serving in the capital. The opening phrases of the paragraph Blessed be he who spake seem a reminiscence of this custom. Similarly, the special Psalms for each day of the week (see P.B. pp. 80 and 168) are explained in the Mishnah (Tamid end) as having reference to the details of the creation described in Genesis. Abudarham works out this idea with great and ingenious particularity.
Page 17. O give thanks (הוֹדוּ). (I Chronicles xvi. 8 36. The whole passage is also included in Psalm cv., with a few variant readings. The Prayer Book has chosen the version from Chronicles.) When the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem from the house of Obed-edom, the occasion was one of joy (i Chron. xv. 25, etc.). "Then on that day did David first ordain to give thanks unto the Lord by the hand of Asaph and his brethren" (i Chron. xvi. 7), and the verses O give thanks, etc. follow. The same thanksgiving continued (according to Seder Olam Rabba xiv.) to be used daily until the erection of the Temple, the first part (as far as and do my prophets no harm) was sung in the morning, and the second part (from Sing unto the Lord, all the earth to And all the people said Amen and praised the Lord) was sung in the afternoon. If this be authentic, the passage is, as Baer remarks (following the Col-bo, 5), better placed in the Sephardic ritual, where it follows immediately after the account of the sacrifices. At all events, the second part (including as it does petitions for the divine mercy and protection) can hardly have belonged to the original form in which the main idea was one of praise. But the two ideas of praise and petition easily merge into one another.
Page 18. Exalt ye the Lord (רוֹמֲמוּ) till I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me (end of p. 19) is composed of verses from the Psalms in the following order: Ps. xcix. 5, 9; lxxviii. 38 (this verse is omitted in some rites on the Sabbath); xl. 12; xxv. 6; lxviii. 35, 36; xciv. i, 2; iii. 9; xlvi. 8; lxxxiv. 13; xx. 10; xxviii. 9; xxxiii. 20, 21, 22; lxxxv. 8; xliv. 27; lxxxi. 11; cxliv. 15; xiii. 6.
