PSALM 90 COMME�TARYWritten and edited by Glenn Pease

PREFACE

I quote many authors in making this Psalm understandable and valuable. If any do notwish their wisdom shared in this way they can let me know and I will remove it. My e-mailis glenn_p86@yahoo.com

I�TRODUCTIO�

1. “This is the oldest of the Psalms, and stands between two books of Psalms as acomposition unique in its grandeur, and alone in its sublime antiquity. “A prayer ofMoses.” Moses may be considered as the first composer of sacred hymns. - Samuel Burder.it is one of the oldest poems in the world. Compared with it Homer and Pindar are (so tospeak) modern, and even King David is of recent date. That is to say, compared with thisancient hymn the other Psalms are as much more modern as Tennyson and Longfellow aremore modern than Chaucer. In either case there are nearly five centuries between. - JamesHamilton.

2. Barnes, “We know, from not a few places in the Pentateuch, that Moses was a poet aswell as a lawgiver and statesman; and it would not be improbable that there might havebeen some compositions of his of this nature which were not incorporated in the five booksthat he wrote, and which would be likely to be preserved by tradition. This psalm bearsinternal evidence that it may have been such a composition. The phrase, “the man of God,”in the title, is given to Moses in Deu_33:1; Jos_14:6; Ezr_3:2; as a title especiallyappropriate to him, denoting that he was faithful to God.

It seems, then, not improper to regard this psalm as one of the last utterances of Moses,when the wanderings of the Hebrew people were about to cease; when an entiregeneration had been swept off; and when his own labors were soon to close. The mainsubject of the psalm is the brevity - the transitory nature - of human life; thereflections on which seem designed to lead the soul up to God, who does not die. Theraces of people are cut down like grass, but God remains the same from age to age.One generation finds him the same as the previous generation had found him -unchanged, and as worthy of confidence as ever. �one of these changes can affect him,and there is in each age the comforting assurance that he will be found to be therefuge, the support, the “dwelling-place” of his people.”

3. Henry, “This psalm was penned by Moses (as appears by the title), the most ancientpenman of sacred writ. We have upon record a praising song of his (Ex. 15, which isalluded to Rev_15:3), and an instructing song of his, Deu. 32. But this is of a differentnature from both, for it is called a prayer. We have the story to which this psalm seemsto refer, �um. 14. Probably Moses penned this prayer to be daily used, either by thepeople in their tents, or, at lest, by the priests in the tabernacle-service, during theirtedious fatigue in the wilderness.

4. Gill, “It is more generally thought that it was penned about the time when the spiesbrought a bad report of the land, and the people fell a murmuring; which provoked theLord, that he threatened them that they should spend their lives in misery in thewilderness, and their carcasses should fall there; and their lives were cut short, andreduced to threescore years and ten, or thereabout; only Moses, Joshua, and Caleb,lived to a greater age; and on occasion of this Moses wrote this psalm, setting forth thebrevity and misery of human life; so the Targum, "a prayer which Moses the prophetof the Lord prayed, when the people of the house of Israel sinned in the wilderness.''

5. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “Psalm 90 is a very unique psalm. For example, no statement inthis psalm is taken from other psalms. Furthermore, it has no affinity with any of the otherpsalms, meaning that it does not cover any similar circumstances. It does have, however,similarity and affinity with one chapter that Moses wrote elsewhere, Deuteronomy 33. Ifyou compare Deuteronomy 33 with Psalm 90, you will find several elements ofcomparison, similarity and affinity. Because Moses is the writer of this psalm, we know thatthis is the oldest of the 150 psalms. The others were written by men who lived much laterthan Moses.”

6. Bob Deffinbaugh, “Psalm 90 deals with the dark side of life, one we don’t like to focus on.Given the choice of Psalm 90 or Psalm 91, we would gladly choose Psalm 91, for its messageis one of confidence. This is the other side of the coin. There is also a dark side of life. Justas we find it difficult to look into the brightness of the sun’s rays, we find it equallyunpleasant to dwell on the dark side of life. Psalm 90 tells us there is a place for pessimism,a very important lesson to learn. �otice, as well, that even in its somber thoughts, God isdescribed as Israel’s dwelling place. Psalm 90 is unique in that it is the only psalmattributed to Moses. Conservative scholars accept Moses’ authorship; others do not. Theysee the Psalm written much later after the era of Moses. I understand it to be written byMoses. As such it makes a unique contribution in what it tells us about Moses himself,something we do not see anywhere else.”

6B. Deffinbaugh differs from many on the time of Moses writing this Psalm. “In light ofthese difficulties I suggest that this psalm was not written after the exodus, but before it. Ibelieve Moses wrote it during his 40 years exile from Egypt while tending the flocks of hisfather-in-law (cf. Exod. 2:15-25). The suffering to which Moses refers is due primarily toIsrael’s sin. We may, at first, think this hardly appropriate to the sufferings of Israel in theland of Egypt. However, Ezekiel (20:7-9) speaks of the period of Israel’s sojourn in Egyptas one that was marked by sin and idolatry. It was sin that brought Israel to Egypt (for

example, the sin of Joseph’s brothers, Genesis 37). It was sin, in part, that kept Israel inEgypt. Ezekiel speaks of Israel’s sin after the exodus as that which they brought with themfrom Egypt (23:8,9,27; cf. also Exod. 20:4-6). The time of Israel’s sojourning in Egypt was atime of sin and the consequences of it, suffering. �o historical time fits Psalm 90 better thanthe period just preceding the exodus. God had been silent for a long time and had notrecently revealed His mighty arm. God’s answer in part, to the petitions of Moses in thispsalm, was the exodus. God did reveal His mighty arm and great power through Moses.

Psalm 90 therefore tells us something about the heart of Moses. When we look at Mosesstanding before the burning bush, there seems to be no reason for God’s selection of him tolead His people out of captivity and into Canaan. Suppose this psalm was written a weekbefore Moses was arrested by the sight of the burning bush. God would then have spokento Moses from the burning bush, “Moses I heard your prayer. Go deliver your people!” Ifthis is what happened, then God answered Moses’ prayer through him. Such a historical setting is at least a possibility. It helps me understand the agony of soul with which Moseswrote the psalm, as well as the appropriateness of God’s selection of Moses to deliver Hispeople.”

7. “The Psalm is called 'a psalm of Moses' Spurgeon has said of this psalm that in order tounderstand it aright we need to understand its dark border and we need to remember whatit must have been like for Moses when he saw a whole generation perish in the wilderness.Spurgeon has graphically said that ' he digged the desert till it became a cemetery, for helived amid forty years of funerals'. In the 38 years that they were wandering a generationof 600,000 men perished. That must have meant an average of 42 or 43 funerals a day, notto mention the women There is much in this psalm that indicates to us the hardships andthe difficulties that Moses had to face in those days But there is also evidence in this psalmthat Moses was old and near the end of his life and if that is the case then Moses would alsohave known that the children were soon going to enter into the promised land and thoughhe was not going to be among them yet the people were going to have the privilege of seeingthe promise of the Lord fulfilled among them and they were going to possess thepossessions that God had long promised to Abraham Isaac and to Jacob. So while we canperhaps detect the sense of weariness with the struggles of life in this psalm yet when heturns to make requests to God he is not reluctant to make bold requests and to ask greatblessings and there is certainly no sense that they had been defeated. They had justendured a long period of the chastisement of the Lord upon them. It would be natural forsomeone who had seen what Moses had just seen to be utterly cast down and weary butMoses was a spiritual man and he knew the value of prayer and he knew how to make boldrequests of His God. Spurgeon has called this a Moses-like prayer because it was so bold inits requests. Moses was never afraid to ask great things of God.” unknown author

8. Spurgeon, “A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Many attempts have been made to provethat Moses did not write this Psalm, but we remain unmoved in the conviction that he didso. The condition of Israel in the wilderness is so preeminently illustrative of each verse,and the turns, expressions, and words are so similar to many in the Pentateuch, that thedifficulties suggested are, to our mind, light as air in comparison with the internal evidence

in favor of its Mosaic origin. Moses was mighty in word as well as deed, and this Psalm webelieve to be one of his weighty utterances, worthy to stand side by side with his gloriousoration recorded in Deuteronomy. Moses was peculiarly a man of God and God's man;chosen of God, inspired of God, honored of God, and faithful to God in all his house, hewell deserved the name which is here given him. The Psalm is called a prayer, for theclosing petitions enter into its essence, and the preceding verses are a meditationpreparatory to the supplication. Men of God are sure to be men of prayer. This was not theonly prayer of Moses, indeed it is but a specimen of the manner in which the seer of Horebwas leant to commune with heaven, and intercede for the good of Israel. This is the oldestof the Psalms, and stands between two books of Psalms as a composition unique in itsgrandeur, and alone in its sublime antiquity. Many generations of mourners have listenedto this Psalm when standing around the open grave, and have been consoled thereby, evenwhen they have not perceived its special application to Israel in the wilderness and havefailed to remember the far higher ground upon which believers now stand.”

A prayer of Moses the man of God.

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.

1. In him we live and move and have our being. There is no escape from God, for he iseverywhere, and so we dwell in him as in the atmosphere, but this is a specific dwelling, anda refuge from the realm of life where all live. It is dwelling in God in the sense that we livein an awareness of his presence and providential guidance. This was specially the case withMoses in leading his people. He was fully aware of God each step of the way, and he wouldnot want to make another step without the assurance of God's presence. They lived in tents,but they also dwelt in God who hovered over them in their journey to the Promised Land.

1B. “The first word of the psalm is "Lord." "Adonai" in Hebrew. Adonai means the onewho rules history and creation. The God who is Lord, who is King, who is governor over allthings in heaven and on earth -- he is our dwelling place. Moses wrote this about theIsraelites who were wandering in the desert. Whom God had condemned to 40 years in thewilderness because of their rebellion against Him. Despite the fact they had no permanentaddress on earth, despite that they were wanderers and children of a wandering Aramean(as Abraham called himself), yet he said: the Lord's people had a dwelling place, apermanent address: the Lord, the eternal God.” author unknown

1C. Spurgeon, “The mighty Jehovah, who filleth all immensity, the Eternal, Everlasting,Great I Am, does not refuse to allow figures concerning himself. Though he is so high thatthe eye of angel hath not seen him, though he is so lofty that the wing of cherub hath notreached him, though he is so great that the utmost extent of the travels of immortal spirits

have never discovered the limit of himself—yet he does not object that his people shouldspeak of him thus familiarly, and should say, "Jehovah, thou hast been our dwelling-place."

1D. The Jews wandered 40 years in the desert and they were the largest homeless group inhistory, and yet Moses says that they had a permanent address, for they had a home thatnever changed. That home was God. They were homeless, and yet were always at home, forGod was everywhere with them providing for them. What a paradox. Homeless people whonever left home.

2. Barnes, “a refuge”; a place to which one may come as to his home, as one does from ajourney; from wandering; from toil; from danger: a place to which such a one naturallyresorts, which he loves, and where he feels that he may rest secure. The idea is, that a friendof God has that feeling in respect to Him, which one has toward his own home - his abode -the place which he loves and calls his own.”

