprecedented extent, we do not know. 
 The man, it would seem, 'had walked,' as they say, 
 ' humbly with God ' humbly and valiantly with 
 God, struggling to make the earth heavenly, as he 
 could, instead of walking sumptuously and pridefully 
 with Mammon, leaving the earth to grow hellish as it 
 liked, seen and felt by all men to have done a man's 
 part in this life-pilgrimage of his; and benedictions 
 and overflowing love and admiration from the uni- 
 versal heart were his meed. ' Well done ! well 
 done ! ' cried the hearts of all men." 
 
 Verse 4. Over the court-house recently erected on 
 the site of old unhappy Newgate is carved : " Thou 
 shalt protect the children of the poor, and punish the 
 wrong-doer," which an American writer thinks is a 
 striking instance of the attitude towards crime of the 
 Government of England. 
 
 Verses 10 and 11. These verses have caused the 
 wise men from the East to be represented in Art as 
 three kings. 
 
 Verse 10. When Sydney Smith's eldest daughter was 
 
 born in Edinburgh in 1 802, he selected from the psalm 
 
 for the day the name of Saba, thinking that as the 
 
 parents were constrained to give their child so in- 
 
 162
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixxiii. 
 
 [Day 14 
 
 distinctive and unoriginal a surname as Smith, they 
 ought to counterpoise it with a Christian more original 
 and vivacious. 
 
 Verse 17. These words give one of the names in 
 Jewish lore to the Messiah Yinnon "who shall 
 endure." The other names were Shiloh, the 
 Comforter, and the Leprous One of the House of 
 Rabbi. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm Ixxiii. 
 
 A Psalm of Asaph. 
 Quam bonus Israel ! 
 
 1 Truly God is loving unto 
 Israel : even unto such as are 
 of a clean heart. 
 
 2 Nevertheless, my feet were 
 almost gone : my treadings had 
 well-nigh slipt. 
 
 3 And why ? I was grieved 
 at the wicked : I do also see 
 the ungodly in such prosperity. 
 
 4 For they are in no peril of 
 death : but are lusty and strong. 
 
 5 They come in no misfortune 
 like other folk : neither are they 
 plagued like other men. 
 
 6 And this is the cause that 
 they are so holden with pride : 
 and overwhelmed with cruelty. 
 
 7 Their eyes swell with fat- 
 ness : and they do even what 
 they lust. 
 
 8 They corrupt other, and 
 speak of wicked blasphemy : 
 
 16 
 
 their talking is against the most 
 High. 
 
 9 For they stretch forth their 
 mouth unto the heaven : and 
 their tongue goeth through the 
 world. 
 
 10 Therefore fall the people 
 unto them : and thereout suck 
 they no small advantage. 
 
 11 Tush, say they, how 
 should God perceive it : is 
 there knowledge in the most 
 High? 
 
 12 Lo, these are the ungodly, 
 these prosper in the world, and 
 these have riches in possession : 
 and I said, Then have I cleansed 
 my heart in vain, and washed 
 mine hands in innocency. 
 
 13 All the day long have I 
 been punished : and chastened 
 every morning.
 
 Day 14] 
 
 Psalm Ixxiii. 
 
 [F, veiling Prayer 
 
 14 Yea, and I had almost 
 said ' ' even as they " : but lo, 
 then I should have condemned 
 the generation of thy children. 
 
 15 Then thought I to under- 
 stand this : but it was too hard 
 for me, 
 
 16 Until I went into the 
 sanctuary of God : then under- 
 stood I the end of these men ; 
 
 17 Namely, how thou dost 
 set them in slippery places : 
 and castest them down, and 
 destroyest them. 
 
 1 8 Oh, how suddenly do they 
 consume : perish, and come to 
 a fearful end ! 
 
 19 Yea, even like as a dream 
 when one awaketh : so shalt 
 thou make their image to vanish 
 out of the city. 
 
 20 Thus my heart was 
 grieved : and it went even 
 through my reins. 
 
 21 So foolish was I, and 
 
 ignorant : even as it were a 
 beast before thee. 
 
 22 Nevertheless, I am alway 
 by thee : for thou hast holden 
 me by my right hand. 
 
 23 Thou shalt guide me with 
 thy counsel : and after that 
 receive me with glory. 
 
 24 Whom have I in heaven 
 but thee : and there is none 
 upon earth that I desire in 
 comparison of thee. 
 
 25 My flesh and my heart 
 faileth : but God is the strength 
 of my heart, and my portion for 
 ever. 
 
 26 For lo, they that forsake 
 thee shall perish : thou hast 
 destroyed all them that commit 
 fornication against thee. 
 
 27 But it is good for me to 
 hold me fast by God, to put my 
 trust in the Lord God : and to 
 speak of all thy works in the 
 gates of the daughter of Sion. 
 
 Latins. Thursday Matins ; Maundy Thursday. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 St. Augustine's proof that the old saints were 
 justified by the faith and mystery of Christ. In his 
 City of God (x. 25) he has a chapter upon this psalm, 
 shewing that the Christian desires such goods as the 
 wicked cannot share, who only have the blessings of 
 the left hand, i.e. temporal and temporary blessings : 
 but the citizens of Sion sacrifice, with the angels, 
 themselves to the Holy Trinity. 
 
 Verse 17. St. Gregory the Great pathetically applies 
 these words to his own great busy life, amid the 
 164
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm IxXlV. 
 
 [Day 14 
 
 earthly cares of which he was prevented from 
 thinking, much more from preaching publicly, of 
 the miraculous works of the Lord. Overwhelmed by 
 the tumult of secular affairs, I am one of those, he 
 says, of whom it is written, ' Thou dost set them in 
 slippery places : and easiest them down.' 
 
 Verse 17. Strafford's successor, Lord Leicester, thus 
 comments upon the executions of the Duke of 
 Hamilton, Lord Capel, and Lord Holland "on 
 a cold March morning, 1650." "So the glory 
 of the world passes away, and those that think 
 themselves to be great and happy and safe are sette 
 in slippery places, perish, and come to a fearfull 
 end." 
 
 Verse 25. Charles Wesley, when dying, wrote a 
 hymn from these words. 
 
 Psalm Ixxiv. 
 
 Maschil of Asaph. 
 Utquid, Deus? 
 
 1 O God, wherefore art thou 
 absent from us so long : why is 
 thy wrath so hot against the 
 sheep of thy pasture ? 
 
 2 O think upon thy con- 
 gregation : whom thou hast 
 purchased, and redeemed of 
 old. 
 
 3 Think upon the tribe of 
 thine inheritance : and mount 
 Sion, wherein thou hast dwelt. 
 
 4 Lift up thy feet, that thou 
 mayest utterly destroy every 
 enemy : which hath done evil 
 in thy sanctuary. 
 
 5 Thine adversaries roar in 
 
 the midst of thy congregations : 
 and set up their banners for 
 tokens. 
 
 6 He that hewed timber afore 
 out of the thick trees : was 
 known to bring it to an ex- 
 cellent work. 
 
 7 But now they brake down 
 all the carved work thereof: 
 with axes and hammers. 
 
 8 They have set fire upon thy 
 holy places : and have defiled 
 the dwelling-place of thy Name, 
 even unto the ground. 
 
 9 Yea, they said in their 
 hearts, Let us make havock of
 
 Day 14] 
 
 Psalm Ixxiv. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 them altogether : thus have they 
 burnt up all the houses of God 
 in the land. 
 
 10 We see not our tokens, 
 there is not one prophet more : 
 no, not one is there among us, 
 that understandeth any more. 
 
 11 O God, how long shall 
 the adversary do this dishonour : 
 how long shall the enemy 
 blaspheme thy Name, for ever ? 
 
 12 Why withdrawest thou 
 thy hand : why pluckest thou 
 not thy right hand out of thy 
 bosom to consume the enemy ? 
 
 13 For God is my King of 
 old : the help that is done upon 
 earth he doeth it himself. 
 
 14 Thou didst divide the sea 
 through thy power : thou brakest 
 the heads of the dragons in the 
 waters. 
 
 15 Thou smotest the heads of 
 Leviathan in pieces : and gavest 
 him to be meat for the people in 
 the wilderness. 
 
 1 6 Thou broughtest out 
 
 17 The day is thine, and the 
 night is thine : thou hast pre- 
 pared the light and the sun. 
 
 1 8 Thou hast set all the 
 borders of the earth : thou 
 hast made summer and winter. 
 
 19 Remember this, O Lord, 
 how the enemy hath rebuked : 
 and how the foolish people hath 
 blasphemed thy Name. 
 
 20 O deliver not the soul of 
 thy turtle-dove unto the multi- 
 tude of the enemies : and forget 
 not the congregation of the poor 
 for ever. 
 
 21 Look upon the covenant : 
 for all the earth is full of dark- 
 ness, and cruel habitations. 
 
 22 O let not the simple go 
 away ashamed : but let the poor 
 and needy give praise unto thy 
 Name. 
 
 23 Arise, O God, maintain 
 thine own cause : remember 
 how the foolish man blas- 
 phemeth thee daily. 
 
 24 Forget not the voice of 
 thine enemies : the presumption 
 
 of them that hate thee increaseth 
 ever more and more. 
 
 fountains and waters out of 
 the hard rocks : thou driedst 
 up mighty waters. 
 
 Latins. Thursday Matins ; Maundy Thursday ; Eve 
 of the Passion. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 This psalm was much used in the great northern 
 rebellion, the Pilgrimage of Grace, 1537, which 
 followed the suppression of the abbeys. Robert 
 Aske, the leader, accounts for the revolt, saying that 
 in the North " the abbeys gave great alms to poor 
 1 66
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm IxxlV. E Da y *4 
 
 men, and laudably served God. In which parts, of 
 late days, they had but small comfort of ghostly 
 teaching ; and by occasion of the said suppression the 
 divine service of Almighty God is much diminished, 
 great numbers of Masses unsaid, and the blessed 
 consecration of the Sacrament now not used and 
 showed in those places, to the distress of the faith 
 and spiritual comfort to man's soul. The temple of 
 God (is now) razed and pulled down ; the ornaments 
 and relics of the Church of God unreverently used ; 
 the tombs and sepulchres of honourable and noble 
 men pulled down and sold." 
 
 Emanuel Swedenborg beloved of Coleridge 
 concluded from the same psalm that "The Church, 
 with all things belonging thereto, has been entirely 
 destroyed and its holy things profaned," and that 
 he was commissioned to refound and reconsecrate it 
 (1688-1772). 
 
 Verse 17. Titus est dies et tua est nojc : tu fabricates es 
 auroram et solem. This is the dial motto at Maxey 
 Vicarage, Northampton. 
 
 Verse 23. This was the introit to the Mass on 
 Saturday, l6th November 1532, when Pizarro and 
 his companions plotted to massacre the Peruvian 
 chiefs and to seize their Emperour Atahualpa. 
 
 Verse 24. Ne obliviscaris is the old motto of the 
 Dukes of Argyle. 
 
 167
 
 Day 15] 
 
 Psalm Ixxv. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 THE FIFTEENTH DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 Psalm Ixxv. 
 
 To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, A Psalm or Song of Asaph. 
 Confitebimur tibi. 
 
 1 Unto thee, O God, do we 
 give thanks : yea, unto thee do 
 we give thanks. 
 
 2 Thy Name also is so nigh : 
 and that do thy wondrous works 
 declare. 
 
 3 When I receive the con- 
 gregation : I shall judge accord- 
 ing unto right. 
 
 4 The earth is weak, and all 
 the inhabiters thereof: I bear 
 up the pillars of it. 
 
 5 I said unto the fools, " Deal 
 not so madly " : and to the un- 
 godly, " Set not up your horn." 
 
 6 Set not up your horn on 
 high : and speak not with a 
 stiff neck. 
 
 7 For promotion cometh 
 neither from the east, nor from 
 
 the west : nor yet from the 
 south; 
 
 8 And why? God is the 
 Judge : he putteth down one, 
 and setteth up another. 
 
 9 For in the hand of the 
 Lord there is a cup, and the 
 wine is red : it is full mixed, 
 and he poureth out of the same. 
 
 10 As for the dregs thereof : 
 all the ungodly of the earth shall 
 drink them, and suck them out. 
 
 11 But I will talk of the God 
 of Jacob : and praise him for 
 ever. 
 
 12 All the horns of the un- 
 godly also will I break : and 
 the horns of the righteous shall 
 be exalted. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for the Mass third Sunday 
 after Easter (e). 
 
 Latins. Thursday Matins ; Maundy Thursday ; 
 Apostles and evangelists. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), in his History of 
 the World (a book which Cromwell loved and 
 studied), has an interesting note on the Psalter. 
 168
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixxvi. 
 
 [Day 15 
 
 " For his internal gifts and graces David so far 
 exceeded all other men, as, putting his human frailty 
 apart, he was said by God Himself to be a man 
 according to His own heart. The psalms which he 
 wrote instance his piety and his excellent learning, of 
 whom Jerome to Paulinus : ' David/ saith he, ' our 
 Simonides, Pindarus, and Alcaeus, Horatius, Catullus 
 and Serenus, playeth Christ on his harp, and on a 
 ten-stringed lute raiseth Him up rising from the dead. 
 And being both a king and prophet, he foretelleth 
 Christ more lightsomely and lively than all the rest.' " 
 
 Psalm Ixxvi. 
 
 To the chief Musician, on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song of Asaph. 
 Notus in Judaea. 
 
 1 In Jewry is God known : 
 his Name is great in Israel. 
 
 2 At Salem is his tabernacle : 
 and his dwelling in Sion. 
 
 3 There brake he the arrows 
 of the bow : the shield, the 
 sword, and the battle. 
 
 4 Thou art of more honour 
 and might : than the hills of the 
 robbers. 
 
 5 The proud are robbed, 
 they have slept their sleep : 
 and all the men whose hands 
 were mighty have found 
 nothing. 
 
 6 At thy rebuke, O God of 
 Jacob : both the chariot and 
 horse are fallen. 
 
 7 Thou, even thou art to be 
 feared : and who may stand 
 
 169 
 
 in thy sight when thou art 
 angry? 
 
 8 Thou didst cause thy judge- 
 ment to be heard from heaven : 
 the earth trembled, and was still, 
 
 9 When God arose to judge- 
 ment : and to help all the meek 
 upon earth. 
 
 10 The fierceness of man shall 
 turn to thy praise : and the 
 fierceness of them shalt thou 
 refrain. 
 
 11 Promise unto the Lord 
 your God, and keep it, all ye 
 that are round about him : bring 
 presents unto him that ought to 
 be feared. 
 
 12 He shall refrain the spirit 
 of princes : and is wonderful 
 among the kings of the earth.
 
 Day 15] 
 
 Psalm Ixxvll. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Latins. Thursday morning ; Maundy Thursday ; 
 Easter Eve. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 This psalm was Charles Kingsley's (1819-75) 
 favourite ; he called it "my psalm." 
 
 The rebel Covenanters at Drumclog (in 1649), so 
 vividly described by Scott in Old Mortality, sang 
 this psalm. It had been sung in Edinburgh at the 
 defeat of the Armada, and in many of the London 
 churches at the same news. 
 
 This psalm has always been a favourite in occult 
 circles, and it figures largely in exorcisms, preventives 
 against witchcraft and the like. This was partly 
 owing to its title, Canticmn ad Assyrios, and also 
 because of the Vulgate, fourth verse : Illuminans tu 
 mirabiliter a montibus ceternis Thou givest wonderful 
 light from the eternal mountains. In Dr. Dees' Diary 
 (1597), that cabbalist dreamt "a vision and shew of 
 many bokes, and among the rest was one great 
 volume thik in large quarto, new printed, on the 
 first page whereof as a title in great letters was 
 printed : Notus in Judaea DC us." 
 
 Verse 11. When St. Bonaventura (the Seraphic 
 doctor) was twenty-two years old, he was meditating 
 upon this verse ; he remembered that when he was a. 
 child, and near death with sickness, his mother had 
 promised him to St. Francis. He then joined that 
 order. 
 
 Psalm Ixxvii. 
 
 To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph. 
 Voce mea ad Dominum. 
 
 1 I will cry unto God with 
 my voice : even unto God will 
 I cry with my voice, and he 
 shall hearken unto me. 
 
 2 In the time of my trouble 
 
 I sought the Lord : my sore 
 ran, and ceased not in the 
 night-season ; my soul refused 
 comfort. 
 
 3 When I am in heaviness, 
 
 I 7
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Ixxvii. 
 
 [Day 15 
 
 I will think upon God : when 
 my heart is vexed, t will 
 complain. 
 
 4 Thou holdest mine eyes 
 waking : I am so feeble, that I 
 cannot speak. 
 
 5 I have considered the days 
 of old : and the years that are 
 past. 
 
 6 I call to remembrance my 
 song : and in the night I 
 commune with mine own heart, 
 and search out my spirits. 
 
 7 Will the Lord absent him- 
 self for ever : and will he be 
 no more intreated ? 
 
 8 Is his mercy clean gone for 
 ever : and is his promise come 
 utterly to an end for evermore ? 
 
 9 Hath God forgotten to be 
 gracious : and will he shut 
 up his loving-kindness in dis- 
 pleasure ? 
 
 10 And I said, " It is mine 
 own infirmity : but I will re- 
 member the years of the right 
 hand of the most Highest." 
 
 Ill will remember the works 
 of the Lord : and call to mind 
 thy wonders of old time. 
 
 works : and my talking shall be 
 of thy doings. 
 
 13 Thy way, O God, is holy : 
 who is so great a God as our 
 God? 
 
 14 Thou art the God that 
 doeth wonders : and hast de- 
 clared thy power among the 
 people. 
 
 15 Thou hast mightily de- 
 livered thy people : even the 
 sons of Jacob and Joseph. 
 
 1 6 The waters saw thee, O 
 God, the waters saw thee, and 
 were afraid : the depths also 
 were troubled. 
 
 17 The clouds poured out 
 water, the air thundered : and 
 thine arrows went abroad. 
 
 1 8 The voice of thy thunder 
 was heard round about : the 
 lightnings shone upon the 
 ground ; the earth was moved, 
 and shook withal. 
 
 19 Thy way is in the sea, 
 and thy paths in the great 
 waters : and thy footsteps are 
 not known. 
 
 20 Thou leddest thy people 
 like sheep : by the hand of 
 Moses and Aaron. 
 
 12 I will think also of all thy 
 
 Latins. Matins Thursday ; Maundy Thursday. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 Bishop Hooper was so impressed with this psalm, 
 that he wrote a commentary upon it ; and when he 
 had just been condemned to the stake urged his wife 
 to read the psalm when she found herself too much 
 oppressed. 
 
 171
 
 Day 15] 
 
 Psalm IxXVlii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Verse 3. Dr. Pusey remarked upon this verse that 
 the complaint is not of, but to God. 
 
 Verse 5. " Not pathetic only, but profound also, and 
 of the most solid substance, was that reply made by 
 the old Carthusian monk to the trifler who asked 
 him how he managed to get through his life : Cogitavi 
 dies antiquos et annos ceternos in mentc habui" (M. Arnold, 
 on the Study of History). 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm Ixxviii. 
 
 Maschil of Asaph. 
 Attendite, popule. 
 
 1 Hear my law, O my people : 
 incline your ears unto the words 
 of my mouth. 
 
 2 I will open my mouth in a 
 parable : I will declare hard 
 sentences of old ; 
 
 3 Which we have heard and 
 known : and such as our fathers 
 have told us ; 
 
 4 That we should not hide 
 them from the children of the 
 generations to come : but to 
 shew the honour of the Lord, 
 his mighty and wonderful works 
 that he hath done. 
 
 5 He made a covenant with 
 Jacob, and gave Israel a law : 
 which he commanded our fore- 
 fathers to teach their children ; 
 
 6 That their posterity might 
 know it : and the children which 
 were yet unborn ; 
 
 7 To the intent that when 
 they came up : they might shew 
 their children the same ; 
 
 8 That they might put their 
 trust in God : and not to forget 
 the works of God, but to keep 
 his commandments ; 
 
 9 And not to be as their fore- 
 fathers, a faithless and stubborn 
 generation : a generation that 
 set not their heart aright, and 
 whose spirit cleaveth not sted- 
 fastly unto God ; 
 
 10 Like as the children of 
 Ephraim : who being harnessed, 
 and carrying bows, turned 
 themselves back in the day of 
 battle. 
 
 11 They kept not the cove- 
 nant of God : and would not 
 walk in his law ; 
 
 12 But forgat what he had 
 
 I 7 2
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Ixxviii. 
 
 [Day 15 
 
 done : and the wonderful works 
 that he had shewed for them. 
 
 13 Marvellous things did he 
 in the sight of our forefathers, 
 in the land of Egypt : even in 
 the field of Zoan. 
 
 14 He divided the sea, and 
 let them go through : he made 
 the waters to stand on an heap. 
 
 15 In the daytime also he 
 led them with a cloud : and all 
 the night through with a light 
 of fire. 
 
 1 6 He clave the hard rocks 
 in the wilderness : and gave 
 them drink thereof, as it had 
 been out of the great depth. 
 
 17 He brought waters out of 
 the stony rock : so that it gushed 
 out like the rivers. 
 
 1 8 Yet for all this they sinned 
 more against him : and provoked 
 the most Highest in the wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 19 They tempted God in their 
 hearts : and required meat for 
 their lust. 
 
 20 They spake against God 
 also, saying : Shall God prepare 
 a table in the wilderness ? 
 
 21 He smote the stony rock 
 indeed, that the water gushed 
 out, and the streams flowed 
 withal : but can he give bread 
 also, or provide flesh for his 
 people ? 
 
 22 When the Lord heard this, 
 he was wroth : so the fire was 
 kindled in Jacob, and there 
 
 came up heavy displeasure 
 against Israel : 
 
 23 Because they believed not 
 in God : and put not theii trust 
 
 n his help. 
 
 24 So he commanded the 
 clouds above : and opened the 
 doors of heaven. 
 
 25 He rained down manna 
 also upon them for to eat : and 
 gave them food from heaven. 
 
 26 So man did eat angels' 
 food : for he sent them meat 
 enough. 
 
 27 He caused the east-wind 
 to blow under heaven : and 
 through his power he brought 
 in the south-west-wind. 
 
 28 He rained flesh upon them 
 as thick as dust ; and feathered 
 fowls like as the sand of the 
 sea. 
 
 29 He let it fall among their 
 tents : even round about their 
 habitation. 
 
 30 So they did eat, and were 
 well filled ; for he gave them 
 their own desire : they were not 
 disappointed of their lust. 
 
 31 But while the meat was 
 yet in their mouths, the heavy 
 wrath of God came upon them, 
 and slew the wealthiest of them : 
 yea, and smote down the chosen 
 men that were in Israel. 
 
 32 But for all this they sinned 
 yet more : and believed not his 
 wondrous works. 
 
 33 Therefore their days did 
 
 173
 
 Day 15] 
 
 Psalm IxXVlii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 he consume in vanity : and their 
 years in trouble. 
 
 34 When he slew them, they 
 sought him : and turned them 
 early, and enquired after God. 
 
 35 And they remembered that 
 God was their strength : and 
 that the high God was their 
 redeemer. 
 
 36 Nevertheless, they did but 
 flatter him with their mouth : 
 and dissembled with him in 
 their tongue. 
 
 37 For their heart ' was not 
 whole with him : neither con- 
 tinued they stedfast in his 
 covenant. 
 
 38 But he was so merciful, 
 that he forgave their misdeeds : 
 and destroyed them not. 
 
 39 Yea, many a time turned 
 he his wrath away : and would 
 not suffer his whole displeasure 
 to arise. 
 
 40 For he considered that 
 they were but flesh : and that 
 they were even a wind that 
 passeth away, and cometh not 
 again. 
 
 41 Many a time did they 
 provoke him in the wilderness : 
 and grieved him in the desert. 
 
 42 They turned back and 
 tempted God : and moved the 
 Holy One in Israel. 
 
 43 They thought not of his 
 hand : and of the day when he 
 delivered them from the hand of 
 the enemy ; 
 
 . 44 How he had wrought his 
 miracles in Egypt : and his 
 wonders in the field of Zoan. 
 
 45 He turned their waters 
 into blood : so that they might 
 not drink of the rivers. 
 
 46 He sent lice among them, 
 and devoured them up : and 
 frogs to destroy them. 
 
 47 He gave their fruit unto 
 the caterpillar : and their labour 
 unto the grasshopper. 
 
 48 He destroyed their vines 
 with hail-stones : and their 
 mulberry-trees with the frost. 
 
 49 He smote their cattle also 
 with hail-stones ; and their flocks 
 with hot thunder-bolts. 
 
 50 He cast upon them the 
 furiousness of his wrath, anger, 
 displeasure, and trouble : and 
 sent evil angels among them. 
 
 51 He made a way to his 
 indignation, and spared not 
 their soul from death : but 
 gave their life over to the pesti- 
 lence ; 
 
 52 And smote all the first- 
 born in Egypt : the most 
 principal and mightiest in the 
 dwellings of Ham. 
 
 53 But as for his own people, 
 he led them forth like sheep : 
 and carried them in the wilder- 
 ness like a flock. 
 
 54 He brought them out 
 safely, that they should not fear : 
 and overwhelmed their enemies 
 with the sea. 
 
 '74
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Ixxvlii. 
 
 [Day 15 
 
 S S fUlU IM l/UKUl Li 11.111 *> 1 LI 4 111 
 
 the borders of his sanctuary : 
 
 ^'4. *uc nil, MJU9U1UVU 111C11 
 
 young men : and their maidens 
 
 even to his mountain which he 
 
 were not given to marriage. 
 
 purchased with his right hand. 
 
 65 Their priests were slain 
 
 56 He cast out the heathen 
 
 with the sword : and there were 
 
 also before them : caused their 
 
 no widows to make lamentation, 
 
 land to be divided among them 
 
 66 So the Lord awaked as 
 
 for an heritage, and made the 
 
 one out of sleep : and like a 
 
 tribes of Israel to dwell in their 
 
 giant refreshed with wine. 
 
 tents. 
 
 67 He smote his enemies in 
 
 57 So they tempted, and dis- 
 
 the hinder parts : and put them 
 
 pleased the most high God : and 
 
 to a perpetual shame. 
 
 kept not his testimonies ; 
 
 68 He refused the tabernacle 
 
 58 But turned their backs, 
 
 of Joseph : and chose not the 
 
 and fell away like their fore- 
 
 tribe of Ephraim ; 
 
 fathers : starting aside like a 
 
 69 But chose the tribe of 
 
 broken bow. 
 
 Judah : even the hill of Sion 
 
 59 For they grieved him with 
 
 which he loved. 
 
 their hill-altars : and provoked 
 
 70 And there he built his 
 
 him to displeasure with their 
 
 temple on high : and laid the 
 
 images. 
 
 foundation of it like the ground 
 
 60 When God heard this, he 
 
 which he hath made continually. 
 
 was wroth : and took sore dis- 
 
 71 He chose David also his 
 
 pleasure at Israel. 
 
 servant : and took him away 
 
 6 1 So that he forsook the 
 
 from the sheep-folds. 
 
 tabernacle in Silo : even the 
 
 72 As he was following the 
 
 tent that he had pitched among 
 
 ewes great with young ones he 
 
 men. 
 
 took him : that he might feed 
 
 62 He delivered their power 
 
 Jacob his people, and Israel his 
 
 into captivity : and their beauty 
 
 inheritance. 
 
 into the enemy's hand. 
 
 73 So he fed them with a 
 
 63 He gave his people over 
 
 faithful and true heart : and 
 
 also unto the sword : and was 
 
 ruled them prudently with all 
 
 wroth with his inheritance. 
 
 his power. 
 
 Latins. Thursday Matins. 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 S. T. Coleridge's lay-sermons contain a " states- 
 man's manual " upon this psalm, with an appendix 
 
 '75
 
 Day 15] Psalm IxXVlii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 upon the study of the inspired writings. He was not 
 only the father of much in poetry and philosophy, but 
 he also inspired the Christian Socialists of Frederick 
 Denison Maurice's (1805-72) generation, and so those 
 of our own day, to review political action and theory 
 in the light of the Incarnation. Thus the source of 
 Christian Socialism in its modern form may be traced 
 to this national ballad of the Jewish people. 
 
 Uppingham boys will like to know that this was 
 the last psalm read in the school by Edward Thring 
 (1821-87), their great headmaster, before he died, 
 " weary, ill, and battered." Many of those who knew 
 him felt that the last verse was one that exactly 
 summed up his own headmastership. 
 
 " Of the other Scriptures," says Theodore, in the 
 fifth century, " the generality of men know next to 
 nothing. But the Psalms you will find again and 
 again repeated in private houses, in market places, 
 in streets, by those who have learned them by heart, 
 and who soothe themselves by their divine melody." 
 " When other parts of Scripture are used," says St. 
 Ambrose, "there is such a noise of talking in the 
 church that you cannot hear what is said. But when 
 the Psalter is read, all are silent." The Psalms were 
 sung by the ploughmen of Palestine in the time 
 of Jerome : by the boatmen of Gaul in the time 
 of Sidonius Apollinaris. In the most barbarous of 
 churches the Abyssinian the Psalter is treated 
 almost as an idol, is the only book allowed to be read 
 by the children of the laity, and is sung through from 
 end to end at every funeral. In the most Protestant 
 of churches the Presbyterians of Scotland, the Non- 
 conformists of England " psalm-singing " has almost 
 passed into a familiar description of their ritual. In 
 the churches of Rome and of England they are daily 
 recited, in proportions such as far exceed the reverence 
 shewn to any other portion of the Scriptures (Stanley). 
 176
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm IxXlX. 
 
 [Day 1 6 
 
 Verse '2. St. Matthew quotes this of Christ's 
 parables. 
 
 Verse 34. St. Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza, used often 
 to point out this verse to his people, to remind them 
 that God's service is purified by a persecution even to 
 the death. 
 
 Verse 71. Bishop Lightfoot's motto for St. Columba's 
 window at Bishop Auckland is Siistulit cum de gregibus 
 oriiim. 
 
 THE SIXTEENTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm Ixxix. 
 
 A Psalm of Asaph. 
 
 Deus, venerunt. 
 
 1 O God, the heathen are 
 come into thine inheritance : 
 thy holy temple have they de- 
 filed, and made Jerusalem an 
 heap of stones. 
 
 2 The dead bodies of thy 
 servants have they given to be 
 meat unto the fowls of the air : 
 and the flesh of thy saints unto 
 the beasts of the land. 
 
 3 Their blood have they shed 
 like water on every side of 
 Jerusalem : and there was no 
 man to bury them. 
 
 4 We are become an open 
 shame to our enemies : a very 
 scorn and derision unto them 
 that are round about us. 
 
 5 Lord, how long wilt thou 
 
 be angry : shall thy jealousy 
 burn like fire for ever ? 
 
 6 Pour out thine indignation 
 upon the heathen that have not 
 known thee : and upon the 
 kingdoms that have not called 
 upon thy Name. 
 
 7 For they have devoured 
 Jacob ; and laid waste his dwell- 
 ing-place. 
 
 8 O remember not our old 
 sins, but have mercy upon us, 
 and that soon : for we are come 
 to great misery. 
 
 9 Help us, O God of our 
 salvation, for the glory of thy 
 Name : O deliver us, and be 
 merciful unto our sins, for thy 
 Name's sake. 
 
 M 
 
 177
 
 Day 16] Psalm IxXlX. [Morning Prayer 
 
 10 Wherefore do the heathen 13 And for the blasphemy 
 say : Where is now their God ? i wherewith our neighbours have 
 
 11 O let the vengeance of thy ! blasphemed thee : reward thou 
 
 servants' blood that is shed : be 
 openly shewed upon the heathen 
 in our sight. 
 
 12 O let the sorrowful sighing 
 of the prisoners come before 
 
 them, O Lord, seven-fold into 
 their bosom. 
 
 14 So we, that are thy people, 
 and sheep of thy pasture, shall 
 give thee thanks for ever : and 
 
 thee : according to the greatness | will alway be shewing forth thy 
 of thy power, preserve thou praise from generation to genera- 
 those that are appointed to die. tion. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for Childermas (e). 
 
 Latins. Thursday Matins (Sarutn, All Saints). 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 This has been a psalm of the beaten peoples. It was 
 perhaps written at the Captivity. It was St. Jerome's 
 cry over the sack of Rome (fourth century). Gildas' 
 lament over the horrors of the Saxon (sixth century) 
 invasion, and the w r ail of Christendom over, first, the 
 murder of pilgrims (1095), and then over the failure 
 of the Crusades and the fall of Jerusalem, when (1 1 88) 
 " there was not such joy in hell since it had been 
 harrowed." It was the lamentation of the Greeks over 
 the fall of Constantinople (29th May 1453) when the 
 Turkish reign of terror settled upon Europe. 
 
 It was formerly used in the Evensong of King 
 Charles the martyr, the proper psalms then being 
 Ixxix., xciv., and Ixxxv. It was applied as freely to 
 the Puritan excesses as it afterwards was to the pro- 
 fanity of the French Revolutionists ; and who can 
 wonder, when pious Bishop Hall saw Norwich 
 Cathedral filled with " muskatiers drinking and 
 tobacconing freely " ? " Lord, what work was here, 
 what clattering of glasses, what beating down of 
 Walls, what tearing up of Monuments, what pulling 
 down of Seates, what wrestling out of Irons and 
 Brass from the Windowes and Graves ! What de- 
 178
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm IxXIX. [Day 16 
 
 facing of Armes, what demolishing of curious stone- 
 work, that had not any representation in the World, 
 but only of the cost of the Founder and skill of the 
 Mason, what toting and piping upon the destroyed 
 Organ pipe, and what a hideous triumph on the 
 Market-day before all the Countrey, when, in a kind 
 of Sacrilegious and profane procession, all the Organ- 
 pipes, Vestments, both Copes and Surplices, together 
 with the Leaden Crosse which had been newly sawne 
 down from over the Green-Yard Pulpit, and the 
 Service books and singing-books that could be had 
 were carried to the fire in the publick Market-place ; 
 A lend wretch walking before the Train, in his Cope 
 trailing in the dirt, with a Service book in his hand, 
 imitating in an impious scorne the tune and usurping 
 the words of the Letany ; neer the publick Crosse, all 
 these monuments of Idolatry must be sacrificed to the 
 fire, not without much Ostentation of a zealous joy." 
 
 This is a psalm much used by our people during the 
 Indian Mutiny. It was read at Lucknow frequently 
 during the siege ; at Cawnpore and in Meerut the 
 Roman Catholics added it to their daily devotions. 
 
 Among the other saints who made use of it were 
 the noble brothers SS. Crispin and Crispinian at the 
 martyrdom at Soissons. They had renounced their 
 rank, and for the love of Christ made shoes for the 
 poor, and were slain as traitors to the Empire. Their 
 bodies were cast into the sea, but the waves, from 
 love of His feet who had walked upon them, carried the 
 holy bodies of the brothers to Romney Marsh, where 
 the inhabitants, weeping for joy, received them and 
 built a church to receive them at Lydd. 
 
 Abbot Hobbs, the last Abbot of Woburn Abbey, in 
 a pathetic last effort to inspire his disordered com- 
 munity with the old Faith and Order, bade each 
 monk to recite this psalm on Fridays, " because of 
 the evil times and his own sorrow, till certain did 
 179
 
 Day 16] 
 
 Psalm Ixxx. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 murmur about the saying of it, and so it was left;" 
 and shortly after the Abbey was secularised and given 
 to the Russells. 
 
 Every Friday the Jews use this great lament over 
 the ruins of Jerusalem. 
 
 Verse 2. This is the motto which Parsons (1546-1 6 10), 
 the Jesuit, chose for his celebrated book, De persecu- 
 tionc Anglicana, 1581. 
 
 Verses 5 and 8. These are the words of St. 
 Augustine's great agony under the fig tree in the 
 garden, when he was tortured by the great struggle 
 which ended in his conversion. 
 
 Psalm Ixxx. 
 
 To the chief Musician, upon Shoshannim-Eduth, A 
 Psalm of Asaph. 
 
 Qui regis Israel. 
 I Hear, O thou Shepherd of strife unto our neighbours : and 
 
 Israel, thou that leadest Joseph 
 like a sheep : shew thyself also, 
 thou that sittest upon the cheru- 
 bims. 
 
 2 Before Ephraim, Benjamin, 
 and Manasses : stir up thy 
 strength, and come, and help 
 us. 
 
 3 Turn us again, O God : 
 shew the light of thy counten- 
 ance, and we shall be whole. 
 
 4 O Lord God of hosts : how 
 long wilt thou be angry with 
 thy people that prayeth ? 
 
 5 Thou feedest them with the 
 bread of tears : and givest them 
 plenteousness of tears to drink. 
 
 6 Thou hast made us a very 
 
 our enemies laugh us to scorn. 
 
 7 Turn us again, thou God of 
 hosts : shew the light of thy 
 countenance, and we shall be 
 whole. 
 
 8 Thou hast brought a vine 
 out of Egypt : thou hast cast 
 out the heathen, and planted it. 
 
 9 Thou madest room for it : 
 and when it had taken root it 
 filled the land. 
 
 10 The hills were covered 
 with the shadow of it : and the 
 boughs thereof were like the 
 goodly cedar-trees. 
 
 11 She stretched out her 
 branches unto the sea : and her 
 boughs unto the river. 
 
 1 80
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixxx. 
 
 [Day 1 6 
 
 12 Why hast thou then 
 broken down her hedge : that 
 all they that go by pluck off her 
 grapes ? 
 
 13 The wild boar out of the 
 wood doth root it up : and the 
 wild beasts of the field devour 
 it. 
 
 14 Turn thee again, thou God 
 of hosts, look down from 
 heaven : behold, and visit this 
 vine ; 
 
 15 And the place of the vine- 
 yard that thy right hand hath 
 planted : and the branch that 
 thou madest so strong for thy- 
 self. 
 
 1 6 It is burnt with fire, and 
 cut down : and they shall perish 
 at the rebuke of thy counten- 
 ance. 
 
 17 Let thy hand be upon the 
 man of thy right hand : and 
 upon the son of man, whom 
 thou madest so strong for thine 
 own self. 
 
 1 8 And so will not we go 
 back from thee : O let us live, 
 and we shall call upon thy 
 Name. 
 
 19 Turn us again, O Lord 
 God of hosts : shew the light of 
 thy countenance, and we shall 
 be whole. 
 
 Latins. Matins on Thursday. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 Verse 3. On a sundial in Abbeyfield is written, 
 " Shew me the light of Thy countenance." 
 
 Verses 8, 9, and 1 0. Among the numberless versifiers 
 of the psalms was Walton's friend, Dr. Henry King, 
 Bishop of Chichester, who appeared at the Savoy 
 Conference. He was once disgusted at the wretched 
 expression of a metrical psalm "which quite marred 
 the penman's matter and his own devotion " in the 
 current metrical version, and, thinking George Sandys' 
 version " too eloquent for the vulgar use," composed 
 a version of his own, and dedicated it to Archbishop 
 Ussher in 1651 : 
 
 " Thou didst a Vine from ./Egypt bring, 
 Thy hand which planted made it spring, 
 And that it might have room to spred, 
 The Heathen were discomfited : 
 
 " Its root Thou caused'st fast to stand, 
 And with faire branches filled the land ; 
 181
 
 Day 16] Psalm Ixxxi. [Morning Prayer 
 
 The Hills were cover'd with Ilir shade, 
 Hir boughes like goodly Cedar's made." 
 
 Here is Sandys' version of the same verses (1635): 
 
 " This vine from Egypt brought (the foe 
 
 Expeld) was planted by thy hand, 
 Thou gav'st it roome and strength to grow 
 Until her branches fill'd the Land. 
 
 " The Mountains tooke a shade from these, 
 
 Which like a grove of Cedars stood, 
 Extending to the Tyrian seas 
 
 And to Euphrates rowling Flood." 
 
 These were the dying prayers for the Church of 
 Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, 7th March 1107. He 
 was one of the Avise and learned monks of Lanfranc's 
 choice. He rebuilt Rochester Cathedral and the 
 tower of Rochester. Anselm, newly returned, was 
 with him at his death. 
 
 Verse 14. Archbishop Thomas de Rotherham re- 
 foimded Lincoln College, Oxford, owing to a stirring 
 sermon preached from this text by Tristoppe, the 
 rector, in 1478. Bishop Flemmyng had founded it in 
 1426, but it languished. By the licence of Edward iv. 
 five new fellowships were added. The vines in the 
 college are in allusion to this. 
 
 Verse 19. This is used in the Anglo-Saxon vernacular 
 office of Prime, and occurs frequently in a detached 
 form in many services. 
 
 Psalm Ixxxi. 
 
 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph. 
 Exultate Deo. 
 
 I Sing we merrily unto God I 2 Take the psalm, bring 
 our strength : make a cheerful hither the tabret : the merry 
 noise unto the God of Jacob. harp with the lute. 
 
 182
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Ixxxi. 
 
 [Day 1 6 
 
 3 Blow up the trumpet in 
 the new-moon : even in the 
 time appointed, and upon our 
 solemn feast-day. 
 
 4 For this was made a statute 
 for Israel : and a law of the 
 God of Jacob. 
 
 5 This he ordained in Joseph 
 for a testimony : when he came 
 out of the land of Egypt, and 
 had heard a strange language. 
 
 6 I eased his shoulder from 
 the burden : and his hands were 
 delivered from making the pots. 
 
 7 Thou calledst upon me in 
 troubles, and I delivered thee : 
 and heard thee what time as the 
 storm fell upon thee. 
 
 8 I proved thee also : at the 
 waters of strife. 
 
 9 Hear, O my people, and I 
 will assure thee, O Israel : if 
 thou wilt hearken unto me, 
 
 10 There shall no strange 
 God be in thee : neither shalt 
 thou worship any other God. 
 
 11 I am the Lord thy God, 
 who brought thee out of the 
 land of Egypt : open thy mouth 
 wide, and I shall fill it. 
 
 12 But my people would not 
 hear my voice : and Israel would 
 not obey me. 
 
 13 So I gave them up unto 
 their own hearts' lusts : and let 
 them follow their own imagina- 
 tions. 
 
 14 O that my people would 
 have hearkened unto me : for if 
 Israel had walked in my ways, 
 
 15 I should soon have put 
 down their enemies : and turned 
 my hand against their adver- 
 saries. 
 
 1 6 The haters of the Lord 
 should have been found liars : 
 but their time should have en- 
 dured for ever. 
 
 17 He should have fed them 
 also with the finest wheat-flour : 
 and with honey out of the stony 
 rock should I have satisfied thee. 
 
 Lathis. Friday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 To carry a Psalter seemed a necessity to the religious 
 of the Middle Ages. In Chaucer's " Romaunt of the 
 Rose," when " Dame Abstinence-Streyned " wishes to 
 dress up as a Beguine, she takes the coverchief of 
 thread, " But she forgate not hir Sawter," which was 
 quite as much part of the costume. 
 
 One of the fierce controversies which tore the 
 seventeenth century was the question of instrumental 
 music in public worship. Several of the Fathers, 
 183
 
 Day 16] Psalm Ixxxil. [Evening Prayer 
 
 particularly Origen and the Africans, would banish all 
 organs, but those of the body. The elaborate and 
 devout music of the early Stuarts was assaulted as 
 much as their polity. VVith the Restoration came 
 back the organs which had been destroyed in the 
 Revolution, and Father Bernard Smith came over 
 from Halle and built organs for Westminster Abbey, 
 the Sheldonian Theatre, St. Paul's Cathedral (ifiy?), 
 and Trinity, Cambridge. The men of 1688 were half- 
 hearted successors to the Long Parliament, and by an 
 appeal to this psalm William Sherlock, the Dean of 
 St. Paul's, was able to vindicate in 1699 what to us 
 requires perhaps too little excuse the instrumental 
 music, which sometimes stifles the congregational and 
 even the human element in worship, and which has 
 entirely stifled the old Church bands a practical 
 deduction no man could make from the psalm. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 Psalm Ixxxii. 
 A Psalm of Asaph. 
 Deus stetit. 
 
 I God standeth in the con- nor understand, but walk on 
 gregation of princes : he is a ; still in darkness : all the founda- 
 judge among gods. tions of the earth are out of 
 
 2 How long will ye give 
 wrong judgment : and accept 
 
 6 I have said, " Ye are gods : 
 
 the persons of the ungodly ? ! and ye are all the children of 
 
 3 Defend the poor and father- ', the most Highest. 
 
 less : see that such as are in need 7 But ye shall die like men : 
 and necessity have right. | and fall like one of the princes." 
 
 4 Deliver the outcast and j 8 Arise, O God, and judge 
 poor : save them from the hand thou the earth : for thou shall 
 of the ungodly. 1 take all heathen to thine inher- 
 
 5 They will not be learned I itance. 
 
 184
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Ixxxiii. 
 
 [Day 16 
 
 Latins. Friday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Wed nesday morning. 
 
 Verse 1. This is the thought which decided Con- 
 stantine not to act as umpire between contending 
 bishops at Nicaea ; for he regarded the " gods " as 
 meaning the clergy. This use of the term, of course, 
 was prominent in the struggles between popes and 
 emperors in after ages. 
 
