✝️THE PSALMS OF KING 👑 SOLOMON [CHAPTER 1]✝️

✝️THE PSALMS OF KING 👑 SOLOMON [CHAPTER 1]✝️

Chapter I

I

"They became insolent in their prosperity . . . ."

I cried unto the Lord when I was in distress,

  Unto God when sinners assailed.

Suddenly the alarm of war was heard before me;

  I said, He will hearken to me for I am full of righteousness.

I thought in my heart that I was full of righteousness,

  Because I was well off and had become rich in children.

Their wealth spread to the whole earth,

  And their glory unto the end of the earth.

They were exalted unto the stars;

  They said they would never fan.

But they became insolent in their prosperity,

  And they were without understanding,

Their sins were in secret,

  And even I had no knowledge of them.

Their transgressions went beyond those of the heathen before them;

  They utterly polluted the holy things of the Lord.

THE PSALMS OF KING SOLOMON [Introduction]

Introduction

THE PSALMS OF SOLOMON

THIS collection of eighteen war songs are the gift of an ancient Semitic writer. The original manuscript has perished but fortunately Greek translations have been preserved, and recently a Syriac version of the same songs has turned up and was published in English for the first time in 1909 by Dr. Rendel Harris.

The date of the writing may be established at the middle of the First Century B. C. because the theme of these songs is that of Pompey's actions in Palestine and his death in Egypt in 48 B. C.

These psalms had an important position and were widely circulated in the early Church. They are frequently referred to in the various Codexes and histories of the first few centuries of the Christian Era.

Later, they became lost through inexplicable reasons; and have only been recovered for our use after the lapse of many centuries.

Besides the literary value of the trumpet-like rhythm of these verses, we have here a chapter of stirring ancient history written by an eyewitness. Pompey comes out of the West. He uses battering-rams on the fortifications. His soldiers defile the altar. He is slain in Egypt after a fearful career. In the "righteous" of these psalms we see the Pharisees; in the "sinners" we see the Sadducees. It is an epic of a great people in the throes of a great crisis.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 42]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 42]✝️

Ode 42

ODE 42.

The Odes of Solomon, the Son of David, are ended with the following exquisite verses.

1 I stretched out my hands and approached my Lord:

2 For the stretching of my hands is His sign:

3 My expansion is the outspread tree which was set up on the way of the Righteous One.

4 And I became of no account to those who did not take hold of me; and I shall be with those who love me.

5 All my persecutors are dead; and they sought after me who hoped in me, because I was alive:

6 And I rose up and am with them; and I will speak by their mouths.

7 For they have despised those who persecuted them;

8 And I lifted up over them the yoke of my love;

9 Like the arm of the bridegroom over the bride,

10 So was my yoke over those that know me:

11 And as the couch that is spread in the house of the bridegroom and bride,

12 So is my love over those that believe in me. 

13 And I was not rejected though I was reckoned to be so.

14 I did not perish, though they devised it against me.

15 Sheol saw me and was made miserable:

16 Death cast me up, and many along with me.

17 I had gall and bitterness, and I went down with him to the utmost of his depth:

18 And the feet and the head he let go, for they were not able to endure my face:

19 And I made a congregation of living men amongst his dead men, and I spake with them by living lips:

20 Because my word shall not be void:

21 And those who had died ran towards me: and they cried and said, Son of God, have pity on us, and do with us according to thy kindness,

22 And bring us out from the bonds of darkness: and open to us the door by which we shall come out to thee.

23 For we see that our death has not touched thee.

24 Let us also be redeemed with thee: for thou art our Redeemer.

25 And I heard their voice; and my name I sealed upon their heads:

26 For they are free men and they are mine. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 41]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 41]✝️

Ode 41

ODE 41.

We discover that the writer may be a Gentile (v. 8).