3. Clarke, “Ever since thy covenant with Abraham thou hast been the Resting-place,Refuge, and Defence of thy people Israel. Thy mercy has been lengthened out fromgeneration to generation.

3B. Martin Luther, “Almost in the same strain Paul speaks, when he says to the Colossians,"Your life is hid with Christ in God." For it is a much clearer and more luminousexpression to say, Believers dwell in God, than that God dwells in them. He dwelt alsovisibly in Zion, but the place is changed. But because he (the believer), is in God, it ismanifest, that he cannot be moved nor transferred, for God is a habitation of a kind thatcannot perish. Moses therefore wished to exhibit the most certain life, when he said, God isour dwelling place, not the earth, not heaven, not paradise, but simply God himself.”

3C. Stedman, “This statement declares that God has been man's home ever since man hasbeen on the earth. In all the generations of man it is where he continually lives. You willrecognize that this is the same truth Paul uttered when he addressed the Athenians on MarsHill. He said to them, God is not far from any of us (even pagans, he points out), for "inhim we live and move and have our being," {Acts 17:28}. God exists as a home for man.”

4. Gill, “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations,.... Even when they hadno 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 formany years served under great affliction and oppression in a land that was not theirs; andnow they were dwelling in tents in the wilderness, and removing from place to place; but asthe Lord had been in every age, so he now was the dwelling place of those that trusted inhim; being that to them as an habitation is to man, in whom they had provision, protection,rest, and safety; see Psa_31:2 so all that believe in Christ dwell in him, and he in them,Joh_6:56, they dwelt secretly in him before they believed; so they dwelt in his heart's love,in his arms, in him as their head in election, and as their representative in the covenant ofgrace from eternity; and, when they fell in Adam, they were preserved in Christ, dwellingin him; and so they were in him when on the cross, in the grave, and now in heaven; for

they are said to be crucified, buried, and risen with him, and set down in heavenly places inhim, Gal_2:20, and, being converted, they have an open dwelling in him by faith, to whomthey have fled for refuge, and in whom they dwell safely, quietly, comfortably, pleasantly,and shall never be turned out: here they have room, plenty of provisions, rest, and peace,and security from all evils; he is an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from thestorm. Some render the word "refuge"; (a) such is Christ to his people, being the antitypeof the cities of refuge; and others "helper", as the Targum; which also well agrees with him,on whom their help is laid, and is found.

5. Henry, “Egypt had been a land of bondage to them for many years, but even then Godwas their refuge; and in him that poor oppressed people lived and were kept in being. �ote,True believers are at home in God, and that is their comfort in reference to all the toils andtribulations they meet with in this world. In him we may repose and shelter ourselves as inour dwelling-place.”

6. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “The word dwelling-place means "a protective shelter." God hasbeen Israel’s protective shelter in all generations from the time of Abraham, the father ofthe Jewish people.”

7. “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations – from everlasting toeverlasting, you are God.” Isaac Watts’ hymn captures the essence of this Psalm – there is asobering recognition of the fleetingness of life. But there is also a freedom, and a great hopethat God gives both for now and for all eternity. “O God our help in ages past, our hope foryears to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.” Here is low-cost,high-class housing. You are never good enough to live here, but God makes you goodenough. This is the natural habitat of the believer. We have a divine dwelling. A man’shome is his castle indeed when a man’s home is God. Every sinner has a homeless soul, andis a spiritual orphan without father or home, but here is a holy dwelling available to allwithout rent. Jesus is the door into this home where all is furnished.” unknown author

8. Wesley, "Dwelling place -- Although we and our fathers, for some generations, have hadno fixed habitation, yet thou hast been instead of a dwelling-place to us, by thy watchfuland gracious providence. And this intimates that all the following miseries were not to beimputed to God but themselves.

He that hath made his refuge God, Shall find a most secure abode,Shall walk all day beneath his shade,And there at night shall rest his head.

Jesus had not where to lay his head, save in His Father’s hand. Here is a house of solidrock built to last forever. �o flood can sweep us from this haven of rest. Byron expressedlonging for such a rest in his poem: “I fly like a bird of the air, In search of a home andrest; A balm for the sickness of care, A bliss for a bosom unblessed.”

From the slums of sin to the palace of God. God alone is the only changeless one in the

universe. All else comes and goes and time only has value because of His eternity. In heavenly love abiding,�o change my heart shall fear;For safe is such confiding,For nothing changes here.

Isa. 57:15 - For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I

dwell in the high and holy place with him that is of a contrite and a humble spirit."

9. “Our home” -- or 'our dwelling-place.' This image seems to have a particular referenceto the unsettled condition of the Israelites before their establishment in the Land ofPromise. 'Strangers and pilgrims as we have hitherto been, in every succeeding generation,from the days of Abraham; first sojourners in Canaan; then bondsmen in Egypt; nowwanderers in this dreary waste; we nevertheless find the comforts of a home and settlementin thy miraculous protection.'" -- Horsley.

10. “Dr. Victor Shepherd, "The psalmist is wiser than this. In stead of trying to deny thehuman condition (fragility, vulnerability, transitoriness), only to have the denial breakdown anyway, he recognizes it and owns it. Life is fleeting; our plans do fragment; we can'tfashion something permanent and impregnable in which we can then take refuge. Thepsalmist owns all of this, and is able to own it, just because he looks to God eternal. "Lord,you have been our dwelling place in all generations; from everlasting to everlasting you areGod." "Before the mountains were brought forth, or even you had formed the earth andworld, you are God." The human condition doesn't find its resolution in any creaturelyentity (the earth and the world); it doesn't find its resolution even in something whichappears as old and stable and immoveable as the mountains. The human condition finds itsresolution in God and only in God. We cannot alter the human condition, despite ourefforts to do so and our self-deception at having done so. We can only look to him who hasmade us for himself and therefore is himself our only dwelling place.

Moses tells them on the eve of his death that not only is their ultimate dwelling place notthe wilderness (they were never tempted to think this); it isn't even the promised land (theyare tempted to think this). "The eternal God is your dwelling place", says Moses, "andunderneath are the everlasting arms". It's a summons to repent. The summons to repent isreinforced by the psalmist's awareness that God himself "turns us back to dust". God doesnot let us forget, ultimately, that we are finite, fragile creatures. We came from dust, and todust we shall return. We are not superhuman; we are not gods; we are not immortal; weare "frail creatures of dust", as the hymn writer reminds us."

11. Bob Deffinbaugh, “Verses 1 and 2 depict the greatness of God as Israel’s dwelling place.The Berkeley Version translates this, “Lord, Thou hast been our home …” It is interestingto refer to God in this way; He is also called man’s dwelling place in Psalm 91:9. Moses, theauthor of this psalm, is a man without a country. Moses was a fugitive from Egypt and hedied without entering Canaan. Israel also was a people without a country. The Israelites

had not yet possessed the land of Canaan when this Psalm was written. Therefore onewould expect Moses to have described the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, as Israel’sdwelling place. Yet Moses knew that ultimately man’s dwelling is not a place but a Person.It is God who is our Dwelling Place and in Him we find security, safety and peace. God isdescribed this way throughout all generations (v. 1). Literally the text reads “in generation

and generation,” or as the Berkeley Version translates it, “in successive generations.”139

When Moses came on the scene of history a number of generations had already existed,beginning with Abraham (or should I say Adam?). It is therefore fitting that he said “fromone generation to the next God has been our dwelling place.” This verse speaks historicallyof Israel’s experience with God as her dwelling place. It also speaks prophetically of Israel’sfuture security. In verse 2 God’s eternity is emphatically described. While God has provento be Israel’s dwelling place throughout the generations of her existence, verse 2 assuresIsrael that her security is as lasting as God’s existence. He is from everlasting to everlasting.Israel’s dwelling place is God and God is eternal. Therefore Israel has a dwelling place thatis both certain and continuous.”

12. Spurgeon, “Moses, in effect, says—wanderers though we be in the howling wilderness,yet we find a home in thee, even as our forefathers did when they came out of Ur of theChaldees and dwelt in tents among the Canaanites. To the saints the Lord Jehovah, the selfexistent God, stands instead of mansion and rooftree; he shelters, comforts, protects,preserves, and cherishes all his own. Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests,but the saints dwell in their God, and have always done so in all ages. �ot in the tabernacleor the temple do we dwell, but in God himself; and this we have always done since therewas a church in the world. We have not shifted our abode. Kings' palaces have vanishedbeneath the crumbling hand of time—they have been burned with fire and buried beneathmountains of ruins, but the imperial race of heaven has never lost its regal habitation. Goto the Palatine and see how the Caesars are forgotten of the halls which echoed to theirdespotic mandates, and resounded with the plaudits of the nations over which they ruled,and then look upward and see in the ever living Jehovah the divine home of the faithful,untouched by so much as the finger of decay. Where dwelt our fathers a hundredgenerations since, there dwell we still. It is of �ew Testament saints that the Holy Ghost hassaid, "He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in God and God in him!" It was adivine mouth which said, "Abide in me", and then added, "he that abideth in me and I inhim the same bringeth forth much fruit." It is most sweet to speak with the Lord as Mosesdid, saying, "Lord, thou art our dwelling place", and it is wise to draw from the Lord'seternal condescension reasons for expecting present and future mercies, as the Psalmist didin the next Psalm wherein he describes the safety of those who dwell in God.”

13. What a paradox it is when you remember that Jesus had not where to lay his head, andas a child had to be laid in a manger. God's people marched a lifetime in the desert withouta roof over their heads, and the father of the race, Abraham, was called away from his cityand home to live in tents. Homeless people are what God's people have often been, and yetthey are people with the best of dwellings, for they dwell in God who has ever been thehome of the homeless.

14. Our dwelling place. God created the earth for beasts to inhabit, the sea for fishes, the air

for fowls, and heaven for angels and stars, so that man hath no place to dwell and abide inbut God alone.—Giovanni della Mirandola Pico, 1463-1494.

15. Spurgeon writes of the security of dwelling in God. “What does the man do at home?He can lay bare his breast, and do and say as he pleases; it is his own house, his dwelling-place; and is he not master there? Shall he not do as he will with his own? Assuredly; for hefeels himself at home. Ah! my beloved, do you ever find yourself in God to be at home?Have you been with Christ, and told your secrets in his ear, and found that you could do sowithout reserve? We do not generally tell secrets to other people, for it we do, and makethem promise that they will never tell them, they will never tell them except to the firstperson they meet. Most persons who have secrets told them, are like the lady of whom it issaid she never told her secrets except to two sorts of persons—those that asked her andthose that did not. You must not trust men of the world; but do you know what it is to tellall your secrets to God in prayer, to whisper all your thoughts to him? You are not ashamedto confess your sins to him with all their aggravations; you make no apologies to God, butyou put in every aggravation, you describe all the depths of you baseness. Then, as for yourlittle wants, you would be ashamed to tell them to another; before God you can tell themall. You can tell him your grief that you would not whisper to your dearest friend. WithGod you can be always at home, you need be under no restraint. The Christian at oncegives God the key of his heart, and lets him turn every thing over. He says, "There is thekey of every cabinet; it is my desire that thou wouldst open them all. If there are jewels,they are thine; and if there be things that should not be there, drive them out. Search me,and try my heart." The more God lives in the Christian, the better the Christian loves him;the oftener God comes to see him, the better he loves his God. And God loves his people allthe more when they are familiar with him. Can you say in this sense, "Lord, thou hast beenmy dwelling place?"