 Bishop Andrewes preached before the House of 
 Lords in Westminster Abbey (30th Jan. l6'21) from this 
 text, and by making no allusion to the critical state 
 of public affairs, made " a tacit protest against the 
 growing tendency of Churchmen to engage in politics 
 and serve in secular affairs." 
 
 Verse 6. Our Lord quoted these words to justify His 
 language when He said, " I and My Father are one," 
 after which they were about to stone Him, in 
 Solomon's Porch. 
 
 Verses 6 and 7. When Prince Henry, eldest son of 
 James i., died, many of the Puritan hopes were buried 
 with him. Archbishop Abbott preached his funeral 
 sermon from these words. 
 
 Psalm Ixxxiii. 
 
 A Song or Psalm of Asaph. 
 
 Deus, quis similis ? 
 
 1 Hold not thy tongue, O 
 God, keep not still silence : 
 refrain not thyself, O God. 
 
 2 For lo, thine enemies make 
 a murmuring : and they that 
 hate thee have lift up their 
 head. 
 
 3 They have imagined craftily 
 against thy people : and taken 
 counsel against thy secret ones. 
 
 4 They have said, Come, and 
 
 let us root them out, that they 
 be no more a people : and that 
 the name of Israel may be no 
 more in remembrance. 
 
 5 For they have cast their 
 heads together with one con- 
 sent : and are confederate 
 against thee ; 
 
 6 The tabernacles of the 
 Edomites, and the Ismaelites : 
 the Moabites, and Ilagarens;
 
 Day 1 6] 
 
 Psalm Ixxxiii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 7 Gebal, and Ammon, and 
 Amalek : the Philistines, with 
 them that dwell at Tyre. 
 
 8 Assur also is joined with 
 them : and have holpen the 
 children of Lot. 
 
 9 But do thou to them as 
 unto the Madianites : unto 
 Sisera, and unto Jabin at the 
 brook of Kison. 
 
 10 Who perished at Endor : 
 and became as the dung of the 
 earth. 
 
 11 Make them and their 
 princes like Oreb and Zeb : yea, 
 make all their princes like as 
 Zeba and Salmana ; 
 
 12 Who say, Let us take to 
 ourselves : the houses of God in 
 possession. 
 
 13 O my God, make them 
 like unto a wheel : and as the 
 stubble before the wind ; 
 
 14 Like as the fire that burn- 
 eth up the wood : and as the flame 
 that consumeth the mountains. 
 
 15 Persecute them even so 
 with thy tempest : and make 
 them afraid with thy storm. 
 
 1 6 Make their faces ashamed, 
 O Lord : that they may seek 
 thy Name. 
 
 17 Let them be confounded 
 and vexed ever more and more : 
 let them be put to shame, and 
 perish. 
 
 1 8 And they shall know that 
 thou, whose Name is Jehovah : 
 art only the most Highest over 
 all the earth. 
 
 Liturgical me. Introit for Mass on fourth Sunday 
 after Easter (e). 
 
 Latins. Matins on Friday. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning. 
 
 The monks at Jarrow were chaunting this psalm 
 while St. Benedict Biscop (690) died, and they took 
 it as an omen that the powers of evil could not pre- 
 vail against his parting soul. 
 
 James i. translated the Psalter into metre fairly 
 well. Charles i. published his "dear father's" work, 
 and hoped with it to oust Sternhold, but in vain. 
 Here is his version of the close of this psalm. It was 
 printed at the side of our version : 
 
 "So with Thy tempest them pursue, 
 and with Thy storm them fright ; 
 Their faces fill with shame, that they 
 may seek Thy Name aright. 
 
 1 86
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Ixxxiv. 
 
 [Day 1 6 
 
 Let them confounded be, and prove 
 
 from trouble never free ; 
 
 Yea, let them all be put to shame, 
 
 and wholly ruined be. 
 
 Thai men may know that Thou, whose name 
 
 Jehovah is alone, 
 
 Art the most high, the like of whom 
 
 o'er all the earth is none." 
 
 Bishop Williams declares that the royal author died 
 after he had done only thirty of these psalms ; but 
 Charles' Imprimatur gives the whole book to his father. 
 
 Psalm Ixxxiv. 
 
 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of 
 Korah. 
 
 Quam dilecta ! 
 
 1 O how amiable are thy 
 dwellings : thou Lord of hosts ! 
 
 2 My soul hath a desire and 
 longing to enter into the courts 
 of the Lord : my heart and my 
 flesh rejoice in the living God. 
 
 3 Yea, the sparrow hath 
 found her an house, and the 
 swallow a nest where she may 
 lay her young : even thy altars, 
 O Lord of hosts, my King and 
 my God. 
 
 4 Blessed are they that dwell 
 in thy house : they will be 
 alway praising thee. 
 
 5 Blessed is the man whose 
 strength is in thee : in whose 
 heart are thy ways. 
 
 I 
 
 6 Who going through the 
 vale of misery use it for a 
 well : and the pools are filled 
 with water. 
 
 7 They will go from strength 
 to strength : and unto the God 
 of gods appeareth every one of 
 them in Sion. 
 
 8 O Lord God of hosts, hear 
 my prayer : hearken, O God of 
 Jacob. 
 
 9 Behold, O God our de- 
 fender : and look upon the 
 face of thine Anointed. 
 
 10 For one day in thy courts : 
 is better than a thousand. 
 
 11 I had rather be a door- 
 keeper in the house of my God : 
 
 87
 
 Day 1 6] 
 
 Psalm IxXXlV. [Evening Prayer 
 
 than to dwell in the tents of 
 ungodliness. 
 
 12 For the Lord God is a 
 light and defence : the Lord 
 will give grace and worship, and 
 
 no good thing shall he withhold 
 from them that live a godly life. 
 13 O Lord God of hosts : 
 blessed is the man that putteth : 
 his trust in thee. 
 
 Liturgical use. lutroit to the Mass for the fifth 
 Sunday after Easter. 
 
 Latins. Friday Matins ; Dedication of a church. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning ; Ninth hour ; Burial 
 of priests. 
 
 This is used as a psalm of preparation for the Holy 
 Communion by devout people of all shades of belief. It 
 is recommended not only by the Pope, but by our own 
 great divines for this use, and even by devout Non- 
 comformists and Separatists. 
 
 It is a preparation for Holy Dying as well as for 
 Holy Living. When the aged Paula drew near her 
 end she repeated again and again the opening verses, 
 the tenth verse, and (Ps. xxvi. 8) " Lord, I have loved the 
 habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine 
 honour dwelleth." St. Jerome had inspired her with 
 this enthusiasm for the Church, and what it represented. 
 
 This psalm was a favourite with Rev F. H. Lyte, 
 the editor of Henry Vaughan's Silex Scintillans, and 
 the author of " Abide with me." It is the basis of his 
 hymm, " Pleasant are thy courts above." He trans- 
 lated many of the psalms into verse. 
 
 Verse 1. The motto of the dukes of Buckingham 
 and Chandos is, Templa quam dilecta. 
 
 Verse 2. The monk Jocelyn, in his life of England's 
 St. Augustine, tells us how passionate was the 
 saint's longing to depart and be with Christ. " Who 
 will give me wings as of a clove ? My soul hatli 
 a desire and longing to enter into the courts of 
 the Lord." The saint was "a tall, straight man, kind 
 and dignified in face, with his hair falling on either side 
 of his open countenance. He mostly went barefoot." 
 188
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm IxXXV. (Pay 16 
 
 Verse 7. St. Columba's motto, when he joined in con- 
 ference with Kentigern (584 A.D.), near where Glasgow 
 stands. 
 
 Verse 7. St. Guthlac was a hermit of Croyland at 
 the beginning of the eighth century, and haunted the 
 marshes between Cambridge and the sea, making friends 
 with mischievous crows, sparrows, and the very fishes, 
 who came to his call as sheep to their shepherds. Once 
 after a severe conflict with the powers of evil, wherein 
 he was hurried to the very gates of hell itself, the saint 
 obtained the victory, thanks to St. Bartholomew, and 
 was carried back to his cell, while the angels sang, 
 "They shall go from strength to strength." St. 
 Guthlac tried to introduce into England the methods 
 of the Egyptian Fathers, such as living on water and 
 barley bread, and wearing skins. This angelic promise 
 was fulfilled by the birth of Croyland Abbey, which 
 thus sprang from a psalm. 
 
 Verse 11. St. Thomas Aquinas' verse, which resolved 
 him to join the Dominican order. He was but thir- 
 teen years old when he received this vocation, and had 
 to combat all the wishes of his family to obey the call. 
 
 Verse 12. "This, as it was the ancient Psalmist's 
 faith, let it likewise be ours. It is the Alpha and 
 Omega, I reckon, of all possessions that belong to 
 man" (Carlyle to his brother, 27th June 1824). 
 
 Psalm Ixxxv. 
 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. 
 15enedixisti, Doniine. 
 
 1 Lord, thou art become j 3 Thou hast taken away all 
 gracious unto thy land : thou thy displeasure ; and turned 
 hast turned away the captivity of thyself from thy wrathful in- 
 Jacoh. dignation. 
 
 2 Thou hast forgiven the 4 Turn us then, O God our 
 offence of thy people : and Saviour : and let thine anger 
 covered all their sins. cease from us. 
 
 189
 
 Day 16] Psalm IxXXV. [Evening Prayer 
 
 5 Wilt thou be displeased at 
 us for ever : and wilt thou 
 stretch out thy wrath from one 
 
 9 For his salvation is nigh 
 them that fear him : that glory 
 may dwell in our land. 
 
 generation to another. 10 Mercy and truth are met 
 
 6 Wilt thou not turn again, together : righteousness and 
 and quicken us : that thy people peace have kissed each other, 
 may rejoice in thee ? II Truth shall flourish out of 
 
 7 Shew us thy mercy, O the earth : ' and righteousness 
 Lord : and grant us thy salva- hath looked down from heaven, 
 tion. 12 Yea, the Lord shall shew 
 
 8 I will hearken what the 
 Lord God will say concerning 
 me : for he shall speak peace 
 
 loving-kindness : and our land 
 shall give her increase. 
 
 13 Righteousness shall go 
 
 unto his people, and to his saints, before him : and he shall direct 
 that they turn not again. his going in the way. 
 
 Liturgical use. Christmas morning ; Evensong of 
 King Charles. 
 
 Latins. Friday Matins ; Christmas Day. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday morning ; Ninth hour. 
 
 Another preparation psalm, with Psalms Ixxxiv., 
 Ixxxvi., and cxxx. 
 
 Verse 4. This was in the Anglo-Saxon vernacular 
 Prime office, said at six o'clock. 
 
 Verse 8. Asser, in his Life of King Alfred, attributes 
 the inspiration of that splendid king to his habit of 
 hearkening to what God said to him. 
 
 Verse 8. This is the thought which grew into the 
 third book of St. Thomas a Kempis' De Imitatione 
 Christi, on Internal Consolation, perhaps the best 
 part of one of the best of books. "The small old- 
 fashioned book, for which you need only pay six- 
 pence 011 a bookstall, works miracles to this day, 
 turning bitter waters into sweetness ; while expensive 
 sermons and treatises, newly issued, leave all tilings 
 as they were before. It was written down by a hand 
 that waited for the heart's prompting ; it is the 
 chronicle of a solitary hidden anguish, trust and 
 190
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm IxXXV. [Day 16 
 
 triumph not written on velvet cushions to teach 
 endurance to those who are treading with bleeding 
 feet on the stones. And so it remains to all time 
 a lasting record of human needs and human con- 
 solations ; the voice of a brother who years ago felt 
 and suffered and renounced in the cloister, perhaps, 
 with serge gown and tonsured head, with much 
 chanting and long fasts, and with a fashion of speech 
 different from ours but under the same silent far-off 
 heavens, and with the same passionate desires, the 
 same strivings, the same failures, the same weariness " 
 (G. Eliot). The same verse has been the text of many 
 famous sermons from Gilbert Burnet to Thomas Arnold. 
 Verse 10. This was the verse chosen by King 
 Henry in. when he preached to the Winchester 
 monks upon their duties to the Crown. He succeeded 
 in his object, which was to get ^thelmar, his nominee, 
 elected abbot, for, as the historian remarks, Stricto 
 fiiipplicat ense patens ! This is a verse great in Art at 
 all times. Stephen Langton (d. 1228), the reforming 
 archbishop, the mediator of Magna Charta, the man who 
 divided our Bible into chapters, composed a miracle play 
 on these words. Perugino (144-6-1524-) put a scroll into 
 his picture of David in "Saints and Sibyls" : Veritas de 
 terra orta est. It was a favourite text in the mouth of 
 Bishop Andrewes, and one much used in mediaeval 
 writers for the Incarnation. Blake, from his instinctive 
 sympathy with the Middle Ages, painted his illustra- 
 tion of the text " in two figures, not four. Jesus 
 is the representative of Mercy and Righteousness : 
 Truth and Peace are embodied in a beardless youth. 
 The two are seated, and turn round to kiss aiid 
 embrace, their arms meeting over a Greek cross. 
 Above, at the summit of some steps, is an aged man 
 with a book, no doubt representing the Deity. He 
 is surrounded by a glory of angels." An interesting 
 work, yellow being the predominant tint ! 
 191
 
 Day 17] 
 
 Psalm IxXXVl'. [Morning Prayer 
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm Ixxxvi. 
 
 A Prayer of David. 
 
 Inclina, Domine. 
 
 1 Bow down thine ear, O 
 Lord, and hear me : for I am 
 poor, and in misery. 
 
 2 Preserve thou my soul, for 
 I am holy : my God, save thy 
 servant that putteth his trust 
 in thee. 
 
 3 Be merciful unto me, O 
 Lord : for I will call daily 
 upon thee. 
 
 4 Comfort the soul of thy 
 servant : for unto thee, O Lord, 
 do I lift up my soul. 
 
 5 For thou, Lord, art good 
 and gracious : and of great 
 mercy unto all them that call 
 upon thee. 
 
 6 Give ear, Lord, unto my 
 prayer : and ponder the voice 
 of my humble desires. 
 
 7 In the time of my trouble 
 I will call upon thee : for thou 
 nearest me. 
 
 8 Among the gods there is 
 none like unto thee, O Lord : 
 there is not one that can do as 
 thou doest. 
 
 9 All nations whom thou 
 
 hast made shall come and wor- 
 ship thee, O Lord : and shall 
 glorify thy Name. 
 
 10 For thou art great and 
 doest wondrous things : thou 
 art God alone. 
 
 11 Teach me thy way, O 
 Lord, and I will walk in thy 
 truth : O knit my heart unto 
 thee, that I may fear thy Name. 
 
 12 I will thank thee, O Lord 
 my God, with all my heart : 
 and will praise thy Name for 
 evermore. 
 
 13 For great is thy mercy 
 toward me : and thou hast 
 delivered my soul from the 
 nethermost hell. 
 
 14 O God, the proud are 
 risen against me : and the con- 
 gregations of naughty men have 
 sought after my soul, and have 
 not set thee before their eyes. 
 
 15 But thou, O Lord God, 
 art full of compassion and 
 mercy : long - suffering, plen- 
 teous in goodness and truth. 
 
 1 6 O turn thee then unto me, 
 
 192
 
 Morning Prayer] PsallTl IxXXVl*. H^y 17 
 
 and have mercy upon me ; give i me for good, that they who hate 
 
 thy strength unto thy servant, and 
 
 help the son of thine handmaid. 
 
 17 Shew some token, upon 
 
 me may see it, and be ashamed : 
 because thou, Lord, hast hoi pen 
 me, and comforted me. 
 
 Latins. Friday Matins ; Epiphany ; Visitation of 
 the sick. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday evening ; Ninth hour. 
 
 This psalm is also a devout preparation for the Holy 
 Communion (cf. Ps. Ixxxiv.). 
 
 " Men seemingly the most unlikely to express 
 enthusiasm about any such matter/' says Trench, 
 speaking of the Psalter, "have been forward as the 
 forwardest to set their seal to this book, have left 
 their confession that it was the voice of their inner- 
 most heart, that the spirit of it passed into their 
 spirits, as did the spirit of no other book ; that it 
 found them more often and at greater depths of their 
 being, lifted them to higher heights than did any 
 other or, as one greatly suffering man, telling of the 
 solace which he found from this Book of Psalms in 
 the hours of a long imprisonment, has expressed it, 
 that it bore him up into the everlasting sunlight, till 
 he saw the world and all its troubles for ever under- 
 neath him." 
 
 Verse 1. The Oxford Movement supplied a metrical 
 version, of a brighter faith, and in a more melodious 
 fashion than the doggerel of the " New Version." 
 Keble undertook it anonymously, but even then 
 unmistakably : 
 
 " O Lord, bow down Thine ear and hear, 
 
 Poor am I, low and lone. 
 Preserve my soul, for I am dear 
 And holy, all Thine own." 
 
 Verses 10 and 11. When Diocletian was beginning 
 to draw men's attention to the Church by persecuting 
 her, a young man, Luxorius of Sardinia, ran through 
 >" '93
 
 Day 17] Psalm IxXXvii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 the Psalter out of curiosity, wishing to know something 
 of Christian literature. He got as far as these verses, 
 and could contain himself no longer, but rushed to a 
 Christian Church and entered himself as a catechumen. 
 On his way back he heard the words Retribue servo tuo 
 vivam et custodiam vias tuas (Ps. cix.), which comforted 
 him in the faith, so that he boldly endured mar- 
 tyrdom with the sword. 
 
 Verse 15. This is evidently the verse to which 
 Tennyson's poor old Rizpah appeals, against the 
 callous visiting lady : 
 
 Sin ? O yes we are sinners, I know let all that be, 
 
 And read me a Bible verse of the Lord's goodwill towards 
 
 men. 
 ' Full of compassion and mercy, the Lord,' let me hear it 
 
 again. 
 
 ' FulPof compassion and mercy long suffering.' Yes, O yes ! 
 For the lawyer is born but to murder, the Saviour lives but 
 
 to bless. 
 He'll never put on the black cap, except for the worst of the 
 
 worst, 
 And the first may be last I have heard it in church and the 
 
 last may be first. 
 
 Verse 16. William Ewart Gladstone says he was 
 supported by this verse when he introduced his first 
 budget in 1853 in Lord Aberdeen's coalition ministry 
 (see Ps. xcviii.). 
 
 Psalm Ixxxvii. 
 
 A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah. 
 Fundamenta ejus. 
 
 I Her foundations are upon 
 the holy hills : the Lord loveth 
 the gates of Sion more than all 
 the dwellings of Jacob. 
 
 194 
 
 2 Very excellent things are 
 spoken of thee : thou city of 
 God. 
 
 3 " I will think upon Rahab
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm IxxXVlii. 
 
 [Day 17 
 
 and Babylon : with them that 
 know me. 
 
 4 Behold ye the Philistines 
 also : and they of Tyre, with 
 the Morians ; lo, there was he 
 born." 
 
 5 And of Sion it shall be 
 reported that he was born in 
 
 her : and the most High shall 
 stablish her. 
 
 6 The Lord shall rehearse it 
 when he writeth up the people : 
 that he was born there. 
 
 7 The singers also and 
 trumpeters shall he rehearse : All 
 my fresh springs shall be in thee. 
 
 Latins. Friday Matins ; Circumcision ; Epiphany ; 
 Dedication of a church. 
 
 G reeks. Wed n esday evening. 
 
 The favourite psalm of Thomas Pierson, the Puritan, 
 who calls it "The Great Charter of the Church," 
 and " excellent encouragements against afflictions." 
 
 Verse 1. The motto chosen by Van Mildert for 
 Durham University in 1832 is Fundamenta ejus in 
 montibus sanctis. 
 
 Verse 2. Gloriosa dicta stint de te Civitas Dei. This 
 is the vei'se which gave the title to St. Augustine's 
 great work, The City of God, in which he draws 
 out the picture of the co-existence of a conflict 
 between the Divine society the Church and the 
 disordered political world of the Empire. 
 
 Psalm Ixxxviii. 
 
 A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician 
 upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Ileman the Ezrahite. 
 
 Domine Deus. 
 I O Lord God of my salvation, trouble: and my life draweth 
 
 I have cried day and night before 
 thee : O let my prayer enter into 
 thy presence, incline thine ear 
 unto my calling. 
 
 2 For my soul is full of 
 
 nigh unto hell. 
 
 3 I am counted as one of 
 them that go down into the pit : 
 and I have been even as a man 
 that hath no strength. 
 
 '95
 
 Day 17] 
 
 PsallTl IxXXVlii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 4 Free among the dead, like 
 unto them that are wounded, and 
 lie in the grave : who are out of 
 remembrance, and are cut away 
 from thy hand. 
 
 5 Thou hast laid me in the 
 lowest pit : in a place of dark- 
 ness, and in the deep. 
 
 6 Thine indignation lieth hard 
 upon me : and thou hast vexed 
 me with all thy storms. 
 
 7 Thou hast put away mine 
 
 12 Shall thy wondrous works 
 be known in the dark : and thy 
 righteousness in the land where 
 all things are forgotten ? 
 
 13 Unto thee have I cried, O 
 Lord : and early shall my prayer 
 come before thee. 
 
 14 Lord, why abhorrest thou 
 my soul : and hidest thou thy 
 face from me ? 
 
 15 I am in misery, and like 
 unto him that is at the point to 
 
 acquaintance far from me : and die : even from my youth up thy 
 
 made me to be abhorred of them. 
 
 8 I am so fast in prison : that 
 I cannot get forth. 
 
 9 My sight faileth for very 
 trouble : Lord, I have called 
 daily upon thee, I have stretched 
 forth my hands unto thee. 
 
 10 Dost thou shew wonders 
 among the dead : or shall the dead 
 rise up again and praise thee ? 
 
 11 Shall thy loving-kindness 
 be shewed in the grave : or thy 
 faithfulness in destruction ? 
 
 terrors have I suffered with a 
 troubled mind. 
 
 1 6 Thy wrathful displeasure 
 goeth over me : and the fear of 
 thee hath undone me. 
 
 17 They came round about 
 me daily like water : and com- 
 passed me together on every 
 side. 
 
 1 8 My lovers and friends hast 
 thou put away from me : and 
 hid mine acquaintance out of my 
 sight. 
 
 Liturgical use. Good Friday ; Introit to Easter Eve 
 Mass (e). 
 
 Latins. Friday Matins ; Easter Eve ; Dedication of 
 a church. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday evening ; Dawn. 
 
 Bishop Hooper (the austere Puritan Bishop of 
 Gloucester, who was burnt before his people, beating 
 upon his breast till his hand fell off) recommended 
 his wife to study this psalm in her misery. He sug- 
 gested also Psalms vi., xxii., xxx., xxxi., xxxviii., and 
 Ixix. 
 
 Verse 8. In an early comment on this verse, written 
 196
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm IxXXJX. [Day 17 
 
 by Didymus, is a traditional saying of our Lord's : 
 "The nearer to me, the nearer the fire." 
 
 Verses 10, 11, and 12. It is part of the bold Christian 
 adaptation of the psalms that whereas the author 
 undoubtedly meant all these questions to have the 
 answer no, the users take the same words and reply 
 unhesitatingly yes. Hence the liturgical use for Good 
 Friday. 
 
 J'crse 11. The dirge of the "Solitary" in Words- 
 worth's " Excursion " : 
 
 "And now distinctly could I recognise 
 These words : ' Shall in the grave thy love be known, 
 In death thy faithfulness ? ' '' 
 
 Verse 13. This was used in the Anglo-Saxon version 
 of Prime. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm Ixxxix. 
 
 Maschil of Ethan the E/rahite. 
 
 Misericordias Domini. 
 
 1 My song shall be alway of $ O Lord, the very heavens 
 the loving-kindness of the Lord : shall praise thy wondrous works : 
 with my mouth will I ever be and thy truth in the congrega- 
 shewing thy truth from one tion of the saints. 
 
 generation to another. 6 For who is he among the 
 
 2 For I have said, Mercy clouds : that shall be compared 
 shall be set up for ever : thy unto the Lord : 
 
 truth shall thou stablish in the 7 And what is he among the 
 heavens. gods : that shall be like unto 
 
 3 I have made a covenant the Lord ? 
 
 with my chosen : I have sworn 8 God is very greatly to be 
 unto David my servant ; feared in the council of the 
 
 4 Thy seed will I stablish for , saints : and to be had in rever- 
 ever : and set up thy throne ence of all them that are round 
 from one generation to another. ' about him. 
 
 197
 
 Day 17] 
 
 Psalm Ixxxix. [Evening Prayer 
 
 9 O Lord God of hosts, who 
 is like unto thee : thy truth, 
 most mighty Lord, is on every 
 side. 
 
 10 Thou rulest the raging of 
 the sea : thou stillest the waves 
 thereof when they arise. 
 
 I r Thou hast subdued Egypt, 
 and destroyed it : thou hast 
 scattered thine enemies abroad 
 with thy mighty arm. 
 
 12 The heavens are thine, the 
 earth also is thine : thou hast 
 laid the foundation of the round 
 world, and all that therein is. 
 
 13 Thou hast made the north 
 and the south : Tabor and 
 Ilermon shall rejoice in thy 
 Name. 
 
 14 Thou hast a mighty arm : 
 strong is thy hand, and high is 
 thy right hand. 
 
 15 Righteousness and equity 
 are the habitation of thy seat : 
 mercy and truth shall go before 
 thy face. 
 
 1 6 Blessed is the people, O 
 Lord, that can rejoice in thee : 
 they shall walk in the light of 
 thy countenance. 
 
 17 Their delight shall be daily 
 in thy Name : and in thy 
 righteousness shall they make 
 their boast. 
 
 1 8 For thou art the glory of 
 their strength : and in thy loving- 
 kindness thou shall lift up our 
 horns. 
 
 19 For 
 
 the Lord is our de- 
 
 fence : the Holy One of Israel 
 is our King. 
 
 20 Thou spakest sometime in 
 visions unto thy saints, and 
 saidst : I have laid help upon 
 one that is mighty ; I have 
 exalted one chosen out of the 
 people. 
 
 21 I have found David my 
 servant : with my holy oil have 
 I anointed him. 
 
 22 My hand shall hold him 
 fast : and my arm shall strengthen 
 him. 
 
 23 The enemy shall not be 
 able to do him violence : the 
 son of wickedness shall not hurt 
 him. 
 
 24 I will smite down his foes 
 before his face : and plague 
 them that hate him. 
 
 25 My truth also and my 
 mercy shall be with him : and 
 in my Name shall his horn be 
 exalted. 
 
 26 I will set his dominion 
 also in the sea : and his right 
 hand in the floods. 
 
 27 He shall call me, Thou 
 art my Father : my God, and 
 my strong salvation. 
 
 28 And I will make him 
 my first-born : higher than the 
 kings of the earth. 
 
 29 My mercy will I keep 
 for him for evermore : and my 
 covenant shall stand fast with 
 him. 
 
 30 1 1 is seed also will I make 
 
 198
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm 
 
 [Day 17 
 
 to endure for ever : and his 
 throne as the days of heaven. 
 
 31 But if his children forsake 
 my law : and walk not in my 
 judgments ; 
 
 32 If they break my statutes, 
 and keep not my command- 
 ments : I will visit their offences 
 with the rod, and their sin with 
 scourges. 
 
 33 Nevertheless, my loving- 
 kindness will I^not utterly take 
 from him : nor suffer my truth 
 to fail. 
 
 34 My covenant will I not 
 break, nor alter the thing that is 
 gone out of my lips : I have 
 sworn once by my holiness, that 
 I will not fail David. 
 
 35 His seed shall endure for 
 ever : and his seat is like as the 
 sun before me. 
 
 36 He shall stand fast for 
 evermore as the moon : and 
 as the faithful witness in 
 heaven. 
 
 37 But thou hast abhorred 
 and forsaken thine Anointed : 
 and art displeased at him. 
 
 38 Thou hast broken the 
 covenant of thy servant : and 
 cast his crown to the ground. 
 
 39 Thou hast overthrown all 
 his hedges : and broken down 
 his strongholds. 
 
 40 All they that go by spoil 
 
 him : and he is become a re- 
 proach to his neighbours. 
 
 41 Thou hast set up the right 
 hand of his enemies : and made 
 all his adversaries to rejoice. 
 
 42 Thou hast taken away the 
 edge of his sword : and givest 
 him not victory in the battle. 
 
 43 Thou hast put out his 
 glory : and cast his throne down 
 to the ground. 
 
 44 The days of his youth hast 
 thou shortened : and covered 
 him with dishonour. 
 
 45 Lord, how long wilt thou 
 hide thyself, for ever : and shall 
 thy wrath burn like fire ? 
 
 46 O remember how short my 
 time is : wherefore hast thou 
 made all men for nought? 
 
 47 What man is he that liveth, 
 and shall not see death : and 
 shall he deliver his soul from the 
 hand of hell ? 
 
 48 Lord, where are thy old 
 loving-kindnesses : which thou 
 swarest unto David in thy truth ? 
 
 49 Remember, Lord, the re- 
 buke that thy servants have : 
 and how I do bear in my bosom 
 the rebukes of many people ; 
 
 50 Wherewith thine enemies 
 have blasphemed thee, and 
 slandered the footsteps of thine 
 Anointed : Praised be the Lord 
 for evermore. Amen, and Amen. 
 
 Liturgical use. Christmas evening. 
 Latins. Friday Matins ; Christmas. 
 199
 
 Day i;] Psalm Ixxxix. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday evening. 
 
 St. Athanasius (in the reign of Constantius) was 
 about to pi'each at a church near Constantinople one 
 day, when a cry was raised by the crowded congrega- 
 tion that the Aiians had surrounded the building 
 with 500 soldiers, and meant to slay their great 
 opponent in a trap. The saint was hardly dissuaded 
 from preaching, but bade the deacon strike up this 
 psalm one much used by the Catholics in this con- 
 troversy and while it was being sung he escaped as 
 by a miracle, passing through the soldiei's without 
 recognition. 
 
 Abraham, in the spirit of prophecy, the Talmudists 
 say, wrote this psalm. 
 
 This is the psalm which St. Columba, when quite a 
 small child, was found to know perfectly by heart. 
 
 Verse 1. Among the saintly figures of the past 
 Cffisarius (470-542) is one with whom a modern world 
 can most easily sympathise. He had a spirit of deep 
 practical piety and kindness. He sold his chasuble to 
 ransom a captive, and the watchword of his life was : 
 " For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." "So 
 when he felt the approach of death he sang calmly 
 and cheerfully Misericordias Domini in a'tcrnnm cantabo, 
 and thus left the world chanting the praises of God." 
 Ail interesting account of this saint and many others 
 is found in Neander's Memorials of Christian Life. 
 
 Verse. 46. A sundial motto, and one often engraved 
 on old clocks, is, " O remember how short my time is " 
 e.g. St. Patrick's, Isle of Man. 
 
 Verse 47. Is not this the verse which Shakespeare's 
 Justice Shallow has in mind when he assures Silence 
 that " death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all " ? 
 
 200
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xc. 
 
 [Day 18 
 
 THE EIGHTEENTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xc. 
 
 A Prayer of Moses the man of God. 
 Domine, refugium. 
 
 1 Lord, ihou hast been our 
 refuge : from one generation to 
 another. 
 
 2 Before the mountains were 
 brought forth, or ever the earth 
 and the world were made : thou 
 art God from everlasting, and 
 world without end. 
 
 3 Thou turnest man to destruc- 
 tion : again thou sayest, " Come 
 again, ye children of men." 
 
 4 For a thousand years in thy 
 sight are but as yesterday : see- 
 ing that is past as a watch in 
 the night. 
 
 5 As soon as thou scatterest 
 them they are even as a sleep : 
 and fade away suddenly like the 
 grass. 
 
 6 In the morning it is green, 
 and groweth up : but in the 
 evening it is cut down, dried up, 
 and withered. 
 
 7 For we consume away in 
 thy displeasure : and are afraid 
 at thy wrathful indignation. 
 
 8 Thou hast set our misdeeds 
 before thee : and our secret sins 
 in the light of thy countenance. 
 
 9 For when thou art angry 
 all our days are gone : we bring 
 
 our years to an end, as it were 
 a tale that is told. 
 
 10 The days of our age are 
 threescore years and ten ; and 
 though men be so strong that 
 they come to fourscore years : 
 yet is their strength then but 
 labour and sorrow ; so soon 
 passeth it away, and we are 
 gone. 
 
 11 But who regardeth the 
 power of thy wrath : for even 
 thereafter as a man feareth, so 
 is thy displeasure. 
 
 12 So teach us to number our 
 days : that we may apply our 
 hearts unto wisdom. 
 
 13 Turn thee again, O Lord, 
 at the last : and be gracious unto 
 thy servants. 
 
 14 O satisfy us with thy 
 mercy, and that soon : so shall 
 we rejoice and be glad all the 
 days of our life. 
 
 1 5 Comfort us again now after 
 the time that thou hast plagued 
 us : and for the years wherein 
 we have suffered adversity. 
 
 1 6 Shew thy servants thy 
 work : and their children thy 
 glory.
 
 Day 1 8] Psallll XC. [Morning Prayer 
 
 17 And the glorious Majesty 
 of the Lord our God be upon 
 
 hands upon us, O prosper thou 
 our handy-work. 
 
 us : prosper thou the work of our 
 
 Liturgical use. Burial service. 
 
 Latins. Thursday at Lauds. 
 
 Greeks. Wednesday night ; First hour. 
 
 This psalm has a double interest for English folk, 
 apart from all its merits. It has been sung or read 
 since 1662 over the graves of our fathers, and it will 
 be sung or read over our own. But before Edward 
 vi.'s time our funeral psalms were cxvi., cxxxix., 
 and cxlvi. ; and with the Mass, Psalm xlii. The 
 reason all these burial psalms were abolished by the 
 Reformers of 1552 will be evident to any one who 
 glances at them. In this connection these taught 
 Mass for the dead and Purgatory. But they gave us 
 none instead. Bishop Cosin supplied this " song of 
 Moses " and xxxix. ; the former to propitiate the 
 Puritans ; the latter because Laud used it for burials. 
 
 Dr. Watts' most successful hymn, " O God, our 
 help in ages past," is a rhymed version of this psalm, 
 and one much delighted in by John Wesley. Con- 
 trast his version with the weaker one of the far 
 greater poet Burns, who also delighted in this psalm. 
 
 Thou givest the word, Thy creature man 
 
 Is to existence brought : 
 Again thou say'st, ' Ye sons of men, 
 
 Return ye into nought.' 
 
 Thou layest them with all their cares 
 
 In everlasting sleep, 
 As with a flood thou tak'st them off 
 
 With overwhelming sweep. 
 
 Charles v., the most powerful emperor since Charle- 
 magne's time, who left his throne for the cloister at 
 St. Juste, used to declare that he preferred Domine, 
 refugiumj'actus cs nobis to all other psalms. 
 
 202
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm XC. t^ay 18 
 
 J. H. Newman's Gerontius hears the souls in 
 Purgatory singing this psalm. 
 
 Verse 9- Shakespeare (King John, HI. iv.) makes 
 Lewis allude to this verse in the lines : 
 
 "Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, 
 Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man." 
 
 It is worth notice, that there is no such notion as a 
 tale that is told, either in the original, or in the LXX., 
 or the Vulgate. 
 
 Verse 10. "So soon passeth it away" a common 
 sundial motto St. Matins', Looe ; St. Matthias', 
 Liskeard ; Biddenden, etc. 
 
 " Yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow." 
 Mr. Ruskin thinks that in commentary upon these 
 words Diirer painted his " Melancholia," and thus, 
 "Yes," he replies to them, "but labour and sorrow 
 are their strength." 
 
 Verse 12. This was the text which Dr. Rudd chose 
 to preach upon before Queen Elizabeth, when he 
 dwelt upon the infirmities of old age, and applied his 
 words to the aged queen. It is needless to say that 
 "he fell out of favour" with her Majesty, who had 
 before resolved to make him an archbishop. She told 
 him that he might keep his arithmetic to himself. 
 
 Verse 13. On 24th March 1838, died Thomas 
 Attwood the organist of St. Paul's, aged seventy-three. 
 He was buried under the place where the old organ 
 used to stand, and these words have been inscribed on 
 his tombstone, as the subject of one of his most 
 touching compositions. 
 
 Verses 16 and 17 were in the early Prime office in 
 the English tongue ; that is to say, they rose to God 
 from English homes at six in the morning, before the 
 people went out to the labour of the day ; and not 
 only from the clergy-houses, but from the homes of 
 devout lay-folk also. 
 
 203
 
 bay 18] 
 
 Psalm xcl. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 Psalm xci. 
 
 Qui habitat. 
 
 1 Whoso dwelleth under the 
 defence of the most High : shall 
 abide under the shadow of the 
 Almighty. 
 
 2 I will say unto the Lord, 
 Thou art my hope, and my 
 stronghold : my God, in him 
 will I trust. 
 
 3 For he shall deliver thee 
 from the snare of the hunter : 
 and from the noisome pestilence. 
 
 4 He shall defend thee under 
 his wings, and thou shalt be safe 
 under his feathers : his faithful- 
 ness and truth shall be thy shield 
 and buckler. 
 
 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for 
 any terror by night : nor for the 
 arrow that flieth by day ; 
 
 6 For the pestilence that 
 walketh in darkness : nor for 
 the sickness that destroyeth in 
 the noon-day. 
 
 7 A thousand shall fall beside 
 thee, and ten thousand at thy 
 right hand : but it shall not 
 come nigh thee. 
 
 8 Yea, with thine eyes shalt 
 thou behold : and see the reward 
 of the ungodly. 
 
 Latins. Daily at Compline (i.e. 9 p.m.); Visitation of 
 the sick (Sarum for All Saints) ; Dedication of a church. 
 
 Greeks. Last psalm for Wednesday evening ; Sixth 
 hour ; Late evensong in Lent ; Burial of laymen, 
 monks, and infants. 
 
 204 
 
 9 For thou, Lord, art my 
 hope : thou hast set thine house 
 of defence very high. 
 
 10 There shall no evil happen 
 unto thee : neither shall any 
 plague come nigh thy dwelling. 
 
 1 1 For he shall give his angels 
 charge over thee : to keep thee 
 in all thy ways. 
 
 12 They shall bear thee in 
 their hands : that thou hurt not 
 thy foot against a stone. 
 
 13 Thou shalt go upon the 
 lion and adder : the young lion 
 and the dragon shalt thou tread 
 under thy feet. 
 
 14 " Because he hath set his 
 love upon me, therefore will I 
 deliver him : I will set him up, 
 because he hath known my 
 Name. 
 
 15 He shall call upon me, 
 and I will hear him : yea, I am 
 with him in trouble ; I will 
 deliver him, and bring him to 
 honour. 
 
 1 6 With long life will I satisfy 
 him : and shew him my salva- 
 tion."
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm Xci. [Day 18 
 
 In the year Il60, when Christendom was convulsed 
 by a great schism in the papacy Alexander in. against 
 the imperialist Victor iv. St. Bernard chose this psalm 
 for the Lenten meditation of his monks, and preached 
 seventeen sermons upon it, which, taken with the 
 dark background of the time, present the true attrac- 
 tion of the monastic life, as exquisitely perhaps as 
 anything in literature. The same psalm also power- 
 fully attracted Cardinal Bellarmine (1542-1621), the 
 weightiest and most learned of Jesuit! writers against 
 the Protestants. He was librarian of the Vatican, 
 and so easily protagonist of the Counter- Reformation 
 that there is hardly a Protestant writer who does not 
 attack him. He published twelve Condones upon this 
 psalm. 
 
 " My excellent holy mother-in-law, Mary, widow to 
 my dear father," says Richard Baxter, "was one of 
 the most humble, mortified holy persons that ever I 
 knew, and lived in longing to be with Christ till she 
 was a hundred years old (wanting three or four), in 
 full understanding, and at last rejoicing in the frequent 
 hearing and repeating of Psalm xci. 
 
 Verse 7. This was the verse by which the Bishop of 
 Marseilles encouraged his clergy to stick to their duty 
 during the great plague of 1720. 
 
 Verse 7. Edward i. gave this as a reason for expos- 
 ing himself at the siege of Stirling in 1304. His 
 horse was shot under him. 
 
 Verse 11. The devil can quote this Scripture for his 
 purpose. But how much of Christian teaching about 
 the angels begins here ! Spenser thus writes : 
 
 " How oft do they their silver bowers leave, 
 To come to succour us, that succour want ! 
 How oft do they with golden pinions cleave 
 The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant, 
 Against fowle fiends to aid us militant ! 
 205
 
 Day 18] Psalm XC1. [Morning Prayer 
 
 They for us fight, they watch and duly ward, 
 
 And their bright squadrons round about us plant ; 
 
 And all for love and nothing for reward : 
 
 Oh ! why should heav'nly God to man have such regard?" 
 
 Similarly Milton and others ; and not least that 
 ancient English prayer still taught by simple folk to 
 their children which quiets them by the promise of 
 " four angels round my bed ! " 
 
 rerse 13. In the sixth room of the National Gallery 
 is a picture of St. Michael and the dragon, by Fra 
 Carnovale, which gives the Christian comment upon 
 this verse. The spirit of the Church Militant is 
 treading the dragon of sensuality and injustice under 
 his feet. 
 
 In Salisbury Cathedral a " boy-bishop/' who died 
 during his brief term of office, is carved trampling 
 upon a monster in allusion to the words Conculcabis 
 leonem et draconem. The boy-bishop reigned from 
 St. Nicholas Day till Childermas, and preached in the 
 cathedral of his see. Dean Colet ordered all his 
 scholars to attend this sermon without fail. 
 
 In 1266 Niccola Pisano began his pulpit at Siena 
 with Christ treading on monsters. 
 
 Verse 15. These were the words at which St. Hugh 
 of Lincoln died, 16th November 1200, during Com- 
 pline, and it was taken as an omen of his acceptance 
 with God. 
 
 In the second part of the homily for Whit Sunday 
 these words occur: "What shall we say of him 
 that proudly and contemptuously trod Frederic the 
 emperor under his feet, applying the verse of the 
 psalm unto himself, ' Thou shalt go upon the lion and 
 the adder, the young lion and the dragon thou shalt 
 tread under thy foot'? (Ps. xci.). Shall we say that 
 he had God's Holy Spirit within him, and not rather 
 the spirit of the devil? Such a tyrant was Pope 
 Alexander HI," 
 
 206
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xcii. 
 
 [Day 1 8 
 
 This seems to be a mistake. For twenty-two years 
 this Pope guided the Church amid a thousand storms 
 and in an age of exceptional difficulty (1159-81). 
 " Kaiser Barbarossa, greatest of German Kaisers, met 
 him in peace in front of St. Mark's, Venice, after 
 eighteen years of indefatigable struggle, and prostrated 
 himself before the venerable old man. The Pope 
 in tears raised and kissed him, and leading him into 
 the Church, gave him his benediction." Indeed, the 
 whole story of the insolence seems to be one of the 
 malicious imaginations of the Reformation time. But 
 Justinian n., who in 705 recovered the throne of 
 Byzantium, did have his two rivals Leontinus and 
 Aspimarus under his feet at the hippodrome while his 
 adherents sang this verse a jest upon their names. 
 
 Psalm xcii. 
 
 A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath day. 
 Bonum est confiteri. 
 
 1 It is a good thing to give 
 thanks unto the Lord : and to 
 sing praises unto thy Name, 
 
 most Highest ; 
 
 2 To tell of thy loving-kind- 
 ness early in the morning : and 
 of thy truth in the night-season ; 
 
 3 Upon an instrument of ten 
 strings, and upon the lute : upon 
 a loud instrument, and upon the 
 harp. 
 
 4 For thou, Lord, hast made 
 me glad through thy works : and 
 
 1 will rejoice in giving praise for | 
 the operations of thy hands. 
 
 5 O Lord, how glorious are 
 thy works : thy thoughts are 
 very deep. 
 
 6 An unwise man doth not 
 well consider this : and a fool 
 doth not understand it. 
 
 7 When the ungodly are green 
 as the grass, and when all the 
 workers of wickedness do flour- 
 ish : then shall they be destroyed 
 for ever ; but thou, Lord, art 
 the most Highest for evermore. 
 
 8 For lo, thine enemies, O 
 Lord, lo, thine enemies shall 
 perish : and all the workers of 
 wickedness shall be destroyed. 
 
 9 But mine horn shall be 
 exalted like the horn of an 
 unicorn : for I am anointed with 
 fresh oil. 
 
 10 Mine eye also shall see his 
 
 207
 
 Day IS] Psalm Xcii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 lust of mine enemies : and mine | in the courts of the house of our 
 ear shall hear his desire of the 
 wicked that arise up against 
 
 God. 
 
 13 They also shall bring forth 
 me. j more fruit in their age : and 
 
 1 1 The righteous shall flourish 
 like a palm-tree : and shall spread 
 abroad like a cedar in Libanus. 
 
 12 Such as are planted in the 
 house of the Lord : shall flourish 
 
 shall be fat and well-liking. 
 
 14 That they may shew how 
 true the Lord my strength is : 
 and that there is no unrighteous- 
 ness in him. 
 
 Latliix. Saturday, Lauds. 
 
