mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 90.xml

<div2 id="Ps.xci" n="xci" next="Ps.xcii" prev="Ps.xc" progress="53.26%" title="Chapter XC">
<h2 id="Ps.xci-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.xci-p0.2">PSALM XC.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.xci-p1">The foregoing psalm is supposed to have been
penned as late as the captivity in Babylon; this, it is plain, was
penned as early as the deliverance out of Egypt, and yet they are
put close together in this collection of divine songs. This psalm
was penned by Moses (as appears by the title), the most ancient
penman of sacred writ. We have upon record a praising song of his
(<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.15.1-Exod.15.21" parsed="|Exod|15|1|15|21" passage="Ex 15:1-21">Exod. xv.</scripRef>, which is
alluded to <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Rev.15.3" parsed="|Rev|15|3|0|0" passage="Re 15:3">Rev. xv. 3</scripRef>), and
an instructing song of his, <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.1-Deut.32.47" parsed="|Deut|32|1|32|47" passage="De 32:1-47">Deut.
xxxii.</scripRef> But this is of a different nature from both, for
it is called a prayer. It is supposed that this psalm was penned
upon occasion of the sentence passed upon Israel in the wilderness
for their unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion, that their carcases
should fall in the wilderness, that they should be wasted away by a
series of miseries for thirty-eight years together, and that none
of them that were then of age should enter Canaan. This was
calculated for their wanderings in the wilderness, as that other
song of Moses (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Deut.31.19 Bible:Deut.31.21" parsed="|Deut|31|19|0|0;|Deut|31|21|0|0" passage="De 31:19,21">Deut. xxxi. 19,
21</scripRef>) was for their settlement in Canaan. We have the
story to which this psalm seems to refer, <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Num.14.1-Num.14.45" parsed="|Num|14|1|14|45" passage="Nu 14:1-45">Num. xiv.</scripRef> Probably Moses penned this prayer
to be daily used, either by the people in their tents, or, at lest,
by the priests in the tabernacle-service, during their tedious
fatigue in the wilderness. In it, I. Moses comforts himself and his
people with the eternity of God and their interest in him,
<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.1-Ps.90.2" parsed="|Ps|90|1|90|2" passage="Ps 90:1,2">ver. 1, 2</scripRef>. II. He humbles
himself and his people with the consideration of the frailty of
man, <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.3-Ps.90.6" parsed="|Ps|90|3|90|6" passage="Ps 90:3-6">ver. 3-6</scripRef>. III. He
submits himself and his people to the righteous sentence of God
passed upon them, <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.7-Ps.90.11" parsed="|Ps|90|7|90|11" passage="Ps 90:7-11">ver.
7-11</scripRef>. IV. He commits himself and his people to God by
prayer for divine mercy and grace, and the return of God's favour,
<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.12-Ps.90.17" parsed="|Ps|90|12|90|17" passage="Ps 90:12-17">ver. 12-17</scripRef>. Though it
seems to have been penned upon this particular occasion, yet it is
very applicable to the frailty of human life in general, and, in
singing it, we may easily apply it to the years of our passage
through the wilderness of this world, and it furnishes us with
meditations and prayers very suitable to the solemnity of a
funeral.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.xci-p1.10" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90" parsed="|Ps|90|0|0|0" passage="Ps 90" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.xci-p1.11" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.1-Ps.90.6" parsed="|Ps|90|1|90|6" passage="Ps 90:1-6" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.90.1-Ps.90.6">
<h4 id="Ps.xci-p1.12">God's Care of His People; Frailty of Human
Life.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.xci-p1.13">
<p id="Ps.xci-p2">A Prayer of Moses the man of God.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.xci-p3">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 <i>art</i> God.   3 Thou
turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
  4 For a thousand years in thy sight <i>are but</i> as
yesterday when it is past, and <i>as</i> a watch in the night.