16. Jim Stephenson, “He is the Abode of the Saints. In what ways is God our “abode?”Home is a place where you find love and acceptance. In his poem The Death of the Hired

Man, Robert Frost said, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have totake you in.” You’re accepted at home. If you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, thenyou are accepted by God despite all your screw-ups and failures. Like the place called“home” He takes us in - whatever our condition. He does that for us because of what Jesusdid. Home is where you find peace and provision and protection. In fact, the word for“dwelling place” has been translated “refuge” in some versions. “God is our refuge andstrength, an ever- present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)

17. O Lord, thou art our home, to whom we fly,and so hast always been, from age to age;Before the hills did intercept the eye,Or that the frame was up of earthly stage,One God thou wert, and art, and still shall be;The line of time, it doth not measure thee.Both death and life obey thy holy lore,

And visit in their turns as they are sent;A thousand years with thee they are no moreThan yesterday, which, ere it is, is spent:Or as a watch by night, that course doth keep,And goes and comes, unawares to them that sleep.

Thou carriest man away as with a tide:Then down swim all his thoughts that mounted high;Much like a mocking dream, that will not bide,But flies before the sight of waking eye;Or as the grass, that cannot term obtain,To see the summer come about again.

At morning, fair it musters on the ground;At even it is cut down and laid along:And though it shared were and favor found,The weather would perform the mower's wrong:Thus hast thou hanged our life on brittle pins,To let us know it will not bear our sins.—Francis Bacon.

18. Original Trinity Hymnal, #287

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-placeIn ev'ry generation;Thy people still have known thy grace,And blessed thy consolation:Through ev'ry age thou heard'st our cryThrough ev'ry age we found thee nigh,Our Strength and our Salvation.

Our cleaving sins we oft have wept,And oft thy patience proved;But still thy faith we fast have kept,Thy �ame we still have loved;And thou hast kept and loved us well,Hast granted us in thee to dwell,Unshaken, unremoved.

�o, nothing from those arms of loveShall thine own people sever;Our Helper never will remove,Our God will fail us never.Thy people, Lord, have dwelt in thee,Our dwelling place thou still wilt beFor ever and for ever.

2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

1. Barnes, “Before the mountains were brought forth - Before the earth brought forth orproduced the mountains. In the description of the creation it would be natural to representthe mountains as the first objects that appeared, as emerging from the waters; and,therefore, as the “first” or “most ancient” of created objects. The phrase, therefore, isequivalent to saying, Before the earth was created. The literal meaning of the expression,“were brought forth,” is, in the Hebrew, “were born.” The mountains are mentioned as themost ancient things in creation, in Deu_33:15. Compare Gen_49:26; Hab_3:6. Or ever thouhadst formed - literally, “hadst brought forth.” Compare Job_39:1.

The earth and the world - The word “earth” here is used to denote the world asdistinguished either from heaven Gen_1:1, or from the sea Gen_1:10. The term “world” inthe original is commonly employed to denote the earth considered as “inhabited,” or ascapable of being inhabited - a dwelling place for living beings. Even from everlasting toeverlasting - From duration stretching backward without limit to duration stretchingforward without limit; that is, from eternal ages to eternal ages; or, forever.

Thou art God - Or, “Thou, O God.” The idea is, that he was always, and ever will be, God:the God; the true God; the only God; the unchangeable God. At any period in the past,during the existence of the earth, or the heavens, or before either was formed, he existed,with all the attributes essential to Deity; at any period in the future - during the existence ofthe earth and the heavens, or beyond - far as the mind can reach into the future, and evenbeyond that - he will still exist unchanged, with all the attributes of Deity. The creation ofthe universe made no change in him; its destruction would not vary the mode of hisexistence, or make him in any respect a different being. There could not be a more absoluteand unambiguous declaration, as there could not be one more sublime, of the eternity ofGod. The mind cannot take in a grander thought than that there is one eternal andimmutable Being.

1B. We have a B. C. for there was a time on earth when it was before Christ, but we haveno B. G., for there is no time that there was a before God. There was no such possibility, forGod is eternal, infinite, and everlasting. There cannot be anything before God because he isthe reason there is anything at all. If God was not, nothing would be, for he is Creator of allthat we see.

2. Clarke, “Before the mountains were brought forth - The mountains and hills appear tohave been everlasting; but as they were brought forth out of the womb of eternity, therewas a time when they were not: but Thou hast been ab aeternitate a parte ante, ad

aeternitatem a parte post; fram the eternity that is past, before time began; to the eternitythat is after, when time shall have an end. This is the highest description of the eternity ofGod to which human language can reach.”

2B. We have another description of God's eternity in Psalm 102:25-27. The

psalmist wrote,

"In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are

the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear

out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be

discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end."

2C. Mr. Richard Pinelli, "�ow what does all this mean? Well, it shows that before Godcreated the universe, time did not exist. Time relates to creation, to the physical universe.God created time when He created the universe. We must understand is that God is notbound by time. He transcends it. Louis Berkhof writes, (Systematic Theology p. 60)"Our existence is marked off by days and weeks and months and years; not so the existenceof God. Our life is divided into a past, present and future, but there is no such division inthe life of God. He is the eternal 'I am.' His eternity may be defined as that perfection ofGod whereby He is elevated above all temporal limits and all succession of moments, andpossesses the whole of His existence in one indivisible present."

2D. Hermann Bavinck writes, (The Doctrine of God, p. 157) "In and by itself, moreover,time is not able to exist or to endure: it is a continuous becoming, and must needs rest in animmutable essence. It is God, who, by virtue of his everlasting power, bears the time, bothin its entirety and in its separate moments. In every second the pulsation of his eternity isfelt. God stands in definite relation to time; with his eternity he fills time; also for him timeis objective; by virtue of his eternal consciousness he knows time in its entirety and in thesuccession of all its moments. The fact that time is objective for him does not make himtemporal, however. He never becomes subject to time, measure, number: he remainseternal, and inhabits eternity. But he uses time as a means for the manifestation of hiseternal thoughts and excellencies; he makes time subservient to eternity, and therebyproves himself to be the 'King of the ages,' 1 Tim. 1:17."

2E. Stedman, “He is the God of history. He is the God of creation. But beyond all that, he isthe God of eternity. This is far different from any pagan concept of God. Plato, the greatGreek philosopher, was the only one of whom we have record in the ancient world who heldsome concept of the timelessness of God. In the eyes of others, the pagan gods all had abeginning. Read the pagan myths and you will find that all the gods started somewhere.But here is a God who never begins, a timeless endless God who is beyond and above hiscreation, and beyond and above all the events of history. That mighty God, thattremendous Being, who is so far different, above, and "other" than ourselves, is nowbrought close to us in the rest of the psalm.”

3. Gill, “Before the mountains were brought forth,.... Or "were born" (b), and came forthout of the womb and bowels of the earth, and were made to rise and stand up at thecommand of God, as they did when he first created the earth; and are mentioned not onlybecause of their firmness and stability, but their antiquity: hence we read of the ancientmountains and everlasting hills, Gen_49:26, for they were before the flood, and as soon asthe earth was; or otherwise the eternity of God would not be so fully expressed by thisphrase as it is here, and elsewhere the eternity of Christ, Pro_8:25, or "ever thou hadstformed the earth and the world"; the whole terraqueous globe, and all the inhabitants of it;so the Targum; or "before the earth brought forth; or thou causedst it to bring forth" (c)its herbs, plants, and trees, as on the third day:

even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God; and so are his love, grace, and mercytowards his people, and his covenant with them; and this is as true of Jehovah the Son as ofthe Father, whose eternity is described in the same manner as his; see Pro_8:22, and maybe concluded from his name, the everlasting Father; from his having the same nature andperfections with his Father; from his concern in eternal election, in the everlastingcovenant of grace, and in the creation of all things; and his being the eternal andunchangeable I AM, yesterday, today, and for ever, is matter of comfort to his people.”

4. Henry, “before thou hadst formed the earth and the world (that is, before the beginning oftime) thou hadst a being; even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God, an eternal God,whose existence has neither its commencement nor its period with time, nor is measured bythe successions and revolutions of it, but who art the same yesterday, today, and for ever,

without beginning of days, or end of life, or change of time. �ote, Against all the grievancesthat arise from our own mortality, and the mortality of our friends, we may take comfortfrom God's immortality. We are dying creatures, and all our comforts in the world aredying comforts, but God is an everliving God, and those shall find him so who have him fortheirs.”

5. “The psalm begins with a great magnitude - the eternalness of God. Who is able tocomprehend such a measure? God is from "everlasting to everlasting". There is nobeginning, no end with him. He is the uncreated creator, the unoriginated originator. Allthings come from him; he comes from no power prior to himself or greater than himself.Our finite minds are incapable of reckoning with such things. Yet we rejoice that therevelation of God in the Bible is of one who is from everlasting, unchangeable, the sameyesterday, today and forever.” unknown author

6. A. W. Tozer, “The biblical truth of the eternity of God is a very practical doctrine whenwe grasp that we have been created for eternity, formed and framed to enjoy eternalblessings from the hand of the eternal One. When the Lord of glory breathed into the firstparents the very breath of God, man was separated from animal, and the time-boundcreature became an eternal soul. Do not misunderstand. We all will die, but we will notcease to exist. It is a solemn truth to consider; indeed, everyone who has ever lived exists

eternally, whether it is in heaven or in hell. Therefore, only that which we build intopeople's souls, our own and others, will endure for eternity. Man strives to be remembered:politicians seek to have their names inscribed upon a bridge or building, athletes by therecords they have broken, and businessmen by the financial empire they have established.Yet it is futile to live for things of this world. The Scriptures warn us that the world and allthe works that are in it will be consumed by fire, 2 Pet. 3. 10. We, who are Christians, havesomething far better to live for than the temporal things of this world. Therefore,Christians must live their lives with eternity in view. The moments we spend in thepresence of ‘the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity’ are an investment toward 'anentrance that shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of ourLord and Saviour Jesus Christ’, 2 Pet. 1. 11. Earnest seasons of prayer spent before thethrone of grace, crying out to God for the salvation of the souls of men, will yield anabundant eternal reward. Laboring in the gospel and pointing lost souls to the Savior is arich investment made upon earth, which will only be fully realized in eternity.”

7. C. H. Mackintosh writes, ‘The only real life is to live in the light of eternity – to use all wepossess for the promotion of God's glory and with an eye to the everlasting mansions. This,and only this, is life in earnest’.2 Because God is eternal, then no endeavour on earth hashigher priority than knowing Him and loving him, worshipping Him, and serving Him. Theearnest follower of Christ would do well to keep the Christian maxim before him, ‘Onlyone life, t'will soon be past; only what is done for Christ will last’.