 Greeks. Thursday morning ; Mesorion of first hour. 
 
 The Talmudic tradition says that this psalm was 
 written in the morning of the world by Adam, the 
 father of mankind. 
 
 Dr. George Matheson uses this psalm (with Psalms ii. 
 and Ixxii.) to show that the principle of survival is 
 as completely taught by natural religion as it is by 
 modern science. 
 
 Verse 1. Sir Christopher Hatton(l540-91),Elizabeth's 
 chancellor, the poet and friend of poets, took this as 
 the motto for his Psalter. 
 
 Verse 4. Dante heard Matilda, his guide, singing in 
 the terrestrial paradise the psalm Delecasti (me Domini' 
 in factura tud, et in operibus maimuin tiiarum exultabo), 
 vide Purg., xxviii. 80. This Matilda, supposed to 
 be the great countess of the eleventh century, 
 " notable equally for her ceaseless activity, her 
 brilliant political genius, her perfect piety, and her 
 deep reverence for the See of Rome," is standing 
 on the other side of Lethe, passing the flowers 
 through her hands. She represents the noblest 
 form of " the active life which forms the felicity 
 of earth, and the spirit of Beatrice the contempla- 
 tive life, which forms the felicity of Heaven." 
 
 Verse 5. Our historian, Matthew Paris, always quotes 
 this verse when he relates some miracle of the saints 
 (of Robert of Lincoln, Thomas of Hertford, etc.). In- 
 208
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xciii. 
 
 [Day 
 
 deed, it sums up the mediaeval view of God's working 
 in the world. 
 
 Verse 7. Isaac Casaubon (1559-1641), the classical 
 scholar, met with a severe accident on the Seine, 
 where his boat was run into by a barge, and he lost 
 his Psalter, which he had used for twenty-two years. 
 He and his wife were singing psalms at the time and 
 had just reached this verse. He says : " I could not 
 but remember that place of St. Ambrose where he says 
 that this is the peculiarity of the Book of Psalms, that 
 eveiy one can use its words as if they were peculiarly 
 and individually his own. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xciii. 
 
 Dominus regnavit. 
 
 1 The Lord is King, and 
 hath put on glorious apparel : 
 the Lord hath put on his ap- 
 parel, and girded himself with 
 strength. 
 
 2 He hath made the round 
 world so sure : that it cannot 
 be moved. 
 
 3 Ever sinde the world began 
 hath thy seat been prepared : 
 thou art from everlasting. 
 
 4 The floods are risen, 
 Lord, the floods have lift up 
 their voice : the floods lift up 
 their waves. 
 
 5 The waves of the sea are 
 mighty, and rage horribly : but 
 yet the Lord, who dwelleth on 
 high, is mightier. 
 
 6 Thy testimonies, O Lord, 
 are very sure : holiness becometh 
 thine house for ever. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass on first Sunday 
 after the Ascension. 
 
 Lathis. Sunday at Lauds. 
 
 (' reeks. Thursday morning; Mesorion of first hour. 
 
 Edward Irving (1792-18.34) wrote of the Psalter 
 in a way that seems an echo of a time when the world 
 was yet undrowned by floods of watery criticism, 
 o 209
 
 Day 1 8] 
 
 Psalm xciv. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 'These Psalms/' he says, "are to a Christian what 
 the love of parents and the sweet affections of home, 
 and the clinging memories of infant scenes and 
 the generous love of country, are to men of every 
 rank and order and employment, of every kindred 
 and tongue and nation." 
 
 Shakespeare has the valiant spirit of the psalm, 
 if not a literal echo, in Queen Margaret's speech : 
 
 " We will not from the helm, to sit and weep ; 
 
 But keep our course, though the rough wind say no 
 From shelves and rocks that threaten us with wrack.'' 
 
 Psalm xciv. 
 
 Deus ultionum. 
 
 1 O Lord God, to whom venge- 
 ance belongeth : thou God, to 
 whom vengeance belongeth, 
 shew thyself. 
 
 2 Arise, thou Judge of the 
 world : and reward the proud 
 after their deserving. 
 
 3 Lord, how long shall the 
 ungodly : how long shall the 
 Ungodly triumph ? 
 
 4 How long shall all wicked 
 doers speak so disdainfully : and 
 make such proud boasting ? 
 
 5 They smite down thy people, 
 O Lord : and trouble thine 
 heritage. 
 
 6 They murder the widow, 
 and the stranger : and put the 
 fatherless to death. 
 
 7 And yet they say, Tush, the 
 Lord shall not see : neither shall 
 the God of Jacob regard it. 
 
 8 Take heed, ye unwise 
 among the people : O ye fools, 
 when will ye understand ? 
 
 9 He that planted the ear, 
 shall he not hear : or he that 
 made the eye, shall he not 
 see? 
 
 10 Or he that nurtureth the 
 heathen : it is he that teacheth 
 man knowledge, shall not he 
 punish ? 
 
 11 The Lord knoweth the 
 thoughts of man : that they are 
 but vain. 
 
 12 Blessed is the man whom 
 thou chastenest, O Lord : and 
 teachest him in thy law ; 
 
 13 That thou mayest give him 
 patience in time of adversity : 
 until the pit be digged up for 
 the ungodly. 
 
 14 For the Lord will not fail 
 
 2Io
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xciv. 
 
 [Day 1 8 
 
 his people : neither will he for- 
 sake his inheritance ; 
 
 15 Until righteousness turn 
 again unto judgment : all such 
 as are true in heart shall follow 
 it. 
 
 1 6 Who will rise up with me 
 against the wicked : or who will 
 take my part against the evil- 
 doers ? 
 
 17 If the Lord had not helped 
 me : it had not failed but my 
 soul had been put to silence. 
 
 18 But when I said, My foot 
 hath slipt : thy mercy, O Lord, 
 held me up. 
 
 19 In the multitude of the 
 sorrows that I had in my heart : 
 
 thy comforts have refreshed my 
 soul. 
 
 20 Wilt thou have anything 
 to do with the stool of wicked- 
 ness : which imagineth mischief 
 as a law ? 
 
 21 They gather them together 
 1 against the soul of the righteous : 
 i and condemn the innocent 
 
 blood. 
 
 22 But the Lord is my refuge : 
 and my God is the strength of 
 my confidence. 
 
 23 He shall recompense them 
 their wickedness, and destroy 
 them in their own malice : yea, 
 the Lord our God shall destroy 
 them. 
 
 Liturgical use. Evensong of King Charles. 
 
 Latins. Friday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Thursday morning. 
 
 Verse 19. Bartholomew, the Bishop of Exeter from 
 1 1 .54-1 1 84, a visionary and opponent of St. Thomas, 
 was chosen to preach at the reconsecration of Canter- 
 bury Cathedral after the murder. He chose this as 
 his text and laboured for peace with atonement. 
 Being a native of Brittany he was perhaps more aloof 
 from the quarrel than many prelates. 
 
 211
 
 Day 19"] 
 
 Psalm xcv. 
 
 [Morning Frayer 
 
 THE NINETEENTH DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xcv. 
 
 Venite, exultemus. 
 
 1 O come, let us sing unto 
 the Lord : let us heartily re- 
 joice in the strength of our 
 salvation. 
 
 2 Let us come before his 
 presence with thanksgiving : and 
 shew ourselves glad in him with 
 psalms. 
 
 3 For the Lord is a great 
 God : and a great King above 
 all gods. 
 
 4 In his hand are all the 
 corners of the earth : and the 
 strength of the hills is his also. 
 
 5 The sea is his, and he 
 made it : and his hands pre- 
 pared the dry land. 
 
 6 O come, let us worship 
 and fall down : and kneel 
 before the Lord our Maker. 
 
 7 For he is the Lord our 
 God : and we are the people of 
 his pasture, and the sheep of 
 his hand. 
 
 8 To-day if ye will hear his 
 voice, harden not your hearts : 
 as in the provocation, and as in 
 the day of temptation in the 
 wilderness ; 
 
 9 When your fathers tempted 
 me : proved me, and saw my 
 works. 
 
 10 Forty years long was I 
 grieved with this generation, 
 and said : " It is a people that 
 do err in their hearts, for they 
 have not known my ways ; 
 
 1 1 Unto whom I sware in 
 my wrath : that they should 
 not enter my rest." 
 
 Liturgical iise. Daily at Matins. 
 
 Latins. Epiphany ; Daily at Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Thursday morning. 
 
 This was the battle-song of the Knights Templars, 
 for whom war was an act of worship. They had the 
 privilege of asserting and proclaiming that the hotly 
 debated Holy Land was in " His hand." 
 
 It was the first hymn which in summer rose from 
 the SOjOOO religious houses of the West. 
 
 This psalm has always been among the preludes to 
 212
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xcvi. 
 
 [Day 19 
 
 worship both in the East and West. In the Middle 
 Ages it used to be " farsed," as it was called inter- 
 spersed, as we say with fragments of other psalms, 
 called " invitatories." In 1.5-19 it was ordered to be 
 sung simply. The Greeks, who seem to like cutting 
 and carving the Psalms, begin their worship with 
 verses 1, 3, and 6'. 
 
 J'crse 1. Venite adoremus et procidamus is the bell 
 motto for St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. The 
 great hymn Adente /ideles for Christmas takes its 
 chorus from this psalm. It is said to date no farther 
 back than the sixteenth century. It is sometimes 
 called the Portuguese Chapel hymn. 
 
 In the Court of Love, Chaucer has fitted certain 
 psalms to the notes of birds. The nightingale begins 
 with Labia noxtra (li. 15); the eagle with his long 
 life has Vcnite ; the Falcon being keen of vision 
 Doinhfc Dominiif; (viii.) ; the brave popinjay Cceli 
 en arrant (xix.) ; the fresh goldfinch Domini est terra 
 (xxiv.) ; the wren, robin, and turtle-dove say, Jube, Ave, 
 and Salve ; the throstle says Tc Deuin ; the splendid 
 peacock Dominiu regnavit decorem (xciii.) ; the linnet 
 chirps Salve, and the owl says Kenedicite ; the sky- 
 lark's psalm is Laudale de cvelis (cxlviii.) ; the kite 
 says admirabile, the pie leads the Amen, and the 
 cuckoo says Benedictm at the end. 
 
 Psalm xcvi. 
 
 Cantate Domino. 
 
 1 O sing unto the Lord a 
 new song : sing unto the Lord, 
 all the whole earth. 
 
 2 Sing unto the Lord, and 
 praise his Name : be telling of 
 his salvation from day to day. 
 
 3 Declare his honour unto 
 
 the heathen : and his wonders 
 unto all people. 
 
 4 For the Lord is great, and 
 cannot worthily he praised : he 
 is more to be feared than all gods. 
 
 5 As for all the gods of the 
 heathen, they are but idols : 
 
 213
 
 Day 19] Psalm XCVl. [Morning Prayer 
 
 but it is the Lord that made the 
 heavens. 
 
 6 Glory and worship are 
 before him : power and honour 
 
 and that it is he who hath made 
 the round world so fast that it 
 cannot be moved ; and how 
 that he shall judge the people 
 
 are in his sanctuary. righteously. 
 
 7 Ascribe unto the Lord, O II Let the heavens rejoice, 
 ye kindreds of the people : | and let the earth be glad : let 
 ascribe unto the Lord worship the sea make a noise, and all 
 and power. that therein is. 
 
 8 Ascribe unto the Lord the 12 Let the field be joyful, 
 honour due unto his Name : and all that is in it : then shall 
 bring presents, and come into all the trees of the wood rejoice 
 his courts. before the Lord. 
 
 9 O worship the Lord in 13 For he cometh, for he 
 the beauty of holiness : let the cometh to judge the earth : and 
 whole earth stand in awe of him. with righteousness to judge the 
 
 10 Tell it out among the world, and the people with his 
 heathen that the Lord is King : truth. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Epiphany Mass (e). 
 
 Latins. Friday Matins ; Christmas ; Circumcision ; 
 Epiphany ; Trinity Sunday ; Dedication of a church ; 
 Feasts of Our Lady ; St. Michael. 
 
 Greeks, Thursday morning. 
 
 This psalm and the next were the songs of triumph 
 and defiance used by the Christians, when in Julian's 
 reign they bore away the body of the martyr Babylas 
 from the Orontes. 
 
 The bell motto of Peterborough Cathedral (1679) 
 is Canlate Domino canticum novum. 
 
 Verse 10. St. Justin Martyr accuses the Jews of 
 purposely leaving out the words OLTTO vXov (from the 
 tree) from their manuscripts of the LXX. Bible. These 
 words, or their Latin equivalent ( ligno], therefore 
 became a kind of banner motto against Jews, Arians, 
 and other oppugners of our Lord's royalty. This is 
 the meaning of the third verse of that hymn of 
 Fortunatus, Vexilla Regis prodeitnt, which Dr. Neale 
 214
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xcvii. 
 
 [Day 19 
 
 translated The Royal Banners forward go Our God 
 is reigning from the tree. 
 
 Fortunatus, who died in (JOy, was Bishop of Poictiers, 
 and his hymn must have come to us almost certainly 
 with St. Augustine. 
 
 Psalm xcvii. 
 
 Dominus regnavit. 
 
 1 The Ixird is King, the earth 
 may be glad thereof: yea, the 
 multitude of the isles may be 
 glad thereof. 
 
 2 Clouds and darkness are 
 round about him : righteousness 
 and judgement are the habita- 
 tion of his seat. 
 
 3 There shall go a fire before 
 him : and burn up his enemies 
 on every side. 
 
 4 His lightnings gave shine 
 unto the world : the earth saw 
 it, and was afraid. 
 
 5 The hills melted like wax 
 at the presence of the Lord : 
 at the presence of the Lord of 
 the whole earth. 
 
 6 The heavens have declared 
 his righteousness : and all the 
 people have seen his glory. 
 
 7 Confounded be all they 
 that worship carved images, and 
 
 that delight in vain gods : 
 worship him, all ye gods. 
 
 8 Sion heard of it, and re- 
 joiced : and the daughters of 
 Judah were glad, because of 
 thy judgements, O Lord. 
 
 9 For thou, Lord, art higher 
 than all that are in the earth : 
 thou art exalted far above all 
 gods. 
 
 10 O ye that love the Lord, 
 see that ye hate the thing which 
 is evil : the Lord preserveth 
 the souls of his saints ; he shall 
 deliver them from the hand of 
 the ungodly. 
 
 1 1 There is sprung up a light 
 for the righteous : and joyful 
 gladness for such as are true- 
 hearted. 
 
 12 Rejoice in the Ix>rd, ye 
 righteous : and give thanks for 
 a remembrance of his holiness. 
 
 Latins. Friday Matins ; Circumcision ; Epiphany ; 
 Ascension-tide ; Trinity Sunday ; Apostles and evan- 
 gelists ; Festivals of Our Lady ; St. Michael ; All 
 Saints. 
 
 Greeks. Thursday morning. 
 215
 
 Day 19] Psallll XCvii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 This psalm has been a great favourite with the 
 Calvinist writers, who use it to teach their chief tenets, 
 the Sovereignty of God, the danger of idolatry, 
 Election and Reprobation, and the right of the saints 
 to rule the world. It is no less of a favourite with 
 their greatest opponents, who never suppose that it 
 teaches things inconsistent with the tradition of the 
 Church Catholic. 
 
 Verse 3. Perhaps this verse (with Ps. xi. 6 and 
 Ps. xcvi. 13) helped to make up the witness of David 
 in the Dies Irce (see Ps. cii. 25 and 26). 
 
 Verse 1. This was the shout of the provocative 
 Christians at Antioch, when the oracle of Daphne 
 was dumb to Julian. Perhaps it still breathes that 
 missionary spirit, which delays Christian Missions, 
 and is still a stronghold of the ungospel rancour of 
 hot gospellers. 
 
 Verse 8. When poor George in. recovered from his 
 lunacy, for which he was cruelly whipped, London 
 was illuminated (28th April 1789), and Sion College 
 was lit up with coloured lamps making this motto : 
 Sion heard of it and rejoiced. 
 
 Verse 11. This is the epitaph at Laleham over 
 Matthew Arnold the poet (1822-1888), whose efforts 
 after sweetness and light are thus happily spoken of 
 as still better attained, and whose truth of heart is 
 accounted to have met with more gladness than it 
 reached here.
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm xcviii. 
 
 [Day 19 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm xcviii. 
 A Psalm. 
 
 Cantate Domino. 
 
 1 O sing unto the Lord a new 
 song : for he hath done marvel- 
 lous things. 
 
 2 With his own right hand, 
 and with his holy arm : hath he 
 gotten himself the victory. 
 
 3 The Lord declared his 
 salvation : his righteousness hath 
 he openly shewed in the sight of 
 the heathen. 
 
 4 He hath remembered his 
 mercy and truth toward the 
 house of Israel : and all the ends 
 of the world have seen the sal- 
 vation of our God. 
 
 5 Shew yourselves joyful unto 
 the Lord, all ye lands : sing, 
 rejoice, and give thanks. 
 
 6 Praise the Lord upon the 
 harp : sing to the harp with a 
 psalm of thanksgiving. 
 
 7 With trumpets also, and 
 shawms : O shew yourselves 
 joyful before the Lord the King. 
 
 8 Let the sea make a noise, 
 and all that therein is : the 
 roujid world, and they that dwell 
 therein. 
 
 9 Let the floods clap their 
 hands, and let the hills be 
 joyful together before the Lord : 
 for he is come to judge the 
 earth. 
 
 10 With righteousness shall 
 he judge the world : and the 
 people with equity. 
 
 Liturgical use. Iiitroit for the Christ-Mass (e) 
 alternative to the Magnificat in the daily Evensong. 
 
 Latins. Saturday Matins ; Christmas ; Circumcision ; 
 Trinity Sunday ; Feasts of Our Lady. 
 
 Greeks. Thursday morning. 
 
 This psalm was allowed at Evensong as an alternative 
 to the Magnificat in 1552, in order that the extreme 
 Protestants should not be forced to use the triumph- 
 song of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This was a kindly act 
 of inclusion. It is indeed chiefly an echo of Psalm xcvi., 
 but the word used for trumpets describes those straight 
 trumpets shewn on the Arch of Titus, and is a word 
 217
 
 Day 19] 
 
 Psalm xcix. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 used here alone in the Psalter. The sight of that 
 monument must always have recalled this psalm to the 
 mind of the Jews in Rome. 
 
 " The psalms have dwelt in the Christian heart and 
 in the centre of that heart : and wherever the pursuits 
 of the inner life have been most largely conceived and 
 cultivated, there, and in the same proportion, the 
 Psalms have towered over every other vehicle of 
 general devotion." " We have a conspicuous illus- 
 tration of their office in the fact that, of two hundred 
 and forty-three citations from the Old Testament 
 found in the pages of the New, no less than one 
 hundred and sixteen are from the single Book of 
 Psalms, and that a similar proportion holds with most 
 of the early P'athers " (Mr. Gladstone). 
 
 Psalm xcix. 
 
 Dominus regnavit. 
 
 1 The Lord is King, be the 
 people never so impatient : he 
 sitteth between the cherubims, 
 be the earth never so unquiet. 
 
 2 The Lord is great in Sion : 
 and high above all people. 
 
 3 They shall give thanks unto 
 thy Name : which is great, 
 wonderful, and holy. 
 
 4 The King's power loveth 
 judgement ; thou hast prepared 
 equity : thou hast executed 
 judgement and righteousness in 
 Jacob. 
 
 5 O magnify the Lord our 
 God : and fall down before his 
 
 footstool, for he is holy. 
 
 6 Moses and Aaron among 
 his priests, and Samuel among 
 such as call upon his Name : 
 these called upon the Lord, and 
 he heard them. 
 
 7 He spake unto them out of 
 the cloudy pillar : for they kept 
 his testimonies, and the law that 
 he gave them. 
 
 8 Thou heardest them, O 
 Lord our God : thou forgavest 
 them, O God, and punishedst 
 their own inventions. 
 
 9 O magnify the Lord our 
 God, and worship him upon his 
 holy hill : for the Lord our God 
 
 is holy. 
 218
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm C. [Day 19 
 
 Latins. Saturday Matins ; Circumcision ; Ascension- 
 tide ; Apostles and evangelists ; Dedication Feast. 
 
 (' recks. Thursday morning. 
 
 This psalm was much used by the Puritan party in 
 the Great Rebellion, and by the Covenanters. The 
 version authorised by the Kirk of Scotland in 1641 thus 
 paraphrases the original : 
 
 " The Lord doth reigne, although at it 
 
 The people rage full sore, 
 Yea, He on Cherubins doth sit, 
 Though all the world doth roar. 
 
 " The Lord that doth in Sion dwell 
 
 Is high and wondrous great : 
 Above all folk He doth excell, 
 And He aloft is set." 
 
 Southey tells us that the change from the Old 
 Version to the New Version created a great bitterness 
 and outcry in northern parishes, possibly as great as 
 when the colour of the gowns is changed, or stoles are 
 used instead of scarves. 
 
 Psalm c. 
 
 A Psalm of praise. 
 
 Jubilate Deo. 
 
 1 O be joyful in the Lord, all j 30 go your way into his gates 
 ye lands : serve the Lord with | with thanksgiving, and into his 
 gladness, and come before his | courts with praise : be thankful 
 presence with a song. ' unto him, and speak good of his 
 
 2 Be ye sure that the Lord he Name. 
 
 is God : it is he that hath made j 4 For the Lord is gracious, 
 us, and not we ourselves ; we j his mercy is everlasting : and 
 are his people, and the sheep of his truth endureth from genera- 
 his pasture, j tion to generation. 
 
 219
 
 Day 19] Psalm C. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Liturgical use. At the daily Matins, if Bencdictm 
 comes in the Gospel or Lesson ; Introit to Mass on 
 Whit Monday (e). 
 
 Latins. Sunday, Lauds. 
 
 Greeks. Thursday morning. 
 
 This psalm was placed in our daily morning office 
 to satisfy objections .in 1552, and to avoid repetition. 
 It is not, of course, used unless the Benedictus comes 
 in other parts of the service. 
 
 The hymn " All people that on earth do dwell," 
 was by William Kethe, a Puritan friend of Knox's, and 
 the " Old Hundredth " tune is from the Psalter of 
 1580 A.D. a traditional chorale, some say, by Luther. 
 It is probably this version Mrs. Ford (in Mern/ 
 Wives) has in mind when she says the hundredth 
 psalm will not keep place together with the tune of 
 " Green sleeves " ; and Longfellow alludes to the same 
 version in his hexameter : 
 
 "Singing the hundredth psalm, that grand old Puritan anthem." 
 
 The Talmud says that Psalms xc. to c., except 
 Psalm xcii., were composed by Moses. 
 
 Verse 2. William of Malmesbury tells a story of 
 Cologne about this verse. A certain emperor who 
 was hunting on Quinquagesima Sunday came where a 
 deformed priest, ' ( almost a monster," had a church. 
 He humbly begged for a Mass, and while it was being 
 said, he wondered that God, from whom all beautiful 
 things proceed, should suffer so deformed a man to 
 celebrate His sacraments. Just then the priest turned 
 to chide the altar boy, and said the tract loudly, " It 
 is He, He that hath made us." The emperor, think- 
 ing him to be a prophet, got him elected to an arch- 
 bishopric, where he kindly encouraged all who did 
 well, and branded with the stigma of excommunication 
 those who did evil, without any respect of persons. 
 
 The same verse was the reply made by Matilda, 
 
 220
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Ch [Day 19 
 
 wife of Henry i., when her brother David rebuked 
 her for washing the feet of lepers. It is He that hath 
 made us and not we ourselves, He who said in His 
 Gospel : 1 was sick and ye visited Me. 
 
 Psalm ci. 
 
 Misericordiam et judicium. 
 A Psalm of David, 
 
 1 My song shall be of mercy 7 Whoso hath also a proud 
 and judgement : unto thee, O ' look and high stomach : I will 
 Lord, will I sing. ! not suffer him. 
 
 2 O let me have understand- : 8 Mine eyes look upon such 
 ing : in the way of godliness. [ as are faithful in the land : that 
 
 3 When wilt thou come unto they may dwell with me. 
 
 me : I will walk in my house | 9 Whoso leadeth a godly 
 with a perfect heart. life : he shall be my servant. 
 
 4 I will take no wicked thing 10 There shall no deceitful 
 in hand ; I hate the sins of person dwell in my house : he 
 unfaithfulness : there shall no that telleth lies shall not tarry 
 
 in my sight. 
 
 ill shall soon destroy all 
 the ungodly that are in the 
 land: that I may root out all 
 wicked doers from the city of the 
 Lord. 
 
 such cleave unto me. 
 
 5 A fro ward heart shall depart 
 from me : I will not know a 
 wicked person. 
 
 6 Whoso privily slandereth 
 his neighbour : him will I 
 destroy. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for Mass on Whit Tuesday 
 (e) ; King's Accession. 
 
 Latins. Saturday Matins. 
 
 (i reeks. Thursday morning ; First hour. 
 
 This psalm and the next were sung at the death of 
 Monica by St. Augustine and his son Adeodatus, with 
 Kuodius, and the household. 
 
 "The 101st Psalm was one beloved by the noblest 
 of Russian princes, Vladimir Monachos, by the 
 gentlest of English Reformers, Nicholas Ridley."
 
 Day 19] Psalm ci. [Evening Prayer 
 
 " Many have been the holy associations with 
 which the name of Jerusalem has been invested in 
 apocalyptic visions and Christian hymns, but they 
 have their first historical ground in the sublime 
 aspirations of its first royal Founder" (Stanley). 
 
 " It was not till the conversion of the great Prince 
 Vladimir, in 992, that Russia was illuminated, and 
 then its reception of the gospel was almost 
 instantaneous." 
 
 An interesting writer upon this psalm is Francis 
 Junius (1589-1677), librarian to Thomas Howard, 
 second Earl of Arundel. He was the first great 
 Anglo-Saxon scholar of modern times, and enriched 
 the Bodleian Library with his treasures. Dr. Johnson 
 was much indebted to him for his English etymology. 
 The simplicity of character set forth in the psalm well 
 accords with his life. 
 
 Bacon recommended George Villiers to make a 
 study of this psalm, and to be ruled by it when he 
 promoted the courtiers. 
 
 Verse 1 . The opening words of this psalm were the 
 expression of poor Cowper's joy, on his recovery from 
 the deep melancholy which caused him to be put 
 under the care of Dr. Cotton (1773-75). When at last 
 the light broke in upon him, he " felt it almost waste 
 of time to sleep, he was so happy." Then he wrote 
 the song of Mercy and Judgment which begins, 
 " Lord, I love the habitation." 
 
 "Me through waves of deep affliction, 
 Dearest Saviour, Thou hast brought ; 
 Fiery cleeps of sharp conviction, 
 Hard to Dear and passing thought. 
 Sweet the sound of grace Divine, 
 Sweet the grace which makes me Thine." 
 
 222
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cii. 
 
 [Day 20 
 
 THE TWENTIETH DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cii. 
 
 A Trayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth 
 out his complaint before the Lord. 
 
 Domine, exaudi. 
 
 1 I lear my prayer, O Lord : 
 and let my crying come unto 
 thee. 
 
 2 Hide not thy face from me 
 in the time of my trouble : in- 
 cline thine ear unto me when 
 I call ; O hear me, and that 
 right soon. 
 
 3 For my days are consumed 
 away like smoke : and my bones 
 are burnt up as it were a fire- 
 brand. 
 
 4 My heart is smitten down, 
 and withered like grass : so that 
 I forget to eat my bread. 
 
 5 For the voice of my groan- 
 ing : my bones will scarce 
 cleave to my flesh. 
 
 6 I am become like a pelican 
 in the wilderness : and like an 
 owl that is in the desert. 
 
 7 I have watched, and am 
 even as it were a sparrow : that 
 sitteth alone upon the housetop. 
 
 8 Mine enemies revile me all 
 the day long : and they that are 
 mad upon me are sworn together 
 against me. 
 
 9 For I have eaten ashes as it 
 were bread : and mingled my 
 drink with weeping ; 
 
 10 And that because of thine 
 indignation and wrath : for thou 
 hast taken me up, and cast me 
 down. 
 
 11 My days are gone like a 
 shadow : and I am withered like 
 grass. 
 
 12 But, thou, O Lord, shall 
 endure for ever : and thy 
 remembrance throughout all 
 generations. 
 
 13 Thou shalt arise, and have 
 mercy upon Sion : for it is time 
 that thou have mercy upon her, 
 yea, the time is come. 
 
 14 And why? thy servants 
 think upon her stones : and it 
 pitieth them to see her in the 
 dust. 
 
 15 The heathen shall fear thy 
 Name, O Lord : and all the 
 kings of the earth thy Majesty ; 
 
 1 6 When the Lord shall build 
 up Sion : and when his glory- 
 shall appear ; 
 
 223
 
 Day 20] 
 
 Psalm cii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 17 When he turneth him unto 
 the prayer of the poor destitute : 
 and despiseth not their desire. 
 
 1 8 This shall be written for 
 those that come after : and the 
 people which shall be born shall 
 praise the Lord. 
 
 19 For he hath looked down 
 from his sanctuary : out of the 
 heaven did the Lord behold the 
 earth ; 
 
 20 That he might hear the 
 mournings of such as are in 
 captivity : and deliver the 
 children appointed unto death ; 
 
 21 That they may declare the 
 Name of the Lord in Sion : and 
 his worship at Jerusalem ; 
 
 22 When the people are 
 gathered together : and the 
 kingdoms also, to serve the 
 Lord. 
 
 my 
 and 
 
 23 He brought down 
 strength in my journey : 
 shortened my days. 
 
 24 But I said, O my God, 
 take me not away in the midst 
 of mine age : as for thy years, 
 they endure throughout all 
 generations. 
 
 25 Thou, Lord, in the begin- 
 ning hast laid the foundation of 
 the earth : and the heavens are 
 the work of thy hands. 
 
 26 They shall perish, but thou 
 shalt endure : they all shall wax 
 old as doth a garment ; 
 
 27 And as a vesture shalt thou 
 change them, and they shall be 
 changed : but thou art the same, 
 and thy years shall not fail. 
 
 28 The children of thyservants 
 shall continue : and their seed 
 shall stand fast in thy sight. 
 
 Liturgical use. Ash Wednesday evening. 
 
 Latins. Saturday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Thursday morning ; Late evensong in 
 Lent ; Visitation of the sick ; Confession ; For the 
 dying. 
 
 This is the fifth penitential psalm. These are 
 Psalms vi., xxx., xxxviii., li., cii., cxxx., cxliii. (vide 
 Ps. vi.). It is the antidote to Avarice. 
 
 The Emperor Charles v. had these seven psalms 
 read again and again to him in his last sickness at 
 St. Juste (September 1568). 
 
 Verse 1. These are the words which in so many 
 
 services usher in the Collect or Summary of all that is 
 
 prayed for. They are used thus not only in our 
 
 Litany, for instance, but in that ancient service at 
 
 224
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm cil*. [Day 20 
 
 which, from Edward the Confessor's time onwards, 
 English monarchs have touched for the King's Evil. 
 
 Verse 5. William Hunnis, Queen Elizabeth's choir- 
 master at the Chapel Royal, was among the earlier 
 authors who " reduced into meeter " the seven psalms. 
 His book is rather a commentary upon than a transla- 
 tion of the original (1583). It is exquisitely bound, 
 and has tunes to it. It is called " Seven sobs of a 
 sorrowfull soule for sinne." This is his comment to 
 this verse : 
 
 "Age overtaketh youth, I see, 
 and youth by stealth dooth flie, 
 As dooth the smoke vanish awaie 
 aloft vnder the skie. 
 Yea, manie times it chanceth so 
 ere age come us upon, 
 
 That death by stroke such wound doth make, 
 that life with speed is gone. 
 Thus passeth foorth my time of life 
 more swifter, I may saie, 
 Than is the ship good under saile, 
 or eagle after praie." 
 
 Verse 6. This gave to Christian art the pelican as 
 the symbol of our Lord, as in St. Thomas Aquinas' 
 hymn " Adoro te " (312 A. and M.) : 
 
 " Pie Pellicane, Jesii Domine! 
 .Me imtnunditm nmnda Tuo sanguine" 
 
 Verse 11. "My days are gone like a shadow that 
 declineth " is the Arbroath dial motto. Dies niei sicut 
 umbra declinaverunt is the dial motto of St. Michele, 
 near Venice. 
 
 Verses 13 and 14. The Whole Duty of Man, a book 
 
 more popular than any other book of practical religion 
 
 in England, was composed by the gallant Richard 
 
 Alstree (l6lf)-8l), who after bearing musket, sword, 
 
 p 225
 
 Day 20] 
 
 Psalm ciii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 and pen for the king, and after enduring loss and 
 imprisonment for the royal cause, became Regius 
 Professor of Divinity and Provost of Eton. He 
 preached from these words before Charles u. a sermon 
 on God's method in giving deliverance words which 
 had greatly moved himself. He is buried near the 
 high altar at Eton. 
 
 Verses 25 and 26. St. Augustine assigns these verses 
 as the witness of David to the Doomsday alluded to 
 in the "anvil hymn " of the Dies Irce, see xcvii. 3. 
 
 Psalm ciii. 
 A Psalm of David. 
 Benedic, anima mea. 
 
 1 Praise the Lord, O my soul : 
 and all that is within me praise 
 his holy Name. 
 
 2 Praise the Lord, O my 
 soul : and forget not all his 
 benefits ; 
 
 3 Who forgiveth all thy sin : 
 and healeth all thine infirmities ; 
 
 4 Who saveth thy life from 
 destruction : and crowneth thee 
 with mercy and loving-kindness ; 
 
 5 Who satisfieth thy mouth 
 with good things : making thee 
 young and lusty as an eagle. 
 
 6 The Lord executeth right- 
 eousness and judgment : for all 
 them that are oppressed with 
 wrong. 
 
 7 He shewed his ways unto 
 Moses : his works unto the 
 children of Israel. 
 
 8 The Lord is full of com- 
 
 passion and mercy : long-suffer- 
 ing, and of great goodness. 
 
 9 He will not alway be 
 chiding : neither keepeth he his 
 anger for ever. 
 
 10 He hath not dealt with us 
 after our sins : nor rewarded us 
 according to our wickednesses. 
 
 11 For look how high the 
 heaven is in comparison of the 
 earth : so great is his mercy also 
 toward them that fear him. 
 
 12 Look how wide also the 
 east is from the west : so far 
 hath he set our sins from us. 
 
 13 Yea, like as a father pitieth 
 his own children : even so is the 
 Lord merciful unto them that 
 fear him. 
 
 14 For he knoweth whereof 
 we are made : he remembereth 
 that we are but dust. 
 
 226
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm ciii. 
 
 [Day 20 
 
 15 The days of man are but 
 as grass : for he flourisheth as a 
 flower of the field. 
 
 1 6 For as soon as the wind 
 goeth over it, it is gone : and 
 the place thereof shall know it 
 no more. 
 
 17 But the merciful goodness 
 of the Lord endureth for ever 
 and ever upon them that fear 
 him : and his righteousness 
 upon children's children ; 
 
 1 8 Even upon such as keep 
 his covenant : and think upon 
 his commandments to do them. 
 
 19 The Lord hath prepared 
 his seat in heaven : and his 
 kingdom ruleth over all. 
 
 20 O praise the Lord, ye 
 angels of his, ye that excel in 
 strength : ye that fulfil his com- 
 mandment, and hearken unto 
 the voice of his words. 
 
 21 O praise the Lord, all ye 
 his hosts : ye servants of his 
 that do his pleasure. 
 
 22 O speak good of the Lord, 
 all ye works of his, in all places 
 of his dominion : praise thou 
 the Lord, O my soul. 
 
 Liturgical use. Rogation psalm. 
 
 Latins. Saturday Matins ; Ascension-tide ; St. 
 Michael (Sarum, All Saints). 
 
 Greeks. Thursday morning ; Dawn. 
 
 The followers of John Knox sang this as a Euchar- 
 istic psalm. 
 
 Dr. Robert Sanderson, in his last sickness, always 
 repeated, as he was wont, the psalms for the day both 
 morning and evening. As he drew near his end " he 
 did often say the 103rd Psalm to himself, and ' My 
 heart is fixed ' (Ps. Ivii. 8)." 
 
 The first five verses of this psalm were said in the 
 Anglo-Saxon vernacular Prime. 
 
 Verses 15 and 16. These occur in the anthem of the 
 burial office, the original of which comes from Notker, 
 a monk of St. Gall in the ninth century. This most 
 famous sequence Media vita was composed when he 
 saw some workmen bridging the chasm of the Martin 
 Stobel. It was adapted as a Dirge in Germany, and 
 became so popular as a charm and incantation on all 
 occasions of peril, that in 1316 the Synod of Cologne 
 forbad its unauthorised use altogether. Luther made 
 227
 
 Day 20] 
 
 Psalm civ. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 a version of it in a hymn still sung : Mitten trir iin 
 Lcbcn xliid. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm civ. 
 
 Itcncdic, anima niea. 
 
 1 Praise the Lord, O my soul : 
 O Lord my God, thou art be- 
 come exceeding glorious : thou 
 art clothed with majesty and 
 honour. 
 
 2 Thou deckest thyself with 
 light as it were with a garment : 
 and spreadest out the heavens 
 like a curtain. 
 
 3 Who layeth the beams of 
 his chambers in the waters : and 
 maketh the clouds his chariot, 
 and walketh upon the wings of 
 the wind. 
 
 4 He maketh his angels 
 spirits : and his ministers a 
 flaming fire. 
 
 5 He laid the foundations of 
 the earth : that it never should 
 move at any time. 
 
 6 Thou coveredst it with the 
 deep like as with a garment : 
 the waters stand in the hills. 
 
 7 At thy rebuke they flee : 
 at the voice of thy thunder they 
 are afraid. 
 
 8 They go up as high as the 
 hills, and down to the valleys 
 beneath : even unto the place 
 which thou hast appointed for 
 them. 
 
 228 
 
 9 Thou hast set them their 
 bounds which they shall not 
 pass : neither turn again to 
 cover the earth. 
 
 10 He sendeth the springs 
 into the rivers : which run 
 among the hills. 
 
 11 All beasts of the field 
 drink thereof: and the wild 
 asses quench their thirst. 
 
 12 Beside them shall the fowls 
 of the air have their habita- 
 tion : and sing among the 
 branches. 
 
 13 He watereth the hills from 
 above : the earth is filled with 
 the fruit of thy works. 
 
 14 He bringeth forth grass 
 for the cattle : and green herb 
 for the service of men. 
 
 15 That he may bring food 
 out of the earth, and wine that 
 maketh glad the heart of man : 
 and oil to make him a cheer- 
 ful countenance, and bread to 
 strengthen man's heart. 
 
 1 6 The trees of the Lord also 
 are full of sap : even the cedars 
 of Libanus which he hath 
 planted ; 
 
 17 Wherein the birds make
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm civ. 
 
 [Day 20 
 
 their nests : and the fir-trees are 
 a dwelling for the stork. 
 
 1 8 The high hills are a refuge 
 for the wild goats : and so are 
 the stony rocks for the conies. 
 
 19 He appointed the moon 
 for certain seasons : and the sun 
 knoweth his going down. 
 
 20 Thou makest darkness that 
 it may be night : wherein all the 
 beasts of the forest do move. 
 
 21 The lions roaring after 
 their prey : do seek their meat 
 from God. 
 
 22 The sun ariseth, and they 
 get them away together : and 
 lay them down in their dens. 
 
 23 Man goeth forth to his 
 work, and to his labour : until 
 the evening. 
 
 24 O Lord, how manifold are 
 thy works : in wisdom hast thou 
 made them all : the earth is full 
 of thy riches. 
 
 25 So is the great and wide 
 sea also : wherein are things 
 creeping innumerable, both small 
 and great beasts. 
 
 26 There go the ships, and 
 there is that Leviathan : whom 
 thou hast made to take his 
 pastime therein. 
 
 27 These wait all upon thee : 
 
 that thou mayest give them 
 meat in due season. 
 
 28 When thou givest it them 
 they gather it : and when thou 
 openest thy hand they are filled 
 with good. 
 
 29 When thou hidest thy 
 face they are troubled : when 
 thou takest away their breath 
 they die, and are turned again 
 to their dust. 
 
 30 When thou lettest thy 
 breath go forth they shall be 
 made : and thou shall renew the 
 face of the earth. 
 
 31 The glorious Majesty of 
 the Lord shall endure for ever : 
 the Lord shall rejoice in his 
 works. 
 
 32 The earth shall tremble at 
 the look of him : if he do but 
 touch the hills, they shall smoke. 
 
 33 I will sing unto the Lord 
 as long as I live : I will praise 
 my God while I have my being. 
 
 34 And so shall my words 
 please him : my joy shall be in 
 the Lord. 
 
 35 As for sinners, they shall 
 be consumed out of the earth, 
 and the ungodly shall come to 
 an end : praise thou the Lord, 
 O my soul, praise the Lord. 
 
 Lifurgicdl use. Whit Sunday evening; Rogation 
 psalm. 
 
 Latins. Saturday Matins ; Whitsuntide. 
 Greeks. Thursday morning ; Preface to evensong. 
 On the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before 
 229
 
 Day 20] Psalm civ. [Evening 1'rayer 
 
 Ascension day (Rogation days) the parish bounds 
 were beaten (called "ganging" in the North), and 
 Litanies were chaunted to entreat for the kindly fruits 
 of the earth in due season. The psalms u^ed then 
 were ciii. and civ. 
 
 This psalm was a favourite with Henry Vaughan, 
 Bacon, and Alexander von Humboldt. Bacon trans- 
 lated it into metre, and shewed thereby that his 
 description of himself as a "concealed poet" was not 
 quite an empty boast. His book is, Certaine Psalwcs 
 written by him in sickness, 1624, and dedicated to his 
 very good friend George Herbert. 
 
 "The sappy cedars tall like stately tow'rs 
 High flying birds do harbour in their bow'rs, 
 The holy storks, that are the travellers, 
 Choose for to dwell and build within the firs ; 
 The climbing goats hang on steep mountain side, 
 The digging conies in the rocks do bide." 
 
 Humboldt said that this single psalm presents a 
 picture of the entire cosmos in the compass of a single 
 poem. 
 
 Sir George Mackenzie (16^6-91) was called by the 
 Covenanters "The Bloody," because of the severity 
 with which he met their revolts. When he was not 
 engaged in his political duties, he wrote a paraphrase 
 upon this psalm, in which he greatly delighted. 
 
 Verse Mi. In Luca della Robbia's bas-relief in the 
 church of St. Uomenic, the figures of four saints hold 
 a tablet with De fructu operum satiabitnr terra earth 
 being of course interpreted as man. 
 
 Verse 23. This was the text of John Henry Newman's 
 first sermon, and also of his last sermon as an English 
 priest, 25th September 184o. 
 
 Verse 24. St. Athanasius may almost be said to have 
 composed his great orations against the Arians as 
 sermons upon this verse, so often does he quote it.
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm CIV. [Day 20 
 
 Dr. Dock! (1729-77) preached an eloquent sermon 
 on this verse, before the Society of Apothecaries, on 
 the goodness of God in the vegetable ci'eation. He 
 was a great Cambridge divine, the editor of the 
 Christian Magazine, a royal chaplain and prebendary. 
 He forged a bond in Lord Chesterfield's name and 
 was hanged. 
 
 Bauhinus the botanist (1541-1613) chose it as a 
 motto for his Historia Plantarum. 
 
 Verse 27. A. Oculi omnium in te sperant Domine. R7. Et 
 tu das escam illorum in tempore apportuno. }/. Aperis 
 tu maiium tuam. ~K;. Et imples omne animal benedictione. 
 This mediaeval grace before meat in versicle and 
 response was common in the Middle Ages, and is still 
 often used in colleges abroad. It seems a pity that it 
 should be superseded by the less spiritual contempla- 
 rion of what we are about to receive, especially in 
 schools and places where the Latin language is taught. 
 
 Verse 30. St. Wilfrid of York, in 709 A.D., died at 
 St. Andrew's, Oundle, leaning back his head upon the 
 pillow, without groan or murmur, just as from the 
 minster choir rose the chaunt of Emitte spiritum tiium el 
 rcnovabis faciem terrce. And " he happily resigned his 
 soul into the hands of his Creator, and thus entered 
 into the everlasting banquet of God's Lamb." 
 
 23.
 
 Day 21] 
 
 Psalm cv. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cv. 
 
 Confitemini Domino. 
 
