God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry _with the wicked_ every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch _which_ he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High. This is a prayer against that common and usual blasphemy with which the world accuses the prophets, apostles, and all others who fear God, as being seditious persons, who destroy the peace and general tranquility of the state: as Shimei bitterly upbraided David, when under that heavy affliction in the time of Absalom, calling him a bloody man, and saying that he had invaded the kingdom of Saul, &c. In the same way the Jews accused Christ before Pilate. And in the same way also now do certain hypocrites,—bishops and other enemies, against all conscience, brand the professors of the gospel with the appellation of ‘seditious persons.’ Against all trials of this kind, which are indeed most bitter to bear, the prophet fights by prayer unto God, calling upon God to bear witness to his innocency. And then, to encourage and comfort all that fear God, he shews, that all who thus pray are heard; and he sets forth himself as an example. Lastly, he threatens a horrid, sudden, and momentary judgment to those hypocrites and tyrants, who thus rage against the godly with the most bitter hatred: and he signifies that all such shall in the end perish like Absalom, who was cut off and died in a new, sudden, and dreadful way, in the midst of his furious career, before he could accomplish that which he had planned. This Psalm refers to the second precept in the Decalogue, and to the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. PSALM VIII. _God’s glory is magnified by his works, and by his love to man._ To the chief Musician upon Gittith. A Psalm of David. O LORD our Lord, how excellent _is_ thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies; that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What _is_ man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all _things_ under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;