Structure
This psalm resembles Deuteronomy 32 (vs. 10, 13, and 15) and Genesis 2:4 and 3:19 (vs. 3). We even find the same vocabulary: “dwelling place” (vs. 1, Deuteronomy 33:27), as well as other terms from Deuteronomy (32:7, 18, 29: “generations, born, wisdom”; 33:15: “mountains”). So, this psalm does have a Mosaic “feel.”
Further, this psalm has many instances of an older style of Hebrew like we find in the Torah (the five books of Moses). This would likely make this the oldest psalm in the Bible.
Psalm 90 as no overarching structure but several structures within it with a logical flow of ideas:
- The beginning of the psalm unfolds in a chiasm, with the idea of life and creation as the centerpiece, denoting God is at the center of life.
- Following that are a series of verses on the brevity of life.
- Left unstated so far is why. If God is the source of life, life should be, by default, eternal for His creation. So ,the next section answers the “why”: our sins have angered God, which he holds before Him.
- The psalm then highlights the problem and the solution.
- Following that, the psalm then lives out the response to God’s faithful people: prayer and our living out of the faith.
Scribal Notes
This is not part of the official psalm but worship notes for the musical director.
A prayer of Moses, a man of God.
This is the only psalm ascribed to Moses. We find the title for Moses as “a man of God” in Deuteronomy 33:1 and Joshua 14:6. In Hebrew, “man of God” without the definite article (the) referred to someone who had contact with God, including Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, and Micah.
God is the Center of Life: Verses 1-2
O Adonai, You have been a dwelling place for us from generation to generation.
Before the mountains were born and You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God.
“Adonai”: The Hebrew word for one’s lord or master.
“dwelling place”: Hebrew, ma’on, is also a term to refer to heaven. This, allows the hearer to see God not only as the creator of earth but also of heaven.
“for us”: Many translations use “our dwelling place,” but the Hebrew is literally, “Lord, a dwelling place YOU have been to us.” The Hebrew emphasizes “You,” God, by adding in the word “You,” which isn’t needed in Hebrew because “you” is included in the verb “have.” Thus, the emphasis in not “our dwelling place” but, instead, that GOD is a dwelling place “to or for us.”
The plural nature of the psalm’s statement of faith that God is a dwelling place for us shows that this a public prayer of the community.
“Before the mountains were born”: For us, this metaphor for creation may fall flat. It uses “birth” to describe inanimate objects, including some of the oldest and enduring parts of creation (Proverbs 8:25). By giving the mountains birth, it even brings the mountains, which from our perspective seem almost everlasting, into a short life cycle when contrasted with the eternal God.
Life is Short: Verses 3-4
You turn mankind back into dust and decree: “Return, O sons of Adam!”
For a thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday, like a watch in the night.
“turn”: Hebrew, shuv, which is also the word for “repent” or “be converted.”
“dust”: Hebrew, daka. This is a noun derived from the verb, “crush, break to pieces.” This can refer to being crushed, broken by life. Here, the context points to death, which “Return, O Sons of Adam” makes clear.
“mankind… sons of Adam”: The “Sons of Adam” are not the stout, strongman or hero (geber), or even the ish of Genesis (Adam = ish; Eve = isha), but enosh, a “mortal man.”
“watch in the night”: The verse dashes poetically from maximum to minimum. The verse moves from a thousand years to a passing day to a watch in the night, which is a third of the night.
The dust from which God formed us never loses its hold on us (Genesis 2:7, 3:19; Sirach 14:17-18). God’s divine sentence evokes Adam’s fall into sin.
Why is Life Short and Why Do We Suffer? Verses 5-10
You engulf them with sleep: In the morning, they become like grass that is renewed.
In the morning, it springs and grows; in the evening, it withers and dies.
For we are consumed in Your anger and terrified by Your fury.
You have laid out our guilty deeds in front of You, our secret sins in the light of Your face.
For all our days pass away under Your wrath; we finish our years like a groan.
The days of our years are but 70, or if strong, 80. Their pride is but toil and trouble; their pleasure is fleeting and we vanish.
