_Moses, setting forth God's providence, complaineth of human fragility, divine chastisements, and brevity of life: he prayeth for the knowledge and sensible experience of God's good providence._ A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. _TITLE._ האלהים אישׁ למשׁה תפלה _TEPHILLAH LEMOSHEH IISH HAELOHIM_.—... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU TURNEST MAN TO DESTRUCTION— The sacred writer first puts the people in mind of the eternity of God, the never-failing refuge of his faithful servants in all ages; and this in a very noble strain of poetry: after which it follows in this verse, _Thou wilt turn man:_ [Heb. דכא עד אנושׁ תשׁב _tash... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU CARRIEST THEM AWAY AS WITH A FLOOD— Agreeable to the ideas in the foregoing verses, death is here considered as a sort of sleep; from whence they should awake in the morning, fresh and flourishing as an herb: and I think we have this image of a resurrection exhibited to us more than once in the... [ Continue Reading ]
WE SPEND OUR YEARS AS A TALE THAT IS TOLD— Or, _We end our years as a thought._... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DAYS OF OUR YEARS ARE, &C.— If this may be thought too short a term for the general standard of human life in those early ages, as one would infer from hence that Moses could not be the author of this psalm, yet it suits well with the particular case of the Israelites in the wilderness, whose li... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO KNOWETH THE POWER OF THINE ANGER? &C.— i.e. "In proportion to the fear and reverence which is due to thee, as the great Lord and Sovereign of the world; so may the transgressors of thy law expect their punishment." Something seems here intimated beyond the punishments of this world; for these ar... [ Continue Reading ]
RETURN, O LORD! HOW LONG— _Return, O Lord! how long_ [_will it be first_]_?_ Mudge: giving rather the meaning, than the emphatical energy of the original; which is best expressed by the abruptness of our version.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LET THE BEAUTY, &C.— _Let the countenance of the Lord our God smile upon me; and prosper thou the work of our hands._ Green. Bishop Hare and Houbigant have observed, that the four words at the end of the verse, which are here left untranslated, are only a repetition of the foregoing words; which... [ Continue Reading ]