Psalm 90

Lamentation (community)

            You Afflict Me to Remind Me

            12 So teach us to number our days,

            That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

·         It is not wicked to feel our trials, to groan under them, and to cry for deliverance from them. We may not be impatient, nor charge God foolishly, nor use sinful measures to be rid of our distresses. But we may without any offence against God humbly ask to be rescued.

·         It is not comely for us to form the habit of sighing and groaning when nothing is the matter. But those are foolish people, who go about chiding the sad and suffering for giving natural expression to their anguish of mind or body.

·         If we see dark times ourselves, yet let us in prayer commit our ways to the Lord. “Blessed are all they that hope in his mercy.” If we can do nothing else, we can pray. Perhaps God has cut us off from doing anything else, that we may the more attend to that slighted duty.

·         However afflicted, then, our lot may be, let us hold fast the covenant, and plead with God. To break with God is to give up all as lost.