  5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are
<i>as</i> a sleep: in the morning <i>they are</i> like grass
<i>which</i> groweth up.   6 In the morning it flourisheth,
and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p4">This psalm is entitled <i>a prayer of
Moses.</i> Where, and in what volume, it was preserved from Moses's
time till the collection of psalms was begun to be made, is
uncertain; but, being divinely inspired, it was under a special
protection: perhaps it was written in the book of Jasher, or the
book of the wars of the Lord. Moses taught the people of Israel to
pray, and put words into their mouths which they might make use of
in turning to the Lord. Moses is here called <i>the man of God,</i>
because he was a prophet, the father of prophets, and an eminent
type of the great prophet. In these verses we are taught,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p5">I. To give God the praise of his care
concerning his people at all times, and concerning us in our days
(<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.1" parsed="|Ps|90|1|0|0" passage="Ps 90:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>): <i>Lord, thou
hast been to us a habitation,</i> or <i>dwelling-place, a
refuge</i> or <i>help, in all generations.</i> Now that they had
fallen under God's displeasure, and he threatened to abandon them,
they plead his former kindnesses to their ancestors. Canaan was a
land of pilgrimage to their fathers the patriarchs, who dwelt there
in tabernacles; but then God was their habitation, and, wherever
they went, they were at home, at rest, in him. Egypt had been a
land of bondage to them for many years, but even then God was their
refuge; and in him that poor oppressed people lived and were kept
in being. Note, True believers are at home in God, and that is
their comfort in reference to all the toils and tribulations they
meet with in this world. In him we may repose and shelter ourselves
as in our dwelling-place.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p6">II. To give God the glory of his eternity
(<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.2" parsed="|Ps|90|2|0|0" passage="Ps 90:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>): <i>Before the
mountains were brought forth, before he made the highest part of
the dust of the world</i> (as it is expressed, <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Prov.8.26" parsed="|Prov|8|26|0|0" passage="Pr 8:26">Prov. viii. 26</scripRef>), <i>before the earth fell in
travail,</i> or, as we may read it, <i>before thou hadst formed the
earth and the world</i> (that is, before the beginning of time)
thou hadst a being; <i>even from everlasting to everlasting thou
art God,</i> an eternal God, whose existence has neither its
commencement nor its period with time, nor is measured by the
successions and revolutions of it, but who art <i>the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever,</i> without beginning of days, or
end of life, or change of time. Note, Against all the grievances
that arise from our own mortality, and the mortality of our
friends, we may take comfort from God's immortality. We are dying
creatures, and all our comforts in the world are dying comforts,
but God is an everliving God, and those shall find him so who have
him for theirs.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p7">III. To own God's absolute sovereign
dominion over man, and his irresistible incontestable power to
dispose of him as he pleases (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.3" parsed="|Ps|90|3|0|0" passage="Ps 90:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>): <i>Thou turnest man to destruction,</i> with a
word's speaking, when thou pleasest, to the destruction of the
body, of the earthly house; <i>and</i> thou <i>sayest, Return, you
children of men.</i> 1. When God is, by sickness or other
afflictions, turning men to destruction, he does thereby call men
to return unto him, that is, to repent of their sins and live a new
life. This God <i>speaketh once, yea, twice. "Return unto me,</i>
from whom you have revolted," <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.4.1" parsed="|Jer|4|1|0|0" passage="Jer 4:1">Jer. iv.
1</scripRef>. 2. When God is threatening to <i>turn men to
destruction,</i> to bring them to death, and they have received a
sentence of death within themselves, sometimes he wonderfully
restores them, and says, as the old translation reads it, <i>Again
thou sayest, Return</i> to life and health again. For God kills and
makes alive again, brings down to the grave and brings up. 3. When
God turns men to destruction, it is according to the general
sentence passed upon all, which is this, "<i>Return, you children
of men,</i> one, as well as another, return to your first
principles; let the body return to the earth as it was (<i>dust to
dust,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Gen.3.19" parsed="|Gen|3|19|0|0" passage="Ge 3:19">Gen. iii. 19</scripRef>) and