Vs. 6: The four verbs for what happens to the grass become a metaphor describing the shortness of human life: it springs and grows only to wither and die.
“anger… fury”: The words for both “anger” and “fury” in the Hebrew suggest hotly burning breath, so the imagery carries forward the image of grass withering and dying as a metaphor for our life because of our sin.
“secret”: Hebrew, alam, “hidden things,” that is, secret sins.
“pass away”: Hebrew, panu, literally “turn,” denoting coming to an end, used similarly in Jeremiah 6:4.
“groan”: Hebrew, hegeh. Ezekiel 2:10 uses this word, where it appears with “dirge.” In Job 37:2, it refers to the rumble of thunder. Hegeh derives from the verb “growl, murmur, groan.”
“70 years”: “The days of our years” refers to the span of our life, our age (see Genesis 25:7). The span of our life may be 70 years, or even 80. The number of years given is often taken as a normal life span. Even 80 years, however, seems to be nothing, and even a long life passes quickly (see Ecclesiastes 1-2 and Sirach 18:8-10), while God precedes creation and embraces all time.
“pleasure”: The Hebrew root means “to rejoice.” We find this word in Ecclesiastes 2:25, meaning “enjoyment.”
“guilty deeds… secret sins… toil… trouble”: The psalm uses word play to make its point. God takes note of our guilty deeds (avonoteinu) and our secret sins (alumeinu) and we end with toil (amal) and trouble (aven).
“vanish”: “fly away” is more literal, which most translations have. I chose “vanish” because, in English, “fly away” usually has a positive connotation, which this verse does not.
Restatement of the Problem and the Solution: Verses 11-12
Who can understand the strength of Your wrath and, according to the fear due to You, Your fury?
So, teach us to count our days correctly that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
These verses begin with a question. The assumed answer is that no one can understand God’s wrath or properly fear Him. This is the problem when it comes to us and God. Since we are found lacking, the solution does not lie with us and trying harder, but with God. Unless He teaches us, we are without hope.
“fear”: Hebrew, yirah. This is the right attitude toward God: Serve Yahweh with fear (Psalm 2:11) and bow before Him in His Temple in fear (Psalm 5:8). Jesus, the fulfillment of King David’s line, was prophesied to “delight in the fear of Yahweh” (Isaiah 11:3). Without the proper fear of God, true wisdom will be lacking.
“the heart of wisdom”: This consists of realizing how few our days are on the earth, which someone understands because of “the fear” he has for Yahweh. Proverbs 2:6 teaches that wisdom comes from God, which He gives through instruction (Proverbs 2:1-4, Psalm 34:11) and enters the heart (Proverbs 23:15). Remember, in the Hebrew language, the heart is not the seat of emotions as we think in English. The heart is closer to our mind and will, the location of decision, action, and loyalty.
The Life of Faith: Prayer (Verses 13-15)
Turn, O Yahweh! How long? Change Your mind toward Your servants.
Satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love so we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Makes us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for the years we have seen calamity.
“turn”: Hebrew, shuv, an imperative, literally, “change Your mind.” Within the context of this psalm, it’s a prayer for God to “turn from His anger” (see Exodus 32:12; 2 Kings 23:26, and Jonah 3:9). It is also the word for “repent,” which is a changing of one’s mind, which leads to a change in one’s course of action. Since we almost always understand “repent” as a turning from sin, which God does not need to turn from, I translated shuv as “turn.”
“change Your mind”: Hebrew, nacham, an imperative. The psalmist uses different words to repeat his forceful plea to God. The niphal form of nacham by itself means “to be sorry”; when the Hebrew preposition al (during) is used with it, nacham moves beyond “sorry” to mean “change Your mind.”
“the days… the years”: The verse uses a rare, plural form y’mot (Deuteronomy 32:7), no doubt to achieve an assonance, and possibly rhyme, with sh’not.
This prayer recognizes God’s righteousness and what it means: God wants to shower us with mercy and save us. These verses recognize that, calling on God to be who He is in His “faithful love,” His chesed. This prayer is also in the plural, denoting again this is a psalm for the congregation to pray during worship.
