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shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?" 2 Pet. iii. 4.

52. Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen and Amen."

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

EIGHTEENTH DAY.-MORNING PRAYER.

PSALM XC.

ARGUMENT.

This Psalm is called in its title, "A prayer of Moses, the man of God." By him it is imagined to have been 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; 2-10. 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 upon death, as to prepare themselves for it; 12. a prayer for grace so to do; 13—17. and for the mercies of redemp

tion.

"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 directeth 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, Psalm cii. 25, &c. with St. Paul's application, Heb. i. 10.

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men.

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

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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 connection 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 upon 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 "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 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 vanishes 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 labour 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. xxiv. 29. and they who lived longest experienced only labour 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; labour 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, upon 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.

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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 servants from death, and ransom them from the power of the grave. The Christian, who knoweth that his Lord is risen indeed, looks forward to the resurrection of the just, when death shall be finally swallowed up in victory.

"14. O satisfy us early, or, in the morning, with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil."

The church prayeth for the dawning of that glorious morning, when every cloud shall vanish at the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, and night and darkness shall be no more. Then only shall we be "satisfied, or saturated with the mercy" of Jehovah; then only shall we "rejoice and be glad all our days." The time of our pilgrimage upon earth is a time of sorrow; we grieve for our departed friends; and our surviving friends must soon grieve for us; these are "the days wherein God afflicted us, these the years wherein we see evil;" but he will hereafter "make us glad according to them; in proportion to our sufferings, if rightly we bear those sufferings, will be our reward; nay, "these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Then shall our joy be increased, and receive an additional relish from the remembrance of our former sorrow; then shall we bless the days and the years which exercised our faith, and perfected our patience; and then shall we bless God, who chastised us for a season, that he might save us for ever.

"16. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. 17. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."

The redemption of man is that "work" of God, whereby his "glory" is manifested to all generations, and which all generations do therefore long to behold accomplished. For this purpose, the faithful beseech God to let his "beauty," his splendour, the light of his countenance, his grace and favour, be upon them: to "establish the work of their hands," to bless, prosper, and perfect them in their Christian course and warfare; until, through him, they shall be enabled to subdue sin, and triumph over death.

PSALM XCI.

ARGUMENT.

The prophet, 1-10. declareth the security of the righteous man under the care and protection of Heaven, in times of danger, 11, 12. a guard of angels, is set about him. 13. His final victory over the enemies of his salvation is foretold, and, 14-16. God himself is introduced, promising him deliverance, exaltation, glory, and immortality. The Psalm is addressed primarily to Messiah. That it relateth to him, Jews and Christians are agreed; and the devil, Matt. iv. 6. cited two verses from it, as universally known, and allowed to have been spoken of him.

"1. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. 3. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence."

In these verses, as they now stand, there is much obscurity and confusion. Bishop Lowth, in his twenty-sixth Lecture, seemeth to have given their true construction. "He who dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High; who abideth under the shadow of the Almighty; who saith of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I will trust;"leaving the sentence thus imperfect, the Psalmist maketh a beautiful apostrophe to that person whom he has been describing-"Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence." The description is eminently applicable to the man Christ Jesus. He is represented as dwelling, like the ark in the holy of holies, under the immediate "shadow" and protection of the Almighty, who was his "refuge and fortress" against the open attacks of his enemies; his preserver from the "snares" of the devil, and from the universal contagion of sin, that spiritual "pestilence." In all dangers, whether spiritual or coporeal, the members of Christ's mystical body may reflect with comfort that they are under the same almighty Protector.

"4. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckler."

The security afforded by a superintending Providence to those who trust therein, is here, with the utmost beauty and elegance, compared to that shelter, which the young of birds are always sure to find under the "wings" of their dam, when fear causeth them to fly thither for refuge. See Deut. xxxii. 11. Matt. xxiii. 37. The "truth" of God's word, wherein he promiseth to be our defence, is to a believer his "shield and buckler" in the day of battle and war.

"5. Thou shalt not not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day: 6. Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day."

