Thou hidest Thy face. — Elsewhere an image of displeasure, here only of withdrawal of providential care. (See Psalms 30:7, where the expression “troubled” also occurs.)
Thou takest away their breath. — Not only is the food which sustains animal life dependent on the ceaseless providence of God, but even the very breath of life is His, to be sent forth or withdrawn at His will. But to this thought, derived of course from Genesis (comp. Psalms 90:3, Note), the poet adds another. The existence of death is not a sorrow to him any more than it is a mystery. To the psalmist it is only the individual that dies; the race lives. One generation fades as God’s breath is withdrawn, but another succeeds as it is sent forth.