 1 O give thanks unto the 
 Lord, and call upon his Name : 
 tell the people what things he 
 hath done. 
 
 2 O let your songs be of him, 
 and praise him : and let your 
 talking be of all his wondrous 
 works. 
 
 3 Rejoice in his holy Name : 
 let the heart of them rejoice 
 that seek the Lord. 
 
 4 Seek the Lord and his 
 strength : seek his face evermore. 
 
 5 Remember the marvellous 
 works that he hath done : his 
 wonders, and the judgements of 
 his mouth, 
 
 6 O ye seed of Abraham his 
 servant : ye children of Jacob 
 his chosen. 
 
 7 He is the Lord our God : 
 his judgements are in all the 
 world. 
 
 8 He hath been alway mind- 
 ful of his covenant and promise : 
 that he made to a thousand 
 generations ; 
 
 9 Even the covenant that he 
 made with Abraham : and the 
 oath that he sware unto Isaac ; 
 
 10 And appointed the same 
 unto Tj^cob for a law : and to 
 
 2 3 
 
 Israel for an everlasting testa- 
 ment ; 
 
 11 Saying, Unto thee will I 
 give the land of Canaan : the lot 
 of your inheritance ; 
 
 12 When there were yet but a 
 few of them : and they strangers 
 in the land ; 
 
 13 What time as they went 
 from one nation to another : from 
 one kingdom to another people ; 
 
 14 He suffered no man to do 
 them wrong : but reproved even 
 kings for their sakes ; 
 
 15 Touch not mine Anointed : 
 and do my prophets no harm. 
 
 1 6 Moreover, he called for 
 a dearth upon the land : and 
 destroyed all the provision of 
 bread. 
 
 17 But he had sent a man 
 before them : even Joseph, who 
 was sold to be a bond-servant ; 
 
 1 8 Whose feet they hurt in 
 the stocks : the iron entered 
 into his soul ; 
 
 19 Until the time came that 
 his cause was known : the word 
 of the Lord tried him. 
 
 20 The king sent, and de- 
 livered him : the prince of the 
 people let him go free.
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cv. 
 
 [Day 21 
 
 21 He made him lord also of 
 his house : and ruler of all his 
 substance ; 
 
 22 That he might inform his 
 princes after his will : and 
 teach his senators wisdom. 
 
 23 Israel also came into 
 Egypt : and Jacob was a 
 stranger in the land of Ham. 
 
 24 And he increased his 
 people exceedingly : and made 
 them stronger than their 
 enemies ; 
 
 25 Whose heart turned so, 
 that they hated his people : and 
 dealt untruly with his servants. 
 
 26 Then sent he Moses his 
 servant : and Aaron whom he 
 had chosen. 
 
 27 And these shewed his 
 tokens among them : and 
 wonders in the land of Ham. 
 
 28 He sent darkness, and it 
 was dark : and they were not 
 obedient unto his word. 
 
 29 He turned their waters 
 into blood : and slew their fish. 
 
 30 Their land brought forth 
 frogs : yea, even in their kings' 
 chambers. 
 
 31 He spake the word, and 
 there came all manner of flies : 
 and lice in all their quarters. 
 
 32 He gave them hail-stones 
 for rain : and flames of fire in 
 their land. 
 
 33 He smote their vines also 
 and fig-trees : and destroyed the 
 trees that were in their coasts. 
 
 34 He spake the word, and 
 the grasshoppers came, and 
 caterpillars innumerable : and 
 did eat up all the grass in their 
 land, and devoured the fruit of 
 their ground. 
 
 35 He smote all the first-born 
 in their land : even the chief of 
 all their strength. 
 
 36 He brought them forth 
 also with silver and gold : there 
 was not one feeble person among 
 their tribes. 
 
 37 Egypt was glad at their 
 departing : for they were afraid 
 of them. 
 
 38 He spread out a cloud to 
 be a covering : and fire to give 
 light in the night-season. 
 
 39 At their desire he brought 
 quails : and he filled them with 
 the bread of heaven. 
 
 40 He opened the rock of 
 stone, and the waters flowed 
 out : so that rivers ran in the 
 dry places. 
 
 41 For why? he remembered 
 his holy promise : and Abraham 
 his servant. 
 
 42 And he brought forth his 
 people with joy : and his chosen 
 with gladness ; 
 
 43 And gave them the lands 
 of the heathen : and they took 
 the labours of the people in 
 possession ; 
 
 44 That they might keep 
 his statutes : and observe his 
 laws. 
 
 2 33
 
 Day 21] Psalm CV. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Latins. Saturday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Last psalm for Thursday Matins. 
 
 Verse 14. The first papal legates, who came over 
 to England to claim papal supremacy (from Pope 
 Adrian, A.D. 785)., used this verse as an instance of the 
 superiority of the ecclesiastical over the civil jurisdic- 
 tion. It has often done duty for the same purpose since. 
 
 Verse 15. It is needless to say that this was con- 
 stantly in the mouths of loyal Chui'chmen during the 
 civil wars, plots, and revolutions of the seventeenth 
 century ; arid the application was nothing new then, 
 for Thomas Merks, the Bishop of Carlisle, pointed it 
 out to Henry iv., in a vigorous and manful speech 
 he made in defence of Richard 11. The bishop was 
 promptly lodged in the dungeon of St. Albans Abbey 
 for his boldness of utterance. 
 
 In the letter of Edmund Vemey to his brother 
 Ralph (they were both sons of Chai'les i.'s standard- 
 bearer) we find this remonstrance : " It greeves my 
 hearte to think that my father already and I who soe 
 dearly love and esteeme you should be bound in conse- 
 quence (because of our duty to our King) to be your 
 enemy. I heare tis a great greei'e to my father. I 
 beseech you consider that majesty is sacred ; God 
 sayth Touch not myne anointed ; it troubled Davyd 
 that he cutt but the lapp of Saul's garment." 
 
 Verse 28. Dr. John Rainolds, the Aristotelian, 
 President of Coi'pus, solemnly proposed at the 
 Hampton Court Conference (1603) that "disobedient" 
 be put for "obedient," as the Nonconformists felt 
 this mistranslation to be a stumbling-block. The 
 Revisers, both then and of our time, followed the 
 Nonconformists here without dispute, and translate, 
 " And they rebelled not against his words." 
 
 Dr. Sparks had a controversy with Whitgift on this 
 very verse in 1589, from which armoury the weapons 
 for the later dispute were mostly drawn. 
 234
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cvi. 
 
 [Day 21 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 Psalm cvi. 
 
 Confitemini Domino. 
 
 1 O give thanks unto the 
 Lord, for he is gracious : and 
 his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 2 Who can express the noble 
 acts of the Lord : or shew forth 
 all his praise ? 
 
 3 Blessed are they that alway 
 keep judgement : and do right- 
 eousness. 
 
 4 Remember me, O Lord, 
 according to the favour that thou 
 bearest unto thy people : O visit 
 me with thy salvation ; 
 
 5 That I may see the felicity 
 of thy chosen : and rejoice in 
 the gladness of thy people, and 
 give thanks with thine inherit- 
 ance. 
 
 6 We have sinned with our 
 fathers : we have done amiss, 
 and dealt wickedly. 
 
 7 Our fathers regarded not 
 thy wonders in Egypt, neither 
 kept they thy great goodness 
 in remembrance : but were dis- 
 obedient at the sea, even at the 
 Red sea. 
 
 8 Nevertheless, he helped 
 them for his Name's sake : that 
 he might make his power to be 
 known. 
 
 9 He rebuked the Red sea 
 also, and it was dried up : so he 
 
 led them through the deep, as 
 through a wilderness. 
 
 10 And he saved them from 
 the adversary's hand : and de- 
 livered them from the hand of 
 the enemy. 
 
 1 1 As for those that troubled 
 them, the waters overwhelmed 
 them : there was not one of 
 them left. 
 
 12 Then believed they his 
 words : and sang praise unto 
 him. 
 
 13 But within a while they 
 forgat his works : and would 
 not abide his counsel. 
 
 14 But lust came upon them 
 in the wilderness : and they 
 tempted God in the desert. 
 
 15 And he gave them their 
 desire : and sent leanness withal 
 into their soul. 
 
 1 6 They angered Moses also 
 in the tents : and Aaron the 
 saint of the Lord. 
 
 17 So the earth opened, and 
 swallowed up Dathan : and 
 covered the congregation of 
 Abiram. 
 
 1 8 And the fire was kindled 
 in their company : the flame 
 burnt up the ungodly. 
 
 19 They made a calf in 
 
 2 35
 
 Day 21 ] 
 
 Psalm cvi. 
 
 t'rayer 
 
 Iloreb : and worshipped the 
 molten image. 
 
 20 Thus they turned their 
 glory : into the similitude of a 
 calf that eateth hay. 
 
 21 And they forgat God their 
 Saviour : who had done so great 
 things in Egypt ; 
 
 22 Wondrous works in the 
 land of Ham : and fearful things 
 by the Red sea. 
 
 23 So he said, he would have 
 destroyed them, had not Moses 
 his chosen stood before him in 
 the gap : to turn away his wrath- 
 ful indignation, lest he should 
 destroy them. 
 
 24 Yea, they thought scorn of 
 that pleasant land : and gave no 
 credence unto his word ; 
 
 25 But murmured in their 
 tents : and hearkened not unto 
 the voice of the Lord. 
 
 26 Then lift he up his hand 
 against them : to overthrow them 
 in the wilderness ; 
 
 27 To cast out their seed 
 among the nations : and to 
 scatter them in the lands. 
 
 28 They joined themselves 
 unto Baal-peor : and ate the 
 offerings of the dead. 
 
 29 Thus they provoked him 
 to anger with their own inven- ; 
 tions : and the plague was great 
 among them. 
 
 30 Then stood up Phinees i 
 and prayed : and so the plague < 
 ceased. 
 
 236 
 
 31 And that was counted unto 
 him for righteousness : among 
 all posterities for evermore. 
 
 32 They angered him also at 
 the waters of strife : so that he 
 punished Moses for their sakes : 
 
 33 Because they provoked his 
 spirit : so that he spake unad- 
 visedly with his lips. 
 
 34 Neither destroyed they the 
 heathen : as the Lord com- 
 manded them ; 
 
 35 But were mingled among 
 the heathen : and learned their 
 works. 
 
 36 Insomuch that they wor- 
 shipped theirfdols, which turned 
 to their own decay : yea, they 
 offered their sons and their 
 daughters unto devils : 
 
 37 And shed innocent blood, 
 even the blood of their sons and 
 of their daughters : whom they 
 offered unto the idols of Canaan ; 
 and the land was defiled with 
 blood. 
 
 38 Thus were they stained 
 with their own works : and went 
 a whoring with their own in- 
 ventions. 
 
 39 Therefore was the wrath 
 of the Lord kindled against his 
 people : insomuch that he ab- 
 horred his own inheritance. 
 
 40 And he gave them over 
 into the hand of the heathen : 
 and they that hated them were 
 lords over them. 
 
 41 Their enemies oppressed
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cvi. 
 
 [Day 21 
 
 them : and had them in sub- 
 jection. 
 
 42 Many a time did he de- 
 liver them : but they rebelled 
 against him with their own in- 
 ventions, and were brought down 
 in their wickedness. 
 
 43 Nevertheless, when he 
 saw their adversity : he heard 
 their complaint. 
 
 44 He thought upon his cove- 
 nant, and pitied them, according 
 
 unto the multitude of his mercies : 
 yea, he made all those that led 
 them away captive to pity them. 
 
 45 Deliver us, O Lord our 
 God, and gather us from among 
 the heathen : that we may give 
 thanks unto thy holy Name, and 
 make our boast of thy praise. 
 
 46 Blessed be the Lord God 
 of Israel from everlasting, and 
 world without end : and let all 
 the people say, Amen. 
 
 Latins. Saturday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Thursday evening. 
 
 Fox tells us that William Wolsey, a constable, and 
 Robert Pygot, a painter, were burnt at Ely (October 
 1.555) for Protestantism. They died reciting Psalm 
 cvi., and clasping New Testaments to their breasts. 
 
 It is a curious thing to notice how many com- 
 mentators there were on the Psalter in the eighteenth 
 century. Zachary Mudge (Dr. Johnson's friend and 
 Reynolds' admired "study ") was the first leader; but 
 Bishop Hare, Theocritean Thomas Edwards, George 
 Fenwick, and Bishop George Home of Norwich were 
 among the chief. Doddridge gives the palm of 
 metrical translations to James Merrick, Fellow of 
 Trinity College, Oxford who was more admirable for 
 his zeal for the need of the index, than for his poetrv. 
 
 Verse 3. The epitaph upon Sir William Hankford, 
 at Amerie in Devon, a most just judge, who in 1422 
 was shot by his own keeper in his own park by night, 
 when, being bidden, he refused to stand. He was 
 " habited with all requisites for a person of his place." 
 
 Verse 11. The Utrecht Psalter, that most interest- 
 ing and puzzling manuscript, which the critics assign 
 alternately to each of the centuries from the fourth 
 to the ninth, has spirited illustrations of this verse, 
 237
 
 Day 22] Psalm Cvil. [Morning Prayer 
 
 and some others in this psalm and the next one. The 
 Red Sea is overwhelming the Egyptians ; there are 
 ploughmen at work, felons in the stocks, vinedressers 
 and planters, men going down to the sea in the 
 queerest ships, and others building cities. There are 
 also, among other delights, two great chairs which are 
 the seats of the elders (Ps. cvii. 32). 
 
 Verse 28. Henry More, the Platonist (1614-87), has 
 an interesting discourse upon Baal-Peor, the god of 
 increase, whom from old Semitic tradition the Jews 
 obstinately worshipped to a late period. Even 
 Jonathan named his son Mephibaal, although the 
 termination was changed to bosheth, nonsense. More 
 was one of our loveliest mystical writers, and so loved 
 his life of scholarly retirement that he twice refused 
 bishoprics. 
 
 Verse 30. This was one of the translations which 
 the Puritans so inveighed against at the Hampton 
 Court Confei'ence. Dr. Rainolds proposed " executed 
 judgment," but the words were retained in the 
 Prayer Book, though altered in the Bible. 
 
 Verse 38. This is the second motto of Father 
 Parsons' work on the English persecution, and summed 
 up the Romanist charge against our people of " will- 
 worship." 
 
 THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cvii. 
 
 Confitemini Domino. 
 
 1 O give thanks unto the 
 Lord, for he is gracious : and 
 his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 2 Let them give thanks whom 
 
 238 
 
 the Lord hath redeemed : and 
 delivered from the hand of the 
 enemy ; 
 
 3 And gathered them out of
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cvii. 
 
 [Day 22 
 
 the lands, from the east, and 
 from the west : from the north, 
 and from the south. 
 
 4 They went astray in the 
 wilderness out of the way : and 
 found no city to dwell in ; 
 
 5 Hungry and thirsty : their 
 soul fainted in them. 
 
 6 So they cried unto the Lord 
 in their trouble : and he de- 
 livered them from their distress. 
 
 7 He led them forth by the 
 right way : that they might go 
 to the city where they dwelt. 
 
 8 O that men would therefore 
 praise the Lord for his good- 
 ness : and declare the wonders 
 that he doeth for the children of 
 men ! 
 
 9 For he satisfieth the empty 
 soul : and filleth the hungry 
 soul with goodness. 
 
 10 Such as sit in darkness, 
 and in the shadow of death : 
 being fast bound in misery and 
 iron ; 
 
 11 Because they rebelled 
 against the words of the 
 Lord : and lightly regarded the 
 counsel of the most Highest ; 
 
 12 He also brought down 
 their heart through heaviness : 
 they fell down, and there was 
 none to help them. 
 
 13 So when they cried unto 
 the Lord in their trouble : he 
 delivered them out of their 
 distress. 
 
 14 For he brought them out 
 
 of darkness, and out of the 
 shadow of death : and brake 
 their bonds in sunder. 
 
 15 O that men would there- 
 fore praise the Lord for his 
 goodness : and declare the 
 wonders that he doeth for the 
 children of men ! 
 
 16 For he hath broken the 
 gates of brass : and smitten the 
 bars of iron in sunder. 
 
 17 Foolish men are plagued 
 for their offence : and because 
 of their wickedness. 
 
 18 Their soul abhorred all 
 manner of meat : and they were 
 even hard at death's door. 
 
 19 So when they cried unto 
 the Lord in their trouble : he 
 delivered them out of their 
 distress. 
 
 20 He sent his word, and 
 healed them ; and they were 
 saved from their destruction. 
 
 21 O that men would there- 
 fore praise the Lord for his 
 goodness : and declare the 
 wonders that he doeth for the 
 children of men ! 
 
 22 That they would offer unto 
 him the sacrifice of thanksgiving : 
 and tell out his works with glad- 
 ness ! 
 
 23 They that go down to the 
 sea in ships : and occupy their 
 business in great waters ; 
 
 24 These men see the works 
 of the Lord : and his wonders 
 in the deep. 
 
 2 39
 
 Day 22] 
 
 Psalm cvii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 25 For at his word the stormy 
 wind ariseth : which lifteth up 
 the waves thereof. 
 
 26 They are carried up to the 
 heaven, and down again to the 
 deep : their soul melteth away 
 because of the trouble. 
 
 27 They reel to and fro, and 
 stagger like a drunken man : 
 and are at their wit's end. 
 
 28 So when they cry unto 
 the Lord in their trouble : he 
 delivereth them out of their 
 distress. 
 
 29 For he maketh the storm 
 to cease : so that the waves 
 thereof are still. 
 
 30 Then are they glad, be- 
 cause they are at rest : and so 
 he bringeth them unto the haven 
 where they would be. 
 
 31 O that men would there- 
 fore praise the Lord for his 
 goodness : and declare the 
 wonders that he doeth for the 
 children of men ! 
 
 32 That they would exalt 
 him also in the congregation of 
 the people : and praise him in | 
 the seat of the elders ! 
 
 33 Who turneth the floods 
 into a wilderness : and drieth 
 up the water-springs. 
 
 34 A fruitful land maketh he 
 
 barren : for the wickedness of 
 them that dwell therein. 
 
 35 Again, he maketh the 
 wilderness a standing water: and 
 water-springs of a dry ground. 
 
 36 And there he setteth the 
 hungry : that they may build 
 them a city to dwell in ; 
 
 37 That they may sow their 
 land, and plant vineyards : to 
 yield them fruits of increase. 
 
 38 He blesseth them, so that 
 they multiply exceedingly : and 
 suffered! not their cattle to 
 decrease. 
 
 39 And again, when they are 
 minished, and brought low : 
 through oppression, through 
 any plague, or trouble ; 
 
 40 Though he suffer them to 
 be evil intreated through tyrants : 
 and let them wander out of the 
 way in the wilderness ; 
 
 41 Vet helpeth he the poor 
 out of misery : and maketh him 
 households like a flock of sheep. 
 
 42 The righteous will con- 
 sider this, and rejoice : and the 
 mouth of all wickedness shall be 
 stopped. 
 
 43 Whoso is wise will ponder 
 these things : and they shall 
 understand the loving-kindness 
 of the Lord. 
 
 Liturgical use. Thanksgiving after a storm at sea. 
 Latins. Saturday Matins. 
 Greeks. Thursday morning. 
 
 This was the favourite psalm of William Romaine, 
 240
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm Cvii [Day 22 
 
 the Rector of St. Ann's., Blackfriars, and of his friend 
 (and Dr. Johnson's acquaintance), Dr. Benjamin 
 Wheeler, the professor of poetry at Oxford. 
 
 Verses 15 and 16. In the harrowing of hell (vide Ps. 
 xxiv.), the divine prophet David cries aloud in the 
 darkness, " Did not 1 truly prophesy, while I was on 
 earth, saying, O that men would praise the Lord for 
 His goodness ! " Thus, these verses may be said to 
 be what was regarded in the ages of sorrow as the 
 epitome of the whole Psalter, viz., its tone of triumph 
 and thanksgiving. 
 
 Verse 30. This was quoted by " Little Bilney," 
 Latimer's teacher, on his way to the stake. It is 
 the epitaph set up in Beechey Island for Sir John 
 Franklin and his companions, who died in 1847 while 
 trying to make Behring Strait from Cape Walker, and 
 is the discoverer of the north-west passage, which was 
 navigated by the Gjoa in 1906. 
 
 Verse 42. Gaufridus, St. Bernard's secretary, and 
 the author of that saint's life, with these words sums 
 up his master's earthly life : " For he was both the 
 glory of all the good and the awe of the wicked, 
 that this verse seemed aptly made for him, for in 
 his presence holiness wholly rejoiced, frowardness was 
 curbed, and hardness grew penitent." 
 
 Verse 43. The paradox of this verse (God's loving 
 kindness made known through a series of disasters) 
 has naturally attracted great numbers of writers and 
 thinkers. 
 
 241
 
 Day 22] 
 
 Psalm cviii. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 Psalm cviii. 
 
 A Song or Psalm of David. 
 Paratum cor meiim. 
 
 1 O God, my heart is ready, 
 my heart is ready : I will sing 
 and give praise with the best 
 member that I have. 
 
 2 Awake, thou lute, and harp : 
 I myself will awake right early. 
 
 3 I will give thanks unto thee, 
 O Lord, among the people : I 
 will sing praises unto thee 
 among the nations. 
 
 4 For thy mercy is greater 
 than the heavens : and thy truth 
 reacheth unto the clouds. 
 
 5 Set up thyself, O God, 
 above the heavens : and thy 
 glory above all the earth. 
 
 6 That thy beloved may be 
 delivered : let thy right hand 
 save them, and hear thou me. 
 
 7 God hath spoken in his 
 holiness : I will rejoice there- 
 
 fore, and divide Sichem, and 
 mete out the valley of Succoth. 
 
 8 Gilead is mine, and 
 Manasses is mine : Ephraim 
 also is the strength of my head. 
 
 9 Judah is my law-giver, 
 Moab is my washpot : over 
 Edom will I cast out my shoe ; 
 upon Philistia will I triumph. 
 
 10 Who will lead me into the 
 strong city : and who will bring 
 me into Edom ? 
 
 1 1 Hast not thou forsaken us, 
 O God : and wilt not thou, O 
 God, go forth with our hosts ? 
 
 12 O help us against the 
 enemy : for vain is the help of 
 man. 
 
 13 Through God we shall do 
 great acts : and it is he that 
 shall tread down our enemies. 
 
 Liturgical use. Ascension-day evening. 
 
 Latins. Saturday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Thursday evening. 
 
 This psalm was a favourite with that " person highly 
 affected to antiquities," Sir Christopher Hutton, the 
 good friend both to Dugdale and to Jeremy Taylor. 
 He calls it in his Psalter " A prayer for victory against 
 onr Enemies." He was controller of Charles i.'s house- 
 hold, " being then accounted a friend of all that loved 
 the King and Church of England, for which he suffered 
 242
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cix. 
 
 [Day 22 
 
 in a high degree." Charles n., " in consideration of 
 his vast sufferings and eminent Loyalty/' made him 
 Privy Councillor and Governour of Guernsey. He 
 published his Psalter with prayers in 1644. 
 
 Psalm cix. 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 Deus laudem. 
 
 1 Hold not thy tongue, O 
 God of my praise : for the 
 mouth of the ungodly, yea, the 
 mouth of the deceitful is opened 
 upon me. 
 
 2 And they have spoken 
 against me with false tongues : 
 they compassed me about also 
 with words of hatred, and 
 fought against me without a 
 cause. 
 
 3 For the love that I had 
 unto them, lo, they take now 
 my contrary part : but I give 
 myself unto prayer. 
 
 4 Thus have they rewarded 
 me evil for good : and hatred 
 for my good will. 
 
 5 " Set thou an ungodly man 
 to be ruler over him : and let 
 Satan stand at his right hand. 
 
 6 "When sentence is given 
 upon him, let him be con- 
 demned : and let his prayer be 
 turned into sin. 
 
 7 ' ' Let his days be few : nnd 
 let another take his office. 
 
 8 " Let his children be father- 
 less : and his wife a widow. 
 
 9 " Let his children be vaga- 
 bonds, and beg their bread : 
 let them seek it also out of 
 desolate places. 
 
 10 " Let the extortioner con- 
 sume all that he hath : and let 
 the stranger spoil his labour. 
 
 11 "Let there be no man to 
 pity him : nor to have com- 
 passion upon his fatherless 
 children. 
 
 12 " Let his posterity be de- 
 stroyed : and in the next genera- 
 tion let his name be clean put 
 out. 
 
 13 " Let the wickedness of his 
 fathers be had in remembrance 
 in the sight of the Lord : and 
 let not the sin of his mother be 
 done away. 
 
 14 " Let them alway be before 
 the Lord : that he may root out 
 the memorial of them from off 
 the earth ; 
 
 15 "And that, because his 
 mind was not to do good : but 
 persecuted the poor helpless 
 man, that he might slay him 
 that was vexed at the heart. 
 
 243
 
 Day 22] 
 
 Psalm cix. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 1 6 " His delight was in curs- 
 ing, and it shall happen unto 
 him : he loved not blessing, 
 therefore shall it be far from him. 
 
 17 " He clothed himself with 
 cursing, like as with a raiment : 
 and it shall come into his bowels 
 like water, and like oil into his 
 bones. 
 
 18 "Let it be unto him as the 
 cloke that he hath upon him : 
 and as the girdle that he is 
 alway girded withal." 
 
 19 Let it thus happen from 
 the Lord unto mine enemies : 
 and to those that speak evil 
 against my soul. 
 
 20 But deal thou with me, 
 O Lord God, according unto 
 thy Name : for sweet is thy 
 
 mercy. 
 
 21 O deliver me, for I am 
 helpless and poor : and my 
 heart is wounded within me. 
 
 22 I go hence like the shadow 
 that departeth : and am driven 
 away as the grasshopper. 
 
 23 My knees are weak 
 
 through fasting : my flesh is 
 dried up for want of fatness. 
 
 24 I became also a reproach 
 unto them : they that looked 
 upon me shaked their heads. 
 
 25 Help me, O Lord my 
 God : O save me according to 
 thy mercy ; 
 
 26 And they shall know, how 
 that this is thy hand : and that 
 thou, Lord, hast done it. 
 
 27 Though they curse, yet 
 bless thou : and let them be 
 confounded that rise up against 
 me ; but let thy servant rejoice. 
 
 28 Let mine adversaries be 
 clothed with shame : and let 
 them cover themselves with 
 their own confusion, as with a 
 cloke. 
 
 29 As for me, I will give 
 great thanks unto the Lord with 
 my mouth : and praise him 
 among the multitude ; 
 
 30 For he shall stand at the 
 right hand of the poor : to 
 save his soul from unrighteous 
 judges. 
 
 Latins. Saturday Matins. 
 
 Greeks. Last psalm on Thursday evening. 
 
 This is the cursing psalm, as it is called, the real 
 meaning of which is made more clear by the use of 
 inverted commas. St. Augustine, followed by Cassian 
 and the Bible heading, would make it a prophecy 
 of Judas and the Passion. The question about its 
 primary meaning depends upon whether the nineteenth 
 verse hurls back the curse quoted by the writer. 
 244
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm cix. Pay 22 
 
 The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin versions would 
 begin this verse : " This is the reward," or the " work 
 of those who slander me to the Lord." It has been 
 the theme of many controversies, notably between 
 Dr. Thomas Randolph (1701-83), the president of 
 Corpus Christi, who maintained its prophetic character, 
 and Dr. Durrell and others who insisted that it was 
 imprecatory. It is to be feared that whether from 
 misunderstanding, or from too great understanding, 
 this psalm has been the excuse for much that is 
 indefensible. Fuller quaintly glances at the seven- 
 teenth-century uses of this psalm, and at those who 
 cited it copiously to justify their own deeds and spirit 
 (e.g. Milton's " Reformation in England "). " Lord, 
 when in my daily service I read David's psalms, give 
 me to alter the accent of my soul according to their 
 several subjects. In such psalms, where in he confesseth 
 his sins or requesteth thy pardon, or praiseth for former, 
 or prayeth for future favours, in all these give me to 
 raise my soul to as high a pitch as may be. But 
 when I come to such psalms wherein he curseth his 
 enemies, O there let me bring down my soul to a 
 lower note. For those words were made only to fit 
 David's mouth. I have the like breath, but not the 
 same spirit to pronounce them. Nor let me flatter 
 myself that it is lawful for me, with David, to curse 
 thine enemies, lest my deceitful heart entitle all mine 
 enemies to be thine, and so what was religion in 
 David prove malice in me, whilst I act revenge under 
 pretence of piety." 
 
 Verse 17. In 1555 the Jesuits under Brama tried to 
 erect a house in Saragossa, and though forbidden by 
 Lopez Marcos the vicar-general, "refused to defer the 
 work. A huge procession headed by the clergy 
 paraded the town singing the 109th Psalm, the people 
 repeating this verse at intervals, with pantomimes of 
 Jesuits dragged to hell by demons, and a funeral 
 245
 
 Day 23] 
 
 Psalm ex. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 procession of Christ's image veiled in black. So the 
 settlement was ended for a time. 
 
 Verse 27. The epitaph upon Fra Paolo Sarpi (1552- 
 Ift'S."), the historian of the Council of Trent, who 
 pleaded the cause of Venice before Paul v. against 
 the Pope's temporal claims with such learning and 
 success that plots were laid to assassinate him. In 
 1722 his body was re-buried in Venice behind the 
 altar of Our Lady of Sorrow, witli the epitaph on 
 parchment. 
 
 The psalm has often been used in formal anathemas, 
 as in the second Lateraii Council 105,9, under Nicholas 
 it., where under the most dreadful imprecations high- 
 handed provision was made for the unity of the 
 Church, by vesting the papal election in the higher 
 clergy, disfranchising the lower clergy, barons, and 
 people. Here Berengarius recanted, and his late 
 (and future) tenets were condemned and the doctrine 
 of the Real Presence insisted upon, though not in the 
 strongest terms of Transubstantiation. 
 
 THE TWENTY-THIRD DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm ex. 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Dixit Dominus. 
 
 1 The Lord said unto my 
 Lord : Sit thou on my right 
 hand, until I make thine enemies 
 thy footstool. 
 
 2 The Lord shall send the 
 rod of thy power out of Sion : 
 be thou ruler, even in the midst 
 among thine enemies. 
 
 246 
 
 3 In the day of thy power 
 shall the people offer thee free- 
 will offerings with an holy 
 worship : the dew of thy birth 
 is of the womb of the morn- 
 ing. 
 
 4 The Lord sware, and will 
 not repent : Thou art a Priest
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm ex. 
 
 [Day 23 
 
 with the dead bodies : and 
 smite in sunder the heads over 
 divers countries. 
 
 7 He shall drink of the brook 
 in the way : therefore shall he 
 lift up his head. 
 
 for ever after the order of 
 Melchisedech. 
 
 5 The Lord upon thy right 
 hand : shall wound even kings 
 in the day of his wrath. 
 
 6 -He shall judge among the 
 heathen ; he shall fill the places ,' 
 
 Liturgical nne. Christmas-day evening. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Vespers ; Christmas ; Circumcision ; 
 Epiphany ; Easter Day ; Apostles and evangelists ; 
 Martyrs ; Dedication of a church ; Feasts of Our 
 Lady ; St. Michael and All Angels ; All Saints. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday Matins. 
 
 This is one of the psalms quoted by Christ Himself 
 (St. Matt. xxii. 4^). The Talmudists assign the 
 psalm to Melchisedech. 
 
 This psalm has been a great favourite always in the 
 Western Church. It is an introit for St. Agnes, and 
 she was perhaps the best-loved Virgin Martyr. It 
 was also popular with the Arians, who used it against 
 St. Athanasius. The storm which arose lately about 
 Liix Mundi raged most fiercely in controversies con- 
 nected with its origin. 
 
 It was so great a favourite of Luther's that he 
 constantly quotes it, e.g. when a Jew suggested that 
 Christ's death might now be forgotten : " This was a 
 devilish speech. O ! no, Sir Devil. It is written : 
 Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies 
 thy footstool : therefore we must and will preach and 
 teach of Jesus Christ and His Passion so long as the 
 world endureth." 
 
 Verse 5. This, perhaps, is one of the passages 
 alluded to in that most wonderful of hymns, Dies irce, 
 by Thomas of Celano, of which some hundred and 
 eight translations into English are recorded. The 
 line Teste David et Sibilla perhaps refers to this 
 yerse. 
 
 247
 
 Day 23] 
 
 Psalm cxi. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 Verse 7. A common Easter Day text in mediaeval 
 sermons, the brook being the river of death. 
 
 Psalm cxi. 
 
 Confitebor tibi. 
 
 1 I will give thanks unto the 
 Lord with my whole heart : 
 secretly among the faithful, and 
 in the congregation. 
 
 2 The works of the Lord are 
 great : sought out of all them 
 that have pleasure therein. 
 
 3 His work is worthy to be 
 praised, and had in honour : and 
 his righteousness endureth for 
 ever. 
 
 4 The merciful and gracious 
 Lord hath so done his mar- 
 vellous works : that they ought 
 to be had in remembrance. 
 
 5 He hath given meat unto 
 them that fear him : he shall 
 ever be mindful of his cove- 
 nant. 
 
 6 He hath shewed his people 
 the power of his works : that 
 he may give them the heritage 
 of the heathen. 
 
 7 The works of his hands are 
 verity and judgment : all his 
 commandments are true. 
 
 8 They stand fast for ever and 
 ever : and are done in truth and 
 equity. 
 
 9 He sent redemption unto 
 his people : he hath commanded 
 his covenant for ever ; holy and 
 reverend is his Name. 
 
 10 The fear of the Lord is 
 the beginning of wisdom : a 
 good understanding have all 
 they that do thereafter ; the 
 praise of it endureth for ever. 
 
 Liturgical use. Easter Matins. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Vespers ; Christmas ; Epiphany ; 
 Easter ; Corpus Christi ; Martyrs ; Dedication Feast ; 
 St. Michael ; All Saints. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday Matins. 
 
 This psalm is one of the great Eucharistic psalms of 
 the Western Church. The others are Psalms ex., cxvi. 
 from verse 10, cxxviii. and cxlvii. 
 
 Verses 4 and 5. The dauntless statesman and devout 
 
 monk, St. Dunstan, not least among the makers of 
 
 England, died with these words on his lips in 989 
 
 A.D. When St. Dunstan's strong force was withdrawn, 
 
 248
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxii. 
 
 [Day 23 
 
 a deluge of misery fell upon England. Ethelred's 
 weakness and the Danish invasions seemed for a time 
 to undo all the good that had ever been accomplished 
 by her wiser rulers. 
 
 Verses 4 and 5. The mediaeval grace after meat on fast- 
 days was Memoriam fecit mirabilium suorum misericom el 
 wiseralor Deus ; escam timenlibus se. Gloria. 
 
 Verse 9. The actual and appropriate last words of 
 St. Peter Nolasco, who died on Christmas Day 1286, 
 having spent sixty -threeyears of hislife as General of the 
 Order of Our Lady of Mercy for the Redemption of Cap- 
 tives, an order which had its headquarters in Barcelona, 
 and bought back the captives made by the Moors. 
 
 Verse 10. In the Beauchamp Tower is written this 
 legend, by a "naked and torn " prisoner who was once 
 an emissary of the Queen of Scots : Principium sapientia; 
 tin/or Domini. I. H. S. X. P. S. Be frend to one, be 
 ennemye to none. Anno D. 1571." 
 
 Psalm cxii. 
 
 Beatus vir. 
 
 1 Blessed is the man that 
 feareth the Lord : he hath great 
 delight in his commandments. 
 
 2 His seed shall be mighty 
 upon earth : the generation of 
 the faithful shall be blessed. 
 
 3 Riches] and plenteousness 
 shall be in his house : and 
 his righteousness endureth for 
 ever. 
 
 4 Unto the godly there ariseth 
 up light in the darkness : he is 
 merciful, loving, and righteous. 
 
 5 A good man is merciful, and 
 
 lendeth : and will guide his 
 words with discretion. 
 
 6 For he shall never be 
 moved : and the righteous shall 
 be had in everlasting remem- 
 brance. 
 
 7 He will not be afraid of 
 any evil tidings : for his heart 
 standeth fast, and believeth in 
 the Lord. 
 
 8 His heart is established, 
 and will not shrink : until 
 he see his desire upon his 
 enemies. 
 
 249
 
 Day 23] Psalm CXli. [Morning Prayer 
 
 9 He hath dispersed abroad, j 10 The ungodly shall see it, 
 and given to the poor : and and it shall grieve him : he shall 
 
 his righteousness remaineth for 
 ever ; his horn shall be exalted 
 
 gnash with his teeth, and con- 
 sume away ; the desire of the 
 
 with honour. j ungodly shall perish. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass first Sunday after 
 Easter, Low Sunday (e). 
 
 Latins. Sunday Vespers ; Christmas ; Epiphany : 
 Easter ; Martyrs ; Dedication Feast ; St. Michael ; 
 All Saints. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday t < Matins. 
 
 Piers Ploughman tells us that Sloth knows better 
 how to find a hare in the furrow than to recite his Beatux 
 vir. The fifth verse is his antidote to avarice. 
 
 Verse 4. The motto in Lyra Apottolica chosen by 
 John Henry Newman for "Lead, kindly Light." 
 
 Verse 6. "The just shall be had in everlasting 
 remembrance." This was the motto Dean Stanley 
 chose for his funeral sermon on George Grote, whom 
 he praised as the most impartial among historians. 
 
 Verse 9- St. Anno, an eleventh-century Bishop of 
 Cologne, like many others before and since, was so 
 impressed with the force of this verse that he gave 
 away everything he possessed to the poor, so that 
 when he died he left not a halfpenny behind him. It 
 is a verse often used on saints' days, but to none does 
 it better apply than to St. Anno. 
 
 In the history of Ingulf we learn that in 1091 
 Croyland Abbey appointed that every day after meat 
 the soul of King Ethelbald their founder should be 
 absolved, and in memory of King Wichlaf this verse 
 be repeated by all the inmates. The same verse is a 
 frequent motto of almshouses, e.g. at Somerton (l6'26). 
 
 King Edward in. put the last words of this verse 
 on the English half-florin, Exaltabitur hi gloria, thus 
 recalling the whole verse to men as they moved 
 ff through busiest mart." 
 
 -5
 
 Morning Prayer! 
 
 Psalm cxiii. 
 
 [Day 23 
 
 Psalm cxiii. 
 
 Laudate, pueri. 
 
 1 Praise the Lord, ye ser- 
 vants : O praise the Name of 
 the Lord. 
 
 2 Blessed be the Name of the 
 Lord : from this time forth for 
 evermore. 
 
 3 The Lord's Name is 
 praised : from the rising up of 
 the sun unto the going down of 
 the same. 
 
 4 The Lord is high above all 
 heathen : and his glory above 
 the heavens. 
 
 5 Who is like unto the Lord 
 
 our (iod, that hath his dwelling 
 so high : and yet humbleth him- 
 self to behold the things that are 
 in heaven and earth ? 
 
 6 He taketh up the simple out 
 of the dust : and lifteth the poor 
 out of the mire. 
 
 7 That he may set him with 
 the princes : even with the 
 princes of his people. 
 
 8 He maketh the barren 
 woman to keep house : and to 
 be a joyful mother of children. 
 
 Liturgical use. Easter-day evening ; Introit to the 
 Easter Tuesday Mass ; and of St. Michael and All 
 Angels (e). 
 
 Latins. Sunday Vespers ; ' Christmas ; Circumcision ; 
 Epiphany ; Easter ; Apostles and evangelists ; Martyrs ; 
 Dedication Festival ; Feast of Our Lady ; St. Michael ; 
 All Saints ; Burial of children. 
 
 Creeks. Saturday morning ; Mesorion of ninth 
 hour. 
 
 This psalm begins the Hallel, sung at the Jewish 
 Passover. This and the next were sung before the 
 discourse. Then the cup was blessed, and Psalms 
 cxv., cxvi., and cxvii. were sung, and Psalm cxviii. at 
 the end of the rite. 
 
 A favourite psalm of the Venerable Bede, whose ver- 
 sion of it, Laudate Altithroniim, was sung for many ages. 
 
 This was the last psalm read to Wordsworth the 
 poet, who used to hear or read regularly the daily 
 psalms. He died on 23rd October 1850. 
 
 In the persecution of the Church in western Japan, 
 251
 
 Day 23] Psalm Cxiv. [Evening Prayer 
 
 1624, four martyrs were being burned three men 
 and a woman. They were concealed by the smoke, 
 when out of the midst of the fire rose that psalm 
 Laudatc, pucri, the watchword, as it were, and rallying 
 cry of so many Japanese martyrs ; but the singer's 
 voice faltered in the mediation of that verse, 'That 
 He may set him with princes,' and the last clause 
 was sung, if sung at all, among the true ' Princes of 
 the People,' in heaven. 
 
 Verse 3. A solis orlu usque ad occasum the graveyard 
 dial motto on the wall of St. Gervais, Savoy. 
 
 Verse 8. The Jewish Rabbins name from this verse, 
 the fifth special key which God holds in His own hand. 
 These are the keys of rain, of food, of the grave, of the 
 heart, and of the womb. In Christian teaching the 
 Church is the barren woman, joyful with Christ's 
 return from the grave, and so depicted from the cata- 
 combs onward. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 Psalm cxiv. 
 
 In e.xitu Israel. 
 
 I When Israel came out of thou Jordan, that thou wast 
 Egypt : and the house of Jacob 
 
 from among the strange people, 
 2 Judah was his sanctuary : 
 
 driven back ? 
 
 6 Ye mountains, that ye 
 skipped like rams : and ye little 
 
 and Israel his dominion. i hills, like young sheep. 
 
 3 The sea saw that, and fled : ! 7 Tremble, thou earth, at the 
 Jordan was driven back. i presence of the Lord : at the 
 
 4 The mountains skipped like 
 rams : and the little hills like 
 young sheep. 
 
 5 What aileth thee, O thou 
 sea, that thou fleddest : and 
 
 presence of the God of Jacob. 
 
 8 Who turned the hard rock 
 into a standing water : and 
 the flint-stone into a springing 
 well. 
 
 252
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm CX1V. t^ay 23 
 
 Liturgical use. Easter-day evening. 
 
 Latins. Sunday Vespers ; Easter. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning. 
 
 This psalm and the next form one in the Vulgate. 
 
 This is in the Paschal Hallel, and was therefore 
 sung at the Last Supper. 
 
 In the reign of Julian the Apostate, a certain young 
 Christian named Theodotus was racked for the faith 
 and defied his tormentors. He chaunted this psalm 
 the whole time, as if he felt no pain. When the 
 torture was over he told his friends that as he was 
 being racked he beheld a man in white sprinkling him 
 with water from a vessel, which eased his torments. 
 
 This is the psalm which Dante heard the souls 
 singing as they were wafted into Purgatory in the 
 angels' boat (Purg. II.). 
 
 It was the chaunt of triumph of the victors at 
 Bannockburn (1314). 
 
 This psalm was sung on the field of Cressy (1346) by 
 order of Edward in. with the antiphon Non nobis, 
 Dominc, outdoing his martial fame by his piety. It 
 was also used as a thanksgiving in the churches at 
 home. When Henry v. won the battle of Agincourt, 
 remembering this, he ordered the same psalm to be 
 raised. The whole host fell on their knees m the 
 mud, and even the wounded joined in the song. 
 Probably the Tonus peregrinus was the chaunt used, 
 even then. Thus the psalm commemorates these two 
 great victories over the French. It is worth re- 
 membering that Non nobis, Dot/line was Henry v.'s 
 own motto, given him by his father when he wa 
 raised to a share in the government. 
 
 St. Francis Xavier travelled through the long 
 desert of Amanguchi to the Japanese city of Meaco, 
 and found the city in a state of siege. He turned 
 back again into the dreadful desert, singing, In exitu. 
 
 The Duke of Gaiidia, when he joined the early 
 253
 
 bay 23] 
 
 Psalm cxv. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 Jesuits, left all his state and his great castle of 
 Gandia, singing the same psalm, adding, " Our bonds 
 are broken and we are delivered ! " 
 
 Milton, at fifteen years of age, turned this psalm 
 into rhymed verse (1624). 
 
 It was a favourite of Sir Walter Scott, who also 
 versified it. 
 
 Evidently the favourite psalm of Abraham Cowley, 
 who was placed by his own age in the very front rank 
 of the poets of the world (1618-67). He rhymed this 
 psalm in his " Davideis," accounting it to be the one 
 which David sang before Saul. The metrical version 
 is bold and poetical and wholly free from the in- 
 genuities to which Cowley was much given. 
 
 l-'crse 8. A common mediaeval text for St. Peter. 
 
 Psalm cxv. 
 
 Non nobis, Domine. 
 
 I Not unto us, O Lord, not 7 They have hands, and 
 handle not ; feet have they, and 
 walk not : neither speak they 
 through their throat. 
 
 8 They that make them are 
 like unto them : and so are all 
 such as put their trust in them. 
 
 9 But thou, house of Israel, 
 trust thou in the Lord : he is 
 their succour and defence. 
 
 10 Ve house of Aaron, put 
 your trust in the Lord : he is 
 their helper and defender. 
 
 1 1 Ye that fear the Lord, put 
 your trust in the Lord : he is 
 their helper and defender. 
 
 12 The Lord hath been mind- 
 ful of us, and he shall bless us : 
 even he shall bless the house of 
 
 unto us, but unto thy Name give 
 the praise : for thy loving mercy, 
 and for thy truth's sake. 
 
 2 Wherefore shall the heathen 
 say : ' ' Where is now their 
 God?'* 
 
 3 As for our God, he is in 
 heaven : he hath done whatso- 
 ever pleased him. 
 
 4 Their idols are silver and 
 gold : even the work of men's 
 hands. 
 
 5 They have mouths, and 
 speak not : eyes have they, and 
 see not. 
 
 6 They have ears, and hear 
 not : noses have they, and smell 
 not. 
 
 254
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxv. 
 
