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THRO' ev'ry Age, Eternal God,

PSALM XC. Long Metre.
Man mortal, and God eternal.
A mournfull [sic] song at a funeral.

Poet: Isaac Watts, 1719
Meter: Long Meter (8,8,8,8)
Location in The Sacred Harp
Stanza Denson Cooper
1
THRO' ev'ry Age, Eternal God,
Thou art our Rest, our safe Abode;
High was thy Throne e'er Heav'n was made,
Or Earth thy humble Footstool laid.

2
Long hadst thou reign'd e'er Time began,
Or Dust was fashion'd to a Man;
And long thy Kingdom shall endure
When Earth and Time shall be no more.

3
But Man, weak Man, is born to dy,
Made up of Guilt and Vanity:
Thy dreadful Sentence, Lord, was just,
"Return, ye Sinners, to your Dust.

4
[A thousand of our Years amount
Scarce to a Day in thine Account;
Like Yesterday's departed Light,
Or the last Watch of ending Night.



PAUSE.
5
Death, like an overflowing Sream
Sweeps us away; our Life's a Dream;
An empty Tale; a Mourning-flow'r
Cut down and wither'd in an Hour.]
Mortality 50t, Stanza 1
6
[Our Age to seventy Years is set;
How short the Term! how frail the State!
And if to Eighty we arrive,
We rather sigh and groan than live.
Mortality 50t, Stanza 2
7
But O how oft thy Wrath appears,
And cuts off our expected Years!
Thy Wrath awakes our humble Dread;
We fear that Pow'r that strakes us Dead.]

8
Teach us, O Lord, how frail is Man;
And kindly lengthen out our Span,
Till a wise Care of Piety
Fit us to die, and dwell with Thee.
Mortality 50t, Stanza 3
Watts, Isaac. The Psalms of David: Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian State and Worship. London: Printed for J. Clark, R. Ford, and R. Cruttenden, 1719