Psalm 90

Thou, Lord, our dwelling-place hast been,
Thy faithful people rest within
Thine everlasting arms secure;
Them Thou hast kept in ages past,
And still their guardian-Rock stands fast,
Thy mercies like Thyself endure.

Ere at Thy word the mountains rose,
Or nature felt her earliest throes,
Or all things out of nothing came;
Thou wast from all eternity.
Thou art the God, and still shalt be
To all eternity the same.

Thy word dispenses life and death:
The creature rendering up his breath
Obeys Thy summons to return:
Again, Thou say'st, " Ye sons of men,
Rise! " and behold they rise again
Into the world of spirits born.

For Thou hast immortality,
Thou ever-living God, to Thee
A thousand years are as a day,
Less than a watch of our short night.
And time as nothing in Thy sight
With all its ages fleets away.

Borne down the' irremeable tide.
Mortals by Thy appointment glide
From earth to the' eternal shore,
Their life a bubble on the stream,
A short uneasy waking dream;
The bubble breaks, the dream is o'er.

Man is a creature of a day:
The grass is green, the flower is gay,
When in our morn of life we rise,
But soon arrives the evening hour,
Withers away the human flower,
Mown down as grass the mortal dies.

Beneath Thine anger. Lord, we droop,
We languish by Thy wrath parch'd up,
A fallen, sin-sick, wretched race,
For Thou our secret sins hast known.
Thine eye hath never pass'd by one,
All, all are set before Thy face.

Shorten'd our days by wrath Divine,
Our breath we hasten to resign
And own the mortal sentence just:
Our years are spent, the fable ends.
The tale is told, the spirit ascends
To God, the dust returns to dust.

Our age is threescore years and ten,
Beyond is sorrow all and pain.
And mere laborious misery;
Our longest life so soon is past.
The vapour vanishes at last.
So swift from earth the shadows flee.

But who regards the wrath Divine,
Or knows that dreadful hand of Thine
In all its just vindictive weight?
Worse than the worst that sinners fear,
Thy wrath eternally severe.
Consigns them to their hellish state.

Instructed by Thy heavenly grace
To count the fewness of our days,
O might we all our hearts apply
To' attain the wisdom from above;
And learn, before we hence remove,
Our one great business is to die.

How long shall Thy fierce anger burn?
Now to retrieve our doom, return,
Thy mercy to Thy servants show.
Fill us with love, and peace, and joy,
And let us all our days employ
In publishing Thy praise below.

Comfort and make Thy sufferers glad,
For days and years distress'd and sad,
And bruised by Thy afflictive rod,
O let us now Thy goodness see,
For days and years rejoice in Thee,
The God of love, the pardoning God.

Let mercy bring salvation near.
Let all Thy works of grace appear
To those that would Thy will obey.
To all their seed, who yield to' embrace
The Gift Divine, in Jesu's face
Thy"glorious majesty display.

O put us on our beauteous dress,
Adorn us with Thine holiness.
Thine image in our souls restore;
In us let all Thy nature shine.
Fill us with righteousness Divine,
And sin shall never enter more.