Psalm 90

Words: William Kethe, c 1561, as in  The Scottish Psalter of 1635

  1  O Lord thou hast been our refuge
        and kept us safe and sound
     From age to age as witness can
        all we which true it found.
  2  Before the mountains were fourth brought
        ere thou the earth didst frame,
     Thou wast our great eternal God,
        and still shalt be the same.

  3  Thou dost vain man strike down to dust;
        though he be in his flower,
     Again thou sayest, Yea Adam's sons
        return to show your power,
  4  For what is it a thousand years
        to count them in thy sight?
     But as a day which fast is past
        or as a watch by night.

  5  They are so soon as thou dost storm
        even like a sleep or shade:
     Or like the grass, which as we know
        betimes away doth fade.
  6  With pleasant dews in break of day
        it groweth up full green:
     By night cut down it withereth as
        no beauty can be seen

  7  O Lord, how sore do we consume
        in this thy wrath so hot?
     We fear thy fury be so fierce,
        that death shall be our lot.
  8  Thou hast so mark-ed our misdeeds,
        that they are in thy mind:
     Our secret sins are in thy sight,
        as though none grace should find.

  9  For when thine anger kindled is,
        our days consume forth with:
     Then end our years as thoughts most vain
        which have in them no pith.
 10  The days of man we find to be
        of years ten and three-score;
     And though that some by nature strong
        attain to live ten more.

     Yet is there strength (brag what whey list)
        but labor, grief and care:
     And passeth hence to haste their end,
        ere they themselves beware.
 11  Yet who regarded well the power
        of this thy wrath so great?
     All such truly as do thee know,
        thy plagues when thou dost threat.

 12  Teach us therefore to count our days
        that we our hearts may bend,
     To learn thy wisdom and thy truth,
        for that should be our end.
 13  Turn yet again O Lord, how long
        wilt thou be angry still?
     Be merciful unto thy flock,
        and grant them thy goodwill.

 14  Oh, fill us with they mercies great
        in the sweet morning spring:
     So we rejoice shall all our days,
        and eke be glad and sing.
 15  Declare est soon some sing of love,
        thy scourges to assuage:
     And for the years of our distress
        sustaining such great plagues.

 16  Show forth thy mercy thine own work
        unto thy servant dear:
     And let thy glory to their seed
        for evermore appear.
 17  And let the beauty of the Lord
        Upon us still remain:
     Lord, prosper thou our handy-work,
        and still the same maintain.

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Page last modified on: 07/29/2004