Psalms 90:10

The days of our years are threescore years and ten,.... In the Hebrew text it is, "the days of our years in them are", c.

And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow - i:e., if one be possessed of an unusually strong constitution, and thereby his years reach fourscore.

The days of our years; either, 1. Of the Israelites in the desert, who being twenty years old, and some, thirty, some forty, some fifty years old, when they came out of Egypt, and dying in the wilderness, as all of that age did, , a great number of them doubtless died in their seventieth or eightieth year, as is here implied. Or rather, 2. Of the generality of mankind, and the Israelites no less than others, in that and all following ages, some few persons excepted, amongst whom were Moses, and Caleb, and Joshua, who lived a hundred and twenty years; which is therefore noted of them as a thing singular and extraordinary. This sense suits best with the following words, and with the scope of Moses; which was to represent the vain and transitory condition of men in this life, and how much mankind was now sunk below their ancestors, who commonly lived many hundreds of years; and that the Israelites, though God’ s peculiar people, and endowed with many privileges, yet in this were no better than other men; all which may be considered, either as an argument to move God to pity and spare them, or as a motive to awaken and quicken the Israelites to serious preparations for death, by comparing this with . Threescore years and ten; Which time the ancient heathen writers also fixed as the usual space of men’ s lives. By reason of strength, i.e. by the strength of their natural constitution; which is the true and common cause of longer life. Their strength; their strongest and most vigorous old age. Or, their excellency, or pride; that old age which is their glory, and in which men do commonly glory. Labour and sorrow; filled with troubles and griefs from the infirmities of age, the approach of death, and the contingencies of human life. It, either our age or our strength, is soon cut off; it doth not now decline by many degrees and slow steps, as it doth in our young and flourishing age, but decayeth apace, and suddenly flieth away. We fly away; we do not now go to death, as we do from our very birth, nor run, but fly swiftly away like a bird, as this word signifies.

Psalms 90:10 The days of our years [are] threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength [they be] fourscore years, yet [is] their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.Ver. 10. The days of our years are threescore, &c.] So Solon in Laertius saith, the term of man’ s life is seventy years, this few exceed, and fewer attain to. To the same sense speaketh Macrobius also (Lib. 1., Som. cap. 6), saying, Septies deni anni a Physicis creditur meta vivendi, et hoc vitae humanae perfectum spacium terminatur, &c. The Fathers lived longer; but as men’ s wickedness increased, so their days decreased; and now their lives are daily shortened, the generations despatch away, that the world may the sooner come to an end. If Moses and Aaron of old, and Iohannes de temporibus, and some few others of latter time, live longer, even to a hundred or more, these are singular examples, and it is of the generality that the psalmist here speaketh. And if by reason of strength, &c.] One readeth it thus; And if by fortitude fourscore years, even their latitude is labour and sorrow; that is, this enlarging of the time bringeth nothing but labour and misery, because now the body is diseased (Dr Major). For it is soon cut off] As a web, or as grass. And we fly away] As a bird upon the wing, or as an hour of the day. Qui nescit quo vita modo volat, audiat horas; Quam sit vita fugax, nos docet iste sonus. I am not eternity, said Epictetus, but a man; that is, a small part of the whole, as the hour is of the day; I must therefore come and go away as the hour doth (Enchirid.).

(10) Yet is their strength . . .—The LXX. (and so Vulg.) appear to have had a slightly different reading, which gives much better sense: “Yet their additional years are but labour and sorrow.” The old man has no reason to congratulate himself on passing the ordinary limit, of life. For it is soon cut off.—This seems hardly to give, as it professes to do, a reason for the fact that the prolongation of life beyond its ordinary limit brings trouble and sorrow, and we are compelled to see if the words can convey a different meaning. Literally the clause is, for (or thus) passeth haste, and we fly away (like a bird), which may be rendered, thus there comes a haste that we may fly away; i.e., even though we may have prayed for an extension of life, it brings with it such weariness that we long at last to escape—a fact sufficiently true to experience. “Yet are these feet, whose strengthless stay is numb, Unable to support this lump of clay, Swift winged with desire to get a grave.”.

Verse 10. Threescore years and ten] See the note on the title of this Psalm. See Clarke on Psalms 90:1. This Psalm could not have been written by Moses, because the term of human life was much more extended when he flourished than eighty years at the most. Even in David's time many lived one hundred years, and the author of Ecclesiasticus, who lived after the captivity, fixed this term at one hundred years at the most (Ecclesiastes 18:9;) but this was merely a general average, for even in our country we have many who exceed a hundred years. Yet is their strength labour and sorrow] This refers to the infirmities of old age, which, to those well advanced in life, produce labour and sorrow. It is soon cut of] It - the body, is soon cut off. And we fly away.] The immortal spirit wings its way into the eternal world.

10. The punctuation of A.V. is misleading. Render: The days of our years—therein are threescore years and ten, And if we be of much strength, fourscore years: And their pride is but travail and misery, For it is swiftly past, and we have taken flight. Our lifetime (Genesis 47:8-9) is but short at best; and all its ostentation, all upon which man prides himself, does but bring trouble and has no real value (Job 5:6). Is the Psalmist thinking of the contrast between the triumphant utterance of Num 23:21, “Misery hath not been beheld in Jacob, nor travail been seen in Israel,” and present experience? For taken flight cp. Job 20:8.

The days of our years - Margin, “As for the days of our years, in them are seventy years.” Perhaps the language would better be translated: “The days of our years! In them are seventy years;” or, they amount to seventy years.

10. Threescore years and ten—This is not given as the average of human life, nor the absolute maximum, but as the general average maximum. The average of human life may be reckoned between thirty and forty years.