Page:Key to the Book of Psalms.pdf/18

Rh therefore, every pſalm, where ſin is confeſſed to be the cauſe of ſorrow, belongs originally and properly to us, as fallen ſons of Adam, like David, and all other men. This is the caſe of the fifty-firſt pſalm, and other pſalms which are called penitential pſalms. Sometimes, indeed, it happens that we meet with heavy complaints of the number and burden of ſins, in pſalms from which paſſages are quoted in the New Teſtament, as uttered by our Redeemer, and in which there ſeems to be no change of perſon, from beginning to end. We are aſſured, for inſtance, by the Apoſtle, Heb. x. 5. that the ſixth, ſeventh, and eighth verſes of the fortieth pſalm, “Sacrifice and offering thou didſt not defire,” &c. are ſpoken by Meſſiah, coming to aboliſh the legal ſacrifices, and to put away ſin, by the ſacrifice of himſelf. The ſame perſon, to appearance, continues ſpeaking, and, only three verſes after, complains in the following terms; “Innumerable evils have compaſſed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, ſo that I am not able to look up: they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me.” So again, there are no leſs than five quotations from different parts of the ſixty-ninth pſalm, all concurring to inform us, that Chriſt is the ſpeaker through that pſalm. Yet fifth verſe of it runs thus; “O God, thou knoweſt my