1. Lord, YOU have been our dwelling place and our refuge in all generations [says Moses].
2. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever You had formed and given birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting You are God.
3. You turn man back to dust and corruption, and say, Return, O sons of the earthborn [to the earth]!
4. For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. [II Pet. 3:8.]
5. You carry away [these disobedient people, doomed to die within forty years] as with a flood; they are as a sleep [vague and forgotten as soon as they are gone]. In the morning they are like grass which grows up–
6. In the morning it flourishes and springs up; in the evening it is mown down and withers.
7. For we [the Israelites in the wilderness] are consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath are we troubled, overwhelmed, and frightened away.