8. Spurgeon, “Before the mountains were brought forth. Before those elder giants hadstruggled forth from nature's womb, as her dread firstborn, the Lord was glorious and selfsufficient. Mountains to him, though hoar with the snows of ages, are but new born babes,young things whose birth was but yesterday, mere novelties of an hour. Or ever thou hadstformed the earth and the world. Here too the allusion is to a birth. Earth was born but theother day, and her solid land was delivered from the flood but a short while ago. Even fromeverlasting to everlasting, thou art God, or, "thou art, O God." God was, when nothing elsewas. He was God when the earth was not a world but a chaos, when mountains were notupheaved, and the generation of the heavens and the earth had not commenced. In thisEternal One there is a safe abode for the successive generations of men. If God himselfwere of yesterday, he would not be a suitable refuge for mortal men; if he could change andcease to be God he would be but an uncertain dwelling place for his people. The eternalexistence of God is here mentioned to set forth, by contrast, the brevity of human life.”

9. Martin Luther, “Such a God (he says) have we, such a God do we worship, to such a Goddo we pray, at whose command all created things sprang into being. Why then should wefear if this God favors us? Why should we tremble at the anger of the whole world? If He isour dwelling place, shall we not be safe though the heavens should go to wrack? For wehave a Lord greater than all the world. We have a Lord so mighty that at his word allthings sprang into being. And yet we are so fainthearted that if the anger of a single princeor king, nay, even of a single neighbor, is to be borne, we tremble and droop in spirit. Yet incomparison with this King, all things beside in the whole world are but as the lightest dustwhich a slight breath moves from its place, and suffers not to be still. In this way this

description of God is consolatory, and trembling spirits ought to look to this consolation intheir temptations and dangers.”

10. A Christian classic site has this description of God's eternity.“There is a threefold being.Such as had a beginning; and shall have an end; as all sensitive creatures, the beasts, fowls,fishes, which at death are destroyed and return to dust; their being ends with their life. 2.Such as had a beginning, but shall have no end, as angels and the souls of men, which areeternal a parte post; they abide for ever. 3. Such as is without beginning, and withoutending, and that is proper only to God. He is semper existens, from everlasting toeverlasting. This is God's title, a jewel of his crown. He is called 'the King eternal' I Tim1:17. Jehovah is a word that properly sets forth God's eternity; a word so dreadful, that theJews trembled to name or read it and used Adonai, Lord, in its place. Jehovah contains in ittime past, present, and to come. Rev 1:1. 'Which is, and which was, and which is to come,’interprets the word Jehovah; (which is) he subsists of himself, having a pure andindependent being; (which was) God only was before time; there is no searching into therecords of eternity; (which is to come) his kingdom has no end; his crown has nosuccessors. Heb 1:1. 'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.’ The doubling of the wordratifies the certainty of it, as the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream. I shall prove that God onlycould be eternal, without beginning. Angels could not; they are but creatures, thoughspirits; they were made; and therefore their beginning may be known; their antiquity maybe searched into. If you ask, when were they created? Some think before the world was; butnot so: for what was before time was eternal. The first origin of angels reaches no higherthan the beginning of the world. It is thought by the learned, that the angels were made onthe day on which the heavens were made. Job 38:8. 'When the morning stars sang together,and all the sons of God shouted for joy.’ St Jerome, Gregory, and venerable Bedeunderstand it, that when God laid the foundation-stone of the world, the angels being thencreated, sang anthems of joy and praise. It is proper to God only to be eternal, withoutbeginning. He is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Rev 1:1. �o creature can writeitself Alpha, that is only a flower of the crown of heaven. Exod 3:14. 'I am that I am,’ thatis, He who exists from and to eternity.”

3 You turn men back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men."

1. Barnes, “Thou turnest man to destruction - In contradistinction from his ownunchangeableness and eternity. Man passes away; God continues ever the same. The wordrendered “destruction” - דכא dakkâ' - means properly anything beaten or broken small orvery fine, and hence, “dust.” The idea here is, that God causes man to return to dust; thatis, the elements which compose the body return to their original condition, or seem to

mingle with the earth. Gen_3:19 : “dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Theword “man” here, of course, refers to man in general - all people. It is the great law of ourbeing. Individual man, classes of people, generations of people, races of people, pass away;but God remains the same. The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate render this, “Thouturnest man to “humiliation;” which, though not the sense of the original, is a true idea, forthere is nothing more humiliating than that a human body, once so beautiful, should turnback to dust; nothing more humbling than the grave.

And sayest, Return, ye children of men - Return to your dust; go back to the earth fromwhich you came. Return, all of you without exception; - kings, princes, nobles, warriors,conquerors; mighty people, captains, and counselors; ye learned and great, ye honored andflattered, ye beautiful and happy, ye youthful and vigorous, and ye aged and venerable;whatever is your rank, whatever are your possessions, whatever are your honors, whateveryou have to make you lovely, to charm, to please, to be admired; or whatever there is tomake you loathsome and detestable; ye vicious, ye profane, low, grovelling, sensual,debased; go all of you alike to “dust!’ Oh, how affecting the thought that this is the lot ofman; how much should it do to abase the pride of the race; how much should it do to makeany man sober and humble, that he himself is soon to turn back to dust - unhonored,undistinguished, and undistinguishable dust!”

1B. “Do you remember the story of the little girl who learned in Sunday school that man came

from the dust and eventually returns to the dust. She looked under her bed one morning and

said, “Mother, mother, come! There’s someone under my bed, but I don’t know whether he’s

coming or going!”

2. Gill, “Thou turnest man to destruction,.... Or to death, as the Targum, which is thedestruction of man; not an annihilation of body or soul, but a dissolution of the unionbetween them; the words may be rendered, "thou turnest man until he is broken" (b); andcrumbled into dust; thou turnest him about in the world, and through a course ofafflictions and diseases, and at last by old age, and however by death, returns him to hisoriginal, from whence he came, the dust of the earth, which he becomes again, Gen_3:19the grave may be meant by destruction:

and sayest, return, ye children of men, or "Adam"; from whom they all sprung, and inwhom they all sinned, and so became subject to death; to these he says, when by diseases hethreatens them with a dissolution, return by repentance, and live; and sometimes, whenthey are brought to the brink of the grave, he returns them from sickness to health, deliversthem from the pit, and enlightens them with the light of the living, as he did Hezekiah: orthis may refer to the resurrection of the dead, which will be by Christ, and by his voicecalling the dead to return to life, to rise and come to judgment; though some understandthis as descriptive of death, when by the divine order and command man returns to hisoriginal dust; thus the frailty of man is opposed to the eternity of God. Gussetiusunderstands all this of God's bringing men to repentance, contrition, and conversion; andtakes the sense to be, "thou turnest till he becomes contrite, and sayest, be ye converted, ye

sons of Adam;'' which he thinks (c) best agrees with the mind of the Apostle Peter, whoquotes the following passage, 2Pe_3:8. Some, as Arama observes, connect this with thefollowing verse; though men live 1000 years, yet they are but as yesterday in the sight ofGod.

3. Henry, “To own God's absolute sovereign dominion over man, and his irresistibleincontestable power to dispose of him as he pleases (Psa_90:3): Thou turnest man to

destruction, with a word's speaking, when thou pleasest, to the destruction of the body, ofthe earthly house; and thou sayest, Return, you children of men. 1. When God is, by sicknessor other afflictions, turning men to destruction, he does thereby call men to return untohim, that is, to repent of their sins and live a new life. This God speaketh once, yea, twice.

“Return unto me, from whom you have revolted,” Jer_4:1. 2. When God is threatening toturn men to destruction, to bring them to death, and they have received a sentence of deathwithin themselves, sometimes he wonderfully restores them, and says, as the old translationreads it, Again thou sayest, Return to life and health again. For God kills and makes aliveagain, brings down to the grave and brings up. 3. When God turns men to destruction, it isaccording to the general sentence passed upon all, which is this, “Return, you children of

men, one, as well as another, return to your first principles; let the body return to the earthas it was (dust to dust, Gen_3:19) and let the soul return to God who gave it,” Ecc_12:7. 4.Though God turns all men to destruction, yet he will again say, Return, you children of

men, at the general resurrection, when, though a man dies, yet he shall live again; and“then shalt thou call and I will answer (Job_14:14, Job_14:15); thou shalt bid me return,and I shall return.” The body, the soul, shall both return and unite again.”

4. Spurgeon, “Thou turnest man to destruction, or "to dust." Man's body is resolved into itselements, and is as though it had been crushed and ground to powder. And sayest, Return,ye children of men, i.e., return even to the dust out of which ye were taken. The frailty ofman is thus forcibly set forth; God creates him out of the dust, and back to dust he goes atthe word of his Creator. God resolves and man dissolves. A word created and a worddestroys. Observe how the action of God is recognised; man is not said to die because of thedecree of faith, or the action of inevitable law, but the Lord is made the agent of all, hishand turns and his voice speaks; without these we should not die, no power on earth or hellcould kill us.”

4 For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.

1. Henry, “To acknowledge the infinite disproportion there is between God and men,

Psa_90:4. Some of the patriarchs lived nearly a thousand years; Moses knew this very well,and had recorded it: but what is their long life to God's eternal life? “A thousand years, tous, are a long period, which we cannot expect to survive; or, if we could, it is what we couldnot retain the remembrance of; but it is, in thy sight, as yesterday, as one day, as that whichis freshest in mind; nay, it is but as a watch of the night,” which was but three hours. 1. Athousand years are nothing to God's eternity; they are less than a day, than an hour, to athousand years. Betwixt a minute and a million of years there is some proportion, butbetwixt time and eternity there is none. The long lives of the patriarchs were nothing toGod, not so much as the life of a child (that is born and dies the same day) is to theirs. 2. Allthe events of a thousand years, whether past or to come, are as present to the Eternal Mindas what was done yesterday, or the last hour, is to us, and more so. God will say, at the greatday, to those whom he has turned to destruction, Return - Arise you dead. But it might beobjected against the doctrine of the resurrection that it is a long time since it was expectedand it has not yet come. Let that be no difficulty, for a thousand years, in God's sight, arebut as one day. *ullum tempus occurrit regi - To the king all periods are alike. To thispurport these words are quoted, 2Pe_3:8.”

1B. “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.”—John Albert Bengel, 1687-1752.

2. Kyle, “The night-time is the time for sleep; a watch in the night is one that is slept away,or at any rate passed in a sort of half-sleep. A day that is past, as we stand on the end of it,still produces upon us the impression of a course of time by reason of the events which wecan recall; but a night passed in sleep, and now even a fragment of the night, is devoid of alltrace to us, and is therefore as it were timeless. Thus is it to God with a thousand years:they do not last long to Him; they do not affect Him; at the close of them, as at thebeginning, He is the Absolute One ( ֵאל). Time is as nothing to Him, the Eternal One. Thechanges of time are to Him no barrier restraining the realization of His counsel - a truthwhich has a terrible and a consolatory side. The poet dwells upon the fear which itproduces.”

3. Barnes, “For a thousand years in thy sight - Hebrew, “In thy eyes;” that is, It so appearsto thee - or, a thousand years so seem to thee, however long they may appear to man. Theutmost length to which the life of man has reached - in the case of Methuselah - was nearlya thousand years Gen_5:27; and the idea here is, that the longest human life, even if itshould be lengthened out to a thousand years, would be in the sight of God, or incomparison with his years, but as a single day.