let the soul <i>return to God who gave it,</i>" <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.12.7" parsed="|Eccl|12|7|0|0" passage="Ec 12:7">Eccl. xii. 7</scripRef>. 4. Though God turns all men to
destruction, yet he will again say, <i>Return, you children of
men,</i> at the general resurrection, when, though a man dies, yet
he shall live again; and "<i>then shalt thou call and I will
answer</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.14-Job.14.15" parsed="|Job|14|14|14|15" passage="Job 14:14,15">Job xiv. 14,
15</scripRef>); thou shalt bid me return, and I shall return." The
body, the soul, shall both return and unite again.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p8">IV. To acknowledge the infinite
disproportion there is between God and men, <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.4" parsed="|Ps|90|4|0|0" passage="Ps 90:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. Some of the patriarchs lived
nearly a thousand years; Moses knew this very well, and had
recorded it: but what is their long life to God's eternal life? "A
thousand years, to us, are a long period, which we cannot expect to
survive; or, if we could, it is what we could not retain the
remembrance of; but it is, <i>in thy sight, as yesterday,</i> as
one day, as that which is freshest in mind; nay, it is but as a
<i>watch of the night,</i>" which was but three hours. 1. A
thousand years are nothing to God's eternity; they are less than a
day, than an hour, to a thousand years. Betwixt a minute and a
million of years there is some proportion, but betwixt time and
eternity there is none. The long lives of the patriarchs were
nothing to God, not so much as the life of a child (that is born
and dies the same day) is to theirs. 2. All the events of a
thousand years, whether past or to come, are as present to the
Eternal Mind as what was done yesterday, or the last hour, is to
us, and more so. God will say, at the great day, to those whom he
has <i>turned to destruction, Return—Arise you dead.</i> But it
might be objected against the doctrine of the resurrection that it
is a long time since it was expected and it has not yet come. Let
that be no difficulty, for a thousand years, in God's sight, are
but as one day. <i>Nullum tempus occurrit regi—To the king all
periods are alike.</i> To this purport these words are quoted,
<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:2Pet.3.8" parsed="|2Pet|3|8|0|0" passage="2Pe 3:8">2 Pet. iii. 8</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p9">V. To see the frailty of man, and his
vanity even at his best estate (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.5-Ps.90.6" parsed="|Ps|90|5|90|6" passage="Ps 90:5,6"><i>v.</i> 5, 6</scripRef>): look upon all the children
of men, and we shall see, 1. That their life is a dying life:
<i>Thou carriest them away as with a flood,</i> that is, they are
continually gliding down the stream of time into the ocean of
eternity. The flood is continually flowing, and they are carried
away with it; as soon as we are born we begin to die, and every day
of our life carries us so much nearer death; or we are carried away
violently and irresistibly, as with a flood of waters, as with an
inundation, which sweeps away all before it; or as the old world
was carried away with Noah's flood. Though God promised not so to
drown the world again, yet death is a constant deluge. 2. That it
is a dreaming life. Men are carried away as with a flood and yet
<i>they are as a sleep;</i> they consider not their own frailty,
nor are aware how near they approach to an awful eternity. Like men
asleep, they imagine great things to themselves, till death wakes
them, and puts an end to the pleasing dream. Time passes unobserved
by us, as it does with men asleep; and, when it is over, it is as
nothing. 3. That it is a short and transient life, like that of the
grass which grows up and flourishes, in the morning looks green and
pleasant, but in the evening the mower cuts it down, and it
immediately withers, changes its colour, and loses all its beauty.
Death will change us shortly, perhaps suddenly; and it is a great
change that death will make with us in a little time. Man, in his
prime, does but flourish as the grass, which is weak, and low, and
tender, and exposed, and which, when the winter of old age comes,
will wither of itself: but he may be mown down by disease or
disaster, as the grass is, in the midst of summer. <i>All flesh is
as grass.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.xci-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.7-Ps.90.11" parsed="|Ps|90|7|90|11" passage="Ps 90:7-11" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.90.7-Ps.90.11">
<h4 id="Ps.xci-p9.3">Penitent Submission.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.xci-p10">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 <i>sins</i> in the light of thy countenance.
  9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend
our years as a tale <i>that is told.</i>   10 The days of our
years <i>are</i> threescore years and ten; and if by reason of
strength <i>they be</i> fourscore years, yet <i>is</i> their
strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly
away.   11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even
according to thy fear, <i>so is</i> thy wrath.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p11">Moses had, in the <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.1-Ps.90.6" parsed="|Ps|90|1|90|6" passage="Ps 90:1-6">foregoing verses</scripRef>, lamented the frailty of
human life in general; the children of men <i>are as a sleep and as
the grass.</i> But here he teaches the people of Israel to confess
before God that righteous sentence of death which they were under
in a special manner, and which by their sins they had brought upon
themselves. Their share in the common lot of mortality was not
enough, but they are, and must live and die, under peculiar tokens
of God's displeasure. Here they speak of themselves: <i>We</i>
Israelites <i>are consumed and troubled,</i> and <i>our days have
passed away.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p12">I. They are here taught to acknowledge the
wrath of God to be the cause of all their miseries. <i>We are
consumed, we are troubled,</i> and it is <i>by thy anger,</i> by
<i>thy wrath</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.7" parsed="|Ps|90|7|0|0" passage="Ps 90:7"><i>v.</i>
7</scripRef>); <i>our days have passed away in thy wrath,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.9" parsed="|Ps|90|9|0|0" passage="Ps 90:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>. The afflictions
of the saints often come purely from God's love, as Job's; but the
rebukes of sinners, and of good men for their sins, must be seen
coming from the anger of God, who takes notice of, and is much
displeased with, the sins of Israel. We are too apt to look upon
death as no more than a debt owing to nature; whereas it is not so;
if the nature of man had continued in its primitive purity and
rectitude, there would have been no such debt owing to it. It is a
debt to the justice of God, a debt to the law. <i>Sin entered into
the world, and death by sin.</i> Are we consumed by decays of
nature, the infirmities of age, or any chronic disease? We must
ascribe it to God's anger. Are we troubled by any sudden or
surprising stroke? That also is the fruit of God's wrath, which is
thus revealed from heaven against the <i>ungodliness</i> and
<i>unrighteousness of men.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p13">II. They are taught to confess their sins,
which had provoked the wrath of God against them (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.8" parsed="|Ps|90|8|0|0" passage="Ps 90:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>): <i>Thou hast set our
iniquities before thee, even our secret sins.</i> It was not
without cause that God was angry with them. He had said, <i>Provoke
me not, and I will do you no hurt;</i> but they had provoked him,
and will own that, in passing this severe sentence upon them, he
justly punished them, 1. For their open contempts of him and the
daring affronts they had given him: <i>Thou hast set our iniquities
before thee.</i> God had herein an eye to their unbelief and
murmuring, their distrusting his power and their despising the
pleasant land: these he set before them when he passed that
sentence on them; these kindled the fire of God's wrath against
them and kept good things from them. 2. For their more secret
departures from him: "<i>Thou hast set our secret sins</i> (those
which go no further than the heart, and which are at the bottom of
all the overt acts) <i>in the light of thy countenance;</i> that
is, thou hast discovered these, and brought these also to the
account, and made us to see them, who before overlooked them."
Secret sins are known to God and shall be reckoned for. Those who
in heart return into Egypt, who set up idols in their heart, shall
be dealt with as revolters or idolaters. See the folly of those who
go about to cover their sins, for they cannot cover them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p14">III. They are taught to look upon
themselves as dying and passing away, and not to think either of a
long life or of a pleasant one; for the decree gone forth against
them was irreversible (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.9" parsed="|Ps|90|9|0|0" passage="Ps 90:9"><i>v.</i>
9</scripRef>): <i>All our days are</i> likely to be <i>passed away
in thy wrath,</i> under the tokens of thy displeasure; and, though
we are not quite deprived of the residue of our years, yet we are
likely to <i>spend</i> them <i>as a tale that is told.</i> The
thirty-eight years which, after this, they wore away in the
wilderness, were not the subject of the sacred history; for little
or nothing is recorded of that which happened to them from the
second year to the fortieth. After they came out of Egypt their
time was perfectly trifled away, and was not worthy to be the
subject of a history, but only of <i>a tale that is told;</i> for
it was only to pass away time, like telling stories, that they
spent those years in the wilderness; all that while they were in
the consuming, and another generation was in the raising. When they
came out of Egypt <i>there was not one feeble person among their
tribes</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p14.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.105.37" parsed="|Ps|105|37|0|0" passage="Ps 105:37">Ps. cv. 37</scripRef>);
but now they were feeble. Their joyful prospect of a prosperous
glorious life in Canaan was turned into the melancholy prospect of
a tedious inglorious death in the wilderness; so that their whole
life was now as impertinent a thing as ever any winter-tale was.
