Psalms · psalm 90 of 150
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Psalm 90 is the prayer of Moses, the man of God, which contrasts God's eternity with the brevity and frailty of human life. It acknowledges that God has been his dwelling place in all generations, that life passes like a dream and like grass, and that God's wrath over sin weighs on it. It asks that God teach them to number their days, satisfy them with his steadfast love and establish the work of their hands.
The title says a prayer of Moses, the man of God, and so it is the oldest psalm in the Psalter according to Jewish and Christian tradition, although some scholars debate its date. With this psalm Book IV of the Psalter begins (Psalms 90-106), running through Psalm 106. Book IV, after the pain of Book III and the fallen throne of Psalm 89, turns its gaze to God as eternal dwelling place and king. It is one of the prayers most used at funerals and at the turn of the year.
The psalm begins with a confession: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to dust and say: return, O children of man. A thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
Verses 5 and 6 describe human life. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream; in the morning they are like grass that is renewed, in the evening it fades and withers.
Verses 7 to 12 speak of wrath. For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger? So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Verses 13 to 17 are the petition. Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
God has been his people's dwelling place in all generations and is God from before the mountains to everlasting. In a changing world, security is found in the one who does not change.
A thousand years in God's sight are like yesterday when it is past and like a watch in the night. His way of measuring time is very different from ours, and that puts our hurry in perspective.
Moses asks that God teach them to number their days so that they may gain a heart of wisdom. Wisdom begins by recognizing that life is short and that every day is a gift.
The psalm ends by asking that the favor of the Lord be upon them and that he establish the work of their hands. Human work, so brief, takes on meaning when God sustains it.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Their dwelling place. — Psalm 90:1
Answer: God returns him to dust. — Psalm 90:3
Answer: Like yesterday when it is past and like a watch in the night. — Psalm 90:4
Answer: A dream and grass that flourishes in the morning and withers in the evening. — Psalm 90:5-6
Answer: Seventy years, or eighty if there is strength. — Psalm 90:10
Answer: That God teach them to number their days so that they gain a heart of wisdom. — Psalm 90:12
Psalm 90 teaches us to live with our days numbered, not with fear but with wisdom. In a Sunday school class you can ask participants to think about what they would do differently if they remembered that life is short: time with family, reconciliations, service, obedience. Numbering our days is an invitation to live what matters.
It also comforts. Though our life passes, God is the eternal dwelling place. For Christians, that dwelling is found in Christ, and the final request, that God establish the work of our hands, encourages us to labor in the hope that what is done in the Lord is not in vain, as 1 Corinthians 15:58 says. A good exercise is to read the psalm at the start of a year or at a funeral.
Psalm 90 ends with the request that God establish the work of our hands. With it Book IV of the Psalter begins, and Psalm 91 continues with an answer of security: the one who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
The title attributes it to Moses, and Jewish and Christian tradition has accepted it so. Its themes, such as God's wrath against sin and the dust to which man returns, recall the wilderness and Genesis 3:19. Some scholars think it was composed later in his style, but the text offers no other date or author.
It means becoming aware that time is limited and living accordingly. It is not an invitation to anxiety but to wisdom: to manage the days with our eyes on God and on what lasts. It is a request only God can answer, since the psalm says that he teaches us.
The psalm joins the brevity of life with the reality of sin, as in Genesis 3. Death and human frailty are seen as a consequence of God's wrath against evil. But the psalm does not stop there: it asks for compassion, steadfast love and gladness, and Christians read the answer in Christ, who overcomes death.