Are but as yesterday when it is past - Margin, “he hath passed them.” The translation inthe text, however, best expresses the sense. The reference is to a single day, when we call itto remembrance. However long it may have appeared to us when it was passing, yet when itis gone, and we look back to it, it seems short. So the longest period of human existenceappears to God.

And as a watch in the night - This refers to a portion of the night - the original ideahaving been derived from the practice of dividing the night into portions, during which awatch 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 correspondingwith these changes. Among the ancient Hebrews there were only three night-watches; thefirst, mentioned in Lam_2:19; the middle, mentioned in Jdg_7:19; and the third, mentionedin Exo_14:24; 1Sa_11:11. In later times - the times referred to in the �ew Testament - therewere four such watches, after the manner of the Romans, Mar_13:35. The idea here is notthat such a watch in the night would seem to pass quickly, or that it would seem short whenit was gone, but that a thousand years seemed to God not only short as a day when it waspast, but even as the parts of a day, or the divisions of a night when it was gone.

4. Clarke, “For a thousand years in thy sight - As if he had said, Though the resurrection ofthe body may be a thousand (or any indefinite number of) years distant; yet, when theseare past, they are but as yesterday, or a single thatch of the night. They pass through themind in a moment, and appear no longer in their duration than the time required by themind to reflect them by thought. But, short as they appear to the eye of the mind, they arenothing when compared with the eternity of God! The author probably has in view alsothat economy of Divine justice and providence by which the life of man has been shortenedfrom one thousand years to threescore years and ten, or fourscore.

5. Gill, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday,.... Which may be said toobviate the difficulty in man's return, or resurrection, from the dead, taken from the lengthof time in which some have continued in the grave; which vanishes, when it is observed,that in thy sight, esteem, and account of God, a thousand years are but as one day; andtherefore, should a man lie in the grave six or seven thousand years, it would be but as somany days with God; wherefore, if the resurrection is not incredible, as it is not, length oftime can be no objection to it. Just in the same manner is this phrase used by the ApostlePeter, and who is thought to refer to this passage, to remove an objection against the secondcoming of Christ, taken from the continuance of things as they had been from thebeginning, and from the time of the promise of it: see 2Pe_3:4, though the words aptlyexpress the disproportion there is between the eternal God and mortal man; for, was he tolive a thousand years, which no man ever did, yet this would be as yesterday with God, withwhom eternity itself is but a day, Isa_43:13, man is but of yesterday, that has lived thelongest; and were he to live a thousand years, and that twice told, it would be but "asyesterday when it is past"; though it may seem a long time to come, yet when it is gone it isas nothing, and can never be fetched back again: and as a watch in the night; which wasdivided sometimes into three, and sometimes into four parts, and so consisted but of threeor four hours; and which, being in the night, is spent in sleep; so that, when a man wakes, itis but as a moment with him; so short is human life, even the longest, in the account ofGod; See Gill on Mat_14:25.”

6. Bob Deffinbaugh, “If Moses is thinking of the history of mankind as it was recorded (byhim) in the Book of Genesis, it is interesting that he uses the term “a thousand years” inPsalm 90:4. Why a thousand? In Genesis 5 we read about the “golden age of man” after thefall. Men lived longer then than at any other time in history. Methuselah lived 969 years(Gen. 5:27). I understand this thousand years, as Kirkpatrick does,

to be a reference to the days of Methuselah. Moses is saying that even if man and his lifespan are looked upon in his greatest span of years, it is only a thousand years. Thatthousand year period which Methuselah almost broke is a very short span to God. Man isfinite, God is infinite. So we have a reference to creation in verse 2, one to the fall in verse 3,and an allusion to the long life of man in verse 4. I also observe a reference to the flood inverse 5: “You sweep men away in the sleep of death.”

7. Spurgeon, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past. Athousand years! This is a long stretch of time. How much may be crowded into it,—the riseand fall of empires, the glory and obliteration of dynasties, the beginning and the end ofelaborate systems of human philosophy, and countless events, all important to householdand individual, which elude the pens of historians. Yet this period, which might even becalled the limit of modern history, and is in human language almost identical with anindefinite length of time, is to the Lord as nothing, even as time already gone. A moment yetto come is longer than "yesterday when it is past", for that no longer exists at all, yet suchis a chiliad to the eternal. In comparison with eternity, the most lengthened reaches of timeare mere points, there is in fact, no possible comparison between them. And as a watch inthe night, a time which is no sooner come than gone. There is scarce time enough in athousand years for the angels to change watches; when their millennium of service isalmost over it seems as though the watch were newly set. We are dreaming through the longnight of time, but God is ever keeping watch, and a thousand years are as nothing to him. Ahost of days and nights must be combined to make up a thousand years to us, but to God,that space of time does not make up a whole night, but only a brief portion of it. If athousand years be to God as a single night watch, what must be the life time of the Eternal!

8. Stedman, “There is suggested in Verse 4 the thought that God had originally intended agreater span of life for man. In connection with his word about the limits of life, thePsalmist says, "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or asa watch in the night." In reading that I have often wondered if a thousand years was God'soriginally intended limit for the life of man. That is, incidentally, the length of theMillennium. According to Revelation 20, the coming Golden Age of earth will be athousand years long. That this suggestion may be true is strengthened by the fact that earlyman, as recorded in Genesis, lived almost a thousand years. The oldest man who ever lived,Methuselah, lived 969 years. Before sin began to spread through the earth it is quite likelythat God intended that man should live a thousand years. But even a thousand years, eventhe longest possible lifetime of man, compared with the greatness of God is "but asyesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night."

5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning-

1. Moses is writing this Psalm after seeing over a million people die in the wilderness. All ofthose who came out of Egypt were condemned to die for their rebellion against God's planto enter the Promised Land. They had to wander until all except the two faithful spies died.So Moses saw that whole generation being swept from the earth, and a new generationborn to carry on the plan of God to take the land.

1B. Thou carriest them away as with a flood. Let us meditate seriously upon the swiftpassage of our days, how our life runs away like a stream of waters, and carrieth us with it.Our condition in the eyes of God in regard of our life in this world is as if a man that knowsnot how to swim, should be cast into a great stream of water, and be carried down with it,so that he may sometimes lift up his head or his hands, and cry for help, or catch hold ofthis thing and that, for a time, but his end will be drowning, and it is but a small time thathe can hold out, for the flood which carries him away will soon swallow him up. And surelyour life here if it be rightly considered, is but like the life of a person thus violently carrieddown a stream. All the actions and motions of our life are but like unto the strivings andstruggles of a man in that case: our eating, our drinking, our physic, our sports, and allother actions are but like the motions of the sinking man. When we have done all that wecan, die we must, and be drowned in this deluge.—William Bradshaw.

1C. “They are like grass. In this last similitude, the prophet compares men to grass, that asgrass hath a time of growing and a time of withering, even so has man. In the morning it

flourisheth, and groweth up. In which words Moses compares the former part of man's life,which is the space of thirty-three years, to the time of growing of grass, and that isaccounted the time of the perfection of man's strength and age; at which age, according tothe course of nature, man flourisheth as grass doth; that is the time of a man's prime andflourishing estate. But in the evening; that is, when the grass is ripe, and ready to be cutdown, it withereth. Even so man, being once at his strength, and ripest age, doth not standat a stay, nor continueth long so; but presently begins to decay, and to wither away, till oldage comes, and he is cut down by the scythe of death. �ow, in that Moses useth so manysimilitudes, and all to show how frail this life of man is, we are taught, that the frailty,vanity, and shortness of man's life is such, that examples will scarcely shew it. Death comesas a flood, violently and suddenly; we are as a sleep; we are as grass; our life is like adream; we spend our days as a tale that is told, Ps 90:9. All these similitudes Moses hath inthis Psalm, as if he wanted words and examples, how to express the vanity, frailty, andshortness thereof.”—Samuel Smith.

2. Henry, “To see the frailty of man, and his vanity even at his best estate (Psa_90:5,Psa_90:6): look upon all the children of men, and we shall see, 1. That their life is a dyinglife: Thou carriest them away as with a flood, that is, they are continually gliding down thestream of time into the ocean of eternity. The flood is continually flowing, and they arecarried away with it; as soon as we are born we begin to die, and every day of our lifecarries us so much nearer death; or we are carried away violently and irresistibly, as with aflood of waters, as with an inundation, which sweeps away all before it; or as the old world

was carried away with �oah's flood. Though God promised not so to drown the worldagain, yet death is a constant deluge. 2. That it is a dreaming life. Men are carried away aswith a flood and yet they are as a sleep; they consider not their own frailty, nor are awarehow near they approach to an awful eternity. Like men asleep, they imagine great things tothemselves, till death wakes them, and puts an end to the pleasing dream. Time passesunobserved by us, as it does with men asleep; and, when it is over, it is as nothing. 3. That itis a short and transient life, like that of the grass which grows up and flourishes, in themorning looks green and pleasant, but in the evening the mower cuts it down, and itimmediately withers, changes its colour, and loses all its beauty. Death will change usshortly, perhaps suddenly; and it is a great change that death will make with us in a littletime. Man, in his prime, does but flourish as the grass, which is weak, and low, and tender,and exposed, and which, when the winter of old age comes, will wither of itself: but he maybe mown down by disease or disaster, as the grass is, in the midst of summer. All flesh is as

grass.

3. Barnes, “Thou carriest them away as with a flood - The original here is a single verbwith the suffix - זרמתם zerametâm. The verb - זרם zâram - means, to flow, to pour; then, topour upon, to overwhelm, to wash away. The idea is, that they were swept off as if a torrentbore them from the earth, carrying them away without regard to order, rank, age, orcondition. So death makes no discrimination. Every day that passes, multitudes of everyage, sex, condition, rank, are swept away and consigned to the grave - as they would be if araging flood should sweep over a land.

They are as a sleep - The original here is, “a sleep they are.” The whole sentence isexceedingly graphic and abrupt: “Thou sweepest them away; a sleep they are - in themorning - like grass - it passes away.” The idea is that human life resembles a sleep,because it seems to pass so swiftly; to accomplish so little; to be so filled with dreams andvisions, none of which remain or become permanent.

In the morning they are like grass which groweth up - A better translation of this wouldbe to attach the words “in the morning to the previous member of the sentence, “They arelike sleep in the morning;” that is, They are as sleep appears to us in the morning, when wewake from it - rapid, unreal, full of empty dreams. The other part of the sentence thenwould be, “Like grass, it passeth away.” The word rendered “groweth up,” is in the margintranslated “is changed.” The Hebrew word - חלף châlaph - means to pass, to pass along, topass by; to pass on, to come on; also, to revive or flourish as a plant; and then, to change. Itmay be rendered here, “pass away;” and the idea then would be that they are like grass inthe fields, or like flowers, which soon “change” by passing away. There is nothing morepermanent in man than there is in the grass or in the flowers of the field.

4. Clarke, “Thou carriest them away as with a flood - Life is compared to a stream, evergliding away; but sometimes it is as a mighty torrent, when by reason of plague, famine, orwar, thousands are swept away daily. In particular cases it is a rapid stream, when theyoung are suddenly carried off by consumptions, fevers, etc.; this is the flower thatflourisheth in the morning, and in the evening is cut down and withered. The whole of life islike a sleep or as a dream. The eternal world is real; all here is either shadowy orrepresentative. On the whole, life is represented as a stream; youth, as morning; decline oflife, or old age, as evening, death, as sleep; and the resurrection as the return of the flowers

in spring. All these images appear in these curious and striking verses, Psa_90:3-6.

