Ps. cxxiv. 1 — 8. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, note may Israel say ; if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us : then they had
siuallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us : then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: then the proud waters had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord, tvho hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the folders : the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
ON what occasion this psalm was written, we are not informed : but in the title it is ascribed to David: and no period in his history suits it better than the time of Absalom's rebellion, when, but for God's in- terposition, in defeating the counsel of Ahithophel, the banished monarch and his adherents must all have perished.
But as there is no period fixed, it will be needless to enter into a consideration of any circumstances as connected with the psalm, since all that we should say could rest on no better foundation than conjecture. Of course, if we apply the psalm to the circumstances of our own nation at the present timea, we shall not be understood as intimating that there was any such reference intended by the Psalmist, but merely as accommodating the general expressions of it to our own particular case : and truly we must say, that if they had originally been penned for the occasion, they could not be more suited to it than they are.
Two things then we would lead you to consider :
I. The great deliverances which we are now met to celebrate —
During this long and bloody war, several occasions have arisen wherein we have experienced the most signal deliverance. We will call your attention to a few : we have been saved, almost by miracle, from,
1. The revolutionary principles —
[In our own nation, as well as on the continent, there was a general outcry about liberty and equality ; and multitudes in every rank of life united their efforts to overthrow the Con- stitution of this country, and to establish a democracy in the land. Even pious people in vast numbers were carried away by the delusive idea of ameliorating the condition of the lower
a Oct. 1814.