That is applicable to the state of every one of us in the
wilderness of this world: <i>We spend our years, we bring them to
an end,</i> each year, and all at last, <i>as a tale that is
told—as the breath of our mouth in winter</i> (so some), which
soon disappears—<i>as a thought</i> (so some), than which nothing
more quick—<i>as a word,</i> which is soon spoken, and then
vanishes into air—or <i>as a tale that is told.</i> The spending
of our years is like the telling of a tale. A year, when it past,
is like a tale when it is told. Some of our years are a pleasant
story, others as a tragical one, most mixed, but all short and
transient: that which was long in the doing may be told in a short
time. Our years, when they are gone, can no more be recalled than
the word that we have spoken can. The loss and waste of our time,
which are our fault and folly, may be thus complained of: we should
spend our years like the despatch of business, with care and
industry; but, alas! we do spend them like the telling of a tale,
idle, and to little purpose, carelessly, and without regard. Every
year passed <i>as a tale that is told;</i> but what was the number
of them? As they were vain, so they were few (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p14.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.10" parsed="|Ps|90|10|0|0" passage="Ps 90:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>), seventy or eighty at most,
which may be understood either, 1. Of the lives of the Israelites
in the wilderness; all those that were numbered when they came out
of Egypt, above twenty years old, were to die within thirty-eight
years; they numbered those only that <i>were able to go forth to
war,</i> most of whom, we may suppose, were between twenty and
forty, who therefore must have all died before eighty years old,
and many before sixty, and perhaps much sooner, which was far short
of the years of the lives of their fathers. And those that lived to
seventy or eighty, yet, being under a sentence of consumption and a
melancholy despair of ever seeing through this wilderness-state,
their strength, their life, was nothing but <i>labour and
sorrow,</i> which otherwise would have been made a new life by the
joys of Canaan. See what work sin made. Or, 2. Of the lives of men
in general, ever since the days of Moses. Before the time of Moses
it was usual for men to live about 100 years, or nearly 150; but,
since, seventy or eighty is the common stint, which few exceed and
multitudes never come near. We reckon those to have lived to the
age of man, and to have had as large a share of life as they had
reason to expect, who live to be seventy years old; and how short a
time is that compared with eternity! Moses was the first that
committed divine revelation to writing, which, before, had been
transmitted by tradition; now also both the world and the church
were pretty well peopled, and therefore there were not now the same
reasons for men's living long that there had been. If, by reason of
a strong constitution, some reach to eighty years, yet their
strength then is what they have little joy of; it does but serve to
prolong their misery, and make their death the more tedious; for
even <i>their strength then is labour and sorrow,</i> much more
their weakness; for the years have come which they have no pleasure
in. Or it may be taken thus: <i>Our years are seventy, and the
years of some, by reason of strength, are eighty; but the breadth
of our years</i> (for so the latter word signifies, rather than
strength), <i>the whole extent of them, from infancy to old age, is
but labour and sorrow.</i> In the sweat of our face we must eat
bread; our whole life is toilsome and troublesome; and perhaps, in
the midst of the years we count upon, <i>it is soon cut off, and we
fly away,</i> and do not live out half our days.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p15">IV. They are taught by all this to stand in
awe of the wrath of God (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.11" parsed="|Ps|90|11|0|0" passage="Ps 90:11"><i>v.</i>
11</scripRef>): <i>Who knows the power of thy anger?</i> 1. None
can perfectly comprehend it. The psalmist speaks as one afraid of
God's anger, and amazed at the greatness of the power of it; who
knows how far the power of God's anger can reach and how deeply it
can wound? The angels that sinned knew experimentally the power of
God's anger; damned sinners in hell know it; but which of us can
fully comprehend or describe it? 2. Few do seriously consider it as
they ought. <i>Who knows it,</i> so as to improve the knowledge of
it? Those who make a mock at sin, and make light of Christ, surely
do not know the power of God's anger. For, <i>according to thy
fear, so is thy wrath;</i> God's wrath is equal to the
apprehensions which the most thoughtful serious people have of it;
let men have ever so great a dread upon them of the wrath of God,
it is not greater than there is cause for and than the nature of
the thing deserves. God has not in his word represented his wrath
as more terrible than really it is; nay, what is felt in the other
world is infinitely worse than what is feared in this world. <i>Who
among us can dwell with that devouring fire?</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.xci-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.12-Ps.90.17" parsed="|Ps|90|12|90|17" passage="Ps 90:12-17" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.90.12-Ps.90.17">
<h4 id="Ps.xci-p15.3">Prayers for Mercy.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.xci-p16">12 So teach <i>us</i> to number our days, that
we may apply <i>our</i> hearts unto wisdom.   13 Return, <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xci-p16.1">O Lord</span>, how long? and let it repent thee
concerning thy servants.   14 O satisfy us early with thy
mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.   15 Make
us glad according to the days <i>wherein</i> thou hast afflicted
us, <i>and</i> the years <i>wherein</i> we have seen evil.  
