Psalm 90

1 Lord, thou hast been our refuge in all generations.

2 Before the mountains existed, and before the earth and the world were formed, even from age to age, Thou art.

3 Turn not man back to his low place, whereas thou saidst, Return, ye sons of men?

4 For a thousand years in thy sight are as the yesterday which is past, and as a watch in the night.

5 Years shall be vanity to them: let the morning pass away as grass.

6 In the morning let it flower, and pass away: in the evening let it droop, let it be withered and dried up.

7 For we have perished in thine anger, and in thy wrath we have been troubled.

8 Thou hast set our transgressions before thee: our age is in the light of thy countenance.

9 For all our days are gone, and we have passed away in thy wrath: our years have spun out their tale as a spider.

10 As for the days of our years, in them are seventy years; and if men should be in strength, eighty years: and the greater part of them would be labour and trouble; for weakness overtakes us, and we shall be chastened.

11 Who knows the power of thy wrath?

12 and who knows how to number his days because of the fear of thy wrath? So manifest thy right hand, and those that are instructed in wisdom in the heart.

13 Return, O Lord, how long? and be intreated concerning thy servants.

14 We have been satisfied in the morning with thy mercy; and we did exult and rejoice:

15 let us rejoice in all our days, in return for the days wherein thou didst afflict us, the years wherein we saw evil.

16 And look upon thy servants, and upon thy works; and guide their children.

17 And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us: and do thou direct for us the works of our hands.

Psalm 90 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 90

\\<>\\. Here begins the fourth part of the book of Psalms, and with the most ancient psalm throughout the whole book, it being written by Moses; not by one of that name that lived in later times; nor by one of his posterity; nor by some one who composed it, agreeably to his words and doctrines, and called it by his name; but by that Moses by whom the Lord brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, led them through the wilderness to the borders of Canaan's land, and by whom he delivered to them the lively oracles; and who is described as the man of God, a title given to Moses, De 33:1, so called, not as a creature of his make, so all men are; nor as a man of grace, born of God, so is every saint; but a man of more than ordinary gifts received from the Lord, a prophet of the Lord, and the chief of the prophets, and a type of the great Prophet; so inspired men and prophets under the Old Testament bear this name, and ministers of the Gospel under the New, \1Ki 17:18,24 2Pe 1:21 2Ti 3:17\. It is a conceit of Bohlius, that this prayer of his (so it is called, as several other psalms are, see Ps 17:1,86:1,102:1,142:1) was made by him when he was about seventy years of age, ten years before he was sent to Pharaoh, while he was in Midian, which he gathers from Ps 90:10; others think it was written towards the end of his life, and when weary of it, and his travels in the wilderness; but it is more generally thought that it was penned about the time when the spies brought a bad report of the land, and the people fell a murmuring; which provoked the Lord, that he threatened them that they should spend their lives in misery in the wilderness, and their carcasses should fall there; and their lives were cut short, and reduced to threescore years and ten, or thereabout; only Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, lived to a greater age; and on occasion of this Moses wrote this psalm, setting forth the brevity and misery of human life; so the Targum, ``a prayer which Moses the prophet of the Lord prayed, when the people of the house of Israel sinned in the wilderness.'' Jarchi and some other Jewish writers {z} not only ascribe this psalm to Moses, but the ten following, being without a name; but it is certain that Psalm 95 was written by David, as appears from Heb 4:7 and Psalm 96 is his, compared with 1Ch 16:23 and in Psalm 99 mention is made of Samuel, who lived long after the times of Moses.