The Seventy-eighth, One Hundred and Fifth, and One Hundred and Sixth Psalms are lyrical ballads. They tell the story of Israel in Egypt, and in the Wilderness, and in Canaan, with swift, stirring phrases, and with splendid flashes of imagery. Take this passage from the Seventy-eighth Psalm as an example: He clave the rocks in the wilderness, _And gave them drink out of the great depths_. He brought streams also out of the rock, _And caused waters to run down like rivers_. And they sinned yet more against him, Provoking the Most High in the wilderness. _They tempted God in their hearts_, Asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God: They said, _Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?_ Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out, And the streams overflowed; Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people? Therefore the Lord heard and was wroth: _So a fire was kindled against Jacob,_ _And anger also came up against Israel:_ Because they believed not in God, And trusted not in his salvation: Though he had commanded the clouds from above, And opened the doors of heaven, And had rained down manna upon them to eat, _And had given them of the corn of heaven,_ _Man did eat angel’s food:_ He sent them meat to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, And by his power he brought in the south wind. _He rained flesh also upon them as dust,_ _And feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea._ And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, Round about their habitations; So they did eat and were filled, _For he gave them their own desire_. They were not estranged from their lust: _But while the meat was yet in their mouths,_ _The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them_, And smote down the chosen men of Israel. The Forty-fifth Psalm is a Marriage Ode: the Hebrew title calls it a Love Song. It bears all the marks of having been composed for some royal wedding-feast in Jerusalem. There are many nature lyrics among the Psalms. The Twenty-ninth is notable for its rugged realism. It is a Song of Thunder. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars: Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon: He maketh them also to skip like a calf: Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. The One Hundred and Fourth, on the contrary, is full of calm sublimity and meditative grandeur. O, Lord, my God, thou art very great: Thou art clothed with honour and majesty: Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain. The Nineteenth is famous for its splendid comparison between “the starry heavens and the moral law.”