Psalms 90

Psalms 90THE Fourth Book, according to the ancient traditional division of the Psalter, opens with the oldest Psalm in the collection. Or rather the author of the present arrangement, who was probably no other than Ezra, placed this sublime composition by itself, between the two great divisions of the book, containing respectively the Earlier and Later Psalms. See the Preface, p. 6. It may therefore be regarded as the heart or centre of the whole collection, and indeed as the model upon which even David, “the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:1), formed that glorious body of psalmodic literature or hymnology, which, with its later but inspired and authoritative imitations, constitutes the present Book of Psalms. The date of the composition, though uncertain because not recorded, may with most probability be fixed near the close of the Error in the Wilderness, when the dying out of the older generation on account of their transgressions, and the threatened exclusion of Moses himself from the Promised Land, were exactly suited to produce such views of man’s mortality and sinfulness as are here presented, but without destroying the anticipation of a bright futurity, such as really ensued upon the death of Moses, and is prospectively dis closed in the conclusion of this psalm. Its great theme is the frailty and brevity of human life, considered as the consequence of sin, and as a motive to repentance and obedience. He first contrasts the eternity of God with the mortality of man, Psalms 90:1-6, which is then described as the effect of the divine wrath on account of sin, Psalms 90:7-11, and made the ground of a prayer, with which the psalm concludes, for the speedy restoration of the divine favour, Psalms 90:12-17.

1. (Psalms 90:1) A Prayer. By Moses, the Man of God. Lord, a home hast thou been to us, in generation and generation. The psalm is called a prayer, because the petition at the close (Psalms 90:12-17) contains the essence of the composition, to which the rest is merely preparatory. For another case precisely similar, see above, on Psalms 86:1. The correctness of the title, which ascribes the psalm to Moses, is confirmed by its unique simplicity and grandeur; its appropriateness to his times and circumstances, as already stated; its resemblance to the law in urging the connection between sin and death; its similarity of diction to the poetical portions of the Pentateuch, without the slightest trace of imitation or quotation; its marked unlikeness to the psalms of David, and still more to those of later date; and finally, the proved impossibility of plausibly assigning it to any other age or author.

The arguments against its authenticity have commonly been framed by a preposterous inversion of the evidence, converting into proofs of later date the very points of similarity which prove that this was the original and model psalm, the primeval basis upon which even David reared a noble superstructure of his own. The title Man of God is given to Moses, in Deuteronomy 33:1, Joshua 14:6, Ezra 3:2. and is often applied to later prophets, especially Elijah and Elisha.

See 1 Samuel 2:27, 1 Kings 17:18; 1 Kings 17:24; 1 Kings 20:28, 2 Kings 1:13; 2 Kings 4:9; 2 Kings 4:21; 2 Kings 4:27; 2 Kings 4:42. It is here significant, implying that Moses wrote the psalm in this capacity. See above, on Psalms 18:1; Psalms 36:1, where David is in like manner called the Servant of Jehovah, a title given to Moses himself in the account of his death, Deuteronomy 34:5, as David, on the other hand, is called the Man of God, 2 Chronicles 8:14. Instead of hast been some read art; but though the preterite of other verbs may be used to express general truths, the present of the substantive verb is so commonly suppressed, that its form, when inserted, must have some significance. The truth seems to be, that the verse expresses only what God had been, but implies what he still was and still would be. A home, a fixed or settled dwelling, even while they wandered in the desert.

The same noun is used by Moses, Deuteronomy 26:15, and a kindred form, Deuteronomy 33:27. In generation and generation, in all successive generations.

See above, on Psalms 10:6; Psalms 33:11; Psalms 45:17; Psalms 49:11; Psalms 61:6.

2. (Psalms 90:2) Before mountains were born, and (before) thou hadst brought forth earth and land, and (indeed) from eternity to eternity, thou (art) God. The mountains are first mentioned, according to a scriptural usage which de scribes them as the oldest portions of the earth. See Genesis 49:26, Numbers 23:7, Deuteronomy 33:15, Habakkuk 3:6. By a strong but common and intelligible figure, creation is here described as generation. This is true not only of the first verb but of the second, which is too vaguely rendered in the common version (thou hadst formed). Earth, as opposed to heaven; land, as opposed to sea.

