The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts ‎#Ps.190

Ps.190. Psalm 90

Through every age, eternal God,
Thou art our rest, our safe abode;
High was thy throne ere heav'n was made,
Or earth thy humble footstool laid.

Long hadst thou reigned ere time began,
Or dust was fashioned to a man;
And long thy kingdom shall endure
When earth and time shall be no more.

But man, weak man, is born to die,
Made up of guilt and vanity;
Thy dreadful sentence, Lord, was just,
"Return, ye sinners, to your dust."

[A thousand of our years amount
Scarce to a day in thine account;
Like yesterday's departed light,
Or the last watch of ending night.

Death, like an overflowing stream,
Sweeps us away; our life's a dream,
An empty tale, a morning flower,
Cut down and withered in an hour.]

[Our age to seventy years is set;
How short the time! how frail the state!
And if to eighty we arrive,
We rather sigh and groan than live.

But O how oft thy wrath appears,
And cuts off our expected years!
Thy wrath awakes our humble dread;
We fear the power that strikes us dead.]

Teach us, O Lord, how frail is man;
And kindly lengthen out our span,
Till a wise care of piety
Fit us to die, and dwell with thee.

Text Information

• First Line: Through every age, eternal God
• Title: Psalm 90
• Author: Isaac Watts
• Meter: L. M.
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1806
• Scripture:
  Psalm 90
• Topic: Funeral psalm; Man: his vanity as mortal; Mortality: of man; Saints: rewarded at last; Frailty: of man; Life: short and feeble; Psalm: for a funeral; Death: the effect of sin; God: eternal, and man mortal; Mortality: and God's eternity; Old age: death

Tune Information

(No tune information)