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 neither the Vatican copy of the LXX acknowledges, nor the metre admits.
REFLECTIONS.—This psalm opens,
1. With an acknowledgment of God's goodness to his people. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. From the days that Abraham first at his command left his native land, God had provided for him and his seed, and made them to dwell in safety. Christ our Lord is every believer's rest: in him by faith we dwell; safe under the covert of the wings of his love we abide, protected from every storm.
2. He adores God as the everlasting Jehovah, the consideration of whose eternity administers the greatest consolation to his faithful people; for whatever they meet with of disappointment or misery in this transitory and perishing world, they have in him an ever-living God, a never-failing portion; the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
3. He owns the disproportion between the eternal God and the longest-lived of all the sons of men. All comparison fails between finite and infinite, between time and eternity: all the events of time are equally present with God; so that respecting the coming of Christ, and the resurrection of the body, the length of time they may be deferred, is not the least objection to either.
4. He describes the frailty of man even in his best estate; Thou carriest them away as with a flood, swiftly, suddenly, irresistibly, as in the deluge, they are as a sleep, their life insensibly spent, and at best to the sinner but a pleasing dream, which at death vanishes: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning of youth it flourisheth, and groweth up; beauty, vigour, wealth, prosperity make them appear like the verdant field, but momentary is the joy: in the evening it is cut down and withereth, the beauty fades, the strength fails, the possessions vanish; when death, the mower, puts in the sickle, and under disease, or age, the enfeebled body bends to the tomb. Note; (1.) The vanity of earthly enjoyments, and the folly of seeking happiness in things so fleeting and unsatisfactory. Shall we exchange an eternity of blessedness for the pleasures of a dream? (2.) They who look often in their glass, should look oftener into their coffin; this will check the pride of beauty. (3.) If our hour is so short, it becomes us to improve it as it flies, and not dream our life away, lest Death awaken us at last in terrible surprise, instead of finding us watching, and prepared for his summons.