The Life of Faith: God Working Through Us (Verses 16-17)
Let Your work be seen by Your servants and Your glory to their children.
May the beauty of Yahweh, our God, be upon us. Establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands.
“establish”: Hebrew, koon. This verb is used to describe dynasties or buildings that remain unshaken. Against the discouraging shortness of human existence, where a life sprouts and withers like grass, God gives us something of lasting substance.
“establish the work of our hands”: The repetition is a rhetorical device to intensify the petition.
In the psalm, time intertwines itself in the adverbs: “before,” “how long,” “fleeting.” So also the verbs. They point to the brevity of time in our experience: “pass away,” “engulf,” “springs,” “grows,” withers,” “dies,” “are consumed,” “finish,” and “vanish.”
Even so, the psalm refuses to let time have the final word. It requests the works of God’s people to be substantial and enduring. “Establish the work of our hands” points to something stable and lasting. Although what we do is not long-lasting, God’s divine work, His glory, and beauty turn what would be a failure into success. What God does, gives us success!
Christ in the Psalm
The Problem: We inherited sin as part of something foreign, which entwines itself in us so thoroughly that it can only be killed, not reformed. We further compound our inherited reality by the sins we commit, which make us the object of God’s righteous anger. In our calamities, we experience ourselves “consumed” in His wrath (vs. 7) by the turns of events in our lives. God has even placed our “guilty deeds” before Him (vs. 8), our secret sins, unmasked in the light of His face. On our own, our days pass away in His fury, and we finish our years with a groan (vs. 9).
When we arise each day, however, we do not start that day from scratch. Each day begins with the memory of days past. “O Adonai, You have been a dwelling place for us from generation to generation.”
We are frail, but God is eternal. He is outside of time, living beyond the variations of this earth. To God, using metaphor to describe His eternal nature, the passage of time seems no more than an instant. “For a thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday, like a watch in the night.”
Because we are creatures of the Fall, our labor of the land to support our lives in this world is infected with the forces of death. But with God’s faithful love, He satisfies “us in the morning… so we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” To be satisfied with God’s faithful love is a greater gift than life itself.
How so? Jesus is God’s love in human flesh, who was faithful for us. Where God’s Faithful Love (Jesus) is, we find life, forgiveness, and salvation (John 3:16, Ephesians 2:4-5, Matthew 26:28).
In Christ, we share in His eternity (Romans 6:3-5). As the body of Christ lives forever, so also is the work the Spirit enables us to do in this life. Jesus will recognize and honor them, and they will not be forgotten (Matthew 25:45). When we know our life here is short and that death awaits us (the Law), then we can find hope in the Jesus, who leads us beyond our years into eternity (the Gospel).
Praying the Psalm
P O Adonai, You have been a dwelling place for us
C from generation to generation.P Before the mountains were born and You gave birth to the earth and the world,
C from eternity to eternity, You are God.P You turn mankind back into dust and decree: “Return, O sons of Adam!”
C For a thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday, like a watch in the night.P You engulf them with sleep:
C In the morning, they become like grass that is renewed.P In the morning, it springs and grows;
C in the evening, it withers and dies.P For we are consumed in Your anger and terrified by Your fury.
C You have laid out our guilty deeds in front of You, our secret sins in the light of Your face.P For all our days pass away under Your wrath;
C we finish our years like a groan.P The days of our years are but 70, or if strong, 80.
C Their pride is but toil and trouble; their pleasure is fleeting and we vanish.P Who can understand the strength of Your wrath and, according to the fear due to You, Your fury?
C So, teach us to count our days correctly that we may gain a heart of wisdom.P Turn, O Yahweh! How long?
C Change Your mind toward Your servants.P Satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love
C so we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.P Makes us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us,
C for the years we have seen calamity.P Let Your work be seen by Your servants
C and Your glory to their children.P May the beauty of Yahweh, our God, be upon us.
C Establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands.C Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