 [Day 
 
 1 6 All the whole heavens are 
 the Lord's : the earth hath he 
 given to the children of men. 
 
 17 The dead praise not thee, 
 O Lord : neither all they that 
 go down into silence. 
 
 1 8 But we will praise the 
 Lord : from this time forth for 
 evermore. Praise the Lord. 
 
 Israel, he shall bless the house 
 of Aaron. 
 
 13 He shall bless them that fear 
 the Lord : both small and great. 
 
 14 The Lord shall increase 
 you more and more : you and 
 your children. 
 
 15 Ye are the blessed of the 
 Lord : who made heaven and 
 earth. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for Mass of St. Bartholomew 
 (e). 
 
 Latins. As part of Psalm cxiv. (</.('.). 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning. 
 
 Part of the Hallel of the Passover, and therefore 
 sung by our Lord at the Last Supper. 
 
 At the siege of Oran in Africa, Cardinal Ximenes, 
 in his pontificals, led the troops. He rode 011 a 
 war-horse, and his crosier was carried before him 
 by a monk. As the town was taken he advanced 
 singing XOH iiobis, Dominc. This was also a favourite 
 psalm of Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-78), the 
 hymn-writer and necessitarian opponent of Wesley 
 (ride Ps. Ixi.). 
 
 Verse 1. Henry iv. gave this motto to his son when 
 he elevated him to a share in the government. 
 
 Verse 3 played an important part in converting 
 men from Paganism. Pontius, the Roman senator's 
 son (257 A.D.), is one instance out of many. He 
 embraced the Christian Faith, because of the spiritual 
 conception of God here revealed to him. 
 
 Verses -J- and ."> were used by Publia against Julian 
 the Apostate (ride Ps. Ixviii.). They seem to have 
 been part of the recognised defiance of the early 
 Christian Martyrs, when ordered to sacrifice to Caesar 
 (i.e. to swear allegiance to society). Almost wherever 
 one turns one finds them thus used. Ruinart's Ada 
 
 2 55
 
 Day 24] 
 
 Psalm cxvi. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 Since ra notes many such instances, Petrus Balsamus 
 (311 A.D.) for example. 
 
 Verse 16. On Easter Tuesday 1517, Dr. Bell 
 preached from this a spital sermon against foreigners 
 in London, and said, " That as birds defend their 
 nestes so ought Englishmen to maintaine themselves 
 and to hurt and grieue aliaus for respect of their 
 commonwealth." The result was a serious riot : and 
 Bell was lodged in the Tower. 
 
 THE TWENTY-FOURTH DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 Psalm cxvi. 
 
 Dilexi, quoniam. 
 
 1 I am well pleased : that the 
 Lord hath heard the voice of 
 my prayer ; 
 
 2 That he hath inclined his 
 ear unto me : therefore will I 
 call upon him as long as I live. 
 
 3 The snares of death com- 
 passed me round about : and 
 the pains of hell gat hold upon 
 me. 
 
 4 I shall find trouble and 
 heaviness, and I will call upon 
 the Name of the Lord : O Lord, 
 I beseech thee, deliver my soul. 
 
 5 Gracious is the Lord, and 
 righteous : yea, our God is 
 merciful. 
 
 6 The Lord preserveth the 
 simple : I was in misery, and he 
 helped me. 
 
 7 Turn again then unto thy 
 
 2 
 
 rest, O my soul : for the Lord 
 hath rewarded thee. 
 
 8 And why? thou hast de- 
 livered my soul from death : 
 mine eyes from tears, and my 
 feet from falling. 
 
 9 I will walk before the Lord : 
 in the land of the living. 
 
 10 I believed, and therefore 
 will I speak ; but I was sore 
 troubled : I said in my haste, 
 All men are liars. 
 
 1 1 What reward shall I give 
 unto the Lord : for all the 
 benefits that he hath done unto 
 me? 
 
 12 I will receive the cup of 
 salvation : and call upon the 
 Name of the Lord. 
 
 13 I will pay my vows now 
 in the presence of all his people : 
 
 56
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm CXvI. [^>ay 24 
 
 right dear in the sight of the rifice of thanksgiving : and will 
 
 call upon the Name of the Lord. 
 16 I will pay my vows unto 
 
 Lord is the death of his saints. 
 14 Behold, O Lord, how that 
 
 I am thy servant : I am thy the Lord, in the sight of all his 
 
 servant, and the son of thine people : in the courts of the 
 
 handmaid ; thou hast broken Lord's house, even in the midst 
 
 my bonds in sunder. of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise 
 
 15 I will offer to thee the sac- the Lord. 
 
 Liturgical use. Churching of women, before the 
 Mass. 
 
 Latins. (Divide this after ninth verse); Monday 
 Vespers ; Apostles and evangelists ; Martyrs ; All 
 Saints. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning. 
 
 This is the first psalm in the Dirge (vide Ps. v.), 
 
 Our Lord and His Apostles sang this before they 
 went to the Mount of Olives. It was in the second 
 part of the Paschal Hallel, Psalms cxvi. and cxvii. 
 
 On 10th May 1509, John, Bishop of Rochester, 
 preached a most notable sermon at the funeral of 
 Henry vn., and " perused the psalme (dilext) in the 
 persone of this noble man." By order of the king's 
 granddame it was printed by Wynkyn de Worde. 
 
 In 1625-31 William Gouge, the Blackfriars minister, 
 wishing to give God thanks for the abatement of the 
 plague, whereof 54,265 persons had died in London 
 and the nine suburbs, wrote a book on this psalm 
 called the Saint's Sacrifice. He added, as additional 
 reasons for praise, that Charles 11. was born, the 
 Huguenots were tolerated, the Dutch Protestants had 
 triumphed, Gustavus Adolphus had won Leipsic, and 
 Protestantism was triumphant in Germany. 
 
 Verse 7. St Chrysostom says it was an old custom 
 among Christians to repeat this verse over their dead, 
 at funerals, 
 
 Verse 8. This is what the biographer of the learned 
 Dr. Thomas Jackson quaintly calls his " cygnean 
 
 R 257
 
 Day 24] Psalm CXvi. [Morning Prayer 
 
 cantion." He was a friend of Laud, and the president 
 of Corpus Christ! College, Oxford, till 1640, and died 
 so poor that he left nothing but his papers. 
 
 Verse 9- Placebo Domino in regione vivorum was and 
 is the Latin antiphon for the funeral psalms : and 
 this is why so many Jesuits and others recited it at 
 their death sentences during the Protestant counter- 
 persecutions. The last words of the gentle and saintly 
 Edward the Confessor, one of the too few royal saints, 
 whose laws were the constant desire of the English. 
 The words were addressed to the Queen : " Weep 
 not, my daughter, for I shall not die, but live ; and 
 as I leave the land of the dying, I trust to see the 
 blessing of the Lord in the land of the living." 
 
 Verse 11. It is significant of the mediaeval reverence 
 with which men undertook their work, that when 
 Richard de Bury finished his book Philobiblon (24th 
 January 1345), he wrote on the MSS., Quid retribuam 
 Domino pro omnibus qua; rctribuit mihi ? 
 
 Verses 11 and 12. These are the words the priest 
 says to himself before he receives the sacrament of 
 Our Lord's Blood. 
 
 Verse 12. Calicem salutis accipiam. This is a usual 
 motto for the Communion chalice. It was engraved, 
 for instance, upon John Paston's gold chalice of 1464. 
 
 Verse 13, second part. The Church's comment 
 upon many of her saints. These words were in the 
 Anglo-Saxon Prime, and our fathers thus faced each 
 of the days of their life with them. St. Bernard 
 exhorted the Knights Templars to the Crusade with 
 the same. 
 
 Verses 14-16. With these words St. Augustine 
 resolved upon the new life : and not a few of God's 
 great servants could inscribe Hie incipit vita nova as a 
 rubric to these verses. 
 
 Verse 10 to end. De Thou the younger (son of the 
 historian and composer of the Edict of Nantes) recited 
 258
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxvii. 
 
 [Day 24 
 
 the psalm Credidi at his execution, kneeling and shout- 
 ing the words aloud fervently and joyfully, and para- 
 phrasing them in French (vide Ps. cxviii. 21). 
 
 Psalm cxvii. 
 
 Laudate Dominum. 
 
 1 O praise the Lord, all ye 
 heathen : praise him, all ye 
 nations. 
 
 2 For his merciful kindness 
 
 is ever more and more towards 
 us : and the truth of the Lord 
 endureth for ever. Praise the 
 Lord. 
 
 Liturgical uses. Easter-day evening ; Restoration of 
 monarchy ; Introit to the Mass of St. Matthew (e). 
 
 Latins. Monday Vespers ; Christmas ; Ascension- 
 tide ; Whitsuntide ; Apostles and evangelists ; St. 
 Michael and All Angels ; All Saints. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Evensong. 
 
 This was in the second part of the Paschal Hallel, 
 and therefore sung at the Last Supper. 
 
 It was a mediaeval grace after meat and a noonday 
 song of thanksgiving. 
 
 " At the foot of Boon Hill " (after Dunbar battle) 
 "the Lord General" (Cromwell) "made a halt and 
 sang Psalm cxvii., till our horse could gather for the 
 chase." The Puritans called it the Dunbar psalm. 
 
 It was the cry of some of the more pious Protest- 
 ants at the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
 
 Psalm cxviii. 
 
 Confitemini Domino. 
 
 I O give thanks unto the 
 Lord, for he is gracious : 
 because his mercy endureth for 
 
 now confess, 
 
 that he is gracious : and that 
 his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 3 Let the house of Aaron 
 now confess : that his mercy 
 endureth for ever. 
 
 259
 
 Day 24] 
 
 Psalm CXviii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 4 Yea, let them now that 
 fear the Lord confess : that his 
 mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 5 I called upon the Lord in 
 trouble : and the Lord heard me 
 at large. 
 
 6 The Lord is on my side : I 
 will not fear what man doeth 
 unto me. 
 
 7 The Lord taketh my part 
 with them that help me : there- 
 fore shall I see my desire upon 
 mine enemies. 
 
 8 It is better to trust in the 
 Lord : than to put any confid- 
 ence in man. 
 
 9 It is better to trust in the 
 Lord : than to put any confid- 
 ence in princes. 
 
 10 All nations compassed 
 me round about : but in the 
 Name of the Lord will I destroy 
 them. 
 
 1 1 They kept me in on every 
 side, they kept me in, I say, 
 on every side : but in the 
 Name of the Lord will I destroy 
 them. 
 
 12 They came about me like 
 bees, and are extinct even as 
 the fire among the thorns : for 
 in the Name of the Lord I will 
 destroy them. 
 
 13 Thou hast thrust sore at 
 me, that I might fall : but the 
 Lord was my help. 
 
 14 The Lord is my strength, 
 and my song : and is become 
 my salvation. 
 
 15 The voice of joy and 
 health is in the dwellings of 
 the righteous : the right hand 
 of the Lord bringeth mighty 
 things to pass. 
 
 1 6 The right hand of the 
 Lord hath the pre-eminence : 
 the right hand of the Lord 
 bringeth mighty things to pass. 
 
 17 I shall not die, but live: 
 and declare the works of the 
 Lord. 
 
 1 8 The Lord hath chastened 
 and corrected me : but he hath 
 not given me over unto death. 
 
 19 Open me the gates of 
 righteousness : that I may go 
 into them, and give thanks unto 
 the Lord. 
 
 20 This is the gate of the 
 Lord : the righteous shall enter 
 into it. 
 
 21 I will thank thee, for thou 
 hast heard me : and art become 
 my salvation. 
 
 22 The same stone which the 
 builders refused : is become the 
 head-stone in the corner. 
 
 23 This is the Lord's doing : 
 and it is marvellous in our 
 eyes. 
 
 24 This is the day which the 
 Lord hath made : we will 
 rejoice and be glad in it. 
 
 25 Help me now, O Lord : 
 O Lord, send us now pros- 
 perity. 
 
 26 Blessed be he that cometh 
 in the Name of the Lord : we 
 
 260
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm 
 
 [Day 24 
 
 have wished you good luck, ye 
 that are of the house of the 
 Lord. 
 
 27 God is the Lord who hath 
 shewed us light : bind the 
 sacrifice with cords, yea, even 
 unto the horns of the altar. 
 
 28 Thou art my God, and 
 I will thank thee : thou art 
 my God, and I will praise 
 thee. 
 
 29 O give thanks unto the 
 Lord, for he is gracious : and his 
 mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 Liturgical use. Easter-day evening. 
 
 Latins. Sunday at Prime ; Commendation of the 
 dying. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning. 
 
 This psalm was the thanksgiving or recessional 
 hymn after the Passover, and was therefore sung by 
 Christ and the Apostles at the end of the Last 
 Supper. It is most probably the hymn they sang on 
 the way to the Mount of Olives, and our Lord no 
 doubt precented it by singing the first half-verse 
 alone. 
 
 This was Charles v.'s favourite psalm, as he told 
 Marot. 
 
 Verse 6. St. Gordius sang this verse under torture, 
 with Psalm xxiii. ; and many other martyrs with it on 
 their lips, by faith stopped the mouths of lions, 
 quenched the violence of the fire, and subdued 
 kingdoms. 
 
 On St. Martin's journey into Italy, the Devil, in 
 likeness of a fellow-traveller, pointed out to him that 
 he was bringing upon himself the enmity of all the 
 lords of hell. The saint wheeled round upon him 
 and put him to flight with this verse. 
 
 This verse comforted poor William Cowper, and 
 was his " first religious impression," when he was 
 a much-bullied little boy at Market Street School, 
 17.37. 
 
 Verse 10. St. Bernard and Henry Martyn were 
 each of them in his sickness troubled by doubts lest 
 God should not recognise them amid such a multitude 
 261
 
 Day 24] Psalm CXviil. [Morning Prayer 
 
 of souls coming up for judgement. The latter was 
 heartened by the words, "The Lord knoweth them 
 that are His," the former, "with a far deeper insight/' 
 says Neale, by this verse. 
 
 Verse 12. The war-cry of the Huguenots at the 
 Battle of Coutras, 20th October 1581, when they won 
 their first victory after twenty-five years' fighting. 
 Love of the psalms was traditional among these men, 
 for, in the reigns of Francis i. and Henry u. they 
 were gagged at the stake to prevent them singing 
 psalms, but the fire often burnt the gags and they 
 chaunted, with charred lips, this and other favourites. 
 It was found safer to cut their tongues out, before 
 burning them. 
 
 Whitfield mourned that this was his imprecation 
 upon his schoolfellows who teased him. He lived at 
 the Bell Inn then in Gloucester, but had not yet 
 become a tapster or an evangelist. 
 
 Verse 16. William, King of Sicily and son-in-law to 
 our Henry n., took for his seal motto (1177) Dextera 
 Domini fecit virtutem, dextera Domini exaltavit me. 
 
 Verse 18. "O Lord, my God! such need is there 
 of chastening and correcting with Thy holy Grace, 
 that if it please Thy mercy that I may be removed 
 from the turmoil of this life, I have remained long 
 enough with this army." Baldwin, the crusading 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, was ovei'heard praying 
 in these words, fifteen days before he died heart- 
 broken at the coarseness of the crusading army. 
 
 Verse 23. Queen Elizabeth's exclamation when she 
 heard that Queen Mary was dead, and her fears were 
 removed. She quoted the coin motto of the sovereigns 
 of that time. 
 
 Verse 24. This is the old Easter Antiphon, and also 
 a mediaeval grace at the same season. It was cited 
 by blessed William Thurkeld when sentence of death 
 was passed upon him, 1579. 
 262
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 [Day 24 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 Aleph. 
 
 Beat! immaculati. 
 
 so direct : that I might keep 
 thy statutes ! 
 
 6 So shall I not be con- 
 founded : while I have respect 
 unto all thy commandments. 
 
 7 I will thank thee with an 
 unfeigned heart : when I shall 
 have learned the judgements of 
 thy righteousness. 
 
 8 I will keep thy ceremonies : 
 O forsake me not utterly. 
 
 Aleph, 
 
 1 Blessed are those that are 
 undefiled in the way : and walk 
 in the law of the Lord. 
 
 2 Blessed are they that keep 
 his testimonies : and seek him 
 with their whole heart. 
 
 3 For they who do no wicked- 
 ness : walk in his ways. 
 
 4 Thou hast charged : that 
 we shall diligently keep thy 
 commandments. 
 
 5 O that my ways were made 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to Mass for first Sunday after 
 Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Prime ; Christmas Prime ; Com- 
 mendation of a dying soul ; Child's funeral, on the way 
 to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily noctums ; 
 Burial of laymen, monks, and infants ; and also of 
 priests. 
 
 This is the chief of the alphabetical psalms, each 
 verse of its sections begins with the letter that pre- 
 cedes the section. This letter is sometimes referred 
 to in the text. The other alphabetic psalms are ix., 
 xxv., xxxiv., xxxvii., cxi., cxii., and cxlv. So far from 
 this formal cast detracting from its vitality, this psalm 
 is called the saints' psalm from the delight which 
 it has engendered in holy souls. Aleph, the ox, is 
 mystically interpreted as doctrine, and the whole 
 psalm is so full of Divine teaching that many, like
 
 Day 24] Psalm Cxix. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Isaac Casaubon in the copse at Downham, "have 
 read it again and again with a rapturous heart." 
 It is said to have been composed for the use 
 of Jewish caravans on the way to the feasts at 
 Jerusalem, and the gradual psalms which immediately 
 follow it were for the ascent to the temple. It is 
 a beautiful thought and an allegory, to picture the 
 devout and dusty travellers, when they caught sight 
 of the Holy City, breaking out into this great song. 
 It has been used by many travellers to the " Mother 
 of us all," the Urbs Sion inclyta, as they too caught 
 glimpses of the heavenly Jerusalem on their 
 journey. 
 
 A sick man, who recited Beati immaculati, and said 
 Our Father six times, was, by the English canons of 
 963 A.D., loosed from one day's fast. 
 
 One or two writers have thought this psalm to be 
 too legal in its constant dwelling upon the idea of 
 Duty ; but Duty is the flywheel of the spiritual 
 machinery. It does not inspire the noble life, it 
 regulates it ; and the psalm is for the use of those 
 who have already received inspiration from the sight 
 of the City of God. 
 
 Verse 2. In 1054 when Hildebrand was sent to 
 compose the sacramental strife between Lanfranc and 
 Berengarius, he constantly ejaculated this verse as 
 the true eirenicon. 
 
 Verse 5. The motto of Pope Pius v. (1566-72), who 
 was one of the most austere, humble, and childlike 
 men who ever held that chair, but who yet approved 
 of Alva in the Netherlands, the Inquisition, and the 
 preparations for St. Bartholomew, and who wished to 
 head an expedition against England in person. 
 
 264
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm Cxix. 
 
 [Day 24 
 
 Beth. 
 
 In quo corriget? 
 Beth, a house, and so the church. 
 
 9 Wherewithal shall a young 
 man cleanse his way : even by 
 ruling himself after thy word. 
 
 10 With my whole heart have 
 I sought thee : O let me not 
 go wrong out of thy command- 
 ments. 
 
 1 1 Thy words have I hid 
 within my heart : that I should 
 not sin against thee. 
 
 12 Blessed art thou, O Lord : 
 O teach me thy statutes. 
 
 13 With my lips have I been 
 telling : of all the judgements of 
 thy mouth. 
 
 14 I have had as great delight 
 in the way of thy testimonies : 
 as in all manner of riches. 
 
 15 I will talk of thy com- 
 mandments : and have respect 
 unto thy ways. 
 
 16 My delight shall be in 
 thy statutes : and I will not 
 forget thy word. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to Mass for second Sunday 
 after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Prime ; Christmas, Prime ; Com- 
 mendation of the dying ; At a child's funeral, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals, clerical and lay. 
 
 Among the people who learnt this Psalm cxix. by 
 heart were William Wilberforce, the philanthropist, 
 who found it of much comfort ; Mr. Ruskin, who 
 began by thinking it the most repulsive, and ended 
 by thinking it the most precious, of all the psalms 
 his mother taught him ; and Henry Martyn, the 
 missionary, who translated it, with the rest of the 
 Prayer Book, into Hindustani. 
 
 When Sir William Wallace was hung and drawn at 
 Smithfield, he desired a priest who was standing by 
 to take his Psalter, in which he much delighted, and 
 to hold it before his eyes ; which was done until 
 he died under the executioner's hand. The priest 
 would be almost sure to open it at the Commendatory 
 psalms (2.'Jrd August 1305). 
 265
 
 Day 24] Psalm Cxix. [Evening Prayer 
 
 The most popular of all the Presbyterians was 
 Thomas Manton (1620-77), a Wadham man, who 
 " looked like a person fatted up for the slaughter 
 rather than an apostle/' and refused to conform at 
 the Restoration, though offered a deanery, but yet 
 laboured for peace. He was so enthusiastic about 
 this psalm that he wrote 190 sermons upon it, which 
 were published in 1681, after his death. 
 
 Gimel. 
 
 Retribue servo tuo. 
 Gi/nel, a camel or bountiful dealing. 
 
 17 O do well unto thy 21 Thou hast rebuked the 
 servant : that I may live, and proud : and cursed are they that 
 
 keep thy word. 
 
 1 8 Open thou mine eyes : that 
 I may see the wondrous things 
 of thy law. 
 
 19 I am a stranger upon 
 earth : O hide not thy com- 
 mandments from me. 
 
 20 My soul breaketh out for 
 the very fervent desire : that it 
 hath alway unto thy judgements. 
 
 do err from thy commandments. 
 
 22 O turn from me shame and 
 rebuke : for I have kept thy 
 testimonies. 
 
 23 Princes also did sit and 
 speak against me : but thy 
 servant is occupied in thy 
 statutes. 
 
 24 For thy testimonies arc my 
 delight : and my counsellors. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for Mass on third Sunday 
 after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Prime ; Christmas ; Commenda- 
 tion of the dying ; Funeral of a child, on the way to 
 church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 J'erse 17. St. Luxorius' verse (vide Ixxxvi. 9)- 
 
 Verse 18. When the English Prayer Book was first 
 
 introduced into Ireland in 1550, Henry vin. placed 
 
 the introduction in the hands of George Browne, 
 
 Archbishop of Dublin, who brought in the change with 
 
 266
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Cxix. [Day 24 
 
 a sermon from this verse. He was deprived by Queen 
 Mary, as a married man, and died 1556. 
 
 Verse 19- When St. Basil was threatened with 
 banishment, under the Emperor Valens, he replied : " I 
 have no fear of exile, for men have but one fatherland, 
 Paradise, so that all the world is our common natural 
 exile." So Otto of Bamberg, when presented by the 
 Pomeranians with rich gifts, used to return them with 
 many thanks to the donors, and assure them he had 
 no need of such, as he had better "at home." 
 
 Verse 23. When St. Thomas of Canterbury came 
 to an open rupture with Henry n., and there was an 
 evident conspiracy to insult and perhaps to kill him 
 at the Assize of Northampton, he had to dedicate an 
 altar to St. Stephen. Amid an immense throng of 
 people he began the Mass for St. Stephen, Etenim 
 sederunt Principcs, with his strong clear voice. The 
 sobs and tears of the worshippers showed that they 
 applied the words to their own Archbishop (12th Oct. 
 1164). 
 
 Daleth. 
 
 Adhsesit pavimento. 
 Daleth, a door, so entrance to the spiritual city. 
 
 25 My soul cleaveth to the ! 29 Take from me the way of 
 dust : O quicken thou me, ac- lying : and cause thou me to 
 cording to thy word. make much of thy law. 
 
 26 I have acknowledged my \ 30 I have chosen the way of 
 
 ways, and thou heardest me : O 
 teach me thy statutes. 
 
 27 Make me to understand 
 the way of thy commandments : 
 and so shall I talk of thy 
 wondrous works. 
 
 28 My soul melteth away for 
 very heaviness : comfort thou me 
 
 truth : and thy judgements have 
 I laid before me. 
 
 31 I have stuck unto thy 
 testimonies : C) Lord, confound 
 me not. 
 
 32 I will run the way of thy 
 commandments : when thou hast 
 set my heart at liberty. 
 
 according unto thy word. 
 
 267
 
 Day 24] Psalm Cxix. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for the Mass on fourth Sunday 
 after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Prime ; Christmas ; Commenda- 
 tion of the dying ; Funeral of a child; on the way to 
 church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 When Theodosius the emperor had, in violation of 
 his promise, massacred 7000 of the rebellious people 
 of Thessalonica, St. Ambrose refused to admit him to 
 the Holy Communion at Milan. For eight months he 
 remained excommunicate. At Christmas (390 A.D.) he 
 came without his royal robes and lay prostrate 011 the 
 church floor, plucking out his hair and shedding tears, 
 and repeating Adhccsit pavimcnto. St. Ambrose gave 
 him Absolution, but not before he had promised that 
 all military executions should henceforth be delayed 
 for thirty days, lest they might be done out of haste and 
 tyranny. The whole psalm was a great favourite with 
 St. Ambrose, who said of it that David shone here in 
 his noonday light, without the imperfections of sunrise 
 or abatement of sunset. 
 
 Adhcesit pavimento anima mea : with this " spiritual 
 javelin " St. Hugh of Lincoln overcame a fierce 
 temptation of the flesh. 
 
 Verse 25. " Word " here used and in verses 9, 16, 
 25, 42, 4-3, 49, 65, 74, 89, 101, 105, 107, 130, 139, and 
 140 is in the Hebrew, the root of the name Deborah. 
 It means first to put things in a row, so to put in order, 
 so to rule, to utter, to reason and finally to prophesy, 
 each meaning growing out of the last. So God's 
 Word meant His Rule, Revelation, Reason, and 
 Wisdom. If this is remembered it will be seen that 
 this psalm contains a doctrine of the Logos or Word, 
 more nearly akin to that of St. John than of Philo. 
 This in itself accounts for much of the popularity of 
 the psalm with the saints. 
 
 268
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 [Day 25 
 
 THE TWENTY-FIFTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 He. 
 
 Legem pone. 
 He, a lattice or window. 
 
 33 Teach me, O Lord, the 
 way of thy statutes : and I shall 
 keep it unto the end. 
 
 34 Give me understanding, 
 and I shall keep thy law : yea, 
 I shall keep it with my whole 
 heart. 
 
 35 Make me to go in the path 
 of thy commandments : for 
 therein is my desire. 
 
 36 Incline my heart unto thy 
 testimonies : and not to covet- 
 
 37 O turn away mine eyes, 
 lest they behold vanity : and 
 quicken thou me in thy way. 
 
 38 O stablish thy word in 
 thy servant : that I may fear 
 thee. 
 
 39 Take away the rebuke that 
 I am afraid of: for thy judge- 
 ments are good. 
 
 40 Behold, my delight is in 
 thy commandments : O quicken 
 me in thy righteousness. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for Mass of fifth Sunday after 
 Trinit/(e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Tierce (9 o'clock ) ; Funeral of a 
 child, on the way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nbcturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 St. Augustine had so great a reverence for Psalm 
 cxix., that he hesitated to comment on it, because of 
 its marvellous depth and apparent utter simplicity. 
 
 Our Prayer Book version of the Psalms has been 
 most carefully refined. Tyndale's rough version passed 
 through Cranmer's more delicate hands in 1540, and 
 was finally moulded by Edmund Guest, to whom 
 Archbishop Parker entrusted the work. He was a 
 Yorkshire man by birth, educated at Eton and King's, 
 269
 
 Day 25] Psalm CXl'x. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Cambridge. He was a firm believer in the Real 
 Presence of Christ in the Sacrament, and a most devout 
 man. After being Elizabeth's chief almoner and 
 Bishop of Rochester, he was translated to Salisbury, 
 where he lies buried, and his brass is in the north-east 
 transept. His singing version is so musical and 
 memorable, that the authorised version has failed to 
 oust it. 
 
 Edward Hawkins, the man who drew up the con- 
 demnation of "Tract xc.," the great Provost of Oriel, 
 who died at ninety-three years of age (1882), for the 
 last eight years of his long life retired from Oxford to 
 Rochester and made the Psalms his constant manual 
 of devotion. When unable to read, he would still 
 repeat the alternate verses when these were read to 
 him their memory still surviving when other learn- 
 ing was forgotten. 
 
 Vau. 
 
 Et venial super me. 
 Vau, a tent-peg or hook. 
 
 41 Let thy loving mercy come 45 And I will walk at 
 also unto me, O Lord : even thy liberty : for I seek thy com- 
 
 salvation, according unto thy 
 word. 
 
 42 So shall I make answer 
 
 mandments. 
 
 46 I will speak of thy testi- 
 monies also, even before kings : 
 
 unto my blasphemers : for my and will not be ashamed. 
 
 trust is in thy word. 47 And my delight shall be in 
 
 43 O take not the word of i thy commandments: which I 
 
 thy truth utterly out of my have loved. 
 
 mouth : for my hope is in thy 
 judgements. 
 
 44 So shall I alway keep thy 
 law : yea, for ever and ever. 
 
 48 My hands also will I lift 
 up unto thy commandments, 
 which I have loved : and my 
 study shall be in thy statutes. 
 
 Liturgical me. Introit for the Mass on sixth 
 Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 270
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm Cxix. [Pay 25 
 
 Latins. Daily at Tierce ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 One of the prominent English lovers of the Psalter 
 was Charles Simeon (1759^1836\ the Vice-Provost of 
 King's, Cambridge, and one of the founders of the 
 Church Missionary Society. He constantly preached 
 and insisted upon the value of the Psalms in the de- 
 vout life, and that in the most primary and immediate 
 sense of the words. From his sermon (on ver. 45), 
 " True Liberty," it can be seen that his teaching had 
 political and social implications, foreshadowing the 
 great social reforms which are the glory and were the 
 secret of the power of the early evangelical movement 
 missions, reformatories, Sunday schools, prison 
 reform, the abolition of slavery, and so on. 
 
 Among the most pathetic of metrical versions is the 
 very bald one of James Maxwell. He died in great 
 poverty in 1800, much disappointed and astonished 
 that the Scotch Kirk men would not take to his 
 doggerel instead of their own, for he had left out all 
 mention of " brutal sacrifices and of instrumental 
 music," and he hoped this would endear his book to 
 all Scottish hearts. 
 
 Zain. 
 
 Memor esto servi tui. 
 Zain, a weapon, and so ejaculation. 
 
 49 O think upon thy servant, 
 as concerning thy word : where- 
 in thou hast caused me to put 
 my trust. 
 
 50 The same is my comfort in 
 
 51 The proud have had me 
 exceedingly in derision : yet 
 have I not shrinked from thy 
 law. 
 
 52 For I remembered thine 
 
 my trouble : for thy word hath j everlasting judgements, O Lord : 
 quickened me. I and received comfort. 
 
 271
 
 Day 25] 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 53 I am horribly afraid : for 
 the ungodly that forsake thy 
 law. 
 
 54 Thy statutes have been 
 my songs : in the house of my 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 55 I have thought upon thy 
 Name, O Lord, in the night- 
 season : and have kept thy law. 
 
 56 This I had : because I 
 kept thy commandments. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass on seventh 
 Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 Latins. Daily at Tierce; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greek*. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Verse 54. From this verse the term "pilgrimage," 
 used for " life/' has passed into common life. Othello, 
 for instance, " all his pilgrimage " dilates ; Raleigh's 
 poem, called " His Pilgrimage," and Bunyan's 
 Pilgrim's Progress itself, refer ultimately to this, 
 and to the use which St. Peter made of it (l Pet. 
 ii. 11). 
 
 It is sometimes thought fit to compare Babylonian 
 or Eastern books with the Hebrew. Professor Cheyne 
 points out that it is the germs of the higher religious 
 poetry that we find in the Babylonian and not more. 
 He quotes from Max Miiller : " It is because the Veda 
 places before us a language more primitive than any 
 we knew before ; it is because its poetry is what you 
 call savage, uncouth, stupid, horrible ; it is for that 
 very reason that it was worth while to dig and dig till 
 the old buried city was discovered, showing us what 
 man was, what we were, before we had reached the 
 level of David, of Homer, of Zoroaster." 
 
 272
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 [Day 25 
 
 Cheth. 
 
 Portio mea, Domine. 
 Cheth, a sheep-hurdle or fence, mystically, life or awe. 
 
 57 Thou art my portion, O 
 Lord : I have promised to keep 
 thy law. 
 
 58 I made my humble petition 
 in thy presence with my whole 
 heart : O be merciful unto me, 
 according to thy word. 
 
 59 I called mine own ways to 
 remembrance : and turned my 
 feet unto thy testimonies. 
 
 60 I made haste, and pro- 
 longed not the time : to keep 
 thy commandments. 
 
 6 1 The congregations of the 
 ungodly have robbed me : but I 
 have not forgotten thy law. 
 
 62 At midnight I will rise to 
 give thanks unto thee : because 
 of thy righteous judgements. 
 
 63 I am a companion of all 
 them that fear thee : and keep 
 thy commandments. 
 
 64 The earth, O Lord, is full 
 of thy mercy : O teach me thy 
 statutes. 
 
 eighth 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for the Mass 
 Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 Latins. Daily at Tierce ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Verse 57. Guy, St. Bernard's eldest brother, was 
 taking farewell of his father at Fontaines, to become a 
 monk, and said to his youngest brother, " You will have 
 all the land and goods." Nivard's answer was : " Will 
 you take heaven for your portion and leave me only 
 earth? The division is unjust." He also become a 
 monk. Indeed, this verse seized the imagination of 
 those who had "renounced all" for the more perfect 
 following of Christ, as they accounted the monastic 
 life. St. Evroult, for instance, alluded to in the note 
 on Psalm xxxiv., encouraged his brethren with these 
 words to brave the dangers of the forest of Ouche, 
 and found their outpost in the warfare against northern 
 paganism. It has been raised as a cry again and again 
 s 273
 
 Day 25] Psalm Cxix. [Morning Prayer 
 
 on behalf of spiritual religion, against that worldly 
 spirit which would look for outward rewards for 
 invisible righteousness. Fathers like St. Ambrose 
 coincide here with the least ecclesiastical prophets. 
 
 Although these notes do not deal primarily with 
 homiletics, it is impossible not to note how many great 
 sermons by great preachers have been delivered upon 
 this part of the psalm. Bossuet, Tillotson, Lardner, 
 Bishop Hurd (Dr. Warburton's biographer), Dr. 
 Rogers, Archbishop Sharp, Charles Simeon, Dr. Pusey, 
 Bishops Barrow, Weston, Hobart, Sherlock, Hall, and 
 many more, have published sermons on these few verses. 
 If we include the whole psalm we should have to 
 notice among modem English writers : Archbishops 
 Leighton, Seeker, Trench ; Bishops Goodwin, Home, 
 Kaye, Mant, Medley, Sanderson ; at least fifty doctors, 
 amongst whom would be Thomas Arnold, Samuel 
 Johnson, Paley, Jortiii, Chalmers ; and well-known 
 men, such as Richard Baxter, Calamy, Keble, Manning, 
 Maurice and Henry Melvill, and so on. 
 
 Verse 59- Pascal, who declared that the whole 
 psalm summed up the Christian virtues, said that this 
 verse gives the turning-point to a man's character and 
 career. 
 
 Verse 62. This is the origin of the midnight hour 
 being kept with prayer and praise. It is in all the 
 midnight offices of both East and West. The Bene- 
 dictine rule, which was next ancient in England to 
 the Saxon (vide ver. 164), and was the foundation of 
 all others, divided the hours thus: (l) Cock-crow or 
 Nocturns at 2 a.m., when Christ rose ; (2) Matins at 
 6 a.m., when the Jews offered the morning sacrifices, 
 and the women heard from angels that Christ was 
 risen ; (3) Tierce at 9 a.m., when Christ was con- 
 demned and scourged ; (4) Sext at noon, when our 
 Lord was crucified and the sun darkened ; (5) None 
 at 3 p.m., when He gave up the ghost ; (6) Vespers, 
 274
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 [Day 25 
 
 6 p.m., the time of the evening sacrifice, when Christ 
 was taken from the cross ; (7) Compline at 9 p.m., 
 when the agony in the garden began. 
 
 Teth. 
 
 Bonitatem fecisti. 
 Teth, a serpent. 
 
 65 O Lord, thou hast dealt 
 graciously with thy servant : 
 according unto thy word. 
 
 66 O learn me true under- 
 standing and knowledge : for I 
 have believed thy command- 
 ments. 
 
 67 Before I was troubled, I 
 went wrong : but now have I 
 kept thy word. 
 
 68 Thou art good and 
 gracious : O teach me thy 
 statutes. 
 
 69 The proud have imagined 
 a lie against me : but I will 
 keep thy commandments with 
 my whole heart. 
 
 70 Their heart is as fat as 
 brawn : but my delight hath 
 been in thy law. 
 
 71 It is good for me that I 
 have been in trouble : that I 
 may learn thy statutes. 
 
 72 The law of thy mouth is 
 dearer unto me : than thou- 
 sands of gold and silver. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for ninth Sunday after Trinity 
 
 0). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Tierce ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Verse 7 1 . Francis i. of France was taken prisoner at 
 Pavia, 1525, and taken to the Church of the Certosa, 
 where the choir were singing this psalm. He joined 
 in loudly at this verse. 
 
 /Vr.sr 7'-^. "There is a tradition of a Jewish rabbi 
 who was offered a very lucrative situation in a place 
 where there was no synagogue, but who, thinking on 
 this verse, refused it ; an instructive example to 
 Christians who readily go to places where there is a 
 275
 
 Day 25] 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 famine of the words of the Lord, in order to acquire 
 worldly riches." Neale and Littledale. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Jod. 
 
 Manus tuae fecerunt me. 
 ad) jot, the hand held down. 
 
 73 Thy hands have made me 
 and fashioned me : O give me 
 understanding, that I may learn 
 thy commandments. 
 
 74 They that fear thee will be 
 glad when they see me : because 
 I have put my trust in thy word. 
 
 75 I know, O Lord, that thy 
 judgements are right : and that 
 thou of very faithfulness hast 
 caused me to be troubled. 
 
 76 O let thy merciful kindness 
 be my comfort : according to 
 
 77 O let thy loving mercies 
 come unto me, that I may live : 
 for thy law is my delight. 
 
 78 Let the proud be con- 
 founded, for they go wickedly 
 about to destroy me : but I will 
 be occupied in thy command- 
 ments. 
 
 79 Let such as fear thee, and 
 have known thy testimonies : be 
 turned unto me. 
 
 80 O let my heart be sound 
 in thy statutes : that I be not 
 ashamed. 
 
 thy word unto thy servant. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for tenth Sunday after 
 Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Tierce ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Verse 73. A poor African martyr named Arcadius 
 (260) who had fled to Caesarea and refused to sacrifice, 
 was ordered to be dismembered. As his fingers were 
 being cut off joint by joint, he held his hands boldly 
 out and prayed, " Thy hands have made me and 
 fashioned me : O give me understanding, that I may 
 learn thy commandments." 
 
 Verse 78. Conjundantur superbi. When Charlemagne 
 was hearing Mass, an outland monk came in who had 
 276
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm CX1X. [Day 25 
 
 not yet learnt to sing. The choir-master, seeing him 
 silent, smote him with a staff and bade him join in 
 the praises of God, which he did, out of tune, screwing 
 his neck about very queerly, until the others laughed 
 aloud. The emperor in a loud voice stopped the 
 Mass, sent for the strange monk, and thanked him 
 for the pains he had taken to sing, and gave him 
 this verse and money for his melody. 
 
 Caph. 
 
 Defecit anima mea. 
 Caph, the hollow hand. 
 
 8 1 My soul hath longed for ! 85 The proud have digged 
 thy salvation : and I have a pits for me : which are not after 
 good hope because of thy | thy law. 
 
 word. 86 All thy commandments 
 
 82 Mine eyes long sore for ; are true : they persecute me 
 thy word : saying, O when wilt falsely ; O be thou my help, 
 thou comfort me ? 87 They had almost made an 
 
 83 For I am become like a end of me upon earth : but I 
 bottle in the smoke : yet do I forsook not thy command- 
 not forget thy statutes. i ments. 
 
 84 How many are the days of 
 thy servant : when wilt thou be 
 avenged of them that persecute 
 
 O quicken me after thy 
 loving-kindness : and so shall 
 I keep the testimonies of thy 
 
 me ? 1 mouth. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for the Mass on eleventh 
 Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Sext ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Dr. Johnson thus defended the prose version of the 
 Psalter against the fashionable metrical translators : 
 " Of sentiments purely religious, it will be found that 
 the most simple expression is the most sublime. 
 Poetry loses its lustre and its power because it is 
 277
 
 Day 25] Psalm Cxix. [Evening Prayer 
 
 applied to something more excellent than itself. All 
 that pious verse can do is to help the memory and 
 delight the ear, and for these purposes it may be very 
 useful, but it supplies nothing to the mind. The 
 ideas of Christian theology are too simple for 
 eloquence and too majestic for ornament ; to re- 
 commend them by tropes and figures is to magnify 
 by a concave mirror the sidereal hemisphere." 
 
 Lamed. 
 
 In asternum, Domine. 
 Lamed, an ox goad. 
 
 89 O Lord, thy word : en- 
 dureth for ever in heaven. 
 
 90 Thy truth also remaineth 
 from one generation to another : 
 thou hast laid the foundation of 
 the earth, and it abideth. 
 
 91 They continue this day 
 according to thine ordinance : 
 for all things serve thee. 
 
 93 I will never forget thy 
 commandments : for with them 
 thou hast quickened me. 
 
 94 I am thine, O save me : 
 for I have sought thy command- 
 ments. 
 
 95 The ungodly laid wait for 
 me to destroy me : but I will 
 consider thy testimonies. 
 
 92 If my delight had not been | 96 I see that all things come 
 in thy law : I should have j to an end : but thy command- 
 perished in my trouble. ; ment is exceeding broad. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for twelfth Sunday after 
 Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Sext ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Verse 92. The verse Luther selected as his motto 
 for his own Bible, which is now in the museum at 
 Berlin. He wrote to the Abbot of Nuremberg thus 
 about the whole psalm : " I have more especially 
 attached myself to this psalm, and have in truth a 
 sort of right to call it my own. It has deserved well 
 of me : it has saved me from many a difficulty whence 
 278
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Cxix. [ Da > r 2 5 
 
 neither the emperor nor king nor wise men nor saints 
 could have extricated me. It is, my friend, dearer to 
 me than all the honours, all the power of the earth. 
 I would not exchange it for the whole earth if I 
 could." 
 
 Verse 93. St. Theodore (a studio), who died in 826, 
 begged his friends to sing him Beati immaculati, and 
 died at this verse while they were doing so. 
 
 Verse 95. This is beautifully chosen as the introit 
 to the Mass both for the holy St. Agnes and also for 
 St. Mary Magdalen's Day, in the Latin use. 
 
 /Vw 96. Dean Stanley's favourite verse. It is the 
 epitaph above his wife's grave and his own. 
 
 Mem. 
 
 Quomodo dilexi ! 
 Mem, water. 
 
 97 Lord, what love have I 
 unto thy law : all the day long 
 is my study in it. 
 
 98 Thou through thy com- 
 mandments hast made me wiser 
 than mine enemies : for they are 
 ever with me. 
 
 99 I have more understand- 
 ing than my teachers : for thy 
 testimonies are my study. 
 
 100 I am wiser than the aged : 
 because I keep thy command- 
 ments. 
 
 101 I have refrained my feet 
 from every evil way : that I may 
 keep thy word. 
 
 1 02 I have not shrunk from 
 thy judgements : for thou 
 teachest me. 
 
 103 O how sweet are thy 
 words unto my throat : yea, 
 sweeter than honey unto my 
 mouth. 
 
 104 Through thy command- 
 ments I get understanding : 
 therefore I hate all evil ways. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for the Mass on thirteenth 
 Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Sext ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily noc turns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Quomodo dilexi was a passage particularly loved by 
 279
 
 Day 26] Psalm Cxix. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Henry Martyn, the Indian missionary. He was a 
 Cornishman, born at Truro, and became Fellow and 
 Tutor at St. John's College, Cambridge. The influ- 
 ence of Charles Simeon sent him out to India, where 
 he translated the Psalter and the New Testament into 
 Hindustani and Persian, but died shortly afterwards 
 (1781-1812). 
 
 Verse 97. The motto of Sir Richard Baker (1568- 
 1645). The author of Baker's Chronicle was a tall comely 
 person of a good disposition and excellent discourse, 
 the friend of Sir Hemy Wotton. He was knighted 
 by James i. and esteemed a compleat and learned 
 person, and became High Sheriff of Oxfordshire ; but 
 he fell into debt for suretyship, and for the last ten 
 years of his life was a prisoner in the Fleet, where he 
 was forced to fly for shelter to his studies and 
 devotions. He wrote, in gaol, a meditation on the 
 Lord's Prayer with this title to it, and commented 
 upon the penitential and consolatoric psalms. The 
 latter were in his eyes xxiii., xxvii., xxx., xxxiv., 
 Ixxxiv., ciii., and cxvi. 
 
