composed when God shortened the days of the murmuring Israelites in the wilderness. See Numb. xiv. It is, however, a Psalm of general use, and is made, by the church, a part of her funeral service. It containeth, 1, 2. an address to the eternal and unchangeable God, the Saviour and Preserver of his people; 3-10. a most affecting description of man's mortal and transitory state on earth since the fall; 11. a complaint, that few meditate in such a manner on death, as to prepare themselves for it; 12. a prayer for grace so to do; 13-17. and for the mercies of redemption.]

1. "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations." 2. "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God."

The Psalmist, about to describe man's fleeting and transitory state, first directs us to contemplate the unchangeable nature and attributes of God, who hath always been a 'dwelling-place,' or place of defence and refuge, affording protection and comfort to his people in the world, as he promised to be before the world began, and will, in a more glorious manner, continue to be after its dissolution. See, for a parallel, Ps. cii. 25, &c. with St. Paul's application, Heb. i. 10.

3. "Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men."

Death was the penalty inflicted on man for sin. The latter part of the verse alludes to the fatal sentence, Gen. iii. 19. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.' How apt are we to forget both our original and our end!

4. "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night."

The connexion between the verse preceding and the verse now before us, seems to be this. God sentenced man to death. It is true, the execution of the sentence was at first deferred, and the term of human life suffered to extend to near a thousand years. But what was even that, what is any period of time, or time itself, if compared with the duration of the Eternal? All time is equal, when it is past; a thousand years, when gone, are forgotten as yesterday; and the longest life of man, to a person who looks back on it, may appear only as three hours, or one quarter of the night.

5. "Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up;” or as grass that changeth. 6." In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth."

The shortness of life, and the suddenness of our departure hence, are illustrated by three similitudes. The first is that of a 'flood,' or torrent pouring unexpectedly and impetuously from the mountains and sweeping all before

it in an instant. The second is that of 'sleep,' from which when a man awaketh he thinketh the time passed in it to have been nothing. In the third similitude, man is compared to the grass' of the field. In the morning of youth, fair and beautiful, he groweth up and flourisheth; in the evening of old age (and how often before that evening!) he is cut down by the stroke of death; all his juices, to the circulation of which he stood indebted for life, health, and strength, are dried up; he withereth, and turneth again to his earth. 'Surely all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field!' Isa. xl. 6. Of this truth, the word of God, the voice of nature, and daily experience, join to assure us: yet who ordereth his life and conversation as if he believed it?

7. "For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled." 8. "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee; our secret sins in the light of thy countenance."

The generations of men are troubled and consumed by divers diseases, and sundry kinds of death, through the displeasure of God; his displeasure is occasioned by their sins, all of which he seeth and punisheth. If Moses wrote this Psalm, the provocations and chastisements of Israel are here alluded to. But the case of the Israelites in the wilderness, is the case of Christians in the world; and the same thing is true both in them and in us.

9. "For all our days are past away in thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told."

Life is compared to a 'tale' that is told and forgotten; to a 'word' which is but air, or breath, and vanisheth into nothing as soon as spoken; or perhaps, as the original generally signifies, to a 'meditation, a thought,' which is of a nature still more fleeting and transient.

10. "The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength, they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow: for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."

This again might be primarily spoken by Moses, concerning Israel. The generation of those who came out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upwards, fell within the space of forty years, in the wilderness; Numb. xiv. 29; and they who lived longest experienced only labor and sorrow, until they were cut off, like grass, and, by the breath of God's displeasure, blown away from the face of the earth. Like the Israelites, we have been brought out of Egypt, and sojourn in the wilderness; like them we murmur, and offend God our Saviour; like them we fall and perish. To the age of seventy years, few of us can hope to attain; labor and sorrow are our portion in the world; we are mowed down, as this year's grass of the field; we fly away, and are no more seen in the land of the living.

11. "Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath."

Houbigant renders the verse thus: Quis novit vim iræ tuæ; et, prout terribilis es, furorem tuum?'-' Who knoweth,' or considereth, the power of thine anger; and

thy wrath, in proportion as thou art terrible?' that is, in other words, Notwithstanding all the manifestations of God's indignation against sin, which introduced death and every other calamity among men, who is there that knoweth, who that duly considereth and layeth to heart the almighty power of that indignation; who that is induced, by beholding the mortality of his neighbours, to prepare himself for his own departure hence? Such holy consideration is the gift of God, from whom the Psalmist, in the next verse, directeth us to request it.

12. "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

He who 'numbereth his days,' or taketh a right account of the shortness of this present life, compared with the unnumbered ages of that eternity which is future, will soon become a proficient in the school of true wisdom. He will learn to give the preference where it is due; to do good, and suffer evil, on earth, expecting the reward of both in heaven. Make us wise, blessed Lord, but wise unto salvation.

،،

13. Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning," or be propitiated towards, "thy servants."

During the reign of death over poor mankind, God is represented as absent; he is therefore by the faithful entreated to return,' and to satisfy their longing desires after salvation; to hasten the day when Messiah should make a 'propitiation for sin, when he should redeem his