Psalms 90

Psalms 90:1-17

the Message of the Passing Years Psalms 90:1-17 The majestic music of this great psalm separates it from all the rest. It is like the deep bass stop of a mighty organ. Moses’ authorship is stamped upon it. It is worthy of the man who had seen God face to face. Psalms 90:1-6. The transitoriness of human life is contrasted with the stability of God. He is the asylum and home of all the generations of mankind, Deuteronomy 33:27. The earth and its mountains the universe and its worlds, were born of Him; but He Himself had no origin, no beginning. Time is but a sigh, a breath, the swift rush of the mountain-torrent, a tale told by the camp-fire at night, the grass of a morning’ s growth. Psalms 90:7-12. A wail is borne in these verses from the forty years of wanderings. The ceaseless succession of graves was the bitter harvest of Israel’ s rebellions. Oh, that we might apply our hearts to wisdom that we may not fail of God’ s rest! Psalms 90:13-17. In the closing words Moses utters a sublime prayer which includes us all. Let us seek to do some good work before we go, and may our children be a nobler generation than ourselves! But all beauty of character and permanence of work must emanate from God.

Threescore years and ten There is every reason to accept the superscription of this Psalm as correct. It was written by Moses at the close of the forty years’ wanderings, and perhaps about the same time as his other two songs (Deuteronomy 32:1-52; Deuteronomy 33:1-29). If so, it was old when Homer sang. The imagery is all borrowed from the desert march: the desert streams, which soon dry; the night-watch in the camp; the short-lived growth of the grass before it is blasted by the “khamsin,” or desert wind (Psalms 90:5). The melancholy strain is due to the incessant funerals and the aimlessness of the desert marchings.

Psalms 90:1.Thou hast been our dwelling-placeGod is our Home. Let us live in Him. Satan cannot enter to drag us forth (1 John 4:16).

Psalms 90:2. From everlasting Thou art God Earth, our planet; World, the universe. God is above all change, because He lives in the eternal ages. There never was a period in which Jehovah was not. He is more permanent than the most changeless things.

Psalms 90:3. Thou turnest man to destruction In opposition to the eternity of God is the transitory life of men. It seems long to us when we compare it with our last days, but how short, when compared with the eternity of Him who looks on a thousand years as a brief night-watch! (2 Peter 3:8).

Psalms 90:4. A thousand years are but as yesterday “As to a very rich man a thousand sovereigns are as one penny; so, to the eternal God, a thousand years are as one day.”–Bengel.

Psalms 90:7. By the wrath are we troubled Moses now ascends from the melancholy fact of the brevity of life to the melancholy cause, that it is due to the wrath of God incured by our sins (compare Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12).

Psalms 90:8. Our secret sins Does not this teach us that there are sins so secret that none but God detects them? But his eyes carry the light by which they see (Revelation 1:14). What a comfort to turn to the blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin!

Psalms 90:9. As a tale that is told “As a sigh” (R.V., marg.). This description is true of the unsaved and rebellious, but of believers we have a gladder description (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Psalms 90:11. The power of thine anger God’s wrath, which abides (John 3:36) on those who refuse to believe, is worse than those who have feared it most have ever conceived of it.

Psalms 90:12. So teach us to number our days We should reckon our shortening days, and work harder, as the poor seamstress whose last candle is burning low (John 9:4).

Psalms 90:14. Satisfy us early! “Early’” in life, and each morning, too. “Oh, satisfy us in the morning with Thy mercy” (R.V.).

Psalms 90:16-17. Thy work; thy glory; thy beauty All these blend in Jesus. And, as we abide in Him–his deeds are done through us; his glory shines around us; his beauty adorns us (Psalms 27:4).