Notes on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 90
The xc. PSALM.
This praier of Moses in likelihood was made by him, some time before his death, betwixt the Israelites, being inhabited Canaan, because of their murmuring and misbelief, when the spies brought an evil report upon the land, in that long peregrination of theirs in the wilderness, and the time they entered it: wherein he first mentions the continual care that he the everlasting God hath had over them, in all their travels and sojournings, and next the often afflictions and destructions, to which their sins and his displeasure brought them, and the great deliverances he hath afforded them, as it were a resurrection from the dead. Then declares how its worse with them his people than the rest of mankind, for though all must, and do perish by frailty and casualty, yet his wrath is upon none so sore as them, they perish by that more than th…se. All life is short and all old age wearisome, but their shortest and wearisomest of any, he praies that a good use may be made both of the naturall and supernaturall brevity of their lives, and that God would after so long estrangement be gracious to them, and make good his promise touching the promised land, and their happy condition therein.
A Psalm being a Prayer made by Moses, Psalm xc. A Prayer of Moses the man of God.that extraordinary servant and Prophet of the Lord.
1 LOrd,1LOrd, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. ever since we were thy people, even from Abraham and so downward, successively we have wandered and sojourned as strangers in one place after another by thy appointment and providence, who hast still gone along with us, provided for us, and been a harbour, shelter, and protection to us in all places, and throughout all ages to this day, as thou wilt be to thy Church to the end of the world.
2 There is no God besides thee who art eternall,2Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world: even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. the Creatour of all things, for before the huge mountains, which seem to have had no beginning, but to have been from everlasting, yet before them thou hadst thy being when they had none, nor no appearance of any, both which thou causedst, providing the Abyss and huge concave of the sea to receive the waters, which till then overflowed their highest tops, yea, before the earth both sea and land, and heavens too had any existence, thou, Lord, hadst thine, and formedst them as now they are. Before the world was, thou wast, for else it had not been; yea, before time was, even from everlasting thou wast God, and so shalt be to everlasting, even when time and all this world shall have an end, and thy peoples God from their everlasting predestination, to their everlasting glorification.
3 Living and dead,3Thou turnest man to destruction: and saiest, return ye children of men. mans sin and frailty, thy power and mercy appears; For thou often bringest him to the point of ruin, and yet pronounceth a reprieve and lengthenest his life as we well know, that else would soon expire under thy hand, when thou laiest it upon him, and when death it self hath swallowed him, thou by thine Almighty power shalt command the grave to give up her dead, after she hath long detained them, and make all mankind at last to live again at the resurrection, whereof we have been a figure.
4For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.4 For, however we judge and measure things by time being subject to futurity, and so think a little a great deal, and that which is short to be long, but to thee who comprehendeth Eternity, and before whose eyes all things past and to come are present, a thousand years are nothing, they are as it were at an end so soon as begun, what time past is to us, such time to come is with thee, an hour, day, year, age, are all alike, even all the time we lie in the grave, though a thousand years, which to our thoughts seems a kind of Eternity, it is to thee but as a piece of a night, a few hours, the watch of one Centry.
5Thou carriest them away as with a floud, they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.5, 6 Lord, how in thy displeasure doest thou sweep away the sinfull sons of men, what examples of it have we seen both amongst our enemies and our selves,6In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth. like an over-flowing torrent that bears down all before it, so vain a thing is man, and so frail a thing his life, as transient or momentary as a sleep or dream, as short-lived as grass. In the youthfull part of their time, which is as it were the morning of their age, they are strong and busie for a while, like unto grass which in the morning of the day is green and flourishing, and before night is mowed down and withered, so short and uncertain is the life of man.
7 We of all men have experience of it,7For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. that have so often and so many of us perished in thy displeasure, and by terrible judgements been strangely and suddenly slain to the amazement and terrour of the rest.
8 For our sins and provocations,8Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. as such times as thou hast been pleased to take notice of them, and to reckon with us for them, which thou hast done very severely, even those sinnes which we had thought thou hadst scarce taken notice of, the murmurings and secret misbelief of our hearts, these thou hast clearly seen, and we have felt as much, thy grace and favour being be-clouded towards us by their interposition.
9 Insomuch as we that had a flourishing time of it,9For all our dayes are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. when first we came out of Egypt, having the light of thy countenance shining sweetly upon us for some season, are now in a quite other condition, and for a many years have wandred and wasted away in thy displeasure, our carcases falling in the wilderness, vainly and unprofitably exhausting our time, living uselesly, and dying regardlesly.