1 All the Lord's children will praise Him, and will collect the truth of His faith.

2 And His children shall be known to Him. Therefore we will sing in His love:

3 We live in the Lord by His grace: and life we receive in His Messiah:

4 For a great day has shined upon us: and marvellous is He who has given us of His glory.

5 Let us, therefore, all of us unite together in the name of the Lord, and let us honour Him in His goodness,

6 And let our faces shine in His light: and let our hearts meditate in His love by night and by day.

7 Let us exult with the joy of the Lord.

8 All those will be astonished that see me. For from another race am I:

9 For the Father of truth remembered me: He who possessed me from the beginning:

10 For His bounty begat me, and the thought of His heart:

11 And His Word is with us in all our way;

12 The Saviour who makes alive and does not reject our souls-;

13 The man who was humbled, and exalted by His own righteousness,

14 The Son of the Most High appeared in the perfection of His Father;

15 And light dawned from the Word that was before time in Him;

16 The Messiah is truly one; and He was known before the foundation of the world,

17 That He might save souls for ever by the truth of His name: a new song arises from those who love Him. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 40]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 40]✝️

Ode 40

ODE 40.

A song of praise without equal.

1 As the honey distills from the comb of the bees,

2 And the milk flows from the woman that loves her children;

3 So also is my hope on Thee, my God.

4 As the fountain gushes out its water,

5 So my heart gushes out the praise of the Lord and my lips utter praise to Him, and my tongue His psalms. 

6 And my face exults with His gladness, and my spirit exults in His love, and my soul shines in Him:

7 And reverence confides in Him; and redemption in Him stands assured:

8 And His inheritance is immortal life, and those who participate in it are incorrupt. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 39]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 39]✝️

Ode 39

ODE 39.

One of the few allusions to events in the Gospels--that of our Lord walking on the Sea of Galilee.

1 Great rivers are the power of the Lord:

2 And they carry headlong those who despise Him: and entangle their paths:

3 And they sweep away their fords, and catch their bodies and destroy their lives.

4 For they are more swift than lightning and more rapid, and those who cross them in faith are not moved;

5 And those who walk on them without blemish shall not be afraid.

6 For the sign in them is the Lord; and the sign is the way of those who cross in the name of the Lord;

7 Put on, therefore, the name of the Most High, and know Him, and you shall cross without danger, for the rivers will be subject to you.

8 The Lord has bridged them by His word; and He walked and crossed them on foot:

9 And His footsteps stand firm on the water, and are not injured; they are as firm as a tree that is truly set up.

10 And the waves were lifted up on this side and on that, but the footsteps of our Lord Messiah stand firm and are not obliterated and are not defaced.

11 And a way has been appointed for those who cross after Him and for those who adhere to the course of faith in Him and worship His name. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 38]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 38]✝️

Ode 38

ODE 38.

A beautiful description of the power of truth.

1 I went up to the light of truth as if into a chariot:

2 And the Truth took me and led me: and carried me across pits and gulleys; and from the rocks and the waves it preserved me:

3 And it became to me a haven of Salvation: and set me on the arms of immortal life:

4 And it went with me and made me rest, and suffered me not to wander, because it was the Truth;

5 And I ran no risk, because I walked with Him;

6 And I did not make an error in anything because I obeyed the Truth.

7 For Error flees away from it, and meets it not: but the Truth proceeds in the right path, and

8 Whatever I did not know, it made clear to me, all the poisons of error, and the plagues of death which they think to be sweetness:

9 And I saw the destroyer of destruction, when the bride who is corrupted is adorned: and the bridegroom who corrupts and is corrupted;

10 And I asked the Truth 'Who are these?'; and He said to me, 'This is the deceiver and the error:

11 And they are alike in the beloved and in his bride: and they lead astray and corrupt the whole world:

12 And they invite many to the banquet, 

13 And give them to drink of the wine of their intoxication, and remove their wisdom and knowledge, and so they make them without intelligence;

14 And then they leave them; and then these go about like madmen corrupting: seeing that-they are without heart, nor do they seek for it!

15 And I was made wise so as not to fall into the hands of the deceiver; and I congratulated myself because the Truth went with me,

16 And I was established and lived and was redeemed,

17 And my foundations were laid on the hand of the Lord: because He established me.

18 For He set the root and watered it and fixed it and blessed it; and its fruits are for ever.

19 It struck deep and sprung up and spread out, and was full and enlarged;

20 And the Lord alone was glorified in His planting and in His husbandry: by His care and by the blessing of His lips,

21 By the beautiful planting of His right hand: and by the discovery of His planting, and by the thought of His mind. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 37]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 37]✝️

Ode 37

ODE 37.

An elementary Ode.

