Psalms 90– A Prayer of Moses the man of God.
1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
Book four of the Pentetuch of the "Psalms" collection. “‘A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.’
A prayer which Moses the prophet of the Lord prayed when the people of Israel had sinned in the wilderness." (The Chaldee) “Perhaps it was written at the time when the Lord determined, for Israel's unbelief, that the carcasses of that generation should die in the wilderness, as related in Nu 14.
It is called a prayer, and in it the man of God strikingly sets forth the frailty of man, and his transitory state, compared to the eternity of God.” ( Robert Hawker) “And here fitly placed as an illustration of that which was said in the precedent psalm, Psalms 89:48, ‘What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.’” (John Trapp)
“‘Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations,’— Even when they had no certain dwelling place in the world; so their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, dwelt in tabernacles in the land of promise, as in a strange land; and their posterity for many years served under great affliction and oppression in a land that was not theirs; and now they were dwelling in tents in the wilderness, and removing from place to place;…being that to them as an habitation is to man, in whom they had provision, protection, rest, and safety.” (John Gill)— “‘Before the mountains’ — the most fixed and stable parts of the earth— ‘were brought forth’— that is, arose out of the waters; ‘or ever You had formed the earth,’ etc. — that is, from eternity, which is frequently described in this manner; ‘even from everlasting Thou are God’ — Thou hadst Thy power and Thy perfections from all eternity.” (Joseph Benson)
3 You turn man to destruction, and say, “Return, O children of men.” 4 For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.
“You turn man to (dust) destruction.’ (3a) But as for man, his case is far otherwise, his time is short; and though he was made by Thee a happy creature, and should have been immortal, yet upon and for his sin thou didst make him mortal and miserable.— Thou sayest, or, didst say, i.e. pronounce that sad sentence here following, ‘Return, O men, to the dust, out of which you were taken,’ Genesis 3:19 Psalms 146:4 Ecclesiastes 12:7.” (Matthew Poole) “As if he should say, ‘O Lord, Thou that hast made and framed man of the dust of the earth, Thou beatest him to dust again; and as Thou madest him by Thy Word alone, so with Thy Word Thou suddenly turnest, and beatest him again to dust; as a man that makes a thing, and presently mars it again.’..He doth it with a Word, against which is no resistance, when that Word is once come out of His mouth; it is not all the diet, physic, and help, and prayers in the world that can save the life. And this He can do suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye. And therefore we should, as we love our lives, fear Him, and take heed how we offend and displease Him that can with a Word turn the strongest man into dust.” (William Bradshaw)— and say, ‘Return, O children of adam’. (3b) Become sons and daughters of God by faith in the Messiah of Israel. "This appears to be a clear and strong promise of the resurrection of the human body, after it has long slept, mingled with the dust of the earth.” (Adam Clarke)
“‘For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past,’ Moses says that a thousand years (just over the longest time that anyone had ever lived, perhaps hearkening back to Adam, Methuselah and Noah, who lived to be 930, 969 and 950 respectively) are gone as yesterday... to God—or as an even shorter period of time, a watch in the night having been about four hours in the Old Testament period.” (United Church of God Comm.) — “‘and like a watch in the night’— a portion of the night— the original idea having been derived from the practice of dividing the night into portions, during which a watch was placed in a camp. These watches were, of course, relieved at intervals, and the night came to be divided, in accordance with this arrangement, into parts corresponding with these changes. Among the ancient Hebrews there were only three night-watches; the first, mentioned in Lamentations 2:19; the middle, mentioned in Judges 7:19; and the third, mentioned in Exodus 14:24; 1 Samuel 11:11. In later times - the times referred to in the New Testament - there were four such watches, after the manner of the Romans, Mark 13:35. The idea here is not that such a watch in the night would seem to pass quickly, or that it would seem short when it was gone, but that a thousand years seemed to God not only short as a day when it was past, but even as the parts of a day, or the divisions of a night when it was gone.” (Barnes)
“Early rabbinic tradition came to view this verse, juxtaposed with God's Sabbath command about resting from daily toil, as meaning that the thousands of years of human history are represented by the days of the week—6,000 years of man's sin and futile toil followed by a 1,000-year Sabbath of God's rule. The apostle Peter appears to have been referring to Psalm 90:4 when He wrote of Christ's coming at the end of human history: 'But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise' (2 Peter 3:8-9).” (United Church of God Comm.) Jesus lead them in the wilderness — "He that sitteth upon the throne, and createth all things new—is Himself eternally and unchangeably the same in person, and in the efficacy of His redemption, the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Revelation 21:5; Hebrews 13:8.” (Hawker)
5 You carry them away like a flood; they are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: 6 In the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down and withers. 7 For we have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified. 8 You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. 9 For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; we finish our years like a sigh. 10 The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.11 Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
“Here are several beautiful figures, illustrative of man's short and transitory state of existence: first, as a flood, whose tide never stops a moment from flowing, but sweeps everything before it: next, as a sleep, during which the man is unconscious of what passeth; for such is life, a dream, a fancy, an illusion: next, as grass, which, as the Psalmist saith elsewhere, withereth before it be fully grown up: next, as a tale that is told, meaning a mere voice, a breath, which, though heard, is not seen, and passeth away, even in the moment of its existence. Reader, pause, and contemplate the humbling truth. The voice said, ‘Cry. And he said, What shall I cry?’ All flesh is grass.” ( Robert Hawker) “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.” (Geneva Study Bible)
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 13 Return, O Lord! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. 14 Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days! 15 Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. 16 Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children. 17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.
“‘So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.’ Oh! what a relief did this voice give, when it added, that ‘the Word of our God shall stand forever!’ Isaiah 40:6-8. Oh, thou uncreated Word! Thou didst condescend to be made flesh, and didst dwell among us: Thou didst take our nature, to make us partakers of Thine!… If such be the transitory state of man upon earth, Lord cause Thy people to improve these appointments of Thine, to Thy glory, and their welfare. Are our days short? Oh, make them gracious. Are they vain and unsatisfying? Oh, direct us to Jesus, who will cause them that love Him to inherit substance.”(Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)— “‘And let the beauty of the Lord our God,’ i.e. His favourable countenance, and gracious influence, and glorious presence.— ‘be upon us;’ or, in us— ‘and establish the work of our hands for us;’ Do not only work for us, but in us. And because the glorious work of thy hands is hindered by the evil works of our hands, be thou pleased by thy Holy Spirit to direct or establish... ‘the works of our hands,’ that we may cease to do evil, and learn to do well, and turn and constantly cleave unto thee, and not revolt and draw back from thee, as we have frequently done to our own undoing.” (Matthew Poole)