10 The ordinary rate of mans life is seventy years,10The dayes of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength, they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour & sorrow: for it is soon cut off, and we flie away. and if by speciall blessing or bitterness of constitution, any surmount that number, and attain to fourscore, yet by reason of the infirmities incident to old age, that surplusage of time is of little or no content saving that they live, so accompanied is that remainder of their life with pains and irksomness (such as we have had our shares of in this time of thy disfavour) for their strength then is not vigorous, meerly yields subsistance and being, but no well-being, and that very being so frail and feeble, that almost any thing serves to annihilate it, so uncertain and transient is our life alwayes, especially then at that decrepit age, that we are gone in a moment.
11Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.11 We have had experience of thine anger and thy power to execute it, though in a remiss degree, what infinite numbers of us momentany short-lived creatures have untimely perished by it? and not reached that proportion of years, which our infirm natures might else have attained unto, and yet hast thou been mercifull to us too, considering how able thou wast to have cut us all off at a blow, for it can neither be expressed nor conceived, how Almighty thou art to vindicate thy dishonour upon such sinners as we have been, if thou wouldst have stirred up all thy wrath, and put forth thy power to the uttermost, but this terrour of thine is hid from most mens eyes, the world hath not the faith of it, because they have not the fear of thee, onelyonly thine own people, nor they neither, saving such of them as thou hast by an inward call begotten to thee, and made to fear thee, have any right understanding of the greatness of it, they that filially fear thee, which is the true knowledge of thee, do onelyonly tremblingly reverence thine irefulness.
12So teach us to number our dayes, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.12 Naturally we know nothing, neither the power of thine anger, nor our own brevity of life and imbecillity of nature, thou must teach us not onelyonly what concerns thee, but what concerns our selves also, doctrine will not do it, it is thou that must be our teacher, else we shall never learn practically and profitably to know we are mortall. Lord, therefore pitie our stupidity, teacheth us even what we know already; for common truths that are of greatest use, though they be most known, yet they are oft-times least understood; for we live as if we should never die, though we know nothing is more sure, nor more uncertain than death, such fools are we and void of true wisdom till thou inspire us with it: make us then so to know the momentanies of our loves, as thereby to be instigated to make it our first and chiefest care to seek and secure to our selves a blessed eternity after them, especially we that are under thy heavy displeasure, and consumed by it day by day; let the loss of this earthly, incite us to look after a heavenly Canaan.
13 O Lord,13Return (O Lord) how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. call to mind that ancient love, wherewith thou lovedst our fore-fathers, and those many acts of grace, which we their children have participated from thee formerly, to perswade with thee, to reassume that temper towards us, and to be again gracious to us. We, Lord, think it long till we be received into favour again, do thou think so too we humbly pray thee, and put an end to this thy displeasure, that hath so long lain heavy upon us. Yea, let what thou hast already done seem too much, at least, Lord, do no more so, but cease to destroy us, and take us into grace again, whom thou hast honoured above all the world, with the title of thy people and servants.
14 O satisfie our longing desires after mercy,14O satisfie us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoyce, and be glad all our days. and do it betime, whilest some of us are yet left alive, before the sun be set upon us all; Lord, spare that remnant that are not yet consumed, and let us see some token for good, that may again revive us, and perswade us of thy reconciled favour towards us, which would make us quite forget all our sorrow passed, for the joy we should conceive thereat, and be happy men for time to come.
15Make us glad according to the dayes wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.15 Lord, let thy mercies hold some proportion with thy judgements, especially towards us thy people, against whom, though thou hast denounced some threats, yet hast thou made us many more promises, therefore call to mind the number, nature, and long continuance of our afflictions both in Egypt, and since we came thence, especially this long peregrination of ours, ever since thou swarest we should not enter into thy rest, now at last to have some commiseration, and another while to let us tast of mercy, as we have done of misery, and to have a surviving joy to succeed our long-lived sorrow.
16Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.16 Lord, thou hast ingaged thy self in a great undertaking, even to give this thy people the land of Canaan in full possession and dominion, some progress its true thou hast made towards it, by our deliverance out of Egypt, and conduct through the wilderness to the skirts thereof, but the complement of it we would fain see, which we had seen ere this but for our own default, which we pray thee at last obliterate, and make good thy promise of possession in our sight and time, and of that glorious state and condition, which shall be to thy Church and Kingdom in succeeding ages, let after-generations see it in its full splendour.
17And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: & establish thou the works of our hands upon us, yea, the wo…k of our hands establish thou it.17 And let the blessing and favour of the Almighty and our good God, be with his people for ever, to make them beautifull and glorious in the eyes of all nations, who in the absence thereof, are the abject despondent people living. And make succesfull all their great undertakings in enterprising Canaan, driving out and destroying those many Kings and great people, the enlarging their borders and dominion into remote countries, and building of the Temple; whatsoever, Lord, thou hast promised to do for them, give them hearts faithfully to believe it, and in the faith thereof couragiously to undertake it, and indefatigably to persist in it, and succesfully to prosper in all things unto an establishment in a full fruition, absolute dominion, and glorious condition of Church and Kingdome.