These are separately mentioned, as in the account of the creation. See Genesis 1:1; Genesis 1:9. The last clause may also be translated, thou art, O God! It then simply asserts his existence from eternity. According to the other and more usual construction, it likewise asserts his omnipotence, the attribute denoted by the divine name here employed. This is the fuller and more comprehensive sense; but in favour of the other may be urged, that it is simpler and agrees best with the proximate design of the Psalmist to contrast the eternal God with short-lived man.

3. (Psalms 90:3) Thou turnest man even to dust, and sayest, Return, sons of Man (or Adam)! The evident allusion to Genesis 3:19, which is also found in Job 10:9; Job 34:15, and reappears in Psalms 104:29 (compare Psalms 103:14), may serve to determine the meaning of the word translated dust in the first clause, but which is properly an adjective signifying crushed, broken to pieces, ground to powder, and is figuratively applied, in Psalms 34:18), to brokenness of heart. Compare Isaiah 57:15. The Hebrew preposition is stronger than our to, and means as far as, even to. The full sense of the whole phrase is, even to the state of one completely crushed or ground to powder, even to a pulverised condition. The shortness and fragility of human life is thus brought into the strongest contrast with the eternity of God.

4. (Psalms 90:4) For a thousand years in thine eyes (are) as yesterday when it is past and a watch in the night. However long human life may appear to man himself, it is in God’s sight evanescent and contemptible. Even the patriarchal measure, which so often approximated to a thousand years, was in God’s sight like a single day in man’s, or rather like a mere subdivision of it, a third part of the night, which was divided by the ancient Hebrews into three watches. See above, on Psalms 63:6. That this division was as old as Moses, may be seen from Exodus 14:24. When it is past, or passing. It might also be translated, for it passes, i.e. no less hastily and swiftly. This verse is quoted and amplified, but without any change of meaning, 2 Peter 3:8.

5. (Psalms 90:5) Thou sweepest them away— a sleep are they— in the morning, like thegrass, they pass away. The first Hebrew verb has no equivalent in English; it means to sweep away or carry off, as by a driving rain. The supposition of a reference to the flood is not necessary, though admissible. A derivative form of the same verb occurs above, Psalms 77:17. The comparison of human life to a sleep or dream is common in all languages. The morning is mentioned as the time of waking, the time when we are most impressed with the unsubstantial nature of our dreams.

See above, Psalms 73:20, and compare Psalms 39:6. The grass is an additional but obvious emblem of caducity. The last verb is not a plural form in Hebrew, but agrees with sleep, or rather with man, in the generic sense, whose life is here compared to sleep.

6. (Psalms 90:6) In the morning it blooms and (then) passes away, (for) at evening he mows and it withers. The mention of the morning, in ver. 5, as following the night, suggests the mention of the morning here, as followed by the evening. The first verb means not merely to flourish in the wide sense, but to bloom, as plants do. See above, on Psalms 72:16, and compare Numbers 17:8), which proves it to be a Mosaic expression. The verbs may agree with grass, or with man, whom the grass represents, more probably the latter. The idea conveyed by supplying then is really involved in the grammatical relation of the Hebrew verbs, the second of which never means to grow or sprout, but always to pass or undergo a change.

The third verb is active, but may be construed with an indefinite subject, and is then equivalent in meaning to a passive, he is mown and withers. The withering is not here referred to as the effect of natural decay but of violent excision. With the whole verse compare Psalms 37:2; Psalms 103:15, Job 14:2.

7. (Psalms 90:7) For we fail in thine anger, and in thy wrath are we affrighted. The natural decay or violent interruption of man’s life is the effect of God’s displeasure. The first verb means to waste away, decay, wear out, cease to exist. Compare its use in Psalms 71:9; Psalms 73:26. The other verb is very inadequately represented by the English troubled. It means shocked, confounded, agitated, terror-stricken.

See above, on Psalms 2:5; Psalms 6:2-3; Psalms 48:5; Psalms 78:33; Psalms 83:15, and below, on Psalms 104:29, and compare my note on Isaiah 65:23. It here denotes the natural instinctive dread of death. There is here a very sensible progression in the thought. Thus far the Psalmist had insisted merely on the frailty and brevity of human life; but now he proceeds further and propounds the fearful doctrine, that this sorrowful mortality is not an accident but an infliction, the direct effect of the divine wrath. Whatever instrumental agencies may be employed to kill us, our real destroyer is the anger of our Maker.

