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The Third Century

73

Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him; all ye seed of Jacob, glorify Him, and fear Him all ye seed of Israel. For He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath He hid His Face from him, but when he cried unto Him He heard. My praise shall be of Thee in the great Congregation; I will pay my vows before them that fear Him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek Him; your heart shall live for ever. All the ends of the World shall remember and turn unto the Lord, all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship before Thee. For the Kingdom is the Lord’s, and He is the governor among the Nations. All they that be fat upon Earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him, and none can keep alive his own Soul. A seed shall serve Him, it shall be counted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come and declare His righteousness to a people that shall be born, that He hath done this. Here he sheweth that it was his desire and delight to have all Nations praising God: and that the condescension of the Almighty in stooping down to the poor and needy was the joy of his soul. He prophesieth also of the conversion of the Gentiles to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which to see was to him an exceeding pleasure.

74

The Earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the round world and they that dwell therein. He observeth here that God by a comprehensive possession, and by way of eminence, enjoyeth the whole world; all mankind and all the Earth, with all that is therein, being His peculiar treasures. Since therefore we are made in the image of God, to live in His similitude, as they are His, they must be our treasures, We being wise and righteous over all as He is. Because they regard not the Works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, therefore shall He destroy them, and not build them up.

75

By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and all the Host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together, He layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the Earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. He frequently meditateth upon the Works of God, and affirmeth the contemplation of them to beget His fear in our hearts. For that He being great in strength, not one faileth.

76

All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto Thee, who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him; yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him! Thy mercy, O Lord, is above the Heavens, and Thy faithfulness reacheth to the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains, Thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is Thy loving kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures: For with Thee is the Fountain of Life. In Thy light we shall see light. The judgments of God, and His loving kindness, His mercy and faithfulness, are the fatness of His house, and His righteousness being seen in the Light of Glory is the torrent of pleasure at His right hand for evermore.

77

Hearken, O Daughter, and consider and incline thine ear, forget also thine own people and thy father’s house. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty, for He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him. The King’s daughter is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework, the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto Thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought, they shall enter into the King’s Palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the Earth. The psalmist here singeth an Epithalamium upon the marriage between Christ and His Church: whom he persuadeth to forsake her country and her father’s house together with all the customs and vanities of this World: and to dedicate herself wholly to our Saviour’s Service. Since she is in exchange to enter into His palace, and become a bride to so glorious a person. The Bridegroom and the Bride, the Palace (which is all the world) with all that is therein, being David’s joy and his true possession. Nay every child of this Bride is if a male, a Prince over all the earth; if a female, Bride to the King of Heaven. And every Soul that is a spouse of Jesus Christ, esteemeth all the Saints her own children and her own bowels.

78

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the City of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. He praiseth the means of grace which in the midst of this world are great consolations, and in all distresses, refresh our souls. Come behold the Works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the Earth. He exhorteth us to contemplate God’s Works, which are so perfect, that when His secret and just judgments are seen, the very destruction of Nations, and laying waste of Cities, shall be sweet and delightful.

79

O clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible, He is a Great King over all the Earth. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom He loved. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Sion; on the sides of the north, the city of the Great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Walk about Sion and go round about her, tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following For this God is our God for ever and ever. He will be our guide even unto death.

80

As in the former psalms he proposeth true and celestial joys, so in this following he discovereth the vanity of false imaginations. They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, or give unto God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth forever. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish; and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names. This their way is their folly, yet their Posterity approve their sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave, death shall feed sweetly on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. Man that is in honour and understandeth not, is like the beast that perisheth.

229.Psalm 22:23-31, the close of the psalm that begins “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, words Christ spoke from the cross (Matthew 27:46). Traherne follows the KJV with small changes (all ye seed of Jacob for all ye the seed, counted for accounted, They shall come and declare for They shall come, and shall declare). The Church read the ends of the world turning to the Lord (verse 27) as a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, as Traherne does.

230.Psalm 24:1, quoted by Paul at 1 Corinthians 10:26. The round world is not the KJV’s wording (the world) but a phrase of the Prayer Book Psalter (Psalm 98:8, “the round world, and they that dwell therein”). The second quotation is Psalm 28:5, with therefore shall He destroy them for he shall destroy them. By way of eminence is the schoolmen’s eminenter, possessing the perfections of creatures in a higher and more excellent way (Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I q.4 a.2).

231.Psalm 33:6-9, from the KJV except that the waters are no longer gathered as an heap (verse 7). The unfinished sentence that closes the meditation borrows Isaiah 40:26, where God calls out the stars by number and name, “for that he is strong in power; not one faileth”.

232.Psalm 35:10 run straight on into Psalm 36:5-9 as one passage. The departures from the KJV are who deliverest for which deliverest, above the Heavens for in the heavens (the phrase of Psalm 108:4), reacheth to the clouds for unto the clouds, and In Thy light we shall see light for in thy light shall we see light. The torrent of pleasure in Traherne’s comment is the Latin Vulgate’s wording of the same verse, torrente voluptatis tuae, the torrent of thy pleasure (Psalm 35:9 in its numbering), joined with the pleasures at God’s right hand of Psalm 16:11.

233.Psalm 45:10-16 from the KJV, leaving out verse 12 (the daughter of Tyre with her gift). The psalm, headed “A Song of loves”, is a royal wedding song; Hebrews 1:8-9 applies it to Christ, and it was traditionally read as the marriage of Christ and the Church. An epithalamium (Greek) is a wedding song. Bowels are the inmost self and one’s own offspring, as in Philemon 12, “mine own bowels”.

234.Psalm 46:4 (KJV the tabernacles of the most High) and 46:8. The means of grace is the phrase of the General Thanksgiving added to the Prayer Book in 1662, “for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory”, meaning above all the sacraments, the Word and prayer.

235.Psalm 47:1-2 and 4, leaving out verse 3 (the nations subdued “under our feet”), then Psalm 48:2-3 and 12-14, close to the KJV. Sion, the spelling of the Prayer Book Psalter and of the KJV New Testament, is the KJV Psalms’ Zion, the hill of the Temple; tell the towers is count them; the excellency of Jacob is Israel’s pride and glory.

236.Psalm 49:6-14 and 20, leaving out verses 9 and 12. Traherne drops the brackets round verse 8 and writes or give unto God for nor give to God. Two changes are larger. Death shall feed sweetly on them adds to the psalm’s feed on them a word from Job 24:20, “the worm shall feed sweetly on him”, and the last line has the beast that perisheth for the beasts that perish. Discovereth, before the quotation, is reveals, lays bare.