1 I stretched out my hands to my Lord: and to the Most I High I raised my voice:

2 And I spake with the lips of my heart; and He heard me, when my voice reached I Him:

3 His answer came to me, and gave me the fruits of my labours;

4 And it gave me rest by the grace of the Lord. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 36]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 36]✝️

Ode 36

ODE 36.

Theologians have never agreed on an explanation of this perplexing Ode.

1 I rested in the Spirit of the Lord: and the Spirit raised me on high:

2 And made me stand on my feet in the height of the Lord, before His perfection and His glory, while I was praising Him by the composition of His songs.

3 The Spirit brought me forth before the face of the Lord: and, although a son of man, I was named the Illuminate, the Son of God:

4 While I praised amongst the praising ones, and great was I amongst the mighty ones.

5 For according to the greatness of the Most High, so He made me: and like His own newness He renewed me; and He anointed me from His own perfection:

6 And I became one of His Neighbours; and my mouth was opened, like a cloud of dew,

7 And my heart poured out as it were a gushing stream of righteousness,

8 And my access to Him was in peace; and I was established by the Spirit of His government. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 35]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 35]✝️

Ode 35

ODE 35.

"No cradled child more softly lies than I: come soon, eternity."

1 The dew of the Lord in quietness He distilled upon me:

2 And the cloud of peace He caused to rise over my head, which guarded me continually;

3 It was to me for salvation: everything was shaken and they were affrighted;

4 And there came forth from them a smoke and a judgment; and I was keeping quiet in the order of the Lord:

5 More than shelter was He to me, and more than foundation.

6 And I was carried like a child by his mother: and He gave me milk, the dew of the Lord:

7 And I grew great by His bounty, and rested in His perfection,

8 And I spread out my hands in the lifting up of my soul: and I was made right with the Most High, and I was redeemed with Him. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 34]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 34]✝️

Ode 34

ODE 34.

True poetry--pure and simple.

1 No way is hard where there is a simple heart.

2 Nor is there any wound where the thoughts are upright:

3 Nor is there any storm in the depth of the illuminated thought:

4 Where one is surrounded on every side by beauty, there is nothing that is divided.

5 The likeness of what is below is that which is above; for everything is above: what is below is nothing but the imagination of those that are without knowledge.

6 Grace has been revealed for your salvation. Believe and live and be saved. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 33]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 33]✝️

Ode 33

ODE 33.

A virgin stands and proclaims (v. 5).

1 Again Grace ran and forsook corruption, and came down in Him to bring it to nought;

2 And He destroyed perdition from before Him, and devastated all its order;

3 And He stood on a lofty summit and uttered His voice from one end of the earth to the other:

4 And drew to Him all those who obeyed Him; and there did not appear as it were an evil person.

5 But there stood a perfect virgin who was proclaiming and calling and saying,

6 O ye sons of men, return ye, and ye daughters of men, come ye:

7 And forsake the ways of that corruption and draw near unto me, and I will enter into you, and will bring you forth from perdition,

8 And make you wise in the ways of truth: that you be not destroyed nor perish:

9 Hear ye me and be redeemed. For the grace of God I am telling among you: and by my means you shall be redeemed and become blessed.

10 I am your judge; and they who have put me on shall not be injured: but they shall possess the new world that is incorrupt:

11 My chosen ones walk in me, and my ways I will make known to them that seek me, and I will make them trust in my name. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 32]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 32]✝️

Ode 32

ODE 32.

Joy and light.

1 To the blessed there is joy from their hearts, and light from Him that dwells in them:

2 And words from the Truth, who was self-originate: for He is strengthened by the holy power of the Most High: and He is unperturbed for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 31]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 31]✝️

Ode 31

ODE 31.

A song that Marcus Aurelius might have known when he said "Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break."

1 The abysses were dissolved before the Lord: and darkness was destroyed by His appearance:

2 Error went astray and perished at His hand: and folly found no path to walk in, and was submerged by the truth of the Lord.

3 He opened His mouth and spake grace and joy: and He spake a new song of praise to His name:

4 And He lifted up His voice to the Most High, and offered to Him the sons that were with Him.

5 And His face was justified, for thus His holy Father had given to Him.

6 Come forth, ye that have been afflicted and receive joy, and possess your souls by His grace; and take to you immortal life.

