Charles Spurgeon

Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.

“Before the mountains were brought forth. Before those elder giants had struggled forth from nature's womb, as her dread firstborn, the Lord was glorious and self sufficient.”

You return man to dust, saying, “Return, O sons of mortals.”

“Thou turnest man to destruction, or "to dust." Man's body is resolved into its elements, and is as though it had been crushed and ground to powder.”

For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night.

“For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past. A thousand years! This is a long stretch of time.”

You whisk them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning—

“Thou carriest them away as with a flood. As when a torrent rushes down the river bed and bears all before it, so does the Lord bear away by death the succeeding generations of men.”

in the morning it springs up new, but by evening it fades and withers.

“In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up. Blooming with abounding beauty till the meadows are all besprent with gems, the grass has a golden hour, even as man in his youth has a heyday of flowery glory.”

For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.

“This mortality is not accidental, neither was it inevitable in the original of our nature, but sin has provoked the Lord to anger, and therefore thus we die. For we are consumed by thine anger.”

You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

“Thou hast set our iniquities before thee. Hence these tears! Sin seen by God must work death; it is only by the covering blood of atonement that life comes to any of us.”

For all our days decline in Your fury; we finish our years with a sigh.

“For all our days are passed away in thy wrath. Justice shortened the days of rebellious Israel; each halting place became a graveyard; they marked their march by the tombs they left behind them.”

The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty if we are strong— yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten. Moses himself lived longer than this, but his was the exception not the rule: in his day life had come to be very much the same in duration as it is with us.”

Who knows the power of Your anger? Your wrath matches the fear You are due.

“Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Moses saw men dying all around him: he lived among funerals, and was overwhelmed at the terrible results of the divine displeasure. He felt that none could measure the might of the Lord's wrath.”

So teach us to number our days, that we may present a heart of wisdom.

“So teach us to number our days. Instruct us to set store by time, mourning for that time past wherein we have wrought the will of the flesh, using diligently the time present, which is the accepted hour and the day of salvation, and reckoning…”

Return, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants.

“Return, O Lord, how long? Come in mercy, to us again. Do not leave us to perish. Suffer not our lives to be both brief and bitter.”

Satisfy us in the morning with Your loving devotion, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

“O satisfy us early with thy mercy. Since they must die, and die so soon, the psalmist pleads for speedy mercy upon himself and his brethren. Good men know how to turn the darkest trials into arguments at the throne of grace.”

Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen evil.

“TO understand this Psalm, you must observe its black border. Remember the sorrows of Moses, the man of God, who saw a whole generation die in the wilderness and was, himself, denied admission to the promised land. The man, Moses, was greatly afflicted.”

Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen evil.

“Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. None can gladden the heart as thou canst, O Lord, therefore as thou hast made us sad be pleased to make us glad.”

May Your work be shown to Your servants, and Your splendor to their children.

“Let thy work appear unto thy servants. See how he dwells upon that word servants. It is as far as the law can go, and Moses goes to the full length permitted him henceforth Jesus calls us not servants but friends, and if we are…”

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish for us the work of our hands— yes, establish the work of our hands!

“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Even upon us who must not see thy glory in the land of Canaan; it shall suffice us if in our characters the holiness of God is reflected, and if over all our…”

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High. The blessings here promised are not for all believers, but for those who live in close fellowship with God.”

I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

“I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress. To take up a general truth and make it our own by personal faith is the highest wisdom.”

He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and rampart.

“He shall cover thee with thy feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. A wonderful expression! Had it been invented by an uninspired man it would have verged upon blasphemy, for who should dare to apply such words to the Infinite Jehovah?”

You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night. Such frail creatures are we that both by night and by day we are in danger, and so sinful are we that in either season we may be readily carried away by fear; the promise…”

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the calamity that destroys at noon.

“Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness. It is shrouded in mystery as to its cause and cure, it marches on, unseen of men, slaying with hidden weapons, like an enemy stabbing in the dark, yet those who dwell in God are not afraid…”

Though a thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, no harm will come near you.

“A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand. So terribly may the plague rage among men that the bills of mortality may become very heavy and continue to grow ten times heavier still, yet shall such as this Psalm…”

You will only see it with your eyes and witness the punishment of the wicked.

“Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. The sight shall reveal both the justice and the mercy of God; in them that perish the severity of God will be manifest, and in the believer's escape the richness of…”

Because you have made the LORD your dwelling— my refuge, the Most High— no evil will befall you, no plague will approach your tent.

“Before expounding these verses I cannot refrain from recording a personal incident illustrating their power to soothe the heart, when they are applied by the Holy Spirit.”