He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, My Saviour; thou savest me from violence. I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be So shall I be saved from mine enemies. And he did hear my voice out of his temple, Then the earth shook and trembled ; The foundations of heaven moved And shook, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down ; And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: And he was seen upon the wings of the wind. And he made darkness pavilions round about him, Were coals of fire kindled. The LORD thundered from heaven, And the most High uttered his voice. And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; Lightning, and discomfited them. And the channels of the sea appeared, The foundations of the world were discovered, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils. He sent from above, he took me ; He drew me out of many waters; He delivered me from my strong enemy, The Hymn of And from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity : But the LORD was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place: He delivered me, because he delighted in me. The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me; And as for his statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also upright before him, And have kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore the LORD hath recompensed me according to my righteousness; According to my cleanness in his eye sight. With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, And with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. And with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury. And the afflicted people thou wilt save: But thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down. For thou art my lamp, O LORD: And the LORD will lighten my darkness. The word of the LORD is tried: He is a buckler to all them that trust in him. And who is a rock, save our God? And he maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like hinds' feet: He teacheth my hands to war; So that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation : Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; So that my feet did not slip. I have pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them; And turned not again until I had consumed them. And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise: Yea, they are fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength to battle: Them that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, That I might destroy them that hate me. They looked, but there was none to save; Even unto the LORD, but he answered them not. Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad. Thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, Thou hast kept me to be head of the heathen: A people which I knew not shall serve me. As soon as they hear, they shall be obedient unto me. Strangers shall fade away, And they shall be afraid out of their close places. The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; And exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation. It is God that avengeth me, And that bringeth down the people under me, And that bringeth me forth from mine enemies: Thou also hast lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me: Thou hast delivered me from the violent man. Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, And I will sing praises unto thy name. He is the tower of salvation for his king: Unto David, and to his seed for evermore. David's Last Words.-This is the outcome of Messianic thought (observe the sententious and enigmatic language), and cannot be older than the DeuteroIsaiah. Only at a late period would the reference in vv. 6 and 7 to the punishment of the wicked by hell-fire be found. Perhaps it was artificially impressed with an archaic character. DAVID the son of Jesse said, And the man who was raised up on high, The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, Ruling in the fear of God. The Last Words of David 2 Samuel, xxiii. 1-7 And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, Even a morning without clouds ; As the tender grass springing out of the earth By clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so with God; Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, For this is all my salvation, and all my desire, Although he make it not to grow. But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, Because they cannot be taken with hands: But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear; And they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place. Isaiah's Song.-The narrative occurs in almost the same form in 2 Kings, xviii.-xx. and Isaiah xxxvi.-xxxix. The date is probably later than Ezekiel. Perhaps it is an elaborate composition, composed in dependence on Isaianic words and placed in the mouth of the great prophet, just as Hezekiah's Psalm (Is. xxxviii. 9-20) is attributed to the king. THE virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; Isaiah's Song against The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? Sennacherib And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, And lifted up thine eyes on high? and the Assyrian Isaiah xxxvii. 22-35 Even against the Holy One of Israel. By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up To the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; And I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof : And I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel. I have digged, and drunk water; And with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places. Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it ; And of ancient times, that I have formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste Defenced cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, They were dismayed and confounded: They were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, As the grass on the housetops and as corn blasted before it be grown up. But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, And thy rage against me. Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, And I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; And the second year that which springeth of the same: And in the third year sow ye, and reap, And plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward : And they that escape out of Mount Zion: The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shields, Nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, For I will defend this city to save it For mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. I SAID in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Hezekiah's Is. xxxviii. 10-20 Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness : From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: Mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me. What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it : I shall go softly all my years, in the bitterness of my soul. O LORD, by these things men live, And in all these things is the life of my spirit: |