 Verse 103 is David's scroll-motto in the title-page 
 of Coverdale's Bible (1535): "O how swete are thy 
 vvordes vnto my throte : yea more then hony," etc. 
 This Bible was the precursor of many English Bibles. 
 
 THE TWENTY-SIXTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Nun. 
 
 Lucerna pedibus meis. 
 Nun, a fish. 
 
 105 Thy word is a lantern 
 unto my feet : and a light unto 
 my paths. 
 
 280 
 
 1 06 I have sworn, and am 
 stedfastly purposed : to keep 
 thy righteous judgements.
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 [Day 26 
 
 107 I am troubled above 
 measure : quicken me, O Lord, 
 according to thy word. 
 
 108 Let the free-will offerings 
 of my mouth please thee, O 
 Lord : and teach me thy judge- 
 ments. 
 
 109 My soul is alway in my 
 hand : yet do I not forget thy 
 law. 
 
 no The ungodly have laid a 
 snare for me : but yet I swerved 
 not from thy commandments. 
 
 111 Thy testimonies have I 
 claimed as mine heritage for 
 ever : and why ? they are the 
 very joy of my heart. 
 
 112 I have applied my heart 
 to fulfil thy statutes alway : even 
 unto the end. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass on fourteenth 
 Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Sext ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily iiocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Verse 105. The coin motto for the half-sovereigns 
 of Edward vi. is Lucerna pedibus meis verbum Tuum. 
 This represented not only the new-found delight in 
 the use of the Bible in the English Church, but also 
 the hope that the nation had passed its troubles, and 
 would be quickened "according to Thy word." 
 
 Verse 109. Sometimes used in sermons against 
 suicide, of which there are now too few. 
 
 Samech. 
 
 Iniquos odio habui. 
 Samech, a prop or stay. 
 
 113 I hate them that imagine 
 evil things : but thy law do I 
 love. 
 
 114 Thou art my defence and 
 
 I will keep the commandments 
 of my God. 
 
 116 O stablish me according 
 to thy word, that I may live : 
 
 shield : and my trust is in thy | and let me not be disappointed 
 word. of my hope. 
 
 1 1 5 Away from me, ye wicked : 117 Hold thou me up, and I 
 2 8i
 
 Day 26] 
 
 Psal 
 
 m cxix. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 shall be safe : yea, my delight 
 shall be ever in thy statutes. 
 
 118 Thou hast trodden down 
 all them that depart from thy 
 statutes : for they imagine but 
 deceit. 
 
 119 Thou puttest away all 
 
 the ungodly of the earth like 
 dross : therefore I love thy 
 testimonies. 
 
 1 20 My flesh trembleth for fear 
 of thee : and I am afraid of thy 
 judgements. 
 
 Littirgical use. Introit to the Mass on fifteenth 
 Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Lathis. Daily at Sext ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Verse 115. St. Gregory the Great used always to 
 repeat this verse when he withdrew from the roar 
 and turmoil of active life into his study for the 
 company of the holy writers of the Scriptures. 
 
 Verse 116. "Receive me according to Thy loving- 
 kindness, and let me not be disappointed of my hope." 
 These were the last words of St. Eligius, the Bishop 
 of Noyou, Vermondes, and Tom-nay, who died on 30th 
 November 6.59 A.D. His name is known to English 
 folk chiefly because of Chaucer's Nonne Prioresse, 
 whose heaviest oath was " but, by Saint Eloy." 
 
 Ain. 
 
 Feci judicium. 
 Ain, the eye. 
 
 121 I deal with the thing that 
 is lawful and right : O give me 
 not over unto mine oppressors. 
 
 122 Make thou thy servant to 
 delight in that which is good : 
 that the proud do me no wrong. 
 
 282 
 
 123 Mine eyes are wasted away 
 with looking for thy health : and 
 for the word of thy righteousness. 
 
 124 O deal with thy servant 
 according unto thy loving mercy : 
 and teach me thy statutes.
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 [Day 26 
 
 125 I am thy servant, O grant 
 me understanding : that I may 
 know thy testimonies. 
 
 126 It is time for thee, Lord, 
 to lay to thine hand : for they 
 have destroyed thy law. 
 
 127 For I love thy command- 
 ments : above gold and precious 
 stone. 
 
 128 Therefore hold I straight 
 all thy commandments : and all 
 false ways I utterly abhor. 
 
 Liturgical use, Introit for the Mass on sixteenth 
 Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Sext ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Verse 125. This verse expressed the aspirations of 
 the Oxford Reformers of 1498, whose great plea was 
 for thorough understanding rather than mechanical 
 repetition of holy words. "The careful meditating 
 and thorough understanding of one single verse only 
 will profit more/' says Erasmus, " than the being able 
 to repeat the whole book of Psalms, but without 
 knowing the meaning of one word thereof." 
 
 Verse 126. The Spanish rabbi, Moses Maimonides 
 (1 131-1204), translated this verse : " It is time to work 
 for the Lord ; " and was prompted by it to write his 
 famous book More Nevochim, the Guide of the Perplexed. 
 He was a pupil of the great Averroes, was called the 
 " Eagle of doctors," and was one of the leaders of the 
 Aristotelianism which so powerfully and disastrously 
 affected the thought of scholastic Europe. 
 
 Pe. 
 
 Mirabilia. 
 
 Pe, the mouth. 
 
 129 Thy testimonies are won- 
 derful : therefore doth my soul 
 keep them. 
 
 283 
 
 130 When thy word goeth 
 forth : it giveth light and under- 
 standing unto the simple.
 
 Day 26] Psalm Cxix. [Morning Prayer 
 
 131 I opened my mouth, and 
 drew in my breath : for my de- 
 light was in thy commandments. 
 
 132 O look thou upon me, 
 and be merciful unto me : as 
 thou usest to do unto those that 
 
 134 O deliver me from the 
 wrongful dealings of men : and 
 so shall I keep thy command- 
 ments. 
 
 135 Shew the light of thy 
 countenance upon thy servant : 
 
 love thy Name. j and teach me thy statutes. 
 
 133 Order my steps in thy 136 Mine eyes gush out with 
 word : and so shall no wicked- water : because men keep not 
 ness have dominion over me. j thy law. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass on seventeenth 
 Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Nones (3 o'clock p.m.) ; The 
 funeral of a child, on the way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 In 1632 George Wither published a double metrical 
 version of the Psalms, encouraged by the late king, 
 and dedicated with zealous loyalty to Elizabeth, 
 Queen of Bohemia. He closes his preface thus : " If 
 I have pleased my Readers I am glad : if not ; Yet I 
 am glad I have honestly endeavoured it. And (being 
 assured my labour shall not all be lost) I will sing 
 and be Merry by myselfe, in the use of this Transla- 
 tion, untill others please to sing it with mee ; or untill 
 a more exact Version shall be produced and allowed." 
 He added to each psalm a pious meditation of his 
 own. This is his comment on Mirabilia : " Sweet 
 Jesus, though we desire to seeme wise ; wee are very 
 simple in the best knowledge : Oh encrease our under- 
 standings. Though wee professe great Affection to 
 thee and thy Lawe ; yet wee soone deny (yea forswear) 
 both, if we are in danger to partake thy suffrings. 
 O look upon us therefor, with such an aspect, as 
 thou didst cast on thy Apostle St. Peter, that weep- 
 ing bitterly for our Sinns and unkindnesses, as he did ; 
 we may obtaine the same forgiveness. Amen." 
 284
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm Cxix. [Day 26 
 
 Tzaddi. 
 Justus es, Domine. 
 
 Tzaddi, a hook or sickle : a word very like this, Tzedek, 
 means righteous. 
 
 137 Righteous art thou, O 
 Lord : and true is thy judge- 
 ment. 
 
 138 The testimonies that thou 
 hast commanded : are exceed- 
 ing righteous and true. 
 
 139 My zeal hath even con- 
 sumed me : because mine 
 enemies have forgotten thy 
 words. 
 
 reputation : yet do I not forget 
 thy commandments. 
 
 142 Thy righteousness is an 
 everlasting righteousness : and 
 thy law is the truth. 
 
 143 Trouble and heaviness 
 have taken hold upon me : yet 
 is my delight in thy command- 
 ments. 
 
 144 The righteousness of thy 
 
 140 Thy word is tried to the : testimonies is everlasting : O 
 uttermost : and thy servant ! grant me understanding, and I 
 loveth it. 
 
 141 I am small, and of no 
 
 shall live. 
 
 Liturgical uses. Introit to the Mass on seventeenth 
 Sunday after Trinity (e) ; Antiphon to Canticle on 
 King Charles' day. 
 
 Latins. Daily at Nones ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Justus cs Domine et rectum judiciurn tuum was the 
 frequent meditation of St. Augustine and his friends 
 during the great siege of Hippo, during which he 
 died : having lived to see the cities of his diocese 
 overwhelmed in ruin with their builders, the in- 
 habitants either fled, dead, or scattered, the churches 
 without priest or minister, the monks and nuns all 
 dispersed ; of the people some killed with tortures, 
 some slain by the sword, and some captives, broken in 
 mind, body, and faith, serving the enemy in evil and 
 285
 
 Day 26] Psalm Cxix. [Evening Prayer 
 
 harsh fashion. Of the many thousand churches only 
 three remained standing. 
 
 Verse 137. The Emperor Maurice, whose five sons 
 were first slain before his face, died with these words 
 on his lips (602 A.D.). 
 
 Verse 140. Ignitum eloquium tuum vehementer. Scrip- 
 ture itself "is like an apothecary's shop, wherein 
 are all remedies for all infirmities of mind, 
 purgatives, cordials, alteratives, corroboratives, leni- 
 tives, etc. ' Every disease of the soul,' saith Austin, 
 ' hath a peculiar medicine in Scripture : this only 
 is required, that the sick man take the potion 
 which God hath already tempered.' Gregory calls 
 it a glass wherein we may see all our infirmities, 
 ignitum colloquium ; Origen. a charm. And therefore 
 Hierom prescribes Rusticus the monk continually to 
 read the Scripture and to meditate on that which he 
 hath read : ' for as mastication is to meat, so is 
 meditation on that which we read ' " (Burton). 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Koph. 
 
 Clamavi in toto corde meo. 
 Koph, the socket of an axe. 
 
 145 I call with my whole night-watches : that I might be 
 heart : hear me, O Lord, I will occupied in thy words. 
 
 keep thy statutes. 149 Hear my voice, O Lord, 
 
 146 Yea, even unto thee do I according unto thy loving-kind- 
 call : help me, and I shall keep ! ness : quicken me, according as 
 thy testimonies. tliou art wont. 
 
 147 Early in the morning do 150 They draw nigh that of 
 
 I cry unto thee : for in thy 
 word is my trust. 
 
 148 Mine eyes prevent the 
 
 286 
 
 malice persecute me : and are 
 far from thy law. 
 
 151 Be thou nigh at hand,
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psaln 
 
 1 CX1X. 
 
 O Lord : for all thy command- 
 ments are true. 
 
 152 As concerning thy testi- 
 
 monies, I have known long 
 since : that thou hast grounded 
 them for ever. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass on nineteenth 
 Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Nones ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Dr. Richard Holclsworth (1590-1 649,) the Eliza- 
 bethan Bishop of Bristol, made this meditation, when 
 near to his "patient death." " I admire," said he, 
 " at David's gracious heart, who so often in Scripture 
 (but especially in the 11 9th Psalm) extolleth the worth 
 and value of the word of God ; and yet quantillum 
 Scripturce, how little of the word of God, they had in 
 that age, the Pentateuch, the book of Job, and some 
 of the Hagiography ! How much have we now 
 thereof since the accession of the Prophets, but 
 especially of the New Testament! And yet, alas! 
 the more we have of the word of God the less it is 
 generally regarded." 
 
 The late Bishop Medley (1804-92), when he was a 
 child of six, learned the whole of Psalm cxix. at his 
 mother's knee. He retained an ardent love for the 
 Psalms all his days, and used to say in his latest days 
 that he was just beginning to comprehend something 
 of their depth and beauty. 
 
 Verse 147. So it was Dr. Sanderson's constant 
 practice every morning to entertain his first waking 
 thoughts with a repetition of those very psalms that 
 the Church hath appointed to be constantly read in 
 the daily morning service ; and having at night laid him 
 in his bed, he as constantly closed his eyes with those 
 appointed for the service of the evening (Walton). 
 Much the same is told of Nicholas Ferrar and others. 
 287
 
 Day 26] Psalm Cxix. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Resh. 
 
 Vide humilitatem. 
 Resh, the head. 
 
 153 O consider mine adversity, yet do I not swerve from thy 
 and deliver me : for I do not ' testimonies. 
 
 forget thy law. 158 It grieveth me when I 
 
 154 Avenge thou my cause, see the trangressors : because 
 and deliver me : quicken me, they keep not thy law. 
 according to thy word. 159 Consider, O Lord, how 
 
 155 Health is far from the I love thy commandments : O 
 ungodly : for they regard not quicken me, according to thy 
 thy statutes. loving-kindness. 
 
 156 Great is thy mercy, O 160 Thy word is true from 
 Lord : quicken me, as thou art everlasting : all the judgements 
 wont. of thy righteousness endure for 
 
 157 Many there are that evermore, 
 trouble me, and persecute me : 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for the Mass on the twentieth 
 Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Nones ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily noctums ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 " In the inner sanctuary/' says Mr. Gladstone, 
 writing of the Mosaic system, " provided for the most 
 capable human souls, was reared the strong spiritual 
 life, which appears to have developed itself pre- 
 eminently in the depth, richness, tenderness, and 
 comprehensiveness of the Psalms. To the work they 
 have here accomplished there is no parallel on earth." 
 
 Verse 1 ()'(). This was a stronghold of orthodox 
 people against the Arians. " Thy Word," of course, 
 was used as meaning Christ, and rightly to understand 
 the liturgical use of this psalm one must bear this 
 constantly in mind. 
 
 288
 
 K veiling Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 [Day 26 
 
 Schin. 
 
 Principes persecuti sunt. 
 Si /tin, a tooth, from root to sharpen. 
 
 161 Princes have persecuted 
 me without a cause : but my 
 heart standeth in awe of thy 
 word. 
 
 162 I am as glad of thy 
 word : as one that findeth great 
 spoils. 
 
 163 As for lies, I hate and 
 abhor them : but thy law do I 
 love. 
 
 164 Seven times a day do 
 I praise thee because of thy 
 righteous judgements. 
 
 165 Great is the peace that 
 they have who love thy law : 
 and they are not offended at it. 
 
 1 66 Lord, I have looked for 
 thy saving health : and done 
 after thy commandments. 
 
 167 My soul hath kept thy 
 testimonies : and loved them 
 exceedingly. 
 
 1 68 I have kept thy com- 
 mandments and testimonies : 
 for all my ways are before 
 thee. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass on twenty-first 
 Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Nones ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily nocturns ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 Verse 164. This verse gave the seven-fold division 
 of the day into the canonical hours. The seven gifts 
 of the Holy Ghost were implored, one at each of 
 these hours, and the choice is beautiful and appro- 
 priate. At 6 a.m., when Prime is said, we should 
 implore the Spirit of Wisdom, as we enter upon the 
 kingship of another day. At 9 a.m., when Tierce 
 (Undern, the English called it) is said, as the light 
 grows, we ask for Understanding. At noon, when 
 Sext is said, and men meet for dinner, we ask for 
 Counsel. At 3 o'clock, when Christ died, and the 
 day declines and men begin to tire, Nones is due, 
 and we ask for Strength. At 6 p.m. the day is full 
 old, Compline comes, and we ask for Knowledge. 
 T 289
 
 Day 26] 
 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 [Evening Prayer 
 
 At 9 p.m. is the Evensong, and we ask for the Piety 
 which beautifies old age. At midnight is Nightsong, 
 and all evil things are abroad. Then we ask for 
 Holy Fear (see ver. 62). The Roman hours are 
 Matins (Lauds), Prime, Tierce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, 
 and Compline. 
 
 Verse 165. This is the sundial motto of the 
 cathedral at Padua. 
 
 Tau. 
 
 Appropinquet deprecatio. 
 Tau, a cross or cattle brand. 
 
 169 Let my complaint come 
 before thee, O Lord : give me 
 understanding, according to thy 
 word. 
 
 170 Let my supplication come 
 before thee : deliver me, accord- 
 to thy word. 
 
 171 My lips shall speak of thy 
 praise : when thou hast taught 
 me thy statutes. 
 
 172 Yea, my tongue shall 
 sing of thy word : for all thy 
 commandments are righteous. 
 
 173 Let thine hand help me : 
 for I have chosen thy command- 
 ments. 
 
 174 I have longed for thy 
 saving health, O Lord : and in 
 thy law is my delight. 
 
 175 O let my soul live, and it 
 shall praise thee : and thy judge- 
 ments shall help me. 
 
 176 I have gone astray like a 
 sheep that is lost : O seek thy 
 servant, for I do not forget thy 
 commandments. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for the Mass for the twenty- 
 second Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Nones ; Funeral of a child, on the 
 way to church. 
 
 Greeks. Saturday morning ; Daily noctums ; All 
 funerals. 
 
 A famous book in its day was William Cowper's 
 Holy Alphabet for Sion's Scholars, a dissertation 
 upon this psalm. The author was Bishop of Gallo- 
 way, and in 1613 dedicated his book to David (Murray), 
 Lord Scone. He contends, with St. Ambrose, that 
 290
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxx. 
 
 [Day 27 
 
 this psalm is subdivided in order to be applied to 
 different periods of man's life. Bishop Cowper's sub- 
 division is interesting, and has been carried on by 
 others. One pair of verses go for each year of a man's 
 life, or four years to a section. This last becomes the 
 cry of old age and failing faculties, when lips, tongue, 
 hand, and health fail in turn. 
 
 THE TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cxx. 
 
 Ad Dominum. 
 A Song of degrees. 
 
 1 When I was in trouble I 
 called upon the Lord : and he 
 heard me. 
 
 2 Deliver my soul, O Lord, 
 from lying lips : and from a 
 deceitful tongue. 
 
 3 What reward shall he given 
 or done unto thee, thou false 
 tongue : even mighty and sharp 
 arrows, with hot burning coals. 
 
 4 W 7 oe is me, that I am con- 
 strained to dwell with Mesech : 
 and to have my habitation among 
 the tents of Kedar. 
 
 5 My soul hath long dwelt 
 among them : that are enemies 
 unto peace. 
 
 6 I labour for peace, but when 
 I speak unto them thereof : they 
 make them ready to battle. 
 
 Liturgical iixe. Introit to the Mass on the second 
 Sunday in Advent (e). 
 
 Latins. Monday Vespers ; Maundy Thursday. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening. 
 
 This is the first of the fifteen gradual psalms, or 
 songs of degrees, which prepared the worshippers for 
 the sacrifice. They are divided into three flights of 
 five psalms each. 
 
 If Psalm cxix. was composed for the Jewish caravans, 
 as they converged upon the Holy City, the songs of 
 291
 
 Day 27] 
 
 Psalm cxxi. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 degrees (Pss. cxx.-cxxxiv.) were for the ascent up to 
 the Temple, from the valleys to the summit. The 
 Temple was said in the Middle Ages to have had 
 fifteen steps up to it, as one may see in Titian's 
 Presentation of the Virgin Mary, for instance, and 
 these fifteen or gradual psalms were a preparation for 
 Sacrifice. They are said by the Latins in Lent on 
 Wednesdays, with the antiphon Requiem ceternam, etc. 
 Grant them rest, O Lord, and lighten them with 
 everlasting light. The first five are said without 
 Gloria. 
 
 Verse 4. Isaac Walton uses this of Joan Churchman 
 (Mrs. Richard Hooker), who was like Solomon's drip- 
 ping house, and caused her husband to say with the 
 holy Prophet, "Woe is me, that I am constrained to 
 have my habitation in the tents of Kedar." 
 
 This verse was quoted by blessed John Kirkman, 
 who was hung at Tyburn for saying Roman Mass, and 
 refusing the oath of supremacy, 1597. 
 
 Verse 5. Multum incolafuit anima mea a verse often 
 in the mouth of Lord Bacon (156l 1626), e.g. in the 
 Essay of " Nature and Man " ; the letter to Bodley, 
 etc. 
 
 Psalm cxxi. 
 
 Levavi oculos. 
 A Song of degrees. 
 
 1 I will lift up mine eyes unto 
 the hills : from whence cometh 
 my help. 
 
 2 My help cometh even from 
 the Lord : who hath made heaven 
 and earth. 
 
 3 He will not suffer thy foot 
 to be moved : and he that 
 keepeth thee will not sleep. 
 
 4 Behold, he that keepeth 
 Israel : shall neither slumber 
 nor sleep. 
 
 5 The Lord himself is thy 
 keeper : the Lord is thy defence 
 upon thy right hand. 
 
 6 So that the sun shall not 
 burn thee by day : neither the 
 moon by night. 
 
 292
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxxi. 
 
 [Day 27 
 
 7 The Lord shall preserve 
 thee from all evil : yea, it is 
 even he that shall keep thy 
 soul. 
 
 8 The Lord shall preserve 
 thy going out, and thy coming 
 in : from this time forth for ever- 
 more. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for the Mass on the Sunday 
 after Christmas Day (e). 
 
 Latins. Monday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening ; Daily nocturns. 
 
 This second gradual psalm has been called the 
 Traveller's psalm ; and Hooper, the Puritan Bishop of 
 Gloucester, was accustomed, like many others, to use 
 it when he set out upon a journey. Livingstone read 
 it to his family before he left for Africa. 
 
 Hemy Vaughan, the Silurist, loved this psalm, and 
 meditated upon it in SUex ScintiUnnx : 
 
 " Up to those bright and gladsome hills, 
 
 Whence flowes my weal and mirth, 
 I look and sigh for Him, who fills 
 Unseen both heaven and earth." 
 
 It was Nelson's favourite psalm (1758-1805). 
 Miss Rossetti's meditation in our more subjective 
 time upon the same begins : 
 
 "I am pale with sick desire, 
 For my heart is far away 
 From this world's fitful fire, 
 And this world's waning day." 
 
 One of Dr. Watts' best hymns (" Up to the hills I lift 
 mine eyes ") is a translation of this psalm. He was 
 then (1717) a Nonconformist minister in London. 
 
 Verse 2. Aujcilinm ?neiim a Domino a motto chosen by 
 Edward the Black Prince for the English coins of 1362. 
 
 Verse 4. Non dormil qni ct/.sludif is the motto of the 
 Coghill family. 
 
 2 93
 
 Day 27] 
 
 Psalm cxxii. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 Formerly this psalm was in the English use as the 
 psalm for the churching of women. 
 
 Psalm cxxii. 
 A Song of degrees of David. 
 
 Laaatus sum. 
 
 1 I was glad when they said 
 unto me : We will go into the 
 house of the Lord. 
 
 2 Our feet shall stand in thy 
 gates : O Jerusalem. 
 
 3 Jerusalem is built as a city : 
 that is at unity in itself. 
 
 4 For thither the tribes go up, 
 even the tribes of the Lord : to 
 testify unto Israel, to give thanks 
 unto the name of the Lord. 
 
 5 For there is the seat of 
 judgement : even the seat of the 
 house of David. 
 
 6 O pray for the peace of 
 Jerusalem : they shall prosper 
 that love thee. 
 
 7 Peace be within thy walls : 
 and plenteousness within thy 
 palaces. 
 
 8 For my brethren and com- 
 panions' sakes : I will wish thee 
 prosperity. 
 
 9 Yea, because of the house 
 of the Lord our God : I will 
 seek to do thee good. 
 
 Liturgical uses. Introit to the Mass for the Circum- 
 cision (e) ; Coronation Service. 
 
 Latim. Tuesday Vespers ; Circumcision : Festivals 
 of Our Lady. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening. 
 
 A gradual psalm (vide cxx.). 
 
 In the fourth century, in Cappadocia, the pious 
 Nonna tried long to convert her husband Gregory, 
 father of St. Gregory Nazianzen, to the Christian faith. 
 She often begged him to join her in this the psalm of 
 joy in the Lord, and he refused. But one night in a 
 dream he found himself doing so, and having tasted 
 the delight of the divine service in a dream, he 
 shortly after enjoyed it in reality. 
 
 Verse 1. When St. Richard, the Bishop of Lincoln, 
 294
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm CXxii. [Day 27 
 
 was told by the physicians that his end was near, he 
 cried out these words. They asked him if he needed 
 anything, and he answered with St. Philip, " Shew us 
 the Father, and it sufficeth us." Whereupon they 
 showed him the crucifix, which he devoutly kissed, 
 and presently died. This use of the psalm was not 
 uncommon. 
 
 Dr. Arnold put up the opening words of this psalm 
 over Rugby College Chapel, from the LXX. : 
 
 ir TOIS epi)K<ri /J.OL 
 Et's O!KOV Kvpiov Tropevff6/j,f6a. 
 
 When the young Queen Victoria " entered the Abbey 
 for her coronation the orchestra broke out into a 
 tremendous crash of music with this psalm. Every 
 one literally gasped for breath from the intense 
 interest, and the rails of the gallery trembled from 
 the trembling of the spectators." 
 
 Dean Stanley, when he preached the funeral sermon 
 of Sir G. Gilbert Scott, chose this as the motto for 
 his sermon, which was upon the religious aspect of 
 Gothic architecture. 
 
 Verse 6. Both Frederick the Great and Disraeli 
 pointed out that the only two nations of the world 
 who have treated the Jews well have prospered 
 greatly. Perhaps the observation was founded on 
 this verse ? 
 
 I'erse 1. Fiat pax in virtute tua (Peace be in thy 
 strength) is the legend on English coins of 1422, 
 when baby Henry vi. was crowned in Paris King of 
 England and France. 
 
 295
 
 Day 27] 
 
 Psalm CXxiii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Psalm cxxiii. 
 
 A Song of degrees. 
 
 Ad te levavi oculos meos. 
 
 1 Unto thee lift I up mine 
 eyes : O thou that dwellest in 
 the heavens. 
 
 2 Behold, even as the eyes of 
 servants look unto the hand of 
 their masters, and as the eyes 
 of a maiden unto the hand 
 of her mistress : even so our 
 eyes wait upon the Lord our 
 
 God, until he have mercy upon 
 us. * 
 
 3 Have mercy upon us, O 
 Lord, have mercy upon us : for 
 we are utterly despised. 
 
 4 Our soul is filled with the 
 scornful reproof of the wealthy : 
 and with the despitefulness of 
 the proud. 
 
 Latins. Tuesday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening. 
 
 A gradual psalm (vide cxx.). 
 
 This psalm was the last said at the gallows by the 
 blessed William Hart, one of the many Romanist 
 victims of Elizabeth's reign, who was hung at York, 
 1583, for denying the royal supremacy, and suspected 
 treason. It was not uncommonly used as an antidote 
 to death. Vicars (ivde Ixiv.) paraphrased it, on the 
 other hand, as a psalm of " thanksgiving for the great 
 deliverance from the Popish Powder Plot." 
 
 This psalm seems to have attracted comparatively 
 little attention ; but it was a favourite with that 
 strange Western scholar Joseph Glanville (l 630-80). 
 He was born at Plymouth, reared at Exeter College, 
 and began by being a raw disciple of Baxter, but 
 afterwards conformed and became Vicar of Frome, of 
 Street, and at last of Bath, where he died. He wrote 
 on the " Vanity of Dogmatizing," and a book with 
 various titles on witches and apparitions, " Saducumtu 
 triiimphans, with Whips for Drolleries and Atheism," 
 "Trumpet Calls to the Somerset Clergy," " Essays," etc. 
 296
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm CXxiv. 
 
 [Day 27 
 
 He calls this psalm The Churches contempts from profane 
 and fanatick enemies. He was a person of more than 
 ordinary parts, of a quick, warm, spruce, and gay fancy, 
 and an early and young member of the Royal Society. 
 
 Psalm cxxiv. 
 A Song of degrees of David. 
 
 {Nisi quia Dominus. 
 
 1 If the Lord himself had not 
 been on our side, now may 
 Israel say : if the Lord himself 
 had not been on our side, when 
 men rose up against us ; 
 
 2 They had swallowed us up 
 quick : when they were so wrath- 
 fully displeased at us. 
 
 3 Yea, the waters had drowned 
 us : and the stream had gone 
 over our soul. 
 
 4 The deep waters of the 
 
 proud : had gone even over our 
 soul. 
 
 5 But praised be the Lord : 
 who hath not given us over for 
 a prey unto their teeth. 
 
 6 Our soul is escaped even as 
 a bird out of the snare of the 
 fowler : the snare is broken, and 
 we are delivered. 
 
 7 Our help standeth in the 
 Name of the Lord : who hath 
 made heaven and earth. 
 
 Liturgical uses. Introit for the Mass on twenty-third 
 Sunday after Trinity (e) ; Thanksgiving for a Naval 
 victory. 
 
 iMtins. Tuesday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening. 
 
 This is the psalm of English victory at sea, and 
 so almost the psalm of England herself. It ends the 
 first division of the gradual psalms (see cxx.). 
 
 The proper psalms for the Restoration of Charles n. 
 were cxxiv., cxxvi., cxxix., and cxviii. 
 
 Verse (\. The words with which the Duke of Gandia 
 gave up his great possession to join the Society of 
 Jesus (see Ps. cxiv.) ; and the dying words of McCheyne 
 (1813-43), the Scotch divine. 
 297
 
 Day 27] Psalm CXXV. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Verse 6. Laqticiix contritus has always been a common 
 antiphon for sudden deliverance, as when in 1244 
 Innocent iv., a proud, rapacious, and bitter pope, 
 escaped from the cavalry of Frederick n., the accom- 
 plished and treacherous emperor. 
 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt went on an embassy to Rome 
 with Sir John Russell (1526-27). He was so disgusted 
 with the profligacy of the papal court that he drew 
 upon his chamber wall a maze, and in it a minotaur 
 with a triple crown on its head, both as it were falling, 
 and a bottom of thread with divers guives and broken 
 chains there lying by, and over this word tat/i/eus con- 
 tritus est et nns liberati sumus. So great indignation 
 did this satire cause that the author "was advertized 
 of." The divorce question had not then even been 
 mooted. 
 
 In 320 A.D. forty Christians were martyred in Sebaste 
 by being placed in a frozen pond. The legs of the 
 survivors were broken in the morning and they still 
 had vitality enough to sing with their last breath : 
 " Our soul is escaped out of the snare of the fowler." 
 
 Psalm cxxv. 
 
 A Song of degrees. 
 
 Qui confidunt. 
 
 1 They that put their trust 
 in the Lord shall be even as 
 the mount Sion : which may 
 not be removed, but standeth 
 fast for ever. 
 
 2 The hills stand about 
 Jerusalem : even so standeth the 
 Lord round about his people, 
 from this time forth for ever- 
 
 3 For the rod of the ungodly 
 
 298 
 
 cometh not into the lot of the 
 righteous : lest the righteous put 
 their hand unto wickedness. 
 
 4 Do well, O Lord : unto 
 these that are good and true of 
 heart. 
 
 5 As for such as turn back 
 unto their own wickedness : the 
 Lord shall lead them forth with 
 the evil-doers ; but peace shall 
 be upon Israel.
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm CXXV. Pay 27 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass for the twenty- 
 fourth Sunday after Trinity (e). 
 
 Latins. Tuesday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening. 
 
 A gradual psalm (vide cxx.). 
 
 In those old dramas, the Coventry mysteries, the 
 blessed Virgin Mary enters and says the gradual psalms, 
 with this preface : 
 
 "Now Lord God, dysspose me to prayour 
 That I may sey the holy psalmes of Davyth 
 Wheche book is clepyd the Sawtere ; 
 That I may preyse the, my God, therwith. 
 
 "Of vertuys thereof this is the pygth. 
 It mayketh sowles fayr, that doth it say : 
 Angelys besteryd to help us therwith ; 
 It lytenyth the derknesse, and pullyth divelys away." 
 
 In these dramas the gradual psalms are recom- 
 mended to be said in memory of the maid Mary, and 
 then Maria is the antiphon. This is because the early 
 legends of the Madonna connect her with the steps of 
 the temple, for at three years of age she was presented 
 by her parents and danced upon the steps of the altar 
 " with her feet, the Lord giving her grace, and all 
 the house of Israel loved her." This story from the 
 Prolevangelium (of the third century) has given rise to 
 many works of art, e.g. Titian's picture of the Blessed 
 Virgin dancing on the steps. 
 
 299
 
 Day 27] Psalm CXXV1. [Evening Prayer 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cxxvi. 
 
 A Song of degrees. 
 
 In convertendo. 
 
 I When the Lord turned again 
 the captivity of Sion : then 
 were we like unto them that 
 
 great things for us already : 
 whereof we rejoice. 
 
 5 Turn our captivity, O Lord : 
 
 dream. j as the rivers in the south. 
 
 2 Then was our mouth filled 6 They that sow in tears : 
 
 with laughter : and our tongue 
 with joy. 
 
 3 Then said they among the 
 heathen : The Lord hath done 
 great things for them. 
 
 4 Yea, the Lord hath done 
 
 shall reap in joy. 
 
 7 lie that now goeth on his 
 way weeping, and beareth forth 
 good seed ; shall doubtless come 
 again with joy, and bring his 
 sheaves with him. 
 
 Latins. Tuesday Vespers ; Apostles and evangelists. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening. 
 
 Gregory Thaumaturgus, exiled from happiness by 
 the loss of his master, Origen, found hope in this psalm, 
 as have multitudes of others : for example, Queen 
 Louisa of Prussia in 1808, a dark moment of the 
 history of her country, when Napoleon was in full 
 power, read this psalm to Borowsky and said : I do 
 not know when anything has had such an ennobling 
 and comforting influence on my mind as these precious 
 words. 
 
 In 1653 Jeremy Taylor wrote his Life of Christ, 
 "desirous to put a portion of the holy fire into a 
 repository which might help to re-enkindle the Incense 
 when it shall please God Religion shall return and 
 all his servants shall sing In convertendo captivitatem Sion 
 with a voice of eucharist." 
 
 300
 
 K\vning Prayer] Psalm CXXvii. 
 
 [Day 27 
 
 This psalm was a favourite with the Abolitionists. 
 Sir Thomas Powell Buxton, the philanthropic brewer, 
 quoted the second verse when he heard that the 
 slaves were freed and the work accomplished. 
 
 Perhaps a favourite of Thackeray's (1811-63), vide 
 Esmond, ii. chap. 6. 
 
 Psalm cxxvii. 
 A Song of degrees for Solomon. 
 
 Nisi Dominus. 
 
 1 Except the Lord build the 
 house : their labour is but lost 
 that build it. 
 
 2 Except the Lord keep the 
 city : the watchman waketh but 
 in vain. 
 
 3 It is but lost labour that ye 
 haste to rise up early, and so 
 late take rest, and eat the bread 
 of carefulness : for so he giveth 
 his beloved sleep. 
 
 4 Lo, children and the fruit of 
 the womb : are an heritage and 
 gift that cometh of the Lord. 
 
 5 Like as the arrows in the 
 hand of the giant : even so are 
 the young children. 
 
 6 Happy is the man that hath 
 his quiver full of them : they 
 shall not be ashamed when they 
 speak with their enemies in the 
 gate. 
 
 Liturgical uses. Introit for the Mass on the twenty- 
 fifth Sunday after Trinity (e) ; The churching of women. 
 
 Latins. Wednesday Vespers : Circumcision ; Feasts 
 of Our Lady. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening. 
 
 A gradual psalm (vide cxx.). 
 
 This was the psalm which Clement in. used in his 
 exhortation to the English bishops to succour the 
 Holy Land. Upon this our Richard Coeur de Lion 
 took the cross. 
 
 Verse 2. At Budrum, the ancient Halicarnassus, is 
 an old castle built by the Knights of St. John, and 
 301
 
 Day 27] Psalm CXXvii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 among its coats-of-arms it contains those of our King 
 Edward iv. The gate legend is Nisi Dominus 
 custodicrit civitatem frustra vigilat qui custodit cam. 
 The same is the old motto of the city of Ripon. 
 The hermit Brandano gave them a more aggressive 
 meaning when, clothed in sackcloth, he chaunted them 
 on the hillside against the Spaniards who in 1548 
 were building a citadel to overawe Siena. He was 
 sent to the galleys but released, and had the delight 
 of seeing the Signori with pickaxes destroy the citadel 
 in 1552. 
 
 Nm Dominus frustra is the motto of several noble 
 families, e.g. Baron Rawdon and the Moira family 
 and of the Comptons. It is also a very common old 
 house motto, e.g. it is over the Cameronian Meeting 
 House in Edinburgh. It is the motto of that city 
 itself. It is the legend over the chaplain's door to 
 the Tower Chapel dedicated to St. Peter ad Vincula. 
 It is also a common ring and trencher motto. 
 
 When Ferdinand n. fled from his kingdom of 
 Naples, he chaunted this psalm again and again across 
 the bay, and continued it until he came to Ischia. 
 
 Verse 3. Mrs. Browning's favourite verse : 
 
 Of all the thoughts of God that are 
 Borne inward into souls afar, 
 Along the Psalmist's music deep, 
 Now tell me, if that any is 
 For gift or grace surpassing this 
 ' He giveth His beloved sleep ' ? 
 
 302
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm CXXviii. 
 
 [Day 27 
 
 Psalm cxxviii. 
 A Song of degrees. 
 
 Beati omnes. 
 
 1 Blessed are all they that fear 
 the Lord : and walk in his ways. 
 
 2 For thou shalt eat the 
 labours of thine hands : O well 
 is thee, and happy shalt thou be. 
 
 3 Thy wife shall be as the 
 fruitful vine : upon the walls of 
 thine house. 
 
 4 Thy children like the olive- 
 branches : round about thy table. 
 
 5 Lo, thus shall the man 
 be blessed : that feareth the 
 Lord. 
 
 6 The Lord from out of Sion 
 shall so bless thee : that thou 
 shalt see Jerusalem in prosperity 
 all thy life long. 
 
 7 Yea, that thou shalt see thy 
 children's children : and peace 
 upon Israel. 
 
 Liturgical uses. Introit to the Mass on St. Thomas' 
 day (e) ; A marriage psalm. 
 
 Latins. Wednesday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening ; Marriages. 
 
 A gradual psalm (vide cxx.). 
 
 Verse 2. Piers Ploughman quotes this to the idle 
 classes to show that God means all to work ; " in 
 dyking or delving or travailling in prayers, con- 
 templative life or active, Christ would men wrought. 
 The freke (or manly fellow) that feedeth himself with 
 his faithful labour, he is blessed by the book in body 
 and soul." 
 
 A certain monk, of good birth, thought it beneath 
 him to scour the saucepans when it was his work to 
 cook for the brethren. St. Bernard called him up, 
 and gave him a tremendous rebuke, not only on the 
 dangerous and outrageous sin of pride, but upon the 
 absolute necessity of living by labour, enjoined upon 
 all Christian men, and pointed out this verse to him 
 as an evidence that it was a law, even before the 
 Word took our flesh to serve us. 
 33
 
 Day 27] 
 
 Psalm CXxix. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Dr. John King, Bishop of London, published a work 
 called the Villa Pa-latino, on the marriage of Princess 
 Elisabeth, daughter of James i., to Frederick v. 
 Elector Palatine (l6lS). This marriage was the last 
 trace of Cecil's policy, in the counterpoise to Austria. 
 King was the best speaker in the Star Chamber, and 
 a most diligent preacher and governour. Princes 
 Rupert and Maurice were the clusters of this vine. 
 
 Psalm cxxix. 
 A Song of degrees. 
 
 Szepe expugnaverunt. 
 
 1 Many a time have they 
 fought against me from my 
 youth up : may Israel now say. 
 
 2 Yea, many a time have they 
 vexed me from my youth up : 
 but they have not prevailed 
 against me. 
 
 3 The plowers plowed upon 
 my back : and made long 
 furrows. 
 
 4 But the righteous Lord : 
 hath hewn the snares of the 
 ungodly in pieces. 
 
 5 Let them be confounded 
 
 and turned backward : as many 
 as have evil will at Sion. 
 
 6 Let them be even as the 
 grass growing upon the house- 
 tops : which withereth afore it 
 be plucked up ; 
 
 7 Whereof the mower filleth 
 not his hand : neither he that 
 bindeth up the sheaves his 
 bosom. 
 
 8 So that they who go by 
 say not so much as, The Lord 
 prosper you : we wish you good 
 luck in the Name of the Lord. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for St. Andrew's day (e). 
 
 Latins. Wednesday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening. 
 
 In the legends of the Holy Rood, the mediaeval 
 poets told how the history of Christ is the stoiy of 
 mankind. The Rood sprang from three seeds Adam 
 brought with him from Paradise. Moses planted the 
 little trees in Tabor, and David brought them witli 
 34
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxxx. 
 
 [Day 27 
 
 joy and melody into Jerusalem, singing the gradual 
 psalms. There they grew into one great tree, under 
 which he wrote Miserere and all the " sawter buke " ; 
 and would have built there the temple, had not God 
 forbidden it. But he circled the tree with silver, and 
 saw it wax very great in his day. 
 
 Dr. J. Robertson, the Edinburgh professor of 
 ecclesiastical history, wrote to a friend in deep de- 
 spondency about the comfort of the Psalms, in which 
 the Royal Poet so graphically and powerfully and 
 to the life describes both the hidden griefs of the 
 wounded soul and the equally hidden joys by which 
 those griefs are so powerfully allayed. Often did he 
 find himself rescued, as by a hand from above, from 
 the deep waters. It has been suggested by others 
 that those of evil will are not the human adversaries, 
 but those spirits of depression, which so constantly 
 hinder the Christian warfare. 
 
 Psalm cxxx. 
 
 A Song of degrees. 
 
 De profundis. 
 
 1 Out of the deep have I 
 called unto thee, O Lord : Lord, 
 hear my voice. 
 
 2 O let thine ears consider 
 well : the voice of my com- 
 plaint. 
 
 3 If thou, Lord, wilt be 
 extreme to mark what is done 
 amiss : O Lord, who may abide 
 it? 
 
 4 For there is mercy with 
 thee : therefore shall thou be 
 feared. 
 
 5 I look for the Lord ; my 
 soul doth wait for him : in his 
 word is my trust. 
 
 6 My soul fleeth unto the 
 Lord : before the morning 
 watch, I say, before the morning 
 watch. 
 
 7 O Israel, trust in the Lord, 
 for with the Lord there is mercy : 
 and with him is plenteous re- 
 demption. 
 
 8 And he shall redeem Israel : 
 from all his sins. 
 
 u 
 
 305
 
 Day 27] Psalm CXXX. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Liturgical uses. Introit for the Mass on second 
 Sunday in Lent (e) ; Ash Wednesday evening. 
 
 Latim. Wednesday Vespers ; Going and returning 
 from funerals ; Second Vespers for Christmas. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening ; Daily evensong. 
 
 Being a penitential, a gradual, and a dirge psalm, 
 this may be called the second most famous of all the 
 Psalter. Many of the mediaeval wills leave special 
 provision for a De Profundis to be said at the Mass 
 for the souls of the testators, and it is intimately 
 associated with the Scriptural belief in Purgatory. 
 William of Wykeham appointed that each scholar of 
 New College and also of Winchester was to say the 
 same once every day for the souls of Edward in., 
 Queen Philippa, the Black Prince, and (afterwards 
 was added) of Richard n. and Queen Anne. It was 
 used by the living as a preparation for death, as a 
 charm against the evil eye, as a preparation for 
 Confession. Simon of Sudbury, the archbishop 
 murdered in the revolt of 1381, while the king went 
 out to meet Wat Tyler, remained in the Tower, sang 
 his Mass devoutly, the Dirge, seven psalms, and the 
 Litany. As he was saying Omnes Sancti orate pro 
 nobis the murderers broke in and dragged him to a 
 cruel execution on the hill outside, the same hill 
 which was nearly three centuries later to see the 
 murder of another archbishop. The psalm has been 
 the dying cry of many great persons. It was the last 
 prayer of Mary Queen of Scots, and of John Nelson 
 the Romanist, in 1578. It is among the last words 
 of Hooker (1660), the author of the ecclesiastical 
 polity, who died at Bishopsbourne. Jeremy Taylor, in 
 his Holy Dying, quotes it as the great psalm for 
 the sick, a book read to Keats the poet in his last 
 days (1821) at Rome, where he died. Beatrice Cenci 
 had reached the words fiant aures imv, when the axe 
 fell. 
 
 306
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm CXXX1. [Day 27 
 
 Phineas Fletcher's (1581-1650) translation of, or 
 rather meditation upon, this psalm is one of the best 
 of that author's shorter pieces : 
 
 "As a watchman waits for day, 
 
 And looks for light and looks again, 
 When the night grows old and gray, 
 
 To be relieved he calls amain ; 
 So look, so wait, so long mine eyes, 
 To see my Lord, my Sun arise." 
 
 There seems an echo of this psalm in that best of 
 all Tennyson's lyrics "Tears, idle tears." 
 
 "Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns 
 The earliest pipe of half awaken'd birds 
 To dying ears, when unto dying eyes 
 The casement slowly grows a glimmering square ; 
 So sad, so strange, the days that are no more." 
 
