Part 385 (1/2)

118:171. My lips shall utter a hymn, when thou shalt teach me thy justifications.

118:172. My tongue shall p.r.o.nounce thy word: because all thy commandments are justice.

118:173. Let thy hand be with me to save me; for I have chosen thy precepts.

118:174. I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my meditation.

118:175. My soul shall live and shall praise thee: and thy judgments shall help me.

118:176. I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost: seek thy servant, because I have not forgotten thy commandments.

Psalms Chapter 119

Ad Dominum.

A prayer in tribulation.

A gradual canticle.

A gradual canticle... The following psalms, in number fifteen, are called gradual psalms, or canticles, from the word gradus, signifying steps, ascensions, or degrees: either because they were appointed to be sung on the fifteen steps, by which the people ascended to the temple: or, that in the singing of them the voice was to be raised by certain steps or ascensions: or, that they were to be sung by the people returning from their captivity and ascending to Jerusalem, which was seated amongst mountains. The holy fathers, in a mystical sense, understand these steps, or ascensions, of the degrees by which Christians spiritually ascend to virtue and perfection; and to the true temple of G.o.d in the heavenly Jerusalem.

119:1. In my trouble I cried to the Lord: and he heard me.

119:2. O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, and a deceitful tongue.

119:3. What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added to thee, to a deceitful tongue?

119:4. The sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals that lay waste.

119:5. Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar:

119:6. My soul hath been long a sojourner.

119:7. With them that hated peace I was peaceable: when I spoke to them they fought against me without cause.

Psalms Chapter 120

Levavi oculos.

G.o.d is the keeper of his servants.

A gradual canticle.

120:1. I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me.

120:2. My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

120:3. May he not suffer thy foot to be moved: neither let him slumber that keepeth thee.

120:4. Behold he shall neither slumber nor sleep, that keepeth Israel.