7 And they made me a debtor when I rose up, me who had been a debtor: and they divided my spoil, though nothing was due to them.

8 But I endured and held my peace and was silent, as if not, moved by them.

9 But I stood unshaken like a firm rock which is beaten by the waves and endures.

10 And I bore their bitterness for humility's sake:

11 In order, that I might redeem my people, and inherit it and that I might not make void my promises to the fathers, to whom I promised the salvation of their seed. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 30]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 30]✝️

Ode 30

ODE 30.

An invitation to the thirsty.

1 Fill ye waters for yourselves from the living fountain of the Lord, for it is opened to you:

2 And come all ye thirsty, and take the draught; and rest by the fountain of the Lord.

3 For fair it is and pure and gives rest to the soul. Much more pleasant are its waters than honey;

4 And the honeycomb of bees is not to be compared with it.

5 For it flows forth from the lips of the Lord and from the heart of the Lord is its name.

6 And it came infinitely and invisibly: and until it was set in the midst they did not know it:

7 Blessed are they who have drunk therefrom and have found rest thereby. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 29]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 29]✝️

Ode 29

ODE 29.

Again reminiscent of the Psalms, of David.

1 The Lord is my hope: in Him I shall not be confounded.

2 For according to His praise He made me, and according to His goodness even so He gave unto me:

3 And according to His mercies He exalted me: and according to His excellent beauty He set me on high:

4 And brought me up out of the depths of Sheol: and from the mouth of death He drew me:

5 And thou didst lay my enemies low, and He justified me by His grace.

6 For I believed in the Lord's Messiah: and it appeared to me that He is the Lord;

7 And He showed him His sign: and He led me by His light, and gave me the rod of His power;

8 That I might subdue the imaginations of the peoples; and the power of the men of might to bring them low:

9 To make war by His word, and to take victory by His power.

10 And the Lord overthrew my enemy by His word: and he became like the stubble which the wind carries away;

11 And I gave praise to the Most High because He exalted me His servant and the son of His handmaid. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 28]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 28]✝️

Ode 28

ODE 28.

This Ode is a musical gem.

1 As the wings of doves over their nestlings; and the mouth of their nestlings towards their mouths.

2 So also are the wings of the Spirit over my heart:

3 My heart is delighted and exults: like the babe who exults in the womb of his mother:

4 I believed; therefore I was at rest; for faithful is He in whom I have believed:

5 He has richly blessed me and my head is with Him: and the sword shall not divide me from Him, nor the scimitar;

6 For I am ready before destruction comes; and I have been set on His immortal pinions:

7 And He showed me His sign: forth and given me to drink, and from that life is the spirit within me, and it cannot die, for it lives.

8 They who saw me marvelled at me, because I was persecuted, and they supposed that I was swallowed up: for I seemed to them as one of the lost;

9 And my oppression became my salvation; and I was their reprobation because there was no zeal in me;

10 Because I did good to every man I was hated,

11 And they came round me like mad dogs, who ignorantly attack their masters,

12 For their thought is corrupt and their understanding perverted.

13 But I was carrying water in my right hand, and their bitterness I endured by my sweetness;

14 And I did not perish, for I was not their brother nor was my birth like theirs.

15 And they sought for my death and did not find it: for I was older than the memorial of them;

16 And vainly did they make attack upon me and those who, without reward, came after me:

17 They sought to destroy the memorial of him who was before them.

18 For the thought of the Most High cannot be anticipated; and His heart is superior to all wisdom. Hallelujah.

The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 27]

The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 27]

Ode 27

ODE 27.

The human body makes a cross when a man stands erect in prayer with arms outstretched.

1 I stretched out my hands and sanctified my Lord:

2 For the extension of my hands is His sign:

3 And my expansion is the upright tree [or cross].

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 26]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 26]✝️

Ode 26

ODE 26.

Remarkable praise.