16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their
children.   17 And let the beauty of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xci-p16.2">Lord</span> our God be upon us: and establish thou the
work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish
thou it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p17">These are the petitions of this prayer,
grounded upon the foregoing meditations and acknowledgments. <i>Is
any afflicted? Let him</i> learn thus to <i>pray.</i> Four things
they are here directed to pray for:—</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p18">I. For a sanctified use of the sad
dispensation they were now under. Being condemned to have our days
shortened, "<i>Lord, teach us to number our days</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.12" parsed="|Ps|90|12|0|0" passage="Ps 90:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>); Lord, give us grace
duly to consider how few they are, and how little a while we have
to live in this world." Note, 1. It is an excellent art rightly
<i>to number our days,</i> so as not to be out in our calculation,
as he was who counted upon many years to come when, that night, his
soul was required of him. We must live under a constant
apprehension of the shortness and uncertainty of life and the near
approach of death and eternity. We must so number our days as to
compare our work with them, and mind it accordingly with a double
diligence, as those that have no time to trifle. 2. Those that
would learn this arithmetic must pray for divine instruction, must
go to God, and beg of him to teach them by his Spirit, to put them
upon considering and to give them a good understanding. 3. We then
number our days to good purpose when thereby our hearts are
inclined and engaged to true wisdom, that is, to the practice of
serious godliness. To be religious is to be wise; this is a thing
to which it is necessary that we apply our hearts, and the matter
requires and deserves a close application, to which frequent
thoughts of the uncertainty of our continuance here, and the
certainty of our removal hence, will very much contribute.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p19">II. For the turning away of God's anger
from them, that though the decree had gone forth, and was past
revocation, there was no remedy, but they must die in the
wilderness: "<i>Yet return, O Lord!</i> be thou reconciled to us,
and <i>let it repent thee concerning thy servants</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.13" parsed="|Ps|90|13|0|0" passage="Ps 90:13"><i>v.</i> 13</scripRef>); send us tidings of
peace to comfort us again after these heavy tidings. How long must
we look upon ourselves as under thy wrath, and when shall we have
some token given us of our restoration to thy favour? <i>We are thy
servants, thy people</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p19.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.64.9" parsed="|Isa|64|9|0|0" passage="Isa 64:9">Isa. lxiv.
9</scripRef>); when wilt thou change thy way toward us?" In answer
to this prayer, and upon their profession of repentance (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p19.3" osisRef="Bible:Num.14.39-Num.14.40" parsed="|Num|14|39|14|40" passage="Nu 14:39,40">Num. xiv. 39, 40</scripRef>), God, in the
next chapter, proceeding with the laws concerning sacrifices
(<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p19.4" osisRef="Bible:Num.15.1-Num.15.31" parsed="|Num|15|1|15|31" passage="Nu 15:1-31">Num. xv. 1</scripRef>, &amp;c.),
which was a token that it repented him concerning his servants;
for, <i>if the Lord had been pleased to kill them, he would not
have shown them such things as these.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p20">III. For comfort and joy in the returns of
God's favour to them, <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.14-Ps.90.15" parsed="|Ps|90|14|90|15" passage="Ps 90:14,15"><i>v.</i> 14,
15</scripRef>. They pray for the mercy of God; for they pretend not
to plead any merit of their own. <i>Have mercy upon us, O God!</i>
is a prayer we are all concerned to say <i>Amen</i> to. Let us pray
for early mercy, the seasonable communications of divine mercy,
that God's <i>tender mercies may speedily prevent us, early in the
morning</i> of our days, when we are young and flourishing,
<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.6" parsed="|Ps|90|6|0|0" passage="Ps 90:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>. Let us pray for
the true satisfaction and happiness which are to be had only in the
favour and mercy of God, <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p20.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.4.6-Ps.4.7" parsed="|Ps|4|6|4|7" passage="Ps 4:6,7">Ps. iv. 6,
7</scripRef>. A gracious soul, if it may but be satisfied of God's
lovingkindness, will be satisfied with it, abundantly satisfied,
will take up with that, and will take up with nothing short of it.
