Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_000_t.lzh/4_090.TXT

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tiful, grows in the stature and strength of his body,
and in the endowments of his mind; and it may be
also in riches and wealth; it is well if he grows in
grace, and in the knowledge of Christ: in the evening
it is cut down, and withereth ; the Targum adds, through
heat; but it can't be by the heat of the sun, when it is
cut down at evening; but it withers in course, being
cut down. This respects the latter part of life, the
evening of old age; and the whole expresses the short-
ness of life, which is compared to grass, that now' is
in all its beauty and glory, and to-morrow is cast into
the oven, Matt. vi. 30. This metaphor of grass, to
set forth the frailty of man, and his short continuance,
is frequently used; see Psal. xxxvii. 2. and cii. 11. Isa.
xl, 6, 7, 8. 1 Pet. i. £4. It may be observed, that man's
life is represented but as one day, consisting of a morn-
ing and an evening, which signifies the bloom and
decline of life.
Ver. 7. For we are consumed by thine anger, &c.]
Kimchi applies this to the Jews in captivity; but it is
to be understood of the Israelites in the wilderness,
who are here introduced by Moses as owning and ac-
knowledging that they were wasting and consuming
there, as it was threatened they should; and that as
an effect of the divine anger and displeasure occasioned
by their sins; see Numb. xiv. 33, 35. Death is a con-
sumption of the body; in the grave worms destroy the
.flesh and skin,and the reins of a man are consumed with-
in him; hell is a consumption or destruction of the
soul and body, though both always continue: saints,
though consumed in body by death, yet not in anger;
for when flesh and heart fail, or is consumed, God is the
strength of their hearts,. and their portion for ever, Psal.
ixxiii. 26. their souls are saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus, and their bodies will rise glorious and incorrupti-
.hie; but the wicked are consumed at death, and in hell,
m anger and hot displeasure: and by thy wrath are we
troubled; the wrath of God produces trouble of mind,
whenever it is apprehended, and especially in tim
views of death and eternity; and it is this which makes
death the king of terrors, and men subject to bondage
in life through fear of it, even the wrath to come,
which follows upon it; nothing indeed, either in life
or at death, or death itself, comes in wrath to the
saints; nor is there any after it to them, though they
have sometimes fearful apprehensions of it, and are
troubled at it.
Ver. 8. Thou hast set our sins before thee, &c.] The
cause of all trouble, consumption, and death; these
are before the Lord, as the evidence, according to
vdfich he as a righteous Judge proceeds; this is op-
posed to the pardon of sin, which is expressed by a
c.asting it behind his back, Isa. xxxviii. 17. our secret
sins in the light of thy countenance; the Targum and
Jarchi interpret it of the sins of youth; the word is in
the singular number, and may be rendered, our secret
sin {f}; which has led some to think of original sin,
which is hidden from, and not taken notice of' by,
the greatest part of the world, though it is the source
and spring of all sin. It is. not unusual for the singu-
!ar to be put for the plural, and may intend all such
sins as are secretly committed, and not known by
other men, and such as are unobserved by men them-
selves; as the evil thoughts of their hearts, the foolislx
words of their mouths, and many infirmities of life,
that are not taken notice of as sins: these are all
known to God, and will be brought to light and into
judgment by him, and will be set in the light of his
countenance; which denotes not a gracious forgiveness
of them, but his clear and distinct knowledge of them,
and what a full evidence they give against men, to
their condemnation and death; and intends nst only
a future, but the present view the Lord has of them,
and his dealings with men in life, and at death,
according to them.
Ver. 9. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath,
&c.] The life of man is rather measured by days than
by months or years; and these are but few, which pass
away or decline {g} as the day does towards the evening;
see Jer. vi. 4. or turn away their face, as the word {h} may
be rendered: they turn their backs upon us, and not
the face to us; so that it is a hard thing to get time
by the forelock-; and these, which is worst of all,
pass away in the wrath of God. This has a parti-
cular reference to the people of Israel in the wilder-
ness, when God had swore in his wrath they should
not enter into the land of Canaan, but wander about
all their days in the wilderness, and be consumed
there; so that their days fnanifestly passed away under
visible marks of the divine displeasure; and this is
true of all wicked men, who are by nature children
of wrath, and go through the world, and out of it, as
such: and even it may be said of man in general; the
ailments, diseases, and calamities, that attend the state
of infancy and youth; the losses, crosses, and disap-
point. me .nts, vexations and afflictions, which wait upon
man m nper years; and the evils and infirmities of old
age, do abundantly confirm this truth: none but God's
people can, in any sense, be excepted from it, on whom
no wrath comes, being loved with an everlasting love;
and yet these, in their own apprehensions, have fre-
quently the wrath of God upon them, and pass many
days under a dreadful sense of it: we spend our years
as a tale that is told; or as a meditation {} a thought of
the heart, which quickly passes away; or as a word ",
as others, which is soon pronounced and gone; or as
an assemblage of words, a tale or story told, a short
and pleasant one; for long tales are not listened to;
and the pleasanter they are, the shorter the time seems
to be in which they are told: the design of the me-
taphor is to set forth the brevity, and also the vanity,
of human life; for in tales there are often many trifling
and vain things, as well as untruths told; men of low
degree are vanity, and men of high degree a lie, in
every state; and, in their best state, they are altogether
vanity: a tale is a mere amusement; affects for a
while, if attended to, and then is lost in oblivion;
and such is human life: in a tale there is oftentimes a
mixture, something pleasant, and something tragical;
such changes are there in life, which is filled up with


{f} \^wnmle\^ mostrum absconditum, Montanus; sive occultum, Va-
tablus, Muis, Michaelis.
{g} \^wnp\^ declinaverunt, Pagninus, Montanus; declinant, Munster,
Muis.
{h} Deflectunt faciem, Gejerus, so Ainsworth.
{y} \^hgh wmk\^ sicut cogitationem, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
{z} Sicut sermonem, Pagninus, Montanus; instar locutionis, Mus-
culus, Vatablus; dicto citius, Tigurine version.