1 I poured out praise to the Lord, for I am His:

2 And I will speak His holy song, for my heart is with Him.

3 For His harp is in my hands, and the Odes of His rest shall not be silent.

4 I will cry unto him from my whole heart: I will praise and exalt Him with all my members.

5 For from the east and even to the west is His praise:

6 And from the south and even to the north is the confession of Him:

7 And from the top of the hills to their utmost bound is His perfection.

8 Who can write the Psalms of the Lord, or who read them?

9 Or who can train his soul for life, that his soul may be saved,

10 Or who can rest on the Most High, so that with His mouth he may speak?

11 Who is able to interpret the wonders of the Lord?

12 For he who could interpret would be dissolved and would become that which is interpreted.

13 For it suffices to know and to rest: for in rest the singers stand,

14 Like a river which has an abundant fountain, and flows to the help of them that seek it. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 25]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 25]✝️

Ode 25

ODE 25.

Back again to personal experience.

1 I was rescued from my bonds and unto thee, my God, I fled:

2 For thou art the right hand of my Salvation and my helper.

3 Thou hast restrained those that rise up against me,

4 And I shall see him no more: because thy face was with me, which saved me by thy grace.

5 But I was despised and rejected in the eye of many: and I was in their eyes like lead,

6 And strength was mine from thyself and help.

7 Thou didst set me a lamp at my right hand and at my left: and in me there shall be nothing that is not bright:

8 And I was clothed with the covering of thy Spirit, and thou didst remove from me my raiment of skin;

9 For thy right hand lifted me up and removed sickness from me:

10 And I became mighty in: the truth, and holy by thy righteousness; and all my adversaries were afraid of me;

11 And I became admirable by the name of the Lord, and was justified by His gentleness, and His rest is for ever and ever. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 24]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 24]✝️

Ode 24

ODE 24.

The mention of the Dove refers to a lost Gospel to which there are rare references in ancient writings.

1 The Dove fluttered over the Messiah, because He was her head; and she sang over Him and her voice was heard:

2 And the inhabitants were afraid and the sojourners were moved:

3 The birds dropped their wings and all creeping things died in their holes: and the abysses were opened which had been hidden; and they cried to the Lord like women in travail:

4 And no food was given to them, because it did not belong to them;

5 And they sealed up the abysses with the seal of the Lord. And they perished, in the thought, those that had existed from ancient times;

6 For they were corrupt from the beginning; and the end of their corruption was life:

7 And every one of them that was imperfect perished: for it was not possible to give them a word that they might remain:

8 And the Lord destroyed the imaginations of all them that had not the truth with them.

9 For they who in their hearts were lifted up were deficient in wisdom, and so they were rejected, because the truth was not with them. 

10 For the Lord disclosed His way, and spread abroad His grace: and those who understood it, know His holiness. Hallelujah.

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 23]✝️

✝️The Odes of King 👑 Solomon [Ode 23]✝️

Ode 23

ODE 23.

The reference to the sealed document sent by God is one of the great mysteries of the collection.

1 Joy is of the saints! and who shall put it on, but they alone?

2 Grace is of the elect! and who shall receive it except those who trust in it from the beginning?

3 Love is of the elect? And who shall put it on except those who have possessed it from the beginning?

4 Walk ye in the knowledge of the Most High without grudging: to His exultation and to the perfection of His knowledge.

5 And His thought was like a letter; His will descended from on high, and it was sent like an arrow which is violently shot from the bow: 

6 And many hands rushed to the letter to seize it and to take and read it:

7 And it escaped their fingers and they were affrighted at it and at the seal that was upon it.

8 Because it was not permitted to them to loose its seal: for the power that was over the seal was greater than they.

9 But those who saw it went after the letter that they might know where it would alight, and who should read it and who should hear it.

10 But a wheel received it and came over it:

11 And there was with it a sign of the Kingdom and of the Government:

12 And everything which tried to move the wheel it mowed and cut down:

13 And it gathered the multitude of adversaries, and bridged the rivers and crossed over and rooted up many forests and made a broad path.

14 The head went down to the feet, for down to the feet ran the wheel, and that which was a sign upon it.

15 The letter was one of command, for there were included in it all districts;

16 And there was seen at its head, the head which was revealed even the Son of Truth from the Most High Father,

17 And He inherited and took possession of everything. And the thought of many was brought to nought.

18 And all the apostates hasted and fled away. And those who persecuted and were enraged became extinct.

19 And the letter was a great volume, which was wholly written by the. finger of God:

20 And the name of the Father was on it, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to rule for ever and ever. Hallelujah.