Sing aloud unto God, our strength, Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob! Take psalms, strike the timbrel, The pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow the trumpet in the new moon, On the solemn day of our feast: For this is a custom in Israel, A law of the God of Jacob, Which he ordained for a testimony in Joseph When he came out of the land of Egypt, Where I heard the voice of the unknown: I took the burden from his shoulder, His hands were delivered from the basket. Thou calledst in trouble and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the thunder cloud, I proved thee at the water of Meribah. Hear, O my people, I testify unto thee, O Israel, would that thou listenedst to me! Be there no strange god among thee, Worship not any strange god! I, Jehovah, am thy God, Who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: Open thy mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice, Israel would not follow me. So I gave them up to their own desire And they walked according to their own counsels. O that my people would hear me And Israel walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies And turn my hand against their oppressors. They that hate Jehovah should have submitted themselves to him, And their prosperity should have endured for ever; I would have fed them with the finest of the wheat, I would have satisfied them with honey from the rock. After the evening-sacrifice the old man questioned him respecting the state of his mind. Helon laid open his whole heart to him with filial simplicity and unreservedness, and as he spoke he could have fancied that Elisama, returned to life, was sitting before him. “Once only in my life,” said he, “have I been happy, when I quitted Egypt and entered the promised land, and kept the Passover in the temple of Jehovah. I was then happy in sanguine anticipation. But I soon discovered imperfections where I had thought every thing faultless; I found the truth, the melancholy truth of the account which thou hadst given me of the priests. I thought to find a sanctuary of pure happiness and virtue in my own house. Jehovah bestowed on me a virtuous wife, but I proved myself unworthy of her. Elisama died under the imputation of homicide, and we all were guilty of injustice towards the excellent Sulamith. Thou art right; Israel is a disobedient, sinful people. I condemn others freely, because I include myself in the same condemnation. Jehovah has given us his law, and the only fruit of it is that we are more criminal than the heathen who live without a law. O that I had lived in Solomon’s or David’s days! In our present condition it cannot be fulfilled. What God has enabled thee to do is a miracle, as all the people regard it.”