8. (Psalms 90:8) Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret (sins) in, the light of thy countenance. As man’s mortality is the effect of God’s wrath, so this wrath itself is the effect of sin. And this sin becomes the cause of death. See Genesis 2:17, and compare Romans 5:12. The verse before us represents God in the act of shortening man’s life, and gives the necessary explanation of what might otherwise have seemed at variance with his infinite benevolence. The Bible, as an eminent interpreter has well said throws the blame of death entirely on man himself.

When God slays man, he puts his sins before him, looks directly at them; not only those which are notorious, but those which are concealed from every eye but that of omniscience. See Jeremiah 16:17, Hebrews 4:14, and compare Psalms 19:14, 1 Corinthians 4:4-5. Another reading in the last clause, and most probably the true one, makes secret or concealed a singular and not a plural form, our secret; but the reference is still to sin. The word translated light does not properly denote the element itself, but that from which it is derived, a luminary, just as we call a candle or a lamp a light. See above, on Psalms 74:16. The precise sense seems to be, that God holds our sins to the light of his own countenance, and therefore cannot fail to see them.

9. (Psalms 90:9) For all our days are gone in thine anger; we spend our years like a thought. The all in the first clause is emphatic. What he says is true of our whole life. Are gone, literally turned away, as an act preparatory to departure. The word translated anger, though synonymous, is not identical with either of those used above in Psalms 90:7. It occurs, however, in Psalms 7:6, and according to its derivation properly denotes an outbreak of angry feeling.

Spend, not as a mere synonyme of pass, but in the strong sense of consuming, wasting, as in Job 36:11 (compare Job 21:13). The Hebrew verb is the causative of that translated fail in Psalms 90:7. The use of years as a parallel to days gives the sentence a climacteric effect. The word translated thought is elsewhere applied to audible sound (Ezekiel 2:10, Job 37:2), but only as the natural spontaneous expression of the thoughts and feelings, not to others but one’s self. See above, on Psalms 63:6; Psalms 77:12. By some strange misapprehension the Septuagint and Vulgate make it mean a spider, and the English versions have the singular periphrasis, a tale that is told.

10. (Psalms 90:10) The days of our years! In them (are contained) seventy years, and if with strength eighty years, and their pride (is) trouble and mischief, for he drives (us) fast and we fly away. The parallelism of days and years in the preceding verse suggests their combination here, a combination used by Moses elsewhere in describing the long lives of the patriarchal history. See Genesis 25:7; Genesis 47:9. The words may here be taken simply as an absolute nominative, (as for) the days of our years, in them, etc. See above, on Psalms 89:2.

But it adds to their significance, as well as to the beauty of the sentence, to explain them as a kind of wondering exclamation, as if such a term scarcely deserved to be computed. In them are seventy years, this is what they comprise or comprehend, it is to this that they amount. The life of Moses was much longer (Deuteronomy 34:7), but even in the history appears to be recorded as a signal exception to the general rule. If with strength, if accompanied with strength, or, as some prefer to construe it, if (the person be endued) with (more than usual) strength. The plural (strengths) may be an idiomatic form of speech, simply equivalent to the singular, or an intensive term denoting extraordinary strength. See above on Psalms 18:50.

Their pride, the best part of our days or years, the part in which we are most confident or most contented. The words translated trouble and mischief are in usage both applied to suffering at the hands or through the fault of others. The common version of the next verb (it is cut of) rests upon a doubtful etymology. In the only other place where the Hebrew verb certainly occurs (Numbers 11:31), it is applied to the driving of the quails by a strong wind over the camp of Israel. It may here agree with God himself, or with a subject undefined, one drives (us), which is tantamount to saying, we are driven. Fast, literally (in) haste or hastily.

And, as a necessary consequence we fly before the propellent power.

11. (Psalms 90:11) Who knows the power of thine anger and, according to thy fear, thy wrath? The separation of the clauses as distinct propositions makes the last unmeaning. The whole is one interrogation, implying strong negation, as if he had said, no one knows the power of thine anger. See above, on Psalms 14:4; Psalms 53:4. The sense is not that no one can, but that no one will know it, as he might and ought. Knows, literally knowing, i.e. habitually. See above, on Psalms 1:6. The power of thine anger, its degree and the extent to which it operates. According to thy fear, as true piety or reverence for God demands. Thy wrath, the same word that is used in the first clause of Psa 90:9 above.