5. Gill, “ Thou carriest them away as with a flood,.... As the whole world of the ungodlywere with the deluge, to which perhaps the allusion is; the phrase is expressive of death; sothe Targum, "if they are not converted, thou wilt bring death upon them;''

the swiftness of time is aptly signified by the flowing gliding stream of a flood, by the rollingbillows and waves of it; so one hour, one day, one month, one year, roll on after another:moreover, the suddenness of death may be here intended, which comes in an hour unlookedfor, and unaware of, as a flood comes suddenly, occasioned by hasty showers of rain; as alsothe irresistible force and power of it, which none can withstand; of which the rapidity of aflood is a lively emblem, and which carries all before it, and sweeps away everything thatstands in its course; as death, by an epidemic and infectious disease, or in a battle, carriesoff thousands and ten thousands in a very little time; nor does it spare any, as a flood doesnot, of any age or sex, of any rank or condition of life; and, like a flood, makes saddestruction and devastation where it comes, and especially where it takes off greatnumbers; it not only turns beauty to ashes, and strength into weakness and corruption, butdepopulates towns, and cities, and kingdoms; and as the flowing flood and gliding streamcan never be fetched back again, so neither can life when past, not one moment of timewhen gone; see 2Sa_14:14, besides this phrase may denote the turbulent and tempestuousmanner in which, sometimes, wicked men go out of the world, a storm being within andwithout, as in Job_27:20, "they are as a sleep"; or dream, which soon passeth away; in asound sleep, time is insensibly gone; and a dream, before it can be well known what it is, isover and lost in oblivion; and so short is human life, Job_20:8 there may be, sometimes, aseeming pleasure enjoyed, as in dreams, but no satisfaction; as a man in sleep may dreamthat he is eating and drinking, and please himself with it; but, when he awakes, he ishungry and empty, and unsatisfied; and so is man with everything in this life, Isa_29:8, andall things in life are a mere dream, as the honours, riches, and pleasures of it; a man ratherdreams of honour, substance, and pleasure, than really enjoys them. Wicked men, whilethey live, are "as those that sleep"; as the Targum renders it; they have no spiritual senses,cannot see, hear, smell, taste, nor feel; they are without strength to everything that isspiritually good; inactive, and do none; are subject to illusions and mistakes; are inimminent danger, and unconcerned about it; and do not care to be jogged or awaked, andsleep on till they sleep the sleep of death, unless awaked by powerful and efficacious grace;and men when dead are asleep, not in their souls, but in their bodies; death is often inScripture signified by a sleep, under which men continue until the resurrection, which is anawaking out of it:

in the morning they are like grass, which groweth up or "passeth away", or "changeth"(d); or is changed; some understand this of the morning of the resurrection, when there willbe a change for the better, a renovation, as Kimchi interprets the word; and which, fromthe use of it in the Arabic language, as Schultens observes (e), signifies to be green andflourishing, as grass in the morning is; and so intends a recovery of rigour and strength, asa man after sleep, and as the saints will have when raised from the dead. The Targumrefers it to the world to come, "and in the world to come, as grass is cut down, they shall bechanged or renewed;'' but it is rather to be understood of the flourishing of men in the

morning of youth, as the next verse shows, where it is repeated, and where the change ofgrass is beautifully illustrated and explained.”

6. Dr. Shepherd, “How fragile are we? How transitory are we? How quickly do we pass offthe scene? Three times over the psalmist tell us. We are like a leaf floating on a stream; inthirty seconds the leaf has passed downstream out of sight. We are like a dream; as soon asthe sleeper awakes and gets on with the day, the dream is forgotten. We are like grass; lushand green in the morning, but after one day's heat brown and withered by nightfall. Thepsalmist doesn't keep on reminding us of our short span on earth to depress us. He wantsonly to render us realistic about ourselves. We aren't here for very long, and in whatevertime we are here life is uncertain.

7. Spurgeon, “Thou carriest them away as with a flood. As when a torrent rushes down the river

bed and bears all before it, so does the Lord bear away by death the succeeding generations of

men. As the hurricane sweeps the clouds from the sky, so time removes the children of men.

They are as a sleep. Before God men must appear as unreal as the dreams of the night, the

phantoms of sleep. �ot only are our plans and devices like a sleep, but we ourselves are such.

"We are such stuff as dreams are made of." In the morning they are like grass which groweth

up. As grass is green in the morning and hay at night, so men are changed from health to

corruption in a few hours. We are not cedars, or oaks, but only poor grass, which is vigorous

in the spring, but lasts not a summer through. What is there upon earth more frail than we!

8. Lucian takes a Greek proverb, “A man is a bubble,” and says many born only to sink

immediately. Some float up and down for a while and then disappear. “The change not being

great, it being hardly possible that a bubble should be more a nothing than it was before.”

A good rain in the East can turn a brown and parched desert into a field of green blades

which come up that fast, but hot wind leaves them withered again before the day is over.

So passeth, in the passing of an hour,

Of moral life, the leaf, the bud, the flower.

“Our birth is nothing but our death begun.”

Stout and strong today,

Tomorrow turn to clay,

This day in His bloom,

The next, in the tomb. Author unknown

6 though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.

1. Barnes, “In the morning it flourisheth - This does not mean that it grows with any specialvigor or rapidity in the morning, as if that were illustrative of the rapid growth of theyoung; but merely that, in fact, in the morning it is green and vigorous, and is cut down inthe short course of a day, or before evening. The reference here is to grass as an emblem ofman. And groweth up - The same word in the Hebrew which is used in the close of theprevious verse.

In the evening it is cut down, and withereth - In the short period of a day. What was sogreen and flourishing in the morning, is, at the close of the day, dried up. Life has beenarrested, and death, with its consequences, has ensued. So with man. How often is thisliterally true, that those who are strong, healthy, vigorous, hopeful, in the morning, are atnight pale, cold, and speechless in death! How striking is this as an emblem of man ingeneral: so soon cut down; so soon numbered with the dead. Compare the notes atIsa_40:6-8; notes at 1Pe_1:24-25.”

1B. “They are like grass. In this last similitude, the prophet compares men to grass, that asgrass hath a time of growing and a time of withering, even so has man. In the morning it

flourisheth, and groweth up. In which words Moses compares the former part of man's life,which is the space of thirty-three years, to the time of growing of grass, and that isaccounted the time of the perfection of man's strength and age; at which age, according tothe course of nature, man flourisheth as grass doth; that is the time of a man's prime andflourishing estate. But in the evening; that is, when the grass is ripe, and ready to be cutdown, it withereth. Even so man, being once at his strength, and ripest age, doth not standat a stay, nor continueth long so; but presently begins to decay, and to wither away, till oldage comes, and he is cut down by the scythe of death. �ow, in that Moses useth so manysimilitudes, and all to show how frail this life of man is, we are taught, that the frailty,vanity, and shortness of man's life is such, that examples will scarcely shew it. Death comesas a flood, violently and suddenly; we are as a sleep; we are as grass; our life is like adream; we spend our days as a tale that is told, Ps 90:9. All these similitudes Moses hath inthis Psalm, as if he wanted words and examples, how to express the vanity, frailty, andshortness thereof.—Samuel Smith.

Stout and strong today,Tomorrow turned to clay.This day in his bloom,The next, in the tomb.

2. Gill, “ In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up,.... That is, the grass, through thedew that lay all night on it, and by the clear shining of the sun after rain, when it appears ingreat beauty and verdure; so man in the morning of his youth looks gay and beautiful,grows in the stature and strength of his body, and in the endowments of his mind; and itmay be also in riches and wealth; it is well if he grows in grace, and in the knowledge ofChrist:

in the evening it is cut down, and withereth; the Targum adds, "through heat"; but itcannot be by the heat of the sun, when it is cut down at evening; but it withers in course,being cut down. This respects the latter part of life, the evening of old age; and the wholeexpresses the shortness of life, which is compared to grass, that now is in all its beauty andglory, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, Mat_6:30. This metaphor of grass, to set forththe frailty of man, and his short continuance, is frequently used; see Psa_37:2, 1Pe_1:24. Itmay be observed, that man's life is represented but as one day, consisting of a morning andan evening, which signifies the bloom and decline of life.

3. Spurgeon, “In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up. Blooming with aboundingbeauty till the meadows are all besprent with gems, the grass has a golden hour, even asman in his youth has a heyday of flowery glory. In the evening it is cut down, andwithereth. The scythe ends the blossoming of the field flowers, and the dews at flight weeptheir fall. Here is the history of the grass—sown, grown, blown, mown, gone; and thehistory of man is not much more. �atural decay would put an end both to us and the grassin due time; few, however, are left to experience the full result of age, for death comes withhis scythe, and removes our life in the midst of its verdure. How great a change in howshort a time! The morning saw the blooming, and the evening sees the withering.”

7 We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.

1. Barnes, “For we are consumed by thine anger - That is, Death - the cutting off of the raceof man - may be regarded as an expression of thy displeasure against mankind as a race ofsinners. The death of man would not have occurred but for sin Gen_3:3, Gen_3:19;Rom_5:12; and all the circumstances connected with it - the fact of death, the dread of

death, the pain that precedes death, the paleness and coldness and rigidity of the dead, andthe slow and offensive returning to dust in the grave - all are adapted to be, and seemdesigned to be, illustrations of the anger of God against sin. We cannot, indeed, always saythat death in a specific case is proof of the direct and special anger of God “in that case;”but we can say that death always, and death in its general features, may and should beregarded as an evidence of the divine displeasure against the sins of people.

And by thy wrath - As expressed in death.

Are we troubled - Are our plans confounded and broken up; our minds made sad andsorrowful; our habitations made abodes of grief.

2. Clarke, “We are consumed by thine anger - Death had not entered into the world, if menhad not fallen from God. By thy wrath are we troubled - Pain, disease, and sickness are somany proofs of our defection from original rectitude. The anger and wrath of God aremoved against all sinners. Even in protracted life we consume away, and only seem to livein order to die.

“Our wasting lives grow shorter still,As days and months increase;

And every beating pulse we tellLeaves but the number less.”

3. Gill, “ For we are consumed by thine anger,.... Kimchi applies this to the Jews incaptivity; but it is to be understood of the Israelites in the wilderness, who are hereintroduced by Moses as owning and acknowledging that they were wasting and consumingthere, as it was threatened they should; and that as an effect of the divine anger anddispleasure occasioned by their sins; see �um_14:33. Death is a consumption of the body;in the grave worms destroy the flesh and skin, and the reins of a man are consumed withinhim; hell is a consumption or destruction of the soul and body, though both alwayscontinue: saints, though consumed in body by death, yet not in anger; for when flesh andheart fail, or "is consumed", "God is the strength of their hearts, and their portion forever", Psa_73:26, their souls are saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, and their bodies willrise glorious and incorruptible; but the wicked are consumed at death, and in hell, in angerand hot displeasure: and by thy wrath are we troubled; the wrath of God produces troubleof mind, whenever it is apprehended, and especially in the views of death and eternity; andit is this which makes death the king of terrors, and men subject to bondage in life throughfear of it, even the wrath to come, which follows upon it; nothing indeed, either in life or atdeath, or death itself, comes in wrath to the saints; nor is there any after it to them, thoughthey have sometimes fearful apprehensions of it, and are troubled at it.”

