2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
3 Thou turnest man to destruction;
and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
4 For a thousand years in thy sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
and as a watch in the night.
5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep:
in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up;
in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
7 For we are consumed by thine anger,
and by thy wrath are we troubled.
8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,
our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath:
we spend our years as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
yet is their strength labour and sorrow;
for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger?
even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord, how long?
and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy;
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us,
and the years wherein we have seen evil.
16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants,
and thy glory unto their children.
17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us:
and establish thou the work of our hands upon us;
yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Comments by Joan Boney
Sometimes it is as if the servant thinks himself to be God. He thinks about what he wants. What he wants drives him and possesses him.
This psalm shows God to be God, and not our own wills.
We can do nothing but wait on HIM.
He moves as HE will in HIS times doing as HE wants. HE is God and not we ourselves. We are servants waiting on HIM.
We hold fast to HIM as we wait, whether it be a day, a week, a year, or a lifetime.
Numbers 9 ... 15 And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. 16 So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.
17 And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.
18 At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. 19 And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and journeyed not.
20 And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the Lord they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed.
21 And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed.
22 Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed.
23 At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord,