3.

in the former part of the Pfalm. These " loving "kindneffes" are called, in Ifaiah lv. "the fure "mercies of David;" which "fure mercies of Da"vid” are affirmed by St. Paul, Acts xiii. 34. to have been then confirmed on Ifrael, when, in the perfon of Jefus, God raised our nature from the grave. To a resurrection, therefore, believers have ever aspired; thither have they directed their wishes, and on that event have they fixed their hopes, as the end of temporal forrows, and the beginning of eternal joys.

50. Remember, LORD, the reproach of thy fervants; how I do bear in my bofom the reproach of all the mighty people; 51. Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.

The laft argument urged by the church, in her expoftulation with God for a speedy redemption, is, the continual reproach to which fhe was fubject, on account of the promise being delayed. The mighty people," or heathen nations, who held her in captivity, and were witneffes of her wretched and forlorn eftate, ridiculed her pretenfions to perpetuity of empire in the house of David; they blafphemed the God, who was faid to have made such promises; and "reproached the footsteps," or mocked at the tardy advent of his Meffiah*, who was to establish

• "Exprobraverunt veftigio Chrifti tui:" tarditatem veftigio. rum Chrifti tui. Chald. Irridebant nos quòd non adveniret expectatus ille Liberator, five Cyrus, five potius Chriftus de femine Davidis, regno ejus inftaurando, et in æternum firmando. BOSSUET.

in

in Ifrael his everlafting throne. All these cruel taunts and infults fhe was obliged to "bear in her bofom," and there to fupprefs them in filence, having nothing to answer in the day of her calamity, and feeming deftitution. St. Peter gives us a like account of the ftate of the Chriftian church, in the latter days: he exhorts us to be "mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the "commandinents of the Apoftles of the Lord and "Saviour, because their fhall come in the last days fcoffers, walking after their own lufts, and fay

66

ing, Where is the promise of his coming!" 2 Pet.

iii. 4.

52. Bleed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

But whatever be at any time our distress, either as a community or as individuals, ftill are we to believe, ftill to hope, ftill to blefs and praise Jehovah, whose word is true, whose works are faithful, whose chastisements are mercies, and all whofe promises are, in Chrift Jesus, yea and amen, for evermore.

XVIII DAY. MORNING PRAYER.

PSALM XC.

ARGUMENT.

66

This Pfalm is called, in it's title, A prayer "of Mofes, the man of God." By him it is imagined to have been compofed, when

God

God fhortened the days of the murmuring Ifraelites in the wilderness. See Numb. xiv. It is, however, a Pfalm of general use, and is made, by the church, a part of her funeral fervice. It containeth, 1, 2. an addrefs to the eternal and unchangeable God, the faviour and preserver of his people; 3—10. a moft affecting defcription of man's mortal and tranfitory state on earth, fince the fall; 11. a complaint, that few meditate in fuch a manner upon death, as to prepare themfelves for it; 12. a prayer for grace fo 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 Pfalmift, about to describe man's fleeting and tranfitory ftate, firft directed 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 diffolution. See, for a parallel, Pf. cii. 25, &c. with St. Paul's application, Heb. i. 10.

3. Thou turneft man to deftruction; and fayeft, Return, ye children of men.

Death was the penalty inflicted on man for fin. The latter part of the verfe alludes to the fatal fen

VOL. II.

I

tence,

tence, Gen. iii. 19. "Duft thou art, and unto dust "fhalt thou return." How apt are we to forget both our original and our end!

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

The connection between the verfe preceding and the verse now before us, feems to be this. God fentenced man to death. It is true, the execution of the fentence was at firft deferred, and the term of human life fuffered to extend to near a thousand years. But what was even that, what is any period of time, or time itfelf, if compared with the duration of the Eternal ?. All time is equal, when it is paft; a thousand years, when gone, are forgotten as yesterday; and the longest life of man, to a perfon who looks back upon it, may appear only as three hours, or one quarter of the night.

5. Thou carrieft them away as with a flood, they are as a fleep in the morning; they are like grafs which groweth up; or, as grafs 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 fuddenness of our departure hence, are illustrated by three fimilitudes. The firft is that of a "flood," or torrent pouring unexpectedly and impetuoufly from the mountains, and fweeping all before it in an inftant. The fecond is that of" fleep," from which when a man awaketh, he thinketh the time paffed in it to have been nothing. In the third fimilitude, man is compared to the "grafs" 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 ftroke of death; all his juices, to the circulation of which he ftood indebted for life, health, and strength, are dried up; he withereth, and turneth again to his earth. "Surely "all flesh is grafs, and all the goodlinefs thereof is as "the flower of the field !" Ifai. xl. 6. Of this truth, the word of God, the voice of nature, and daily experience join to affure us: yet who ordereth his life and converfation, as if he believed it?

7. For we are confumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. 8. Thou haft fet our iniquities before thee; our fecret fins in the light of thy countenance.

The generations of men are troubled and confumed by divers diseases, and fundry kinds of death, through the displeasure of God; his difpleafure is occafioned by their fins, all of which he feeth and punifheth. If Mofes wrote this Pfalm, the provocations and chaftifements of Ifrael are here alluded to. But the cafe of the Ifraelites in the wilderness is the cafe of Chriftians in the world, and the fame thing is true both in them and in us.

9. For all our days are passed 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 vanifheth into nothing, as foon as spoken; or perhaps, as the original generally fignifies, to a" mediic tation, a thought," which is of a nature ftill more fleeting and tranfient.

10. The days of our years are threescore years and I 2

ten,