Versions of Psalms.

VERSIONS

OF THE FIRST THIRTEEN PSALMS.

WHEN I wrote the following, I intended to proceed through the whole Book of Psalms. The specimens given may be sufficient to satisfy even my friends that I was not likely to produce such a version as would be acceptable to the public. But yet, perhaps, they have never considered the peculiar difficulties of the case. I believe there is not a satisfactory metrical version of the Psalms to the present hour. Two things are necessary, and these seem to be incompatible. The version should be alive with the spirit of poetry, but its writer must wholly repress imagination. He may invent nothing. However deeply he may enter into the spirit of the Psalmist, his work is simply to say what the Psalmist says-in another form-saying no other, no more, no less. If into this other form he can infuse the spirit of poetry; if, while expressing the same, and only the same thoughts, he can employ such words, and so manage them, as that the result shall be condensed and

melodious verse-well.

But how few can write poetry

who rigidly adhere to this principle of writing by rule, all the existing versions of the Psalms, that have professed to be strictly versions, and not paraphrases, may sufficiently testify to those who are acquainted with them. That I wrote mine sixteen years ago might be some apology, if years should increase skill and teach wisdom. I set about the task resolving that the sacred word should not be made the basis or vehicle of any thing extraneous to it. Therefore I indulged no fancies, and aimed to express only exactly what I found either in the English version, or by other means ascertained to be conveyed. If, then, my friends are not satisfied with the poetry, I hope they will remember the circumstances-and if any of them will versify the same Psalms, I shall be happy to derive from their labours whatever useful hints they may suggest. If I had to write them now, perhaps I might succeed better.

1839.

1 Blest is the man whose prudent feet
Refuse to follow sinful guides;

Who will not stand where sinners meet,
Or sit where impious scorn presides.

2 But whose supreme, untired delight
Is in the law of God the Lord,
Revolving o'er by day and night
The sacred statutes of His word.

3 Like to some fruitful spreading tree,
Where copious streams refresh the ground,
No withering in his leaf shall be,
But prosperous all he does be found.

4 Not so are the ungodly-they,
Withheld by no restraining power,
Are like the chaff, which, driven away
Before the wind, is seen no more.

5 Therefore, they shall not stand the test When judgment summons to appear, Nor enter heaven's eternal rest,

When all the saints assemble there.

6 The Lord beholds with favoring eyes, The way in which the righteous go; But that of the ungodly lies

Direct for never-ending woe!