 On St. Matthew's day (1558) the Emperor Charles \. 
 was dying, leaning on the shoulder of his minister. 
 He held a taper in his right hand and tried to grasp 
 with his left the silver crucifix which had comforted 
 his wife at her death. The archbishop began the 
 De Profnndis, and Charles, saying Ave Jesu, died 
 without a struggle. 
 
 Psalm cxxxi. 
 
 A Song of degrees of David. 
 
 Domine, non est. 
 
 1 Lord, I am not high- keep it low, like as a child that 
 minded : I have no proud looks. ! is weaned from his mother : yea, 
 
 2 I do not exercise myself in ! my soul is even as a weaned child, 
 great matters : which are too j 4 O Israel, trust in the Lord : 
 high for me. \ from this time forth for ever- 
 
 3 But I refrain my soul, and ! more. 
 
 Liturgical use. The Introit to the Mass on Lady 
 Day (e). 
 
 307
 
 Day 28] Psalm CXXxii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Latins. Wednesday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening. 
 
 A gradual psalm (see cxx.). 
 
 A psalm which suggested to devout Christians 
 the lowly and meek Mother of God. Hence it is the 
 iiitroit for the Annunciation and "the rosebud of 
 the Psalter." If this is, as it seems to be, one of the 
 earliest of the poems of insight concerning children, 
 it is the source and fount of very much in the art 
 of all subsequent times. Most of the great painters 
 give us the infant Christ not as a newly born child 
 but (Mactatut super matre sua, weaned on his mother's 
 knee. At the same time neither the Vulgate nor 
 the LXX. liken the soul to the weaned child, but 
 continue, "so is retribution to me," and there does 
 not seem any obvious connection between these two 
 facts. 
 
 Verse 2. In 1625, a pious but unpoetical silk 
 merchant named Dod was forcibly reminded of this 
 verse by the authorities. Wither notes it thus : 
 " Dod the silkman's late ridiculous translation of the 
 Psalms was, by authority, worthily condemned to the 
 fire." 
 
 THE TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cxxxii. 
 
 A Song of degrees. 
 
 Memento, Domine. 
 
 1 Lord, remember David : 
 and all his trouble ; 
 
 2 How he sware unto the 
 Lord : and vowed a vow unto 
 the Almighty God of Jacob ; 
 
 3 I will not come within the 
 
 308 
 
 tabernacle of mine house : nor 
 climb up into my bed ; 
 
 4 I will not suffer mine eyes 
 to sleep, nor mine eyelids to 
 slumber : neither the temples of 
 my head to take any rest ;
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm CXXXli. 
 
 [Day 28 
 
 5 Until I find out a place for 
 the temple of the Lord : an 
 habitation for the mighty God 
 of Jacob. 
 
 6 Lo, we heard of the same 
 at Ephrata : and found it in the 
 wood. 
 
 7 We will go into his taber- 
 nacle : and fall low on our knees 
 before his footstool. 
 
 8 Arise, O Lord, into thy 
 resting-place : thou, and the ark 
 of thy strength. 
 
 9 Let thy priests be clothed 
 with righteousness : and let thy 
 saints sing with joyfulness. 
 
 10 For thy servant David's 
 sake : turn not away the pre- 
 sence of thine Anointed. 
 
 1 1 The Lord hath made a 
 faithful oath unto David : and 
 he shall not shrink from it ; 
 
 12 Of the fruit of thy body : 
 shall I set upon thy seat. 
 
 13 If thy children will keep 
 
 my covenant, and my testi- 
 monies that I shall learn them : 
 their children also shall sit upon 
 thy seat for evermore. 
 
 14 For the Lord hath chosen 
 Sion to be an habitation for 
 himself: he hath longed for 
 her. 
 
 15 This shall be my rest for 
 ever : here will I dwell, for I 
 have a delight therein. 
 
 1 6 I will bless her victuals 
 with increase : and will satisfy 
 her poor with bread. 
 
 17 I will deck her priests 
 with health : and her saints 
 shall rejoice and sing. 
 
 18 There shall I make the 
 horn of David to flourish : I 
 have ordained a lantern for mine 
 Anointed. 
 
 19 As for his enemies, I shall 
 clothe them with shame : but 
 upon himself shall his crown 
 flourish. 
 
 Liturgical use. Christmas evening. 
 
 Latins. Thursday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Last psalm for Friday evening. 
 
 A gradual psalm (see cxx.). 
 
 Verses 4 and 5. The epitaph over good Bishop 
 Racket (1592-1670). He was Bishop of Lichfield and 
 spent 20,000 on his cathedral, and the rest of his 
 wealth on Trinity College, Cambridge. The epitaph 
 refers to St. Augustine's comment on the text and 
 the evils of private possessions. 
 
 Verse. 7. Bishop Henry, the leader of the Venetians, 
 in the first crusade, made on 25th June 1100 a most 
 39
 
 Day 28] Psalm CXXxii. [Morning Prayer 
 
 stirring speech to the army which had just won the 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to the effect that the 
 earthly Jerusalem was useless without the heavenly. 
 
 Verse 15. The verse that founded the great 
 monastery of St. Gall in the sixth century. The saint 
 whose name it bears was Irish, and was entangled in 
 some bushes during his prayers, which he took for a 
 divine monition to end his travels. This monastery 
 was the greatest fastness of learning in the world in 
 the troubled centuries that followed. The same words, 
 Hie requies mea, hie habitatio, are the motto of the Casa 
 de Misericordia at Cadiz. 
 
 St. Thomas Aquinas was seized with a fever at 
 Castle Maganza, but would not be stayed, and pushed 
 on to Fossa Nuova, a Cistercian Abbey, near Terracina, 
 to die there. As he was carried in he repeated these 
 words with rapture. He mused also much upon St. 
 Augustine's words : " Then shall I truly live, when I 
 shall be fulfilled with Thy love : now I am a burden 
 to myself, because, Lord, I am not full of Thee." He 
 died on the floor on ashes, 7th March 1274. 
 
 Verse 18. Paravi litcernam Christo meo I have 
 ordained a lantern for my Christ. These were the last 
 words of Cyril of Alexandria, whose warts Kingsley 
 has drawn in strong relief in Hypatia, rather adding 
 to them than otherwise, and hardly even outlining the 
 brave rugged face which they blemished. Perhaps 
 St. Cyril used the words because they were a common 
 motto then and since, for St. John the Baptist. 
 
 Verse 19- Jnimicox ems induam confuxione. These 
 words were engraved on the English shilling of King 
 Edward vi., minted in 1549. See in contrast (Ps. Hi. 7) 
 Edward in.'s motto.
 
 Morning Prayer] Psallll CXXxiii. 
 
 [Day 28 
 
 Psalm cxxxiii. 
 A Song of degrees of David. 
 Ecce, quam bonum ! 
 
 3 Like as the dew of 
 Hermon : which fell upon the 
 hill of Sion. 
 
 4 For there the Lord pro- 
 mised his blessing : and life for 
 evermore. 
 
 1 Behold, how good and joy- 
 ful a thing it is : brethren, to 
 dwell together in unity ! 
 
 2 It is like the precious oint- 
 ment upon the head, that ran 
 down unto the beard : even unto 
 Aaron's beard, and went down 
 to the skirts of his clothing. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass of SS. Philip and 
 James (e). 
 
 Latins. Thursday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning. 
 
 A gradual psalm (see cxx). 
 
 In the Passing of Mary, a fourth-century romance, 
 is this legend : St. Thomas was singing Mass in India 
 when he saw Our Lady passing into heaven and asked 
 her blessing, whereupon she gave him her belt. He 
 was transported to the midst of the apostles in his 
 vestments and shewed the belt, which convinced them, 
 and he gave them his benediction with this psalm. 
 
 The precious ointment has exercised the speculation 
 of Christendom, and the mystics say that it is the grace 
 of God, which beginning at the Head, which is Christ, 
 descends to the most trifling externals of life. 
 Clement of Alexandria is very decided from this verse 
 that the Christian man will never be shaved, that is to 
 say will follow the Greek and not the Latin life. 
 
 Christopher Smart (1722-71), the brilliant fellow of 
 Pembroke and translator of Horace, while confined in 
 a madhouse, wrote : 
 
 ' ' Sweet is the dew that falls betimes 
 And drops upon the leafy limes,
 
 Day 28] Psalm CXXxiv. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Sweet, Hermon's fragrant air : 
 Sweet is the lily's silver bell, 
 And sweet the wakeful tapers' smell 
 That watch for early prayer." 
 
 This is the psalm which the commander of the 
 Greely Expedition read to his men when they 
 wintered in the dark Arctic regions for a night which 
 lasted twenty weeks. 
 
 Tertullian (De jejwi) tells us that it was used as 
 a Communion hymn, and St. Augustine implies the 
 same, thus laying emphasis upon what has been called 
 in our times a forgotten side of the Lord's Supper,, the 
 interdependence of Christians. 
 
 Psalm cxxxiv. 
 A Song of degrees. 
 
 Ecce nunc. 
 
 1 Behold now, praise the 
 Lord : all ye servants of the 
 Lord ; 
 
 2 Ye that by night stand in the 
 house of the Lord : even in the 
 courts of the house of our God. 
 
 3 Lift up your hands in 
 the sanctuary : and praise the 
 Lord. 
 
 4 The Lord that made heaven 
 and earth : give thee blessing 
 out of Sion. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass for the Purifica- 
 tion (e). 
 
 Latins. The last psalm in daily Compline. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning ; Daily nocturns. 
 
 This is the last of the gradual psalms. The pilgrims 
 have now reached the temple, and hear the Levites 
 intoning the praises of God. 
 
 St. Oswald, Archbishop of York, on the morning 
 of his death washed the feet of the poor and re- 
 cited the gradual psalms. As they rose to thank 
 him, and while he was still saying the Gloria, 
 312
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm CXXXV. 
 
 [Day 28 
 
 he fell dead at the altar, his last word being 
 Sancto. He was one of the reformers and patriots of 
 whom St. Dunstan was the chief, and 'one of the 
 desires of his life was to introduce the Benedictine 
 rule, with its care for learning, into the English 
 Church. He was nephew to Odo the Good, the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 Psalm cxxxv. 
 
 Laudate Nomen. 
 I O praise the Lord, laud ye | 9 He hath sent tokens and 
 
 the Name of the Lord : praise it, 
 O ye servants of the Lord ; 
 
 2 Ye that stand in the house 
 of the Lord : in the courts of 
 the house of our God. 
 
 3 O praise the Lord, for the 
 Lord is gracious : O sing praises 
 unto his Name, for it is lovely. 
 
 4 For why? the Lord hath 
 chosen Jacob unto Himself : and 
 Israel for his own possession. 
 
 5 For I know that the Lord 
 is great : and that our Lord is 
 above all gods. 
 
 6 Whatsoever the Lord 
 pleased, that did he in heaven, 
 and in earth : and in the sea, 
 and in all deep places. 
 
 7 He bringeth forth the clouds 
 from the ends of the world : and 
 sendeth forth lightnings with the 
 rain, bringing the winds out of 
 his treasures. 
 
 8 He smote the first-born of 
 Egypt : both of man and beast. 
 
 wonders into the midst of thee, 
 O thou land of Egypt : upon 
 Pharaoh, and all his servants. 
 
 10 He smote divers nations : 
 and slew mighty kings ; 
 
 1 1 Sehon king of the Amorites, 
 and Og the king of Basan : and 
 all the kingdoms of Canaan : 
 
 12 And gave their land to be 
 an heritage : even an heritage 
 unto Israel his people. 
 
 13 Thy Name, O Lord, en- 
 dureth for ever : so doth thy 
 memorial, O Lord, from one 
 generation to another. 
 
 14 For the Lord will avenge 
 his people : and be gracious 
 unto his servants. 
 
 15 As for the images of the 
 heathen, they are but silver 
 and gold : the work of men's 
 hands. 
 
 1 6 They have mouths, and 
 speak not : eyes have they, but 
 they see not. 
 
 313
 
 Day 28] 
 
 Psalm cxxxv. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 17 They have ears, and yet 
 they hear not : neither is there 
 any breath in their mouths. 
 
 18 They that make them are 
 like unto them : and so are all 
 they that put their trust in 
 them. 
 
 19 Praise the Lord, ye house 
 
 of Israel : praise the Lord, ye 
 house of Aaron. 
 
 20 Praise the Lord, ye house 
 of Levi : ye that fear the Lord, 
 praise the Lord. 
 
 21 Praised be the Lord out 
 of Sion : who dwelleth at Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 Latins. Thursday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning. 
 
 This psalm and the next form the Great Hallel of 
 Jewish worship, as opposed to the (Mizric) Egyptian 
 Hallel. Both are recited on the Passover evenings. 
 
 On 28th October 1704, John Locke, aged seventy- 
 two, the philosopher, died. He was lecturer on 
 Greek and Rhetoric at Oxford, physician to the first 
 Earl of Shaftesbury, and filled various public offices. 
 He died at the Mashams' house at Oates in Essex. 
 His theory that all knowledge comes from experience, 
 although it inspired Newton and others, is the 
 foundation of modern materialism. 
 
 Verse 6. The upholders of irresistible grace made 
 much out of this verse. Langland has much the same 
 teaching about it, using it to explain why one thief 
 mocked and one believed. Teaching of this sort has 
 often been attributed to St. Augustine, but in his 
 notes on this very verse he repudiates it and says 
 that the love and praise of God are not of necessity 
 but of free will. 
 
 3*4
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm CXXXVl'. 
 
 [Day 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 Psalm cxxxvi. 
 
 Confitemini. 
 
 I O give thanks unto the 
 Lord, for he is gracious : and 
 his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 2. O give thanks unto the God 
 of all gods : for his mercy en- 
 dureth for ever. 
 
 3 O thank the Lord of all 
 lords : for his mercy endureth 
 for ever. 
 
 4 Who only doeth great 
 wonders : for his mercy endureth 
 for ever. 
 
 5 Who by his excellent wis- 
 dom made the heavens : for his 
 mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 6 W r ho laid out the earth 
 above the waters : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever ; 
 
 7 Who hath made great 
 lights : for his mercy endureth 
 for ever ; 
 
 8 The sun to rule the day : 
 for his mercy endureth for ever ; 
 
 9 The moon and the stars to 
 govern the night : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever. 
 
 10 Who smote Egypt with 
 their first-born : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever ; 
 
 II And brought out Israel 
 from among them : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever ; 
 
 \2 With a mighty hand, and 
 
 stretched out arm : for his'mercy 
 endureth for ever. 
 
 13 Who divided the Red sea 
 in two parts : for his mercy en- 
 dureth for ever ; 
 
 14 And made Israel to go 
 through the midst of it : for his 
 mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 15 But as for Pharaoh and 
 his host, he overthrew them in 
 the Red sea : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever. 
 
 1 6 W 7 ho led his people through 
 the wilderness : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever. 
 
 1 7 Who smote great kings : 
 for his mercy endureth for ever ; 
 
 1 8 Yea, and slew mighty 
 kings : for his mercy endureth 
 for ever ; 
 
 19 SehonkingoftheAmorites: 
 for his mercy endureth for ever ; 
 
 20 And Og the king of Basun : 
 for his mercy endureth for ever ; 
 
 21 And gave away their land 
 for an heritage : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever ; 
 
 22 Even for an heritage unto 
 Israel his servant : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever. 
 
 23 Who remembered us when 
 we were in trouble : for his 
 mercy endureth for ever ; 
 
 3*5
 
 Day 28] Psalm CXXXvi. [Evening Prayer 
 
 24 And hath delivered us 26 O give thanks unto the 
 God of heaven : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever. 
 
 27 O give thanks unto the 
 Lord of lords : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever. 
 
 from our enemies : for his mercy 
 endureth for ever. 
 
 25 Who giveth food to all 
 flesh : for his mercy endureth 
 for ever. 
 
 Latins. Thursday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning. 
 
 On 8th February 358, as St. Athanasius was at Mass 
 in the Church of St. Thomas, at Alexandria, the 
 Ariaiis burst in. He ordered this psalm to be sung, 
 but before it was over the soldiers had begun a 
 massacre, and with difficulty the saint was rescued by 
 the clergy and escaped to the desert and its monks. 
 
 It is a saying attributed to Mahomet that the Lord 
 God has divided mercy and pity into one hundred 
 parts ; and of these He has kept ninety-nine for 
 Himself and sent one upon earth. 
 
 Perhaps Shakespeare had this psalm in mind when 
 he wrote : 
 
 ' ' Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods ? 
 Draw near them, then, in being merciful ; 
 Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge." 
 
 How magnificently Milton, when a lad of only 
 fifteen years, paraphrased this psalm into his hymn, 
 " Let us with a gladsome mind " (1624). 
 
 On 3rd May 1660, John Evelyn heard the happy 
 news of the declaration of Breda, and knew that 
 constitutional government, law, and religion were once 
 more restored to this realm. He was in his " sweete 
 and native aire at Wotton " recovering from a double 
 tertian fever, and he writes thus in his diary : " Came 
 the most happy tidings of his Majesty's gracious declara- 
 tion and applications to the Parliament, General 1, 
 and People, and their dutiful acceptance and acknow-
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm CXXXvii. 
 
 [Day 28 
 
 ledgment, after a most bloudy and unreasonable 
 rebellion of neere 20 yeares. Praise be for ever the 
 Lord of Heaven, who onely doeth wondrous things, 
 because His mercy endureth for ever! " 
 
 John Evelyn (1 620-1706), the founder and secretary 
 of the Royal Society, was almost the greatest virtuoso 
 of his age, an authority on coins, buildings, gardening, 
 and woodcraft, and a Churchman of the devoutest 
 type. 
 
 Verse 27. The French Psalter is the only other 
 one which contains this verse. It is not found, for 
 instance, in the Authorised Version. 
 
 Psalm cxxxvii. 
 
 Super flumina. 
 
 1 By the waters of Babylon 
 we sat down and wept : when 
 we remembered thee, O Sion. 
 
 2 As for our harps, we hanged 
 them up : upon the trees that 
 are therein. 
 
 3 For they that led us away 
 captive required of us then a 
 song, and melody, in our heavi- 
 ness : Sing us one of the songs 
 of Sion. 
 
 4 I low shall we sing the 
 Lord's song : in a strange 
 land ?' 
 
 5 If I forget thee, O 
 Jerusalem : let my right hand 
 forget her cunning. 
 
 6 If I do not remember thee, 
 let my tongue cleave to the roof 
 of my mouth : yea, if I prefer 
 not Jerusalem in my mirth. 
 
 7 Remember the children of 
 Edom, O Lord, in the day of 
 Jerusalem : how they said, 
 Down with it, down with it, 
 even to the ground. 
 
 8 O daughter of Babylon, 
 wasted with misery : yea, happy 
 shall he be that rewardeth thee, 
 as thou hast served us. 
 
 9 Blessed shall he be that 
 taketh thy children : and 
 throweth them against the 
 stones. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for St. Luke's Mass (e) 
 f. nl ins. Thursday Vespers. 
 Greeks. Friday morning. 
 317
 
 bay 28] Psalm CXXXvil. [Evening Prayer 
 
 This was the favourite psalm of Camoens, of 
 Crashaw, and of Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 In 1606, St. Vincent de Paul was a slave to the 
 Turks, captured and bought by an apostate. The 
 Turkish wife of his master asked him to sing 
 the praises of his God, and, " being a man full of the 
 spirit of the psalms," he sang with tears, Super flumina 
 and Halve Regina. The woman was so touched that 
 she upbraided her husband with his apostasy, who 
 not only set St. Vincent free, but embarked with him 
 for Aigues-Mortes. 
 
 Sir John Digby, Earl of Bristol, who lost his estate 
 and his country when he sided with the king, died an 
 exile in 1653, and was buried in a Paris cabbage- 
 garden. This psalm was a favourite of his as it was 
 with many pious royalists in their exile and he turned 
 it into verses beginning : 
 
 " Sitting by ye streams that glide 
 Down by Babell's towering wall." 
 
 This was set to music, and published, after the 
 Restoration, in Clifford's Services, among the 
 "Anthems usually sung in Cathedrals." 
 
 Verse 5. In 1271 Theobald, Archdeacon of Liege, 
 who was then on crusade with Prince Edward of 
 England, was chosen Pope Gregory x. and took leave 
 of the East with these words. They might almost 
 be said to be the motto of his pontificate, so whole- 
 hearted was he in his zeal for the crusade. He was 
 " of courage and greatness of mind, which made him 
 contemn money and all mean things," and renowned 
 for his humanity to the poor. He tried in the Second 
 Council of Lyons to unite Christendom, East and 
 West, and for a time did so, but his labours were 
 largely lost by his sudden death in 1276'. He was 
 a friend of St. Bonaventura.
 
 Evening 1'niyerJ Psalm CXXXV1U. 
 
 [Day 2$ 
 
 Psalm cxxxviii. 
 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Confitebor tibi. 
 
 I I will give thanks unto ways of the Lord : that great 
 thee, O Lord, with my whole is the glory of the Lord, 
 heart : even before the gods will 6 For though the Lord he 
 
 high, yet hath he respect unto 
 the lowly : as for the proud, he 
 beholdeth them afar off. 
 
 7 Though I walk in the midst 
 of trouble, yet shalt thou re- 
 fresh me : thou shalt stretch 
 forth thy hand upon the furi- 
 ousness of mine enemies, and 
 thy right hand shall save me. 
 
 8 The Lord shall make 
 good his loving - kindness to- 
 ward me : yea, thy mercy, O 
 
 I sing praise unto thee. 
 
 2 I will worship toward thy 
 holy temple, and praise thy 
 Name, because of thy loving- 
 kindness and truth : for thou 
 hast magnified thy Name, and 
 thy Word, above all things. 
 
 3 When I called upon thee, 
 thou heardest me : and en- 
 duedst my 
 
 strength. 
 
 soul with much 
 
 4 All the kings of the earth 
 
 shall praise thee, O Lord : for i Lord, endureth for ever ; de- 
 they have heard the words of spise not then the works of 
 thy mouth. thine own hands. 
 
 5 Yea, they shall sing in the 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass of the Con- 
 version of St. Paul (e). 
 
 Latins. Friday at Vespers ; St. Michael and All 
 Angels. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning. 
 
 St. Augustine connects this psalm with a Christian 
 martyr, St. Crispina, who witnessed a good confession 
 ' before the angels," as he reads the first verse, and 
 whose gladness of heart he describes. ' She sang 
 praises when she was taken up, was charged before 
 the judge, was cast into prison, was exposed in chains, 
 was sent up into the slaves' cage in the market, was
 
 Day 29] Psalm CXXX1X. [Morning Prayer 
 
 tried, and was sentenced. In all this she sang praises, 
 and the wretched thought her wretched, while 
 she was singing praises before the angels." And 
 " where are they ? Who said : Off with the name of 
 Christians from the earth. They must now die or 
 turn. And so Thou didst stretch forth Thy hand upon 
 the furiousness of Thine enemies. Thy right hand 
 hath saved me, but not with temporal salvation. 
 Crispina was slain, but did God desert her ? He saved 
 her not with the left hand but with the right." 
 This story belongs to the last persecution under 
 Maximiii when the Christians nocked to the sacrifice 
 when it was left to individuals, mostly poor and some 
 slaves, to stand for the Faith. The better known 
 Martyrs are SS. Agnes, Vincent, Denys, Cosmas, 
 George, and Alban. 
 
 In Antioch of Syria there was an order of monks, 
 in the days of Eusebius, who were founded to keep 
 up the laus perennis of ceaseless psalmody. Day and 
 night throughout the year the Psalms were chaunted 
 without interruption by relays of these monks. At 
 the end of the fourth century Corbilla, a Syrian monk, 
 probably one of them, founded a similar monastery 011 
 Psalmody Island, in the diocese of Nismes. 
 
 THE TWENTY-NINTH DAY 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cxxxix. 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 Domine, probasti. 
 
 I O Lord, thou hast searched 
 me out, and known me : thou 
 knowest my down-silting, and 
 
 mine up-rising ; thou under- 
 standest my thoughts long 
 before. 
 
 320
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm CXXxix. 
 
 [Day 29 
 
 2 Thou art about my path, 
 and about my bed : and spiest 
 out all my ways. 
 
 3 For lo, there is not a 
 word in my tongue : but thou, 
 
 Lord, knowest it altogether. 
 
 4 Thou hast fashioned me 
 behind and before : and laid 
 thine hand upon me. 
 
 5 Such knowledge is too 
 wonderful and excellent for me : 
 
 1 cannot attain unto it. 
 
 6 Whither shall I go then 
 from thy Spirit : or whither 
 shall I go then from thy pres- 
 ence? 
 
 7 If I climb up into heaven, 
 thou art there : if I go down 
 to hell, thou art there also. 
 
 8 If I take the wings of the 
 morning : and remain in the 
 uttermost parts of the sea ; 
 
 9 Even there also shall thy 
 hand lead me : and thy right 
 hand shall hold me. 
 
 10 If I say, Peradventure the 
 darkness shall cover me : then 
 shall my night be turned to day. 
 
 II Yea, the 
 
 darkness with 
 
 darkness is 
 thee, but 
 
 the 
 
 night is as clear as the day : the 
 darkness and light to thee are 
 both alike. 
 
 12 For my reins are thine 
 thou hast covered me in my 
 mother's womb. 
 
 13 I will give thanks u 
 thee, for I am fearfully anc 
 
 wonderfully made : 
 X 
 
 marvellous 
 
 are thy works, and that my soul 
 cnoweth right well. 
 
 14 My bones are not hid 
 rom thee : though I be made 
 
 secretly, and fashioned beneath 
 n the earth. 
 
 15 Thine eyes did see my 
 substance, yet being imperfect : 
 and in thy book were all my 
 members written ; 
 
 1 6 Which day by day were 
 fashioned : when as yet there 
 was none of them. 
 
 1 7 How dear are thy counsels 
 unto me, O God : O how great 
 is the sum of them ! 
 
 1 8 If I tell them, they are 
 more in number than the sand : 
 when I wake up I am present 
 with thee. 
 
 19 Wilt thou not slay the 
 wicked, O God : depart from 
 me, ye bloodthirsty men. 
 
 20 For they speak unright- 
 eously against thee : and thine 
 enemies take thy Name in vain. 
 
 21 Do not I hate them, O 
 Lord, that hate thee : and am 
 not I grieved with those that 
 rise up against thee ? 
 
 22 Yea, I hate them right 
 sore : even as though they were 
 mine enemies. 
 
 23 Try me, O God, and seek 
 the ground of my heart : prove 
 me, and examine my thoughts. 
 
 24 Look well if there be any 
 way of wickedness in me : and 
 lead me in the way everlasting. 
 
 321
 
 Day 29] Psalm CXXxix. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Latins. Friday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning. 
 
 In many parts of the country there is a good and 
 ancient custom among the old wives, of reading this 
 psalm to women in labour. Our grandmothers and 
 great-grandmothers were no doubt strengthened and 
 calmed by its words in their hours of need and peril. 
 
 It was a favourite psalm of the great Emperor 
 Charlemagne, who had, like many other soldiers, 
 a special devotion to the Holy Ghost. Both the 
 collect, " Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be 
 opened," and the great hymn, Veni Creator (" Come, 
 Holy Ghost, our souls inspire"), are said to have been 
 made by him. They both echo this psalm. 
 
 Vincent iv., Duke of Mantua, founded an order of 
 knights of the Sancreal, who wear a collar of opals 
 with the motto Domine probasti me. 
 
 " I shall conclude my essay " (says Addison, in the 
 Spectator, 7th June 1712) " with observing that the two 
 kinds of hypocrisy I have here spoken of, namely, 
 that of deceiving the world and that of imposing on 
 ourselves, are touched with wonderful beauty in the 
 139th Psalm. The folly of the first kind of hypocrisy 
 is there set forth by reflections on God's omniscience 
 and omnipresence, which are celebrated in as noble 
 strains of poetry as any other I ever met with, either 
 sacred or profane. The other kind of hypocrisy, 
 whereby a man deceives himself, is intimated in the 
 two last verses, where the Psalmist addresses himself 
 to the great Searcher of hearts in that emphatical 
 petition, f Try me,' etc." 
 
 So the Observer (60) : " Where can we meet a 
 more touching description of God's omnipresence and 
 providence than the 139th Psalm?" 
 
 This psalm, with its sacramental teaching about the 
 body, was a great aid to the Tractarians in their 
 combat against the spiritualism which scorns, and the 
 322
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxl. 
 
 [Day 29 
 
 materialism which exalts, the flesh. Newman, 
 Manning, C. Wordsworth, C. Marriott, Pluraptre and 
 others published sermons upon it. Consequently it 
 may be said to have worked great things in that saner, 
 wholesomer teaching which distinguishes, without 
 dividing, the secular and the sacred. 
 
 Verse 9- A favourite verse of the poor missionary 
 Alan Gardiner (vide Ps. xvii.). 
 
 Psalm cxl. 
 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 Eripe me, Domine. 
 i Deliver me, O Lord, from 8 Let not the ungodly have 
 
 the evil man : and preserve me 
 from the wicked man. 
 
 2 Who imagine mischief in 
 their hearts : and stir up strife 
 all the day long. 
 
 3 They have sharpened their 
 tongues like a serpent : adder's 
 
 his desire, O Lord : let not his 
 mischievous imagination prosper, 
 lest they be too proud. 
 
 9 Let the mischief o their 
 own lips fall upon the head 
 of them : that compass me 
 about. 
 
 poison is under their lips. 10 Let hot burning coals fall 
 
 4 Keep me, O Lord, from upon them : let them be cast 
 the hands of the ungodly : pre- > into the fire, and into the pit, 
 serve me from the wicked men, that they never rise up again. 
 
 1 1 A man full of words shall 
 not prosper upon the earth : evil 
 shall hunt the wicked person to 
 
 who are purposed to overthrow 
 my goings. 
 
 5 The proud have laid a 
 snare for me, and spread a net 
 abroad with cords : yea, and 
 set traps in my way, 
 
 overthrow him. 
 
 12 Sure I am that the Lord 
 will avenge the poor : and 
 6 I said unto the Lord, Thou ! maintain the cause of the help- 
 art my God : hear the voice of j less. 
 
 my prayers, O Lord. 
 
 13 The righteous also shall 
 
 7 O Lord God, thou strength i give thanks unto thy Name : 
 of my health : thou hast covered and the just shall continue in 
 
 my head in the day of battle. 
 
 thy sight. 
 3 2 3
 
 Day 29] Psalm Cxi. [Morning Prayer 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to the Mass for St. Matthew's 
 day (e). 
 
 Latins. Friday Vespers ; Maundy Thursday. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning ; Mesorion of the ninth 
 hour. 
 
 This is a psalm which seems to have been rather 
 passed over by Christian people, although it is a cry 
 against social disorders. Martin Luther found in it 
 an abundant consolation, and regarded it as an 
 ardent prayer against the hypocrites, and perhaps 
 thought he saw in it the spirit which caused him to 
 write about the revolt (1524) of the poor peasants who 
 had appealed to him. He replied, " Let the nobles 
 take the sword as the ministers of God's wrath. Let 
 there be no pity. A prince can merit heaven better 
 by bloodshed than by prayers. Stab, smite, destroy." 
 
 "The Nicolaitans, Gnostics, and Manichaeans," says 
 Philostratus, "denied David altogether to be a 
 prophet ; and Paul of Samosata suppressed the 
 Psalms and those hymns which the Christians sang 
 in praise of Christ. He wished to substitute poems 
 in his own honour, it was said." 
 
 Professor Robertson Smith, who thought it a question 
 more curious than important, whether David had a 
 hand in any of the Psalms, was yet " unable to fit in 
 any with his life"; but Professor Kirkpatrick, in his 
 summary of critical work, applauded by Dr. Salmond 
 in the Critical Review, still assigns " the foundation of 
 the Psalter to David." 
 
 Verse 7. Mr. Gladstone found comfort and support 
 in this verse in the Oxford contest of 1847, when he 
 was returned for the University as a supporter of Sir 
 Robert Peel. 
 
 3 2 4
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxli. 
 
 [Day 29 
 
 Psalm cxli. 
 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Domine, clamavi. 
 
 1 Lord, I call upon thee, 
 haste thee unto me : and con- 
 sider my voice when I cry unto 
 thee. 
 
 2 Let my prayer be set forth 
 in thy sight as the incense : and 
 let the lifting up of my hands be 
 an evening sacrifice. 
 
 3 Set a watch, O Lord, before 
 my mouth : and keep the door 
 of my lips. 
 
 4 O let not mine heart be in- 
 clined to any evil thing : let me 
 not be occupied in ungodly 
 works with the men that work 
 wickedness, lest I eat of such 
 things as please them. 
 
 5 Let the righteous rather 
 smite me friendly : and reprove 
 me. 
 
 6 But let not their precious 
 
 balms break my head : yea, I 
 will pray yet against their 
 wickedness. 
 
 7 Let their judges be over- 
 thrown in stony places : that 
 they may hear my words, for 
 they are sweet. 
 
 8 Our bones lie scattered be- 
 fore the pit : like as when one 
 breaketh and heweth wood upon 
 the earth. 
 
 9 But mine eyes look unto 
 thee, O Lord God : in- thee is 
 my trust, O cast not out my soul. 
 
 10 Keep me from the snare 
 that they have laid for me : and 
 from the traps of the wicked 
 doers. 
 
 11 Let the ungodly fall into 
 their own nets together : and 
 let me ever escape them. 
 
 Liturgical -use. Introit for St. Mark's Mass (e). 
 
 Latins. Friday Vespers ; Maundy Thursday. 
 
 d reeks. Friday morning; Daily evensong. 
 
 This has been called the Evening hymn of Early 
 Christendom. It seems to have been in daily use in 
 the African Church. 
 
 /Yr.sr.v 1, :>, finil 4. The words used for censing the 
 altar. The Christian use of incense dates from the 
 catacombs, where sweet gums had to be burnt, as 
 disinfectants, and alludes to Isaiah vi. 4 and Revela- 
 tion viii. 
 
 325
 
 Day 29] Psalm Cxlii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Verse 3. This was and is the last verse of the last 
 service of the day (Compline) for the Benedictine 
 monks, after which silence is straitly enjoined upon 
 all. 
 
 Verse 6. This furnished St. Cyprian with one of his 
 arguments against the baptism of heretics and their 
 unction being valid. This Seventh Council (256) was 
 heretical. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cxlii. 
 
 Maschil of David ; A Prayer when he was in the cave. 
 
 Voce mea ad Dominum. 
 I I cried unto the Lord with j and no man cared for my 
 
 my voice : yea, even unto the 
 Lord did I make my supplica- 
 
 tion. 
 
 2 I poured out my complaints 
 before him : and showed him of 
 my trouble. 
 
 3 When my spirit was in 
 
 soul. 
 
 6 I cried unto thee, O Lord, 
 and said : Thou art my hope, 
 and my portion in the land of 
 the living. 
 
 7 Consider my complaint : for 
 I am brought very low. 
 
 heaviness thou knewest my i 8 O deliver me from my per- 
 path : in the way wherein I j secutors : for they are too strong 
 walked have they privily laid for me. 
 
 a snare for me. 9 Bring my soul out of prison, 
 
 4 I looked also upon my right j that I may give thanks unto thy 
 
 hand : and saw there was no 
 man that would know me. 
 5 I had no place to flee unto : 
 
 Name : which thing if thou wilt 
 grant me, then shall the righteous 
 resort unto my company. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to St. Barnaby's Mass (e). 
 Latins. Friday Vespers ; Maundy Thursday. 
 Greeks. Friday morning ; Daily evensong. 
 On 4-th October 1226 A.D., St. Francis of Assisi was 
 dying, naked, upon the bare earth. 
 326
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm cxlifi. 
 
 [Day 29 
 
 " At last, though Death he saw and felt him full strong, 
 Voce me A he began, one psalm of evensong ; 
 And said forth the same all out, and held up his hands on 
 
 high, 
 And with the last word of the same, he began to die ! " 
 
 South English Legendary, 
 
 This was the favourite psalm of Sir Walter's nephew, 
 Walter Raleigh, Dean of Wells, who was barbarously 
 murdered in his own house by his Roundhead gaoler, 
 1646. His remains, edited by Simon Patrick, contain 
 his last meditation on this psalm. The murderer was 
 acquitted. 
 
 Verse 9. In 1548 the learned Protestant Beza 
 (Theodore) was sick with a sore disease, which his 
 conscience told him was a punishment come upon 
 him for having " privately married " his wife. He 
 prayed this prayer to God, and was restored. He 
 then honourably and openly married her. 
 
 Psalm cxliii. 
 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 Domine, exaudi. 
 
 1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, 
 and consider my desire : hearken 
 unto me for thy truth and 
 righteousness' sake. 
 
 2 And enter not into judge- 
 ment with thy servant : for in 
 thy sight shall no man living be 
 justified. 
 
 3 For the enemy hath perse- 
 cuted my soul ; he hath smitten 
 my life down to the ground : he 
 hath laid me in the darkness, as 
 
 the men that have been long 
 dead. 
 
 4 Therefore is my spirit vexed 
 within me : and my heart with- 
 in me is desolate. 
 
 5 Yet do I remember the 
 time past ; I muse upon all thy 
 works : yea, I exercise myself 
 in the works of thy hands. 
 
 6 I stretch forth my hands 
 unto thee : my soul gaspeth unto 
 thee as a thirsty land. 
 
 3 2 7
 
 Day 29] 
 
 Psalm Cxliil. [Evening Prayer 
 
 7 Hear me, O Lord, and that 
 soon, for my spirit waxeth faint : 
 hide not thy face from me, lest 
 I be like unto them that go down 
 into the pit. 
 
 8 O let me hear thy loving- 
 kindness betimes in the morn- 
 ing, for in thee is my trust : 
 shew thou me the way that I 
 should walk in, for I lift up my 
 soul unto thee. 
 
 9 Deliver me, O Lord, from 
 mine enemies : for I flee unto 
 thee to hide me. 
 
 10 Teach me to do the thing 
 that pleaseth thee, for thou art 
 my God : let thy loving Spirit 
 lead me forth into the land of 
 righteousness. 
 
 11 Quicken me, O Lord, for 
 thy Name's sake : and for thy 
 righteousness' sake bring my 
 soul out of trouble. 
 
 12 And of thy goodness slay 
 mine enemies : and destroy all 
 them that vex my soul ; for I 
 am thy servant. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for the Mass on the Nativity 
 of St. John Baptist (e) ; Ash Wednesday. 
 
 Latins. Friday, Lauds. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning ; Dawn ; The late even- 
 song ; and also in Lent. 
 
 This is the seventh penitential psalm (these are vi., 
 xxxii., xxxviii., li., cii., cxxx., and cxliii.), and an anti- 
 dote to the deadly sin of Sloth or Indifference. 
 
 Charles the Good, Count of Flanders, was slain at 
 the Lady Altar, as he recited this psalm, 2nd March 
 1127. 
 
 One of Gerson's prayers contains this sentence : 
 " Grant me, O Lord, that this sevenfold group of 
 penitential psalms may be a remedy against the seven- 
 fold group of deadly sins, and help to the sevenfold 
 group of the principal virtues, and the sevenfold group 
 of spiritual gifts, to the sevenfold beatitudes, and to 
 the seven petitions contained in the Lord's Prayer " 
 (ob. 1429). 
 
 While Bilney (little Bilney and Saint Bilney, as his 
 pupil Latimer calls him) was taken to be burnt in the 
 Lollards' pit near Norwich, he ended his prayers with 
 this psalm, repeating the second verse in deep medi-
 
 Morning Prayer] Psalm Cxliv. 
 
 [Day 30 
 
 tation thrice, and so was burnt. His protest had been 
 made, not apparently against any vital principle of the 
 Church, but against pilgrimages, trust in the cowl of 
 St. Francis, and prayers to saints and images. He 
 was burnt on Saturday, l6th April 1534. 
 
 THE THIRTIETH DAY 
 
 MORNING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cxliv. 
 
 Benedictus Dominus. 
 A Psalm of David. 
 
 1 Blessed be the Lord my 
 strength : who teacheth my 
 hands to war, and my fingers to 
 fight; 
 
 2 My hope and my fortress, 
 my castle and deliverer, my de- 
 fender in whom I trust : who 
 subdueth my people that is 
 under me. 
 
 3 Lord, what is man, that 
 thou hast such respect unto him : 
 or the son of man, that thou so 
 regardest him ? 
 
 4 Man is like a thing of 
 nought : his time passeth away 
 like a shadow. 
 
 5 Bow thy heavens, O Lord, 
 and come down : touch the 
 mountains, and they shall 
 smoke. 
 
 6 Cast forth thy lightning, 
 and tear them : shoot out thine 
 arrows, and consume them. 
 
 7 Send down thine hand from 
 above : deliver me, and take me 
 out of the great waters, from 
 the hand of strange children ; 
 
 8 Whose mouth talketh of 
 vanity : and their right hand is 
 a right hand of wickedness. 
 
 9 I will sing a new song unto 
 thee, O God : and sing praises 
 unto thee upon a ten-stringed 
 lute. 
 
 10 Thou hast given victory 
 unto kings : and hast delivered 
 David thy servant from the 
 peril of the sword. 
 
 11 Save me, and deliver me 
 from the hand of strange chil- 
 dren : whose mouth talketh of 
 vanity, and their right hand is a 
 right hand of iniquity. 
 
 12 That our sons may grow 
 up as the young plants : and 
 that our daughters may be us 
 
 329
 
 Day 30] 
 
 Psalm cxliv. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 the polished corners of the 
 temple. 
 
 13 That our garners may be 
 full and plenteous with all 
 manner of store : that our sheep 
 may bring forth thousands and 
 ten thousands in our streets. 
 
 14 That our oxen may be 
 
 strong to labour, that there be 
 no decay : no leading into cap- 
 tivity, and no complaining in 
 our streets. 
 
 15 Happy are the people that 
 are in such a case : yea, blessed 
 are the people who have the 
 Lord for their God. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit to St. Peter's Mass (e). 
 
 Latins. Saturday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning. 
 
 Benedictus Dominus Deus meus. A not uncommon 
 sword motto, alluding to the whole psalm, which is 
 one of the war psalms. St. Bernard made much use 
 of it, when he preached the Crusades. It was his 
 exhortation to the Templars. 
 
 In 1214 was fought the critical battle of Bou vines 
 by Philip Augustus of France against Otho of 
 Germany and John of England. At the first sound 
 of the trumpets two royal chaplains in the French 
 army raised this psalm. The victory was everywhere 
 with the French arms. Otho retired to Brunswick, 
 and John to his disaffected subjects in England. In 
 so far as this prayer gave Philip victory, it gave us 
 Magna Charta. 
 
 Verse 3. Richard Baxter on his death-bed admired 
 the Divine condescension to us, often saying : " Lord, 
 what is man ? What am I, vile worm, to the Great 
 God ? " 
 
 Verse 4. The dial motto of St. Brelade, Jersey, is 
 " L'homme est semblable a la vanite : ses jours soiit 
 comme une ombre qui passe." 
 
 Verse 7. This was the text of courteous Bishop 
 Bedell's last sermon. He had just been released from 
 captivity by the Irish rebels of 1641. He trans- 
 lated our Prayer Book into Italian, and had it 
 translated into Irish. He was a great reformer of 
 330
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxlv. 
 
 [Day 30 
 
 the Irish Church, and that not only in his see of 
 Kilmore. 
 
 Verse 15. The Syriac version puts a question after 
 the word case, and instead of yea reads nay, refusing 
 to think that temporal prosperity follows true faith. 
 
 Psalm cxlv. 
 
 Exaltabo te, Deus. 
 David's Psalm of praise. 
 
 1 I will magnify thee, O God, 
 my King : and I will praise thy 
 Name for ever and ever. 
 
 2 Every day will I give thanks 
 unto thee : and praise thy Name 
 for ever and ever. 
 
 3 Great is the Lord, and 
 marvellous, worthy to be praised : 
 there is no end of his greatness. 
 
 4 One generation shall praise 
 thy works unto another : and 
 declare thy power. 
 
 5 As for me, I will be talking 
 of thy worship : thy glory, thy 
 praise, and wondrous works ; 
 
 6 So that men shall speak of 
 the might of thy marvellous acts : 
 and I will also tell of thy great- 
 ness. 
 
 7 The memorial of thine 
 abundant kindness shall be 
 shewed : and men shall sing of 
 thy righteousness. 
 
 8 The Lord is gracious, and 
 merciful : long-suffering, and of 
 great goodness. 
 
 9 The Lord is loving unto 
 
 every man : and his mercy is 
 over all his works. 
 
 10 All thy works praise thee, 
 O Lord : and thy saints give 
 thanks unto thee. 
 
 11 They shew the glory of 
 thy kingdom : and talk of thy 
 power ; 
 
 12 That thy power, thy glory, 
 and mightiness of thy kingdom : 
 might be known unto men. 
 
 13 Thy kingdom is an ever- 
 lasting kingdom : and thy 
 dominion endureth throughout 
 all ages. 
 
 14 The Lord upholdeth all 
 such as fall : and lifteth up all 
 those that are down. 
 
 15 The eyes of all wait upon 
 thee, O Lord : and thou givest 
 them their meat in due season. 
 
 1 6 Thou openest thine hand : 
 and fillest all things living with 
 plenteousness. 
 