12. (Psalms 90:12) To number our days thus make us know, and we will bring a heart of wisdom. The verb translated make us know is the causative of that in the preceding verse, to which there is an obvious allusion. It is therefore probable that they were meant to govern the same object. “Who knows the power of thine anger?” “So make us know (the power of thine anger).” The first words of the verse before us are then not immediately dependenton the phrase make (us) know, but merely indicate the end for which the knowledge was desired. “In order that we may number our days, i.e. know and feel how few they are, thus make us know, i.e. give us this knowledge of the connection between God’s wrath and our own mortality.” The common version of the last clause (that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom) is forced and ungrammatical, without an arbitrary change of pointing. The only admissible construction of the masoretic text is that first given, which may either mean, as some of the rabbinical interpreters suppose, “we will bring into ourselves (i.e. acquire) a heart of wisdom,” or “we will bring (as an offering to thee) a heart of wisdom,” with allusion to Genesis 4:3-4, where the same verb is absolutely used of Cain and Abel’s offerings.

13. (Psalms 90:13) Return, Jehovah! How long (wilt thou forsake us)?— And repent as to thy servants. To the prayer that the people may understand the causes of God’s wrath is now added a prayer for its removal. The loss of God’s favour is, as usual, represented as his absence. The aposiopesis in the question (how long?) is like that in Psalms 6:3; Psalms 13:1. This clause being parenthetical, what follows is connected by the copulative particle with the imperative at the beginning. The meaning of the last clause is, so change thy dealing with thy servants as if thou hadst repented of afflicting them. The same bold form of speech is used by Moses elsewhere. See Exodus 32:12, Deuteronomy 32:36, and compare the imitations in Judges 2:18, Jeremiah 15:6, Joe 2:13, Jonah 4:2, Psalms 135:14.

14. (Psalms 90:14) Satisfy us, in the morning, with thy mercy, and (then) we shall rejoice and be glad through all our days. God’s grace is here presented as the food required for the sustenance of his people. Satisfy or sate us, i.e. fill us, abundantly supply us. In the morning, early, speedily, perhaps with an allusion to the night as a common figure for affliction. See above, on Psalms 5:3; Psalms 46:5; Psalms 49:14; Psalms 59:16; Psalms 88:13. The oblique construction of the last clause, that we may rejoice, etc., is really involved in the direct one, which is much more pointed and emphatic. In or through all our days, i.e. throughout the remainder of our lives. The English idiom allows the suppression of the particle, as in the common version.

15. (Psalms 90:15) Make us glad according to the days thou hast afflicted us, the years we have seen evil. According to, literally as or like. The meaning is, compensate all our sufferings by proportionate enjoyments. The ellipsis of the relative is common in both idioms. The English Bible, by supplying it, enfeebles the expression without making the sense clearer. Days and years, as in Psalms 90:9. The plural forms in the Hebrew are unusual and borrowed from Deuteronomy 32:7, a Mosaic feature of the psalm which cannot possibly be reproduced in any version.

16. (Psalms 90:16) Let appear unto thy servants thy doing, and thy glory on their sons (or children). He prays that even to the elder generation there may be vouchsafed a token for good (Psalms 86:17), i.e. some assurance of the favours to be actually bestowed upon their children. Thus understood, the use of the two prepositions, to and on, is not unmeaning or fortuitous. God’s work or doing is the course of his providential dealings, as in Psalms 92:4 below; his glory, the manifestation of his divine perfections in external act. See above, on Psalms 8:5; Psalms 45:3. This was to appear not only to but on the younger race, i. e. in their own experience.

17. (Psalms 90:17) And let the beauty of Jehovah our God be upon us, and the work of our hands establish upon us, and the work of our hands, establish thou it. While the glory of Jehovah is expected to be fully revealed only in his dealings with the next generation, he is still besought to grant their fathers the experimental knowledge of his beauty, loveliness, or all that renders him an object of affection. See above, on Psalms 32:4. The work of our hands is a favourite Mosaic phrase for all that we do or undertake, all our affairs and interests. See Deuteronomy 14:29; Deuteronomy 16:15; Deuteronomy 24:19; Deuteronomy 28:12; Deuteronomy 30:9. To establish or confirm it is to prosper and succeed it, to bring it to a favourable issue.

The expression on us, as before, suggests the idea of an influence exerted and a favour granted from above. The yea of the common version is substituted for the idiomatic repetition of the copulative and in the original.