How much man standeth in need of the above-mentioned protection of Heaven, appeareth from a survey of the dangers to which he is continually exposed. Various are the terrors of the night; manifold the perils of the day; from diseases, whose infection maketh its progress unobserved; from assaults, casualties, and accidents, which can neither be foreseen nor guarded against. The soul hath likewise her enemies, ready to attack and surprise her at all hours. Avarice and ambition are abroad watching for her in the day; while concupiscence, like a pestilence, "walketh in darkness." In adversity she is disturbed by terrors; in prosperity, still more endangered by pleasures. But Jesus Christ has overcome the world, to prevent us from being overcome by it.

"7. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee."

This promise has oftentimes, in a wonderful manner, been verified to those faithful servants of God, whom the pestilence itself hath not deterred from doing the duties of their station. The bishop and some of the intendants of Marseilles, who continued to perform their respective offices during the whole time of the plague there in 1720, are signal and well-known instances. Sin is a pestilence, the contagion of which no son of Adam ever escaped, but the blessed Jesus. He stood alone untouched by its venom; thousands and ten thousands, all the myriads of mankind, fell around him; "but it did not come nigh Him." Heal us of this our distemper, O thou Physician of souls, and let it not prove our everlasting destruction; "stand like thy representative of old, between the dead and the living, and let the plague be stayed," Numb. xvi. 47, 48.

8. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, and see the reward of the wicked."

The meaning is, that the righteous person, all along spoken of, himself

* Ode Davidica insignis xci. agit directe et primo loco de tegmine et defensione quam Deus Christo Jesu Doctori et apostolis ipsius præstaret. Vitringa, Comment. in Jesai. ii. 565.

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secure from the judgments of God, should in safety behold the destruction wrought by them upon impenitent and incorrigible sinners. This will be the case with the church, as well as her glorious Head, at the last day.

"9. Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; 10. There shall not evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh they dwelling."

The sentiment in these verses is evidently the same with that in verses 5, 6. namely, that God preserveth such as trust in him, after the pattern of the holy Jesus, from those evils, and from that perdition, which are reserved for the ungodly. Dr. Durell translates the 9th verse in the way of apostrophe, literally thus-"Surely, thou, O LORD, art my refuge; O Most High, thou hast fixed thine habitation," i. e. in Sion, to be the protector of

his servant.

"11. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.'

This passage was cited by the devil, who tempted our Lord to cast himself from a pinnacle of the temple, upon presumption of the promise here made, that angels should guard and support him in all dangers. But Christ, in his answer, at once detecteth and exposeth the sophistry of the grand deceiver, by showing that the promise belonged only to those who fell unavoidably into danger, in the course of duty; such might hope for the help and protection of Heaven; but that he who should wantonly and absurdly throw himself into peril, merely to try whether Providence would bring him out of it, must expect to perish for his pains. "Jesus saith unto him, It is written again, thou shalt not TEMPT the Lord thy God," Matt. iv. 7.

"13. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet."

The fury and the venom of our spiritual enemies are often in Scripture portrayed by the natural qualities of "lions and serpents." Messiah's complete victory over those enemies seemed here to be predicted. Through grace he maketh us more than conquerors in our conflicts with the same adversaries. "The God of peace," saith St. Paul, "shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly," Rom. xvi. 20. And it is observable, that when the seventy disciples return to Christ with joy, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name;" he answers in the metaphorical language of our Psalm; "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on scorpions, and serpents, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the SPIRITS are subject unto you," &c. Luke x. 17. Give us, O Lord, courage to resist the lion's" rage, and wisdom to elude the wiles of the "serpent."

"14. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. 15. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour, or, glorify, him. 16. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.'

In the former part of our Psalm the prophet had spoken in his own person; here God himself is plainly introduced as the speaker. And O how sweet, how delightful and comfortable are his words, addressed eminently to his beloved Son, Messiah; and in him to all of us, his adopted children, and the heirs of eternal life; to all who love God, and have "known his name!" To such are promised, an answer to their prayers; the presence of their heavenly Father with them; in the day of trouble, protection and deliverance; salvation, and honour, and glory, and immortality. All these promises have already been made good to our gracious Head and Representative. His prayers have been heard; his sufferings are over; he is risen and ascended; and behold, he liveth and reigneth for evermore. Swift fly the intermediate years, and rise that long-expected morning, when He who

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