 17 The Lord is righteous in 
 all his ways : and holy in all his 
 works. 
 
 331
 
 Day 30] 
 
 Psalm cxlv. 
 
 [Morning Prayer 
 
 1 8 The Lord is nigh unto all 
 them that call upon him : yea, 
 all such as call upon him faith- 
 fully. 
 
 19 lie will fulfil the desire of 
 them that fear him : he also will 
 hear their cry, and will help 
 them. 
 
 20 The Lord preserveth all 
 them that love him : but 
 scattereth abroad all the un- 
 godly. 
 
 21 My mouth shall speak the 
 praise of the Lord : and let all 
 flesh give thanks unto his holy 
 Name for ever and ever. 
 
 Liturgical use. Whit Sunday evening. 
 
 Latins. Saturday at Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning. 
 
 This psalm must have been in Milton's mind when he 
 wrote the last speech of Adam, the exile, in " Paradise 
 Lost." 
 
 ' ' Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best, 
 And love with fear the only God, to walk 
 As in His presence, ever to observe 
 His providence and on Him sole depend, 
 Merciful over all His works, with good 
 Still overcoming evil, and by small 
 Accomplishing great things, by things deemed weak 
 Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise 
 By simply meek ; that suffering for truth's sake 
 Is fortitude to highest victory, 
 And to the faithful Death the Gate of Life : 
 Taught this by His example, whom I now 
 Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest." 
 
 Verse 9- Dear old Dr. Johnson wrote a sermon on 
 this verse on gratitude to God, which his friend Dr. 
 Henry Taylor preached. 
 
 Verse \'i. The Cathedral of Damascus is now a 
 mosque, but this legend is still to be read in Greek 
 upon its walls, 'H ^Sao-iXtia XpiVre /?acri/Wa TTCIJ/TCOJ/ TWV 
 alwvwv (" Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting 
 kingdom "), in sure and certain hope of a joyful resur- 
 rection. 
 
 332
 
 Morning Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cxlvi. 
 
 [Day 30 
 
 Verse 15. This verse led to the psalm being used 
 for the converts' communion in the fourth century. 
 A general grace before meat in colleges and monas- 
 teries was and largely is Oculi omnium in te sperant 
 Domine et tu das escam illorum in tempore opportuno. 
 . Incris tu manum tuam et imples omne animal benedictione. 
 
 Psalm cxlvi. 
 
 Lauda, anima mea. 
 
 1 Praise the Lord, O my 
 soul ; while I live will I praise 
 the Lord : yea, as long as I 
 have any being, I will sing 
 praises unto my God. 
 
 2 O put not your trust in 
 princes, nor in any child of man : 
 for there is no help in them. 
 
 6 Who helpcth them to right 
 that suffer wrong : who feedeth 
 the hungry. 
 
 7 The Lord looseth men out 
 of prison : the Lord giveth sight 
 to the blind. 
 
 8 The Lord helpeth them 
 that are fallen : the Lord careth 
 for the righteous. 
 
 9 The Lord careth for the 
 strangers ; he defendeth the 
 fatherless and widow : as for 
 the way of the ungodly, he 
 turneth it upside down. 
 
 10 The Lord thy God, O 
 Sion, shall be King for ever- 
 more : and throughout all 
 generations. 
 
 3 For when the breath of 
 man goeth forth he shall turn 
 again to his earth : and then all 
 his thoughts perish. 
 
 4 Blessed is he that hath the 
 God of Jacob for his help : and 
 whose hope is in the Lord his 
 God; 
 
 5 Who made heaven and 
 earth, the sea, and all that 
 therein is : who keepeth his 
 promise for ever ; 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for St. Mary Magdalen's 
 Mass (e). 
 
 Latins. Saturday Vespers. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning. 
 
 A dirge psalm (see Ps. v.). 
 
 In 16^1 the Protestant leader, Andrew Willet, of 
 Cambridge and Kly, was thrown from his horse and 
 
 333
 
 Day 30] 
 
 Psalm Cxlvii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 broke his leg. He was carried to a bone-setter's and 
 had it attended to. When it was set he leaned 
 on his staff' and repeated " the most sweet psalm," 
 dwelling especially on the eighth verse ; then suddenly 
 fainted away and died. 
 
 Verse 2. Aptly quoted by Straffbrd, when he heard 
 that his master. King Charles \., had thrown him to 
 the wolves, by signing the Bill of Attainder. 
 
 Verses 3 to 5. This was the text of William Wake's 
 sermon on Queen Mary n. in 1694. This learned 
 divine, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, nearly 
 concluded an arrangement of intercommunion with 
 the Gallican Church (1657-1737). 
 
 Verse 7. The motto of the Trinitarian friars of 
 Mottingden, Kent, who raised money to ransom 
 Christian captives from the Saracens. 
 
 EVENING PRAYER 
 
 Psalm cxlvii. 
 
 Laudate Dominum. 
 
 1 O praise the Lord, for it is a 
 good thing to sing praises unto 
 our God : yea, a joyful and 
 pleasant thing it is to be thank- 
 ful. 
 
 2 The Lord doth build up 
 Jerusalem : and gather together 
 the outcasts of Israel. 
 
 3 He healeth those that are 
 broken in heart : and giveth 
 medicine to heal their sickness. 
 
 4 He telleth the number of 
 the stars : and calleth them all 
 by their names. 
 
 5 Great is our Lord, and 
 
 great is his power : yea, and 
 his wisdom is infinite. 
 
 6 The Lord setteth up the 
 meek : and bringeth the un- 
 godly down to the ground. 
 
 7 O sing unto the Lord with 
 thanksgiving : sing praises upon 
 the harp unto our God. 
 
 8 Who covereth the heaven 
 with clouds, and prepareth rain 
 for the earth : and maketh 
 the grass to grow upon the 
 mountains, and herb for the 
 use of men ; 
 
 9 Who giveth fodder unto the 
 
 334
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Cxlvii. 
 
 [Day 30 
 
 cattle : and feedeth the young 
 ravens that call upon him. 
 
 10 He hath no pleasure in 
 the strength of an horse : neither 
 delighteth he in any man's legs. 
 
 11 But the Lord's delight is 
 in them that fear him : and put 
 their trust in his mercy. 
 
 12 Praise the Lord, O Jeru- 
 salem : praise thy God, O Sion. 
 
 13 For he hath made fast 
 the bars of thy gates : and 
 hath blessed thy children within 
 thee. 
 
 14 He maketh peace in thy 
 borders : and filleth thee with 
 the flour of wheat. 
 
 15 He sendeth forth his 
 
 commandment upon earth : and 
 his word runneth very swiftly. 
 
 1 6 He giveth snow like 
 wool : and scattereth the hoar- 
 frost like ashes. 
 
 17 He casteth forth his ice 
 like morsels : who is able to 
 abide his frost ? 
 
 18 He sendeth out his word, 
 and melteth them : he bloweth 
 with his wind, and the waters 
 flow. 
 
 19 He sheweth his word unto 
 Jacob : his statutes and ordin- 
 ances unto Israel. 
 
 20 He hath not dealt so with 
 any nation : neither have the 
 heathen knowledge of his laws. 
 
 of 
 
 Latins. Saturday at Vespers ; Dedication 
 Church (vers. 12-20); Feasts of Our Lady. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning. 
 
 Verse 4. A favourite verse of Sir Thomas Browne, 
 the author of Religio Medici. 
 
 Verse 8. " Look up to the higher hills, where the 
 waves of green roll silently into long inlets among 
 the shadow of the pines, and we may perhaps know 
 the meaning of those quiet words of the 147th Psalm, 
 ' He maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains 
 (Ruskin). 
 
 " Here is a nation," says Dean Church, " certainly 
 rude and fierce, certainly behind its neighbours in 
 the arts of life, in the activity and enterprise of 
 intelligence which lead to knowledge, to subtlety or 
 width of thought, or to the sense and creation of 
 beauty, and described in its own records as beset with 
 incorrigible tendencies to the coarsest irreligion and 
 degeneracy. Are we not constantly told that the 
 335
 
 Day 30] 
 
 Psalm Cxlviii. [Evening Prayer 
 
 songs of a people reflect its character ; that a religion, 
 in its idea of God, reflects its worshippers ? What 
 sort of character is reflected in the Psalms ? They 
 come to us from a people, like their neighbours, 
 merciless and bloody ; yet they are full of love and 
 innocence and mercy. They come from a people 
 whose deep sins and wrong-doing are recorded by 
 their own writers ; yet the Psalms breathe the hunger 
 and thirst of the soul after righteousness. They 
 come from a race still in the rude childhood of the 
 world ; yet they express the thoughts about God and 
 duty, and about the purpose and reward of human 
 life, which are those of the most refined, the gentlest, 
 the most saintly, the most exalted, whom the ages of 
 the woi'ld have ever seen, down to its latest." 
 
 Psalm cxlviii. 
 
 Laudate Dominum. 
 
 I O praise the Lord of 
 
 ever and ever : he hath given 
 
 heaven : praise him in the 
 
 them a law which shall not be 
 
 height. 
 
 broken. 
 
 2 Praise him, all ye angels of 
 
 7 Praise the Lord upon earth : 
 
 his : praise him, all his host. 
 
 ye dragons, and all deeps ; 
 
 3 Praise him, sun and moon : 
 
 8 Fire and hail, snow and 
 
 praise him, all ye stars and 
 
 vapours: wind and storm, ful- 
 
 light. 
 
 filling his word ; 
 
 4 Praise him, all ye heavens : 
 
 9 Mountains and all hills : 
 
 and ye waters that are above 
 
 fruitful trees and all cedars ; 
 
 the heavens. 
 
 10 Beasts and all cattle : 
 
 5 Let them praise the Name 
 
 worms and feathered fowls ; 
 
 of the Lord : for he spake the 
 
 1 1 Kings of the earth and all 
 
 word, and they were made ; he 
 
 people : princes and all judges 
 
 commanded, and they were 
 
 of the world ; 
 
 created. 
 
 12 Young men and maidens, 
 
 6 He hath made them fast for j old men and children, praise 
 33 6
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm Cxlvili. 
 
 [Day 30 
 
 the Name of the Lord : for his 
 Name only is excellent, and his 
 praise above heaven and earth. 
 13 He shall exalt the horn 
 
 of his people ; all his saints 
 shall praise him : even the 
 children of Israel, even the 
 people that serveth him. 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for St. James's Mass (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Lauds ; At burial of children, on 
 the way to church and to the grave. 
 
 Greeks Friday morning ; Dawn ; Burial of priests. 
 
 Perhaps St. Francis derived his hymn of all 
 creatures from this psalm. In it he calls all creation 
 to bless God (propter honorabilem fratrem nostrum soleni) 
 for our noble brother the Sun, etc. 
 
 Verses 1 and 2. St. Bernard's brother Gerard died 
 with these words of triumph. " At that moment, my 
 brother, day dawned on thee, though it was night for 
 us. Just as I reached his side I heard him utter 
 aloud those words of Christ, Pater in manus titas. 
 Then repeating the verse over again, and resting on 
 the word ' Father ! Father ! ' he turned to me and, 
 smiling, said, ' O how gracious of God to be the 
 Father of men, and what an honour for men to be His 
 children ! ' ' 
 
 Verse 2. The " Angel Psalms " are viii., xxxiv., 
 xxxv., Ixviii., Ixxviii., xci., ciii., civ., and this one. 
 The Angelicals are divided into three choirs and nine 
 orders. The Contemplative Choir is made up of 
 Seraphim, who love God ; Cherubim, who know Him ; 
 and Thrones, who upbear God in His glory. The 
 Middle Choir consists of Dominations, who order the 
 stars ; Virtues, who uphold qualities ; and Powers, 
 who hold evil spirits in leashes. Below these are 
 Principalities, who keep us human ; Archangels, who 
 guard our nationality and our Church ; and Angels, 
 who maintain our individuality, and set our soul's 
 food before us, and bring us at last to the judgment. 
 
 337
 
 Day 3] Psalm CxllX. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Psalm cxlix. 
 
 Cantate Domino. 
 
 I O sing unto the Lord a \ glory : let them rejoice in their 
 new song : let the congregation beds. 
 
 of saints praise him. 
 
 6 Let the praises of God be 
 
 2 Let Israel rejoice in him in their mouth : and a two-edged 
 that made him : and let the sword in their hands ; 
 
 7 To be avenged of the 
 heathen : and to rebuke the 
 people ; 
 
 8 To bind their kings in 
 chains : and their nobles with 
 links of iron. 
 
 9 That they may be avenged 
 of them, as it is written : Such 
 honour have all his saints. 
 
 children of Sion be joyful in 
 their King. 
 
 3 Let them praise his Name 
 in the dance : let them sing 
 praises unto him with tabret and 
 harp. 
 
 4 For the Lord hath pleasure 
 in his people : and helpeth the 
 meek-hearted. 
 
 5 Let the saints be joyful with 
 
 Liturgical use. Introit for Hallowmas (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Lauds ; Burial of children, between 
 the house and church, and the church and grave. 
 
 Greeks. Friday morning ; Dawn ; Burial of priests. 
 
 In 483, when the Vandals were laying waste the 
 African Church, four thousand nine hundred and 
 seventy-six of the Numidian clergy were banished by 
 these Arian persecutors into the deserts. As they 
 were lashed through the towns and villages, they 
 raised the joyful chaunt of Cantate Domiiiuni. The 
 reason for their choice will be seen, as usual, by looking 
 at the liturgical use of this psalm. The beds they 
 rejoiced in were the many mansions of their Father's 
 house, as St. Augustine taught them, and the political 
 battle against the Arians was summed up in his 
 comment on the last clauses of the psalm, Volml 
 Christ us prodesse imperatori de piscatore, HOW piscatori de 
 imperatore " It is Christ's will to help the Emperor 
 by the fisherman, not the fisherman by the Emperor." 
 338
 
 Evening Prayer] 
 
 Psalm cl. 
 
 [Day 30 
 
 This war psalm was used by Caspar Sciopius to 
 rouse the Romanist princes to the Thirty Years' War, 
 as it had been by Thomas Munzer to rouse the 
 peasants in the great German Jacquerie, which 
 followed in the wake of the Reformation. 
 
 Ferses 5 and 6. A curious use of these verses, and 
 the next psalm, is given by Alexander Neckan, foster- 
 brother of Richard i. They are a charm against 
 the flying and the travelling evil, or, as we should 
 say, contagion and epidemics. If this were mere 
 superstition, at least it was not as harmful as the 
 superstitious use made of this psalm by the fanatics of 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 
 Verse 5. This verse suggested to Richard Baxter 
 and Margaret, his wife, their habit of singing psalms 
 in bed the last thing at night and the first in the 
 morning. They probably used Baxter's own "far 
 from contemptible version " ; but at last were driven 
 out of the practice by the derision of the neighbouring 
 wags. 
 
 Psalm cl. 
 
 Laudate Dominum. 
 
 1 O praise God in his holi- 
 ness : praise him in the firma- 
 ment of his power. 
 
 2 Praise him in his noble 
 acts : praise him according to 
 his excellent greatness. 
 
 3 Praise him in the sound of 
 the trumpet : praise him upon 
 the lute and harp. 
 
 Liturgical use, Introit to the Mass for SS. Simon 
 and Jude (e). 
 
 Latins. Daily at Lauds ; Burial of children, on the 
 road to church, and from church to the grave. 
 339 
 
 4 Praise him in the cymbals 
 and dances : praise him upon 
 the strings and pipe. 
 
 5 Praise him upon the well- 
 tuned cymbals : praise him upon 
 the loud cymbals. 
 
 6 Let every thing that hath 
 breath : praise the Lord.
 
 Day 30] Psalm cl. [Evening Prayer 
 
 Greeks. Friday evening ; Late evensong ; Burial of 
 priests. 
 
 It is thanks to this psalm above others that the use 
 of instrumental music has been continuously preserved 
 in the Church, although some of the severer Fathers 
 looked upon it with distrust. It is one of the psalms 
 in which not only Christian musicians, but artists of 
 all kinds, delight. Fra Angelico, for instance, so often 
 refers to it that we may call it his favourite psalm. 
 His well-known Angels of the Tabernacle, the dances 
 of the blessed, in the " Day of Judgment," and the 
 musical instruments in the Uffizzi Madonna, are 
 instances. Orcagna's " Day of Judgment," Raphael's 
 " St. Cecilia," and countless other pictures, illustrate 
 the same. To this day in Seville ten little boys dance 
 before the altar in the Cathedral in direct reference 
 to verse 4. The word "pipe" in the same verse is 
 in the Latin and Greek versions " organ," and the 
 organ was used even in the catacomb services, and in 
 St. Augustine's time, though perhaps not north of 
 the Alps till the eighth century. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria once tried to explain away 
 this psalm into an allegory of the human body : the 
 tongue being the lute, the face the harp, the lips 
 cymbals, and so on. He could not bear to think of 
 the Church using what had excited the heathen to 
 lust or war. 
 
 Verse 1. Laudate Dominum is one bell motto, and 
 " Praise God " is another in Fotheringay Church, 1595. 
 
 Verse 6. Oinnis spirit us laudef Dominum is the sundial 
 motto of Great Smeaton Church, Yorks. 
 
 After the desolation of the Huns, the Danube 
 provinces were recalled to order and discipline by a 
 strange prophet, St. Severinus, who so re-inspired the 
 people that the Roman fortresses petitioned for his 
 presence in turn among them. He was a valiant 
 and vigorous man, who by his contempt of comfort 
 340
 
 Evening Prayer] Psalm cl. [Day 30 
 
 recalled the legionaries to something of their old 
 manliness. 
 
 On 1st January 482 he came to his last hours. He 
 summoned the monks around him and embraced them 
 one by one. He then cheerfully partook of the 
 Lord's body, and desired them not to weep but to 
 sing psalms. As they were unable to do so, he began 
 himself to sing Laudate Dominum, and the last words 
 of the psalm were his own last words on earth. 
 
 Xaus 2>eo. 
 
 34*
 
 INDEX 
 
 The numbers refer to the Psalms. 
 
 Abolutionists, 10. 
 
 Abraham, 89. 
 
 Adam, 40, 92. 
 
 Addison, 19, 23, 139. 
 
 .'Klfric, 25, 26, 51. 
 
 Agincourt, 114. 
 
 St. Agnes, no. 
 
 Albertus Magnus, 28, 58. 
 
 Alcuin, 32. 
 
 Aldhelm, 51, 68. 
 
 Alexander III., 91. 
 
 Alfred, 65, 72. 
 
 Allegri, 51. 
 
 Almshouses, 112. 
 
 Alphabetical psalms, 119 (i). 
 
 Alstree, 102. 
 
 St. Ambrose, 6, 7, 19, 36, 39, 
 
 43, 44, 64, 68, ii9(ver. 25). 
 Anastasius IV., 17. 
 St. Anastasius, 6. 
 Andrewes, 21, 82, 85. 
 Andronicus, 68. 
 Angelico, Fra, 150. 
 Angelo, 140. 
 St. Anno, 112. 
 St. Anselm, 27, 53. 
 St. Anthony, 9, 20, 68. 
 Anti-slavery, n. 
 Aquinas, St. Thomas, 17, 53, 59, 
 
 84, 102, 132. 
 Arcadius, 119 (73). 
 
 Argyle, 74. 
 
 Arians, 45, 48, 119 (160). 
 
 Armada, 3, 21, 66, 76. 
 
 Arnold, M., 49, 77, 97. 
 
 Arnold, T., 30, 51, 121. 
 
 Arthur, King, 31. 
 
 Arundel, Lady, 46. 
 
 Ascension, 8, u, 15, 19, 21, 24, 
 30, 47, 93, 97, 99, 103, 108, 
 117. 
 
 Ash Wednesday : see " Peni- 
 tential." 
 
 Aske, R., 74. 
 
 Askewe, 54. 
 
 Asperges, 51. 
 
 Asterius, 5- 
 
 St. Athanasius, I, 2, 5, 45, 48, 
 62, 79. 
 
 Atheism, 14. 
 
 Atterbury, 30, 50. 
 
 Attwood, 90. 
 
 St. Augustine, C., 84. 
 
 St. Augustine, H., I, 4, 12, 22, 
 32, 33, 73, 79, 87, 101, 119 
 (33, 137). 
 
 St. Babylas, 96. 
 
 Bacon, 14, 101, 104, 120. 
 
 Baker, H., 23. 
 
 Baker, R., 23, 119 (97). 
 
 Balbus, 20. 
 
 343
 
 Index 
 
 Baldwin, 118. 
 
 St. Balsamus, 27, 115. 
 
 " Barnard's Verses," 13. 
 
 Barrington, 2. 
 
 Barrow, I., 19, 64. 
 
 Bartholomew, Bishop, 94. 
 
 Bartholomew massacre, 114. 
 
 St. Basil, Mag., 1,7, 15, 29, 
 
 Bauhinus, 104. 
 
 Baxter, 2, 91, 144, 149. 
 
 Bayard, 51. 
 
 Beauchamp, 16. 
 
 Becket, 27, 48, 119 (23). 
 
 Bede, 24, 42, 53, 113. 
 
 Bedell, 2, 3, 144. 
 
 Bellarmine, I, 91. 
 
 Bells, 19, 34, 115, 150. 
 
 Benedict, 42. 
 
 St. Benedict, A., 37. 
 
 St. Benedict Biscop, 83. 
 
 Berkeley, 8. 
 
 St. Bernard, 12, 13, 36, 51, 
 
 107, 116, 118, 128. 
 De Berulle, 9. 
 Beveridge, i. 
 Beza, 64, 142. 
 Bilney, 143. 
 Blackmore, 64. 
 Black Prince, 7, 28, 121. 
 Blake, 85. 
 Blenheim, 20. 
 St. Bonaventura, I, 17, 76. 
 St. Boniface, 6, 69. 
 Bosanquet, M., 27. 
 Bou vines, 144. 
 Boy-bishop, 91. 
 Brady, 34. 
 Brama, 109. 
 Bramhall, 44. 
 Brandano, 127. 
 Brian, 51. 
 Bristol, Ld., 137. 
 Browne, G., 119 (i 8). 
 Browne, T., 2, 147. 
 Browning, E. B., 127. 
 Browning R., 39, 55, 68. 
 
 Bunyan, 119 (54). 
 Burial psalms, 23, 24, 39, 51, 
 84, 90, 91, 113, 116, 119, 
 130, 139, 146, 148, 149, 150. 
 , Burleigh, 55. 
 Burnet, 22. 
 Burns, 90. 
 31. Burton, H., 53. 
 
 Burton, R., I, 119 (140). 
 | Butchers' Company, 8. 
 Butler, 36. 
 Buxton, 126. 
 Byrom, 23. 
 Byzantine wars, 20. 
 
 I Caesarius, 34, 89. 
 1 Caird, 53. 
 1 Calmet, 64. 
 
 Calvin, 6, 13, 39. 
 
 Calvinists, 47, 6l, 97. 
 91, Campion, 31. 
 
 Canterbury, St. Thomas, 37, 
 48, 119(23). 
 
 Capgrave, 7, 45, 51. 
 
 Caravans, 119. 
 
 Carlyle, T-, 6. 
 
 Carlyle, T., 21, 72, 84. 
 
 Carnovale, Fra, 91. 
 1 Casaubon, 92. 
 ! Cassian, 5. 
 
 Catharine de Medici, 6. 
 
 Cavendish, 39. 
 
 Cealchythe, 15. 
 
 Celestine I., 43. 
 
 Cellini, 40. 
 
 Cenci, B., 130. 
 
 St. Chad, 18. 
 
 Chalice motto, 116. 
 
 Charlemagne 2, 4, 13, 26, 68, 
 H9(78), 139- 
 
 Charles the Bad, II. 
 
 Charles Edward, 55. 
 
 Charles I., 9, 52, 56, 83. 
 
 Charles v., 90, 102, 118, 130. 
 | Charles vni., 65. 
 
 344
 
 I ndex 
 
 Chaucer, 45, 81, 95, 119 ( 
 Cheyne, 119 (49). 
 Cholera, 66. 
 
 Christ, 8, 22, 82, no, 118. 
 Christmas, 2, 8, 19, 45, 48 
 
 85, 89, 96, 98, no, in, 
 
 113, 117, 132. 
 St. Chrysostom, 24, 61, 62, 
 Church, Dean, 147. 
 Circumcision, 12. 
 Clement Alex., 18, 150. 
 Cloveshoo, i. 
 Clovis, 1 8, 29. 
 Coenobites, 55. 
 Coleridge, 19, 78. 
 Colet, 51. 
 
 Cologne hermit, loo. 
 St. Columba, 34, 45, 78. 
 
 89. 
 
 Columbus, 19, 31. 
 Commendation, 13, 31, 118, 
 Commentators, eighteenth 
 
 tury, 105. 
 
 Commons, House of, 67. 
 Composite psalms, 71. 
 Constantine, 48, 82. 
 Contrition, 51. 
 Corbilla, 138. 
 Cosin, 90. 
 Cottam, 71. 
 Coutras, 118. 
 Coverdale, 119 (103). 
 Cowley, 114. 
 
 Cowper, Bishop, 119 (169). 
 Cowper, W., 101, 1 18. 
 Crashaw, 137. 
 Cramp rings, 67. 
 St. Crispin, 79. 
 Crispina, 138. 
 Cromwell, 68, 117. 
 Croyland, 112. 
 Crusade, First, 2. 
 Cursing psalm, 109. 
 St. Cuthbert, 36, 60. 
 St. Cyprian, 6, 22, 141. 
 St. Cyril, 132. 
 
 1 1 6). Dale, 16. 
 
 Damascus, 145. 
 
 Dante, 9, 51, 92, 114. 
 
 Darnley, 55. 
 , 72. David, 140. 
 112, De Civitate Dei, 87. 
 
 Dee, 76. 
 116. Defensor, 8. 
 
 Descartes, 53. 
 
 Dials, 19, 74, 80, 89, 90, 102, 
 
 113, 119(165), 150. 
 Didymus, 88. 
 
 Dies Irtz, 19, 97, 1 02, no. 
 
 Djgby, 137. 
 
 Dionysius Ar., 24. 
 
 Dirge, 5, 7, 30, 41, 42, 71, Il6, 
 146. 
 
 Disraeli, 13, 122. 
 
 Dod, 131. 
 
 Dodd, 105. 
 119. Doge, 51. 
 cen- Donatists, 26. 
 
 Donne, 6, 32, 68. 
 
 Drumclog, 76. 
 
 Dunbar, 68, 117. 
 
 Duncan, 60. 
 
 Duns Scotus, 53. 
 
 Dunstan, i, 51, 68, in. 
 
 Diirer, 90. 
 
 Durham University, 87. 
 
 Duty, 119. 
 
 Earthquake, 46. 
 
 Easter, 2, 57, 62, III, 1 12, 113, 
 
 114, 117, 118. 
 St. Edmund, 72. 
 Edward Confessor, 116. 
 Edward I., 91. 
 
 Edward ill., 6, 52, 112, 114. 
 
 Edward vi., 51, 119 (105), 132. 
 
 Elfric, 25, 26, 51. 
 
 St. Eligius, 119 (116). 
 
 Eliot, G., 85. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 14, 20, 21, 90, 
 
 118. 
 Elohists, 14, 53. 
 
 345
 
 Index 
 
 St. Elphege, 2, 3. 
 
 Emmanuel, 37. 
 
 England, 125. 
 
 St. Epiphanius, 31. 
 
 Epiphany, 29, 46, 47, 66, 72, 
 
 86, 87, 95, 96, 97. 
 Erasmus, I, 2, 15, 65 ,119(125). 
 Essex, 55. 
 Ethelbert, 29. 
 Eusebius, P., I. 
 Evelyn, J., 14, 136. 
 St. Evroult, 14, 34, 41, 119(57). 
 Exorcism, 76. 
 
 Fabricius, 12. 
 
 Fifth Monarchy, 7. 
 
 Fisher, Bp., 6, 32, 34, 71, 116. 
 
 Fletcher, Phin., i, 130. 
 
 Forrest, 63. 
 
 Fortunatus, 96. 
 
 Fox, 1 06. 
 
 Francis I., 119 (71). 
 
 St. Francis S., 40. 
 
 St. Francis A., 23, 142, 148. 
 
 St. Francis Xav., 31. 
 
 Franklin, 107. 
 
 Frederick Gt. 122. 
 
 Fuller, 8, 37, 52, 66, 109. 
 
 St. Gall, 132. 
 
 Ganging, 103, 104. 
 
 Gardiner, Alan, 17, 139. 
 
 Gardiner, Stephen, 60. 
 
 Gaufridus, 106. 
 
 Gentleman, 15. 
 
 George in., 27, 97. 
 
 Gerard, 148. 
 
 Gerson, 143. 
 
 Giraldus, C., 55. 
 
 Gladstone, 17, 86, 98, 119 
 
 (153). MO. 
 Glanville, 123. 
 Gnostics, 140. 
 Good Friday, 2, 22, 27, 38, 40, 
 
 54, 59, 69, 88, 94. 
 St. Gordius, 118. 
 
 346 
 
 St. Gorgonia, 4, 37. 
 
 Grace, 22, 104, no, 117, 118, 
 
 145- 
 
 Gradual, 120-134. 
 Grey, Lady J., 51. 
 St. Gregory, Dec., 13. 
 St. Gregory, Mag., i, 32, 33, 69, 
 
 72, 119(115)- 
 
 St. Gregory N., 4, 6, 37, 41, 49- 
 Grote, 112. 
 Guardian, 40. 
 Guest, 119 (32). 
 Gundulph, 80. 
 Gunpowder Plot, 64, 123. 
 St. Guthlac, 84. 
 
 Habington, 19. 
 
 Hacket, 24, 41, 70, 132. 
 
 Halicarnassus, 127. 
 
 Hankford, 106. 
 
 Hannington, 27. 
 
 Hall, 60, 79. 
 
 Hallel, 113-118, 135. 
 
 Hampton Court Conf., 106. 
 
 Handel, 24. 
 
 Hare, 17, 24. 
 
 Harrington, 7, 31, 38. 
 
 Harrowing of Hell, 24, 107. 
 
 Hart, the, 42. 
 
 Hart, 123. 
 
 Hatton, 92, 108. 
 
 Hawkins, 119 (33). 
 
 Haydn, 70. 
 
 Heine, 23. 
 
 Helmore, 47. 
 
 Henry, Prince, 82. 
 
 Henry II., 6. 
 
 Henry III., 85. 
 
 Henry iv., 2, 68. 
 
 Henry v., 51, 52, 114. 
 
 Henry vi., 3, 16, 52, 122. 
 
 Henry vil., 43. 
 
 Heraldry, 127. 
 
 Herbert, G., i, u, 23, 29, 31, 
 
 38, 7i. 
 St. Hilarion, 20.
 
 Index 
 
 St. Hilary, P., I, 32. 
 
 Hildebrand, 45, 119. 
 
 Hildersham, 51. 
 
 Ilippolytus, 28. 
 
 Ilobbs, Ab., 79. 
 
 Holdsworth, 119(145). 
 
 Holland, 65. 
 
 Homes, 43. 
 
 Homily, 91. 
 
 Hooker, 35, 55. 
 
 Hooper, 77, 88, 121. 
 
 Home, 64, 106. 
 
 Houghton, 60. 
 
 Hours, the, 119 (62 and 164). 
 
 House motto, 127. 
 
 Howard, P., 8. 
 
 Howe, J., 17. 
 
 Huguenots, 44. 
 
 St. Hugh, 10, 58, 68, 91, 119 
 
 (25). 
 
 Humboldt, 19, 104. 
 " Hundreth, Old," 100. 
 Hunnis, 6, 102. 
 Huss, 31. 
 
 St. Ignatius, 59. 
 Incense, 141. 
 Innocent iv., 124. 
 Innocent vin., 26. 
 Invitatory, 34, 95. 
 Irving, 23. 
 Iscariot, 41. 
 St. Isidore, 39. 
 
 John of Holar, 34. 
 
 John vni., 67. 
 
 Johnson, R., 51. 
 
 Johnson, Dr., i, 55, 60, 119 
 
 (8l), 145- 
 i Judas, 41. 
 
 Julian Ap., 68, 96, 97, 115. 
 Junius, IOI. 
 Justinian, 19. 
 Justinian n., 91. 
 Justin Martyr, 22, 96. 
 
 Kant, 19, 53. 
 Keble, 29, 39, 51, 86. 
 Kempis, 12. 
 Ken, 8. 
 Kennicott, 16. 
 Ker, 51. 
 Keltic, 100. 
 Keys, the five, 113. 
 King, H., 80. 
 King, J., 128. 
 Kingsley, 76. 
 King's psalm, 20. 
 King's evil, 102. 
 Kirkman, 120. 
 Kirkpatrick, Prof., 140. 
 Knox, 31, 51, 103. 
 Kyrie, 51. 
 
 Jackson, T., 116. 
 James of the Glens, 35. 
 James I., 68, 83. 
 Japan, 113, 114. 
 St. Jerome, i, 17, 55. 
 Jerusalem, siege of, 2. 
 Jewel, 69, 71. 
 Jewish lament, 79. 
 Jocelyn, 84. 
 St. John Baptist, 132. 
 St. John Divine, 36. 
 St. John Evangelist, 69. 
 
 Lake, 2. 
 Lamb, I, 3. 
 Langton, S., 85. 
 Laud, 9, 21, 23, 90. 
 Laits perennis, 138. 
 Lavabo, 26. 
 Lawrence, Lady, 27. 
 Lazarus 49, 94. 
 Leicester, 73. 
 Leighton, 32, 39. 
 Le Long, 64. 
 Lightfoot, 78. 
 Lincoln College, 80. 
 Lincoln, President, 11. 
 Lion and Unicorn, 22. 
 Livingstone, 37, 121. 
 
 347
 
 Index 
 
 Locke, J., 135. 
 
 Logos, 119(25). 
 
 Lok, 49. 
 
 Longfellow, 100. 
 
 St. Louis, 5, 25, 32. 
 
 Lowe, 27. 
 
 Luther, 2, 32, 46, 100, no, 119 
 
 (92), 140. 
 Lux Mundi, no. 
 Luxorius, 86, 119 (17). 
 Lyte, 84. 
 
 Mackenzie, 105. 
 
 Magic, 50. 
 
 Magna Charta, 144. 
 
 Mahomet, 136. 
 
 Maimonides, 119(126). 
 
 Maine, C, 31. 
 
 Manning, 43. 
 
 Manoel, 37. 
 
 Manton, 119 (9). 
 
 Marcion, 8, 22. 
 
 Margaret of Richmond, 6. 
 
 Margaret of Scotland, I . 
 
 Marriage, 67, 128. 
 
 Marseilles, Bishop of, 91. 
 
 St. Martin, 8, 118. 
 
 Martyn, H., 118, 119 (97). 
 
 Blessed Virgin Mary, 8, 19, 24, 
 45, 46, 87, 96, 97, 98, 1 10, 
 113, 122, 127, 131, 147. 
 
 Mary of Scots, n, 18, 71, 130. 
 
 Matheson, 92. 
 
 Matilda, Countess, 92. 
 
 Matilda, Queen, 100. 
 
 Maundy Thursday, 69, 70, 71, 
 72-77, 116, 120, 140-42. 
 
 St. Maur, 42. 
 
 Maurice, Emperor, 119 (137). 
 
 Maxwell, 119 (41). 
 
 McCheyne, 124. 
 
 Medley, Bishop, 119 (145). 
 
 Melchizedeck, no. 
 
 Merks, 105. 
 
 Messiah, 72. 
 
 Methodius, 67. 
 
 Midwife's psalm, 139. 
 Milman, 25. 
 
 Milton, 19, 114, 136, 145. 
 Missions, 22. 
 Molinos, 18. 
 Monica, 101. 
 Monkish vows, 54. 
 Montanists, 26. 
 Montrose, 35. 
 More, H., 17, 106. 
 More, T., 32, 51. 
 Morley, Ld., 94. 
 Moses, 100. 
 Mossom, 25. 
 Mozart, 51. 
 Munzer, 149. 
 Musical psalms, 50. 
 Mutiny, Indian, 79. 
 Mysteries, Coventry, 125. 
 Mystics, 18, 24, 33, 62. 
 
 Naseby, 47. 
 National Anthem, 20. 
 Neale, 96, 119 (72). 
 Neckan, 149. 
 
 Necromancy, 50, 51, 76, 103. 
 Nelson, H., 121. 
 Nelson, Jn., 31, 130. 
 Newcomes, 37. 
 Newgate, 72. 
 Newman, 90, 104, 112. 
 Newton, 22. 
 Nicene Creed, 36. 
 Nicholas II., 109. 
 Nicholas in., 57. 
 Nicholson, Bishop, 70. 
 Nile, 2. 
 Nocturns, 10. 
 St. Nonna, 121. 
 Norris, Jn., 18. 
 Northernmost grave, 5 1 . 
 Notker, 21, 103. 
 
 Observer, 139. 
 Oldcastle, 94. 
 Oratorians, 9. 
 348
 
 Index 
 
 Organ, 150. 
 
 ( )rii;cn, I, 65. 
 
 Oswald, Archbishop, 1 6, 134. 
 
 Otto, 119 (18). 
 
 Oudenarde, 46. 
 
 Oxford motto, 27. 
 
 St. Pambo, 39. 
 
 Paris, M., 92. 
 
 Parker, Archbishop, 47. 
 
 Parliament, Long, 46. 
 
 Pascal, 119 (59). 
 
 St. Patrick, 3, 20. 
 
 St. Paul, 28. 
 
 Paula, 84. 
 
 Pauline psalms, 32. 
 
 Pelican, 102. 
 
 Penitential psalms, 6, 32, 38, 
 
 51, 102, 130, 143. 
 Perugino, 85. 
 St. Peter Balsam, 27. 
 St. Peter Nolasco, in. 
 Philostralus, 140. 
 Pianoforte, 33. 
 Pico della Mirandola, 16, 26. 
 Pierson, 87. 
 Piers Ploughman, 32, 36, 37, 
 
 112, 128. 
 
 Pilgrimage of Grace, 74. 
 Pisano, N., 91. 
 Pius v., 119 (5). 
 Pizarro, 73. 
 St. Polycarp, 31. 
 St. -Pontius, 115. 
 Pope, Alex., 18, 64. 
 Porphyrius, 52, 78. 
 Prideaux, 16. 
 Psalms, metrical, 10. 
 Psalters, 10. 
 Pusey, 66. 
 Pygot, 1 06. 
 
 Rainolds, Dr., 105, 106. 
 Raleigh, Sir W., 75. 
 Raleigh, Dr. W., 142. 
 Randolph, 109. 
 
 Reynolds, R., 27. 
 
 St. Richard, 122. 
 
 Richard de Bury, 116. 
 
 Richard I., 22/127. 
 
 Richard n., 52. 
 
 Ripon, 127. 
 
 Robbia, L. della, 104. 
 
 Romaine, 107. 
 
 Romanist martyrs, 31, 51, 62. 
 
 Rood, 127. 
 
 Rossetti, C., 121. 
 
 Rudd, 90. 
 
 Ruskin, 19, 23, 36, 147. 
 
 Russell, W. , 42. 
 
 Russia, 101. 
 
 Sadoleto, 51. 
 
 Salmasius, 54. 
 
 Salmond, 142. 
 
 Sancreal, 139. 
 
 Sancroft, 32. 
 
 Sandys, 80. 
 
 Sarpi, 109. 
 
 Sanderson, 57, 103, 119(147). 
 
 Savonarola, 2, 31, 5'> 66, 68. 
 
 Sciopius, 149. 
 
 Scott, G-, 122. 
 
 Scott, W., 1 6, 37, 114, 137. 
 Scrope, 55. 
 Sebaste, 124. 
 Seeker, I, 2. 
 Secreta, 43. 
 Sectarians, 26. 
 St. Severinus, 150. 
 Shakespeare, 18, 19, 22, 89, 
 
 90,93- 
 
 Sheldon, G., 18. 
 Sherlock, 81. 
 Shute, 36. 
 Sidney, 10, 23. 
 St. Silvester, 45. 
 Simeon, C., 17, 30, 119 (45). 
 Sixtus v., 71. 
 Smalbroke, 2. 
 Smart, C., 133. 
 Smart, P., 31- 
 
 349
 
 Index 
 
 Smith. R., 140. 
 
 Smith, S., 72. 
 
 Socialism, 78. 
 
 Socrates S., 39, 59. 
 
 Sparkes, 105. 
 
 Spenser, 38, 91. 
 
 Stanley, A., 31, 78, 112, 119 
 
 (96), 122. 
 
 Storm, the great, 46. 
 Strafford, 25, 146. 
 Strathmore, 31. 
 Stubbs, 29. 
 Sudbury, 130. 
 Suicide, 119 (109). 
 Supremacy, papal, 105. 
 Swedenborg, 74. 
 Sword motto, 144. 
 Sydenham, 62. 
 Syllogism, false, 66. 
 Syriac, 144. 
 
 Tail, 17, 
 
 Talmud, 100. 
 
 Tasso, 31. 
 
 Tate and Brady, 10, 34. 
 
 Taylor, J., 126, 130. 
 
 Taylor, R., 51. 
 
 Te Deum, 28, 31. 
 
 Templars, 95. 
 
 Tennyson, 86, 130. 
 
 Tertullian, 133. 
 
 St. Theodore, 119 (93). 
 
 St. Theodore Mop., 18, 79. 
 
 St. Theodore Martyr, 34. 
 
 Theodoret, I, 78. 
 
 Theodosius, 119 (25). 
 
 Theodulf, 25, 51. 
 
 St. Thomas a Kempis, 12, 85. 
 
 St. Thomas of Canterbury, 37, 
 
 48, 119(23). 
 Thomson, 19. 
 DeThou, 1 1 6, 118. 
 Thring, 78. 
 Thurkeld, 118. 
 Tillotson, 19. 
 Titian, 120. 
 
 Toplady, 61, 115. 
 
 Torquemada. 35. 
 
 Tractarians, 139. 
 
 Trafalgar, 66. 
 
 Traveller's psalm, 121. 
 
 Treaties, 46. 
 
 Trench, 86. 
 
 Trinitarian friars, 146. 
 
 Trinity psalms, 8, 19, 24, 47, 
 
 48, 67, 72, 96, 97, 98. 
 Turketul, 26. 
 
 Urban iv., 51. 
 Ussher, 32, 56. 
 Usury, 15. 
 Utrecht Psalter, 12, 106. 
 
 Vane, II. , 7. 
 
 Vandals, 149. 
 
 Van Mildert, 2, 87. 
 
 Vaughan, H., 65, 104, 121. 
 
 Verney, E., 105. 
 
 Versions, I. 
 
 Vicars, 64, 123. 
 
 Victoria, 122. 
 
 St. Vincent de Paul, 137. 
 
 St. Vincent, Lerins, 46. 
 
 Vindication, 59. 
 
 Vindictive psalms, 59, 69, 79, 
 
 109. 
 
 Visconti, B., 51. 
 Visitation of sick, 6, 23, 27, 32, 
 
 51, 55, 61, 71, 102. 
 Vladimir, 101. 
 
 Waddell, 10. 
 Wake. 21, 146. 
 Wallace, 119 (9). 
 Walton. 2, 32, 120. 
 Waterloo, 20. 
 Watts, 90, 121. 
 Wesley, C., 31, 72. 
 Wesley, J., 38. 
 *Vhite, K., 18. 
 
 Vhitfield, 1 1 8. 
 
 Vhitgift, 105. 
 
 35
 
 Index 
 
 Whitsuntide, 33, 48, 68, too, I Wolsey, W., 109. 
 
 101, 104, 117, 145. 
 Whole duty of man, 102. 
 Wilberforce, 119 (9). 
 Wilfrid of York, 104. 
 Willet, 146. 
 William of Sicily, 118. 
 William Rufus, 37. 
 Wither, 119 (129). 
 Wolsey, 39. 
 
 St. Woolos, 20. 
 Word, 119 (25). 
 Wordsworth, 19, 88, 113. 
 Wren, 44. 
 Wyatt, 38, 124. 
 Wykeham, 130. 
 
 Xavier, 31, 114. 
 Ximenes, 115. 
 
 Table of the Five Books of the Psalms. 
 
 BOOK I. Psalms i.-xli. 
 
 BOOK II. Psalms xlii.-lxxii. 
 
 BOOK III. Psalms Ixxiii.-lxxxix. 
 
 BOOK IV. Psalms xc.-cvi. 
 
 BOOK V. Psalms cvii.-cl. 
 
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 silk register, 35. net (postjree, 35. 3d. ). 
 
 Rev. Dr. GEORGE HANSON: "Heart-searching and soul-inspiring. 
 I have not read any book of recent years which goes so directly to the 
 root of our spiritual disorders, or one in which Christ is presented 
 more winsomely and lovingly as a Saviour able to save to the utter- 
 most. I thank God for the publication of this book, and I wish it a 
 very wide circulation." 
 
 LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C
 
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