4. Henry, “Moses had, in the foregoing verses, lamented the frailty of human life in general;the children of men are as a sleep and as the grass. But here he teaches the people of Israelto confess before God that righteous sentence of death which they were under in a specialmanner, and which by their sins they had brought upon themselves. Their share in the

common lot of mortality was not enough, but they are, and must live and die, underpeculiar tokens of God's displeasure. Here they speak of themselves: We Israelites are

consumed and troubled, and our days have passed away.

I. They are here taught to acknowledge the wrath of God to be the cause of all theirmiseries. We are consumed, we are troubled, and it is by thy anger, by thy wrath (Psa_90:7);our days have passed away in thy wrath, Psa_90:9. The afflictions of the saints often comepurely from God's love, as Job's; but the rebukes of sinners, and of good men for their sins,must be seen coming from the anger of God, who takes notice of, and is much displeasedwith, the sins of Israel. We are too apt to look upon death as no more than a debt owing tonature; whereas it is not so; if the nature of man had continued in its primitive purity andrectitude, there would have been no such debt owing to it. It is a debt to the justice of God,a debt to the law. Sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Are we consumed by decays ofnature, the infirmities of age, or any chronic disease? We must ascribe it to God's anger.Are we troubled by any sudden or surprising stroke? That also is the fruit of God's wrath,which is thus revealed from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”

5. “For we are consumed by thine anger, etc. Whence we may first of all observe, how theycompare their present estate in the wilderness, with the estate of other nations and people,and shew that their estate was far worse than theirs: for others died now one, and then one,and so they were diminished; but for them, they were hastily consumed and suddenly sweptaway by the plague and pestilence which raged amongst them. Hence we may observe, firstof all—That it is a ground of humiliation to God's people when their estate is worse thanGod's enemies'.Moses gathers this as an argument to humble them, and to move them torepentance and to seek unto God; viz., that because of their sins they were in a far worsecase and condition than the very enemies of God were. For though their lives were short,yet they confess that theirs was far worse than the very heathen themselves, for they weresuddenly consumed by his anger. When God is worse to his own church and people than heis to his enemies; when the Lord sends wars in a nation called by his name, and peace inother kingdoms that are anti Christian; sends famine in his church, and plenty to thewicked; sends the plague and pestilence in his church, and health and prosperity to thewicked; oh, here is matter of mourning and humiliation; and it is that which hath touchedGod's people to the quick, and wounded them to the heart, to see the enemies of the churchin better condition than the church itself.”—Samuel Smith.

6. Spurgeon, “This mortality is not accidental, neither was it inevitable in the original ofour nature, but sin has provoked the Lord to anger, and therefore thus we die. For we areconsumed by thine anger. This is the scythe which mows and the scorching heat whichwithers. This was specially the case in reference to the people in the wilderness, whose liveswere cut short by justice on account of their waywardness; they failed, not by a naturaldecline, but through the blast of the well deserved judgments of God. It must have been avery mournful sight to Moses to see the whole nation melt away during the forty years oftheir pilgrimage, till none remained of all that came out of Egypt. As God's favor is life, sohis anger is death; as well might grass grow in an oven as men flourish when the Lord iswroth with them. "And by thy wrath are we troubled", or terror stricken. A sense of divine

anger confounded them, so that they lived as men who knew that they were doomed. This istrue of us in a measure, but not altogether, for now that immortality and life are brought tolight by the gospel, death has changed its aspect, and, to believers in Jesus, it is no more ajudicial execution. Anger and wrath are the sting of death, and in these believers have noshare; love and mercy now conduct us to glory by the way of the tomb. It is not seemly toread these words at a Christian's funeral without words of explanation, and a distinctendeavor to shew how little they belong to believers in Jesus, and how far we are privilegedbeyond those with whom he was not well pleased, "whose carcasses fell in the wilderness."To apply an ode, written by the leader of the legal dispensation under circumstances ofpeculiar judgment, in reference to a people under penal censure, to those who fall asleep inJesus, seems to be the height of blundering. We may learn much from it, but we ought notto misapply it by taking to ourselves, as the beloved of the Lord, that which was chiefly trueof those to whom God had sworn in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest.When, however, a soul is under conviction of sin, the language of this Psalm is highlyappropriate to his case, and will naturally suggest itself to the distracted mind. �o fireconsumes like God's anger, and no anguish so troubles the heart as his wrath. Blessed bethat dear substitute,"Who bore that we might neverHis Father's righteous ire."

8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

1. Barnes, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee - Thou hast arrayed them, or broughtthem forth to view, as a “reason” in thy mind for cutting us down. Death may be regardedas proof that God has brought before his mind the evidence of man’s guilt, and has passedsentence accordingly. The fact of death at all; the fact that anyone of the race dies; the factthat human life has been made so brief, is to be explained on the supposition that God hasarrayed before his own mind the reality of human depravity, and has adopted this as anillustration of his sense of the evil of guilt.

Our secret sins - literally, “our secret;” or, that which was concealed or unknown. Thismay refer to the secret or hidden things of our lives, or to what has been concealed in ourown bosoms; and the meaning may be, that God has judged in the case not by externalappearances, or by what is seen by the world, but by what “he” has seen in the heart, andthat he deals with us according to our real character. The reference is, indeed, to sin, butsin as concealed, hidden, forgotten; the sin of the heart; the sin which we have endeavoredto hide from the world; the sin which has passed away from our own recollection.

In the light of thy countenance - Directly before thee; in full view; so that thou canst seethem all. In accordance with these, thou judgest man, and hence, his death.

2. Clarke, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee - Every one of our transgressions is setbefore thee; noted and minuted down in thy awful register!

Our secret sins - Those committed in darkness and privacy are easily discovered by thee,being shown by the splendours of thy face shining upon them. Thus we light a candle, andbring it into a dark place to discover its contents. O, what can be hidden from the allseeingeye of God? Darkness is no darkness to him; wherever he comes there is a profusion oflight - for God is light!

3. Gill, “Thou hast set our sins before thee,.... The cause of all trouble, consumption, anddeath; these are before the Lord, as the evidence, according to which he as a righteousJudge proceeds; this is opposed to the pardon of sin, which is expressed by a casting itbehind his back, Isa_38:17,

our secret sins in the light of thy countenance; the Targum and Jarchi interpret it of thesins of youth; the word is in the singular number, and may be rendered, "our secret sin"(f); which has led some to think of original sin, which is hidden from, and not taken noticeof by, the greatest part of the world, though it is the source and spring of all sin. It is notunusual for the singular to be put for the plural, and may intend all such sins as are secretlycommitted, and not known by other men, and such as are unobserved by men themselves;as the evil thoughts of their hearts, the foolish words of their mouths, and many infirmitiesof life, that are not taken notice of as sins: these are all known to God, and will be broughtto light and into judgment by him, and will be set in "the light of his countenance"; whichdenotes not a gracious forgiveness of them, but his clear and distinct knowledge of them,and what a full evidence they give against men, to their condemnation and death; andintends not only a future, but the present view the Lord has of them, and his dealings withmen in life, and at death, according to them.”

4. Henry, “They are taught to confess their sins, which had provoked the wrath of Godagainst them (Psa_90:8): Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, even our secret sins. It wasnot without cause that God was angry with them. He had said, Provoke me not, and I will

do you no hurt; but they had provoked him, and will own that, in passing this severesentence upon them, he justly punished them, 1. For their open contempts of him and thedaring affronts they had given him: Thou hast set our iniquities before thee. God had hereinan eye to their unbelief and murmuring, their distrusting his power and their despising thepleasant land: these he set before them when he passed that sentence on them; thesekindled the fire of God's wrath against them and kept good things from them. 2. For theirmore secret departures from him: “Thou hast set our secret sins (those which go no furtherthan the heart, and which are at the bottom of all the overt acts) in the light of thy

countenance; that is, thou hast discovered these, and brought these also to the account, andmade us to see them, who before overlooked them.” Secret sins are known to God and shallbe reckoned for. Those who in heart return into Egypt, who set up idols in their heart, shallbe dealt with as revolters or idolaters. See the folly of those who go about to cover theirsins, for they cannot cover them.”

5. Spurgeon, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee. Hence these tears! Sin seen by Godmust work death; it is only by the covering blood of atonement that life comes to any of us.

When God was overthrowing the tribes in the wilderness he had their iniquities before him,and therefore dealt with them in severity. He could not have their iniquities before him andnot smite them. Our secret sins in the fight of thy countenance. There are no secrets beforeGod; he unearths man's hidden things, and exposes them to the light. There can be no morepowerful luminary than the face of God, yet, in that strong light, the Lord set the hiddensins of Israel. Sunlight can never be compared with the light of him who made the sun, ofwhom it is written, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." If by his countenance ishere meant his love and favour, it is not possible for the heinousness of sin to be moreclearly manifested than when it is seen to involve ingratitude to one so infinitely good andkind. Rebellion in the light of justice is black, but in the light of love it is devilish. How canwe grieve so good a God? The children of Israel had been brought out of Egypt with a highhand, fed in the wilderness with a liberal hand, and guided with a tender hand, and theirsins were peculiarly atrocious. We, too, having been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, andsaved by abounding grace, will be verily guilty if we forsake the Lord. What manner ofpersons ought we to be? How ought we to pray for cleansing from secret faults? It is to us awellspring of delights to remember that our sins, as believers are now cast behind theLord's back, and shall never be brought to light again: therefore we live, because, the guiltbeing removed, the death penalty is removed also.”

6. Stedman, “God knows our inner sins, our secret inner thoughts. The Scriptures neverteach that a passing thought is a sin. A thought that comes to your mind unbidden, remainsthere for a moment tempting you to do something wrong, is only a normal exposure totemptation. Even the Lord Jesus experienced it. But here the Psalmist refers to thoughtsthat we harbor, that we mull over and play with, that we take great pleasure in and oftensummon up ourselves if they do not come to us unbidden. God is aware of these innerdefilements of life, and they are all contributing to the tragic sense of life.”

7. “It is a well known fact that the appearance of objects, and the ideas which we form ofthem, are very much affected by the situation in which they are placed in respect to us, andby the light in which they are seen. Objects seen at a distance, for example, appear muchsmaller than they really are. The same object, viewed through different mediums, will oftenexhibit different appearances. A lighted candle, or a star, appears bright during the absenceof the sun; but when that luminary returns, their brightness is eclipsed. Since theappearance of objects, and the ideas which we form of them, are thus affected byextraneous circumstances, it follows, that no two persons will form precisely the same ideasof any object, unless they view it in the same light, or are placed with respect to it in thesame situation.

