BOOK IV

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Thoughts from the Song of Moses

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'The Eternal God is thy dwelling place'

I

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place

In all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth,

Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to dust;

And sayest, Return, ye children of men.

For a thousand years in thy sight

Are but as yesterday when it passeth,

And as a watch in the night.

Thou carriest them away as with a flood;

They are as a sleep.

In the morning they are like grass which groweth up: In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up;

In the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

2

For we are consumed in thine anger,
And in thy wrath are we troubled.

Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,

Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath:
We bring our years to an end as a tale that is told.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten,
Or even by reason of strength fourscore years;
Yet is their pride but labour and sorrow;

For it is soon gone, and we fly away.

Who knoweth the power of thine anger,

And thy wrath according to the fear that is due unto thee?

3

So teach us to number our days,

That we may get us an heart of wisdom.

Return, O LORD; how long?

And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us in the morning with thy mercy;

That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast

afflicted us,

And the years wherein we have seen evil.

Let thy work appear unto thy servants,

And thy glory upon their children.

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.

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'Underneath are the everlasting arms'

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; 'My God, in whom I trust.'

For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,
And from the noisome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his pinions,

And under his wings shalt thou take refuge:
His truth is a shield and a buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night,
Nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

For the pestilence that walketh in darkness,

Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

A thousand shall fall at thy side,

And ten thousand at thy right hand;

But it shall not come nigh thee.