_As for_ man, his days _are_ as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth: For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD _is_ from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the LORD, all _ye_ his hosts; _ye_ ministers of his that do his pleasure. Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul. This is a glorious Psalm, and full of the most ardent feelings and exercises of faith, and of a believing heart, a heart acknowledging the infinite mercies of God, both temporal and spiritual. “Bless the Lord (saith the Psalmist), O my soul,” &c. The Psalmist embraces, in the first three verses, six kinds of divine mercies and benefits, for which he exhorts all the godly to give praise unto God with their whole heart, and to celebrate his great and holy name. The first kind of mercy enumerated is the remission of all our sins in Christ, and for Christ’s sake, our only Mediator and High-priest: who by himself sustained the just and infinite wrath of God, which burned against our sins: who offered himself a sacrifice to God for them; by which offering he reconciled unto us the Eternal Father, and now pleads for us with an unceasing and prevailing intercession. The second kind of mercy is the healing of those manifold, and by no means light infirmities, which shall remain in the flesh of the saints, as long as they live in this world: all which remnant of sins God, for Christ’s sake, imputeth not unto them that believe: nor does he only cover those sins by not imputing them, but he moreover purges them away, by the gift of his Holy Spirit. The third kind of mercy is a continual and daily protection and defence against all the dangers of death, into numbers of which we continually fall; and into more and greater of which we should fall by fire, by water, by sword, by pestilence, and other means of destruction, and be destroyed by them on account of the deserts of our sins, if God did not in his mercy prevent and save and preserve our lives. The fourth kind of mercy is a manifold dispensation of the grace of God, wherewith he covers and defends us with a shield, and crowns us, giving us the Holy Spirit, and strengthening our minds with the true doctrine against all doubts, and with true consolation in all perils and evils; and bestowing on the godly many and various gifts.