Two things are pleaded to enforce this petition for God's mercy:—
1. That it would be a full fountain of future joys: "<i>O satisfy
us with thy mercy,</i> not only that we may be easy and at rest
within ourselves, which we can never be while we lie under thy
wrath, but that we <i>may rejoice and be glad,</i> not only for a
time, upon the first indications of thy favour, but <i>all our
days,</i> though we are to spend them in the wilderness." With
respect to those that make God their chief joy, as their joy may be
full (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p20.4" osisRef="Bible:1John.1.4" parsed="|1John|1|4|0|0" passage="1Jo 1:4">1 John i. 4</scripRef>), so it
may be constant, even in this vale of tears; it is their own fault
if they are not glad all their days, for his mercy will furnish
them with joy in tribulation and nothing can separate them from it.
2. That it would be a sufficient balance to their former griefs:
"<i>Make us glad according to the days wherein thou has afflicted
us;</i> let the days of our joy in thy favour be as many as the
days of our pain for thy displeasure have been and as pleasant as
those have been gloomy. <i>Lord, thou usest to set the one
over-against the other</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p20.5" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.7.14" parsed="|Eccl|7|14|0|0" passage="Ec 7:14">Eccl. vii.
14</scripRef>); do so in our case. Let it suffice that we have
drunk so long of the cup of trembling; now put into our hands the
cup of salvation." God's people reckon the returns of God's
lovingkindness a sufficient recompence for all their troubles.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xci-p21">IV. For the progress of the work of God
among them notwithstanding, <scripRef id="Ps.xci-p21.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.16-Ps.90.17" parsed="|Ps|90|16|90|17" passage="Ps 90:16,17"><i>v.</i> 16, 17</scripRef>. 1. That he would
manifest himself in carrying it on: "<i>Let thy work appear upon
thy servants;</i> let it appear that thou hast wrought upon us, to
bring us home to thyself and to fit us for thyself." God's servants
cannot work for him unless he work upon them, and work in them both
to will and to do; and then we may hope the operations of God's
providence will be apparent for us when the operations of his grace
are apparent upon us. "Let thy work appear, and in it thy glory
will appear to us and those that shall come after us." In praying
for God's grace God's glory must be our end; and we must therein
have an eye to our children as well as to ourselves, that they also
may experience God's glory appearing upon them, so as to change
them into the same image, from glory to glory. Perhaps, in this
prayer, they distinguish between themselves and their children, for
so God distinguished in his late message to them (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p21.2" osisRef="Bible:Num.14.31" parsed="|Num|14|31|0|0" passage="Nu 14:31">Num. xiv. 31</scripRef>, <i>Your carcases shall
fall in this wilderness, but your little ones I will bring into
Canaan</i>): "Lord," say they, "let <i>thy work appear upon us,</i>
to reform us, and bring us to a better temper, and then <i>let thy
glory appear to our children,</i> in performing the promise to them
which we have forfeited the benefit of." 2. That he would
countenance and strengthen them in carrying it on, in doing their
part towards it. (1.) That he would smile upon them in it: <i>Let
the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us;</i> let it appear that
God favours us. Let us have God's ordinances kept up among us and
the tokens of God's presence with his ordinances; so some. We may
apply this petition both to our sanctification and to our
consolation. Holiness is <i>the beauty of the Lord our God;</i> let
that be upon us in all we say and do; let the grace of God in us,
and the light of our good works, make our faces to shine (that is
the comeliness God puts upon us, and those are comely indeed who
are so beautified), and then let divine consolations put gladness
into our hearts, and a lustre upon our countenances, and that also
will be the beauty of the Lord upon us, as our God. (2.) That he
would prosper them in it: <i>Establish thou the work of our hands
upon us.</i> God's working upon us (<scripRef id="Ps.xci-p21.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.16" parsed="|Ps|90|16|0|0" passage="Ps 90:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>) does not discharge us from
using our utmost endeavours in serving him and working out our
salvation. But, when we have done all, we must wait upon God for
the success, and beg of him to <i>prosper our handy works,</i> to
give us to compass what we aim at for his glory. We are so unworthy
of divine assistance, and yet so utterly insufficient to bring any
thing to pass without it, that we have need to be earnest for it
and to repeat the request: <i>Yea, the work of our hands, establish
thou it,</i> and, in order to that, establish us in it.</p>
</div></div2>