This seven-minute SATB setting of a section of the 1640 text from the Bay Psalm Book takes wing like the birds it first mentions. What would normally be a somber litany of affliction is set to music that hints at eternal things and the saving power of God. The middle section "I said, 'In the middle of my days, O my God, do not take away me" is set, amazingly, in Latin, which gives a wonderful contrast to the more lyrical beginning. The beginning material returns as the Latin text is now sung in English, concluding "Thy years throughout all ages are." This music is sublime and transcendent.