Book 21 Psalms (continued 1)
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
77:50. He made a way for a path to his anger: he spared not their souls from death, and their cattle he shut up in death.
77:51. And he killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt: the firstfruits of all their labour in the tabernacles of Cham.
77:52. And he took away his own people as sheep: and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
77:53. And he brought them out in hope and they feared not: and the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
77:54. And he brought them into the mountain of his sanctuary: the mountain which his right hand had purchased. And he cast out the Gentiles before them: and by lot divided to them their land by a line of distribution.
77:55. And he made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.
77:56. Yet they tempted, and provoked the most high God: and they kept not his testimonies.
77:57. And they turned away, and kept not the covenant: even like their fathers they were turned aside as a crooked bow.
77:58. They provoked him to anger on their hills: and moved him to jealousy with their graven things.
77:59. God heard, and despised them, and he reduced Israel exceedingly as it were to nothing.
77:60. And he put away the tabernacle of Silo, his tabernacle where he dwelt among men.
77:61. And he delivered their strength into captivity: and their beauty into the hands of the enemy.
77:62. And he shut up his people under the sword: and he despised his inheritance.
77:63. Fire consumed their young men: and their maidens were not lamented.
77:64. Their priests fell by the sword: and their widows did not mourn.
77:65. And the Lord was awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that hath been surfeited with wine.
77:66. And he smote his enemies on the hinder parts: he put them to an everlasting reproach.
77:67. And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph: and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
77:68. But he chose the tribe of Juda, mount Sion which he loved.
77:69. And he built his sanctuary as of unicorns, in the land which he founded for ever.
As of unicorns... That is, firm and strong like the horn of the unicorn. This is one of the chiefest of the propositions of this psalm, foreshewing the firm establishment of the one, true, and everlasting sanctuary of God, in his church.
77:70. And he chose his servant David, and took him from the flocks of sheep: he brought him from following the ewes great with young,
77:71. To feed Jacob his servant and Israel his inheritance.
77:72. And he fed them in the innocence of his heart: and conducted them by the skilfulness of his hands.
Psalms Chapter 78
Deus, venerunt gentes.
The church in time of persecution prayeth for relief. It seems to belong to the time of the Machabees.
78:1. A psalm for Asaph. O God, the heathens are come into thy inheritance, they have defiled thy holy temple: they have made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.
78:2. They have given the dead bodies of thy servants to be meat for the fowls of the air: the flesh of thy saints for the beasts of the earth.
78:3. They have poured out their blood as water, round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them.
78:4. We are become a reproach to our neighbours: a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
78:5. How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever: shall thy zeal be kindled like a fire?
78:6. Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee: and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
78:7. Because they have devoured Jacob; and have laid waste his place.
78:8. Remember not our former iniquities: let thy mercies speedily prevent us, for we are become exceeding poor.
78:9. Help us, O God, our saviour: and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and forgive us our sins for thy name's sake:
78:10. Lest they should say among the Gentiles: Where is their God? And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes, By the revenging the blood of thy servants, which hath been shed:
78:11. Let the sighing of the prisoners come in before thee. According to the greatness of thy arm, take possession of the children of them that have been put to death.
78:12. And render to our neighbours sevenfold in their bosom: the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
78:13. But we thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thanks to thee for ever. We will shew forth thy praise, unto generation and generation.