Apply these remarks to the case before us. The psalmist addressing God, says, Thou hast

set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. That is, ouriniquities or open transgressions, and our secret sins, the sins of our hearts, are placed, as itwere, full before God's face, immediately under his eye; and he sees them in the pure, clear,all disclosing light of his own holiness and glory. �ow if we would see our sins as they

appear to him, that is, as they really are, if we would see their number, blackness andcriminality, and the malignity and desert of every sin, we must place ourselves, as nearly asis possible, in his situation, and look at sin, as it were, through his eyes. We must placeourselves and our sins in the center of that circle which is irradiated by the light of hiscountenance where all his infinite perfections are clearly displayed, where his awfulmajesty is seen, where his concentrated glories blaze, and burn and dazzle, withinsufferable brightness. And in order to this, we must, in thought, leave our dark and sinfulworld, where God is unseen and almost forgotten, and where consequently, the evil ofsinning against him cannot be fully perceived, and mount up to heaven, the peculiarhabitation of his holiness and glory, where he does not, as here, conceal himself behind theveil of his works, and of second causes, but shines forth the unveiled God, and is seen as heis.

My hearers, if you are willing to see your sins in their true colors; if you would rightlyestimate their number, magnitude and criminality, bring them into the hallowed place,where nothing is seen but the brightness of unsullied purity, and the splendors of uncreatedglory; where the sun itself would appear only as a dark spot; and there, in the midst of thiscircle of seraphic intelligences, with the infinite God pouring all the light of his countenanceround you, review your lives, contemplate your offenses, and see how they appear. Recollectthat the God, in whose presence you are, is the Being who forbids sin, the Being of whoseeternal law sin is the transgression, and against whom every sin is committed.”—Edward

Payson.

9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.

1. Barnes, “For all our days are passed away in thy wrath - Margin, “turned.” The Hebrewword - פנה pânâh - means to “turn;” then, to turn to or “from” anyone; and hence, to turnaway as if to flee or depart. Here it means that our days seem to turn from us; to give theback to us; to be unwilling to remain with us; to leave us. This seems to be the fruit orresult of the anger of God, as if he were unwilling that our days should attend us anylonger. Or, it is as if he took away our days, or caused them to turn away, because he wasangry and was unwilling that we should any longer enjoy them. The cutting off of life inany manner is a proof of the divine displeasure; and in every instance death should beregarded as a new illustration of the fact that the race is guilty.

We spend our years as a tale that is told - Margin, “meditation.” The Hebrew word - הגהhegeh - means properly

(a) a muttering, or growling, as of thunder;

(b) a sighing or moaning;

(c) a meditation, thought.

It means here, evidently, thought; that is, life passes away as rapidly as thought. It has nopermanency. It makes no impression. Thought is no sooner come than it is gone. So rapid,so fleeting, so unsubstantial is life. The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate in someunaccountable way render this “as a spider.” The translation in our common version, “as atale that is told,” is equally unauthorized, as there is nothing corresponding to this in theHebrew. The image in the original is very striking and beautiful. Life passes with therapidity of thought!

2. Clarke, “We spend our years as a tale - The Vulgate has: Anni nostri sicut araneameditabuntur; “Our years pass away like those of the spider.” Our plans and operationsare like the spider’s web; life is as frail, and the thread of it as brittle, as one of those thatconstitute the well-wrought and curious, but fragile, habitation of that insect. All theVersions have the word spider; but it neither appears in the Hebrew, nor in any of its MSS.which have been collated.

My old Psalter has a curious paraphrase here: “Als the iran (spider) makes vayne websfor to take flese (flies) with gile, swa our yeres ere ockupide in ydel and swikel castes abouterthly thynges; and passes with outen frute of gude werks, and waste in ydel thynkyns.”This is too true a picture of most lives.

But the Hebrew is different from all the Versions. “We consume our years (כמו הגה kemohegeh) like a groan.” We live a dying, whining, complaining life, and at last a groan is itstermination! How amazingly expressive!

3. Gill, “For all our days are passed away in thy wrath,.... The life of man is rathermeasured by days than by months or years; and these are but few, which pass away or"decline" (g) as the day does towards the evening; see Jer_6:4 or "turn away their face", asthe word (h) may be rendered: they turn their backs upon us, and not the face to us; so thatit is a hard thing to get time by the forelock; and these, which is worst of all, pass away inthe "wrath" of God. This has a particular reference to the people of Israel in thewilderness, when God had swore in his wrath they should not enter into the land ofCanaan, but wander about all their days in the wilderness, and be consumed there; so thattheir days manifestly passed away under visible marks of the divine displeasure; and this istrue of all wicked men, who are by nature children of wrath, and go through the world, andout of it, as such: and even it may be said of man in general; the ailments, diseases, andcalamities, that attend the state of infancy and youth; the losses, crosses, anddisappointments, vexations and afflictions, which wait upon man in riper years; and theevils and infirmities of old age, do abundantly confirm this truth: none but God's peoplecan, in any sense, be excepted from it, on whom no wrath comes, being loved with aneverlasting love; and yet these, in their own apprehensions, have frequently the wrath ofGod upon them, and pass many days under a dreadful sense of it:

we spend our years as a tale that is told; or as a "meditation" (y) a thought of the heart,which quickly passes away; or as a "word" (z), as others, which is soon pronounced andgone; or as an assemblage of words, a tale or story told, a short and pleasant one; for longtales are not listened to; and the pleasanter they are, the shorter the time seems to be inwhich they are told: the design of the metaphor is to set forth the brevity, and also the

vanity, of human life; for in tales there are often many trifling and vain things, as well asuntruths told; men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree a lie, in every state;and, in their best state, they are altogether vanity: a tale is a mere amusement; affects for awhile, if attended to, and then is lost in oblivion; and such is human life: in a tale there isoftentimes a mixture, something pleasant, and something tragic; such changes are there inlife, which is filled up with different scenes of prosperity and adversity: and perhaps thisphrase may point at the idle and unprofitable way and manner in which the years of lifeare spent, like that of consuming time by telling idle stories; some of them spent in youthfullusts and pleasures; others in an immoderate pursuit of the world, and the things of it; veryfew in a religious way, and these with great imperfection, and to very little purpose andprofit; and particularly point to the children of Israel in the wilderness, who how theyspent their time for thirty eight years there, we have no tale nor story of it. The Targum is,

"we have consumed the days of our life as the breath or vapour of the mouth in winter,''

which is very visible, and soon passes away; see Jam_4:14.

4. Henry, “They are taught to look upon themselves as dying and passing away, and not tothink either of a long life or of a pleasant one; for the decree gone forth against them wasirreversible (Psa_90:9): All our days are likely to be passed away in thy wrath, under thetokens of thy displeasure; and, though we are not quite deprived of the residue of our years,yet we are likely to spend them as a tale that is told. The thirty-eight years which, after this,they wore away in the wilderness, were not the subject of the sacred history; for little ornothing is recorded of that which happened to them from the second year to the fortieth.After they came out of Egypt their time was perfectly trifled away, and was not worthy tobe the subject of a history, but only of a tale that is told; for it was only to pass away time,like telling stories, that they spent those years in the wilderness; all that while they were inthe consuming, and another generation was in the raising. When they came out of Egyptthere was not one feeble person among their tribes (Psa_105:37); but now they were feeble.Their joyful prospect of a prosperous glorious life in Canaan was turned into themelancholy prospect of a tedious inglorious death in the wilderness; so that their whole lifewas now as impertinent a thing as ever any winter-tale was. That is applicable to the stateof every one of us in the wilderness of this world: We spend our years, we bring them to an

end, each year, and all at last, as a tale that is told - as the breath of our mouth in winter (sosome), which soon disappears - as a thought (so some), than which nothing more quick - as

a word, which is soon spoken, and then vanishes into air - or as a tale that is told. Thespending of our years is like the telling of a tale. A year, when it past, is like a tale when it istold. Some of our years are a pleasant story, others as a tragical one, most mixed, but allshort and transient: that which was long in the doing may be told in a short time. Ouryears, when they are gone, can no more be recalled than the word that we have spoken can.The loss and waste of our time, which are our fault and folly, may be thus complained of:we should spend our years like the despatch of business, with care and industry; but, alas!we do spend them like the telling of a tale, idle, and to little purpose, carelessly, and withoutregard.”

5. Bob Deffinbaugh, “ The question therefore must be asked, “Since God is Israel’s

dwelling place and since God is infinite and eternal, why are His people subject to suchbrevity in this life?” And even more pointedly, “Why does God actively cause man’sdeath?” The answer to these questions is given in verses 7-10.In this section man’s shortness of life is shown to be a result of his sin. Verses 1-6 contrastGod’s infinity and man’s finiteness. Moses proceeds to contrast man’s sinfulness with God’srighteousness in verses 7-10. Man’s life is “short and sour” because we are sinners livingunder the righteous judgment of God: “We are consumed by your anger And terrified byyour indignation. You have set our iniquities before you, Our secret sins in the light of yourpresence” (v. 7). God is fully aware of our sin and the shortness of life is a proof of this. Even those secretsins, the sins which we do not ourselves perceive or which we have successfully rationalized,are evident before an all-knowing and righteous God.�ot only is life shortened by sin, it is also soured by pain and sadness: All our days passaway under your wrath; We finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventyyears—Or eighty, if we have the strength; Yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, Forthey quickly pass, and we fly away (vv. 9-10).”

6. Spurgeon, “For all our days are passed away in thy wrath. Justice shortened the days ofrebellious Israel; each halting place became a graveyard; they marked their march by thetombs they left behind them. Because of the penal sentence their days were dried up, andtheir lives wasted away. We spend our years as a tale that is told. Yea, not their days only,but their years flew by them like a thought, swift as a meditation, rapid and idle as agossip's story. Sin had cast a shadow over all things, and made the lives of the dyingwanderers to be both vain and brief. The first sentence is not intended for believers toquote, as though it applied to themselves, for our days are all passed amid thelovingkindness of the Lord, even as David says in the Ps 23:6 "Surely goodness and mercyshall follow me all the days of my life." �either is the life of the gracious man unsubstantialas a story teller's tale; he lives in Jesus, he has the divine Spirit within him, and to him "lifeis real, life is earnest"—the simile only holds good if we consider that a holy life is rich ininterest, full of wonders, chequered with many changes, yet as easily ordered by providenceas the improvisatore arranges the details of the story with which he beguiles the hour. Ourlives are illustrations of heavenly goodness, parables of divine wisdom, poems of sacredthought, and records of infinite love; happy are we whose lives are such tales.”

10 The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span [a] is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

1. Henry, “Every year passed as a tale that is told; but what was the number of them? Asthey were vain, so they were few (Psa_90:10), seventy or eighty at most, which may beunderstood either, 1. Of the lives of the Israelites in the wilderness; all those that werenumbered when they came out of Egypt, above twenty years old, were to die within thirty-eight years; they numbered those only that were able to go forth to war, most of whom, wemay suppose, were between twenty and forty, who therefore must have all died beforeeighty years old, and many before sixty, and perhaps much sooner, which was far short ofthe years of the lives of their fathers. And those that lived to seventy or eighty, yet, beingunder a sentence of consumption and a melancholy despair of ever seeing through thiswilderness-state, their strength, their life, was nothing but labour and sorrow, whichotherwise would have been made a new life by the joys of Canaan. See what work sin made.Or, 2. Of the lives of men in general, ever since the days of Moses. Before the time of Mosesit was usual for men to live about 100 years, or nearly 150; but, since, seventy or eighty isthe common stint, which few exceed and multitudes never