Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine
hand.
When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his
beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man _is_ vanity.
Selah.
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace
at my tears: for I _am_ a stranger with thee, _and_ a sojourner, as
all my fathers _were_.
O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no
more.
This is a consolatory Psalm, containing also a prayer of the prophet,
in which he prays that his mouth may be bridled, that he might not
break out into blasphemy and murmuring when he sees the wicked to
prosper in the world, and most proudly to despise God and his word,
and to think of nothing but amassing riches, &c.; and when he sees, on
the contrary, that the godly are afflicted with various temptations
without and within, and conflicting both with the world and with the
devil.
Rather (says he) teach me, O Lord, to know mine end; that is, that
there will be an end to my life at length; that is, teach me to
magnify the future, which does not yet appear. Guard me from that
perilous security of the wicked in which they give themselves up
wholly to this world, and devote themselves to coveting the things
thereof, and to pride and ambition, as if they should live here for
ever. For it is often a great vexation to the godly, and indeed the
prophets themselves complain of it,—that the wicked and the evil
abound in every kind of luxury, wallow in all the pleasures of wine
and feasting, and live their whole lives in security, strangers to
trouble and affliction, while the godly are afflicted, and tempted,
and distressed both from without and from within.
But the end shows that the godly are happy; and the wicked, with all
their perishable happiness, truly miserable. Hence the prophet saith,
“And now, Lord, what is my expectation, (or what wait I for?)” As if
he had said, shall I be always thus afflicted! Shall I be utterly
overwhelmed? Will these temptations continue to return upon us for
ever? No! (says he) the Lord is my expectation: that is, I shall find
in the end, after all these temptations and death, an eternal life, a
reconciled God, the pardon of all my sins, and even in this world, I
shall not be forsaken. But the wicked, after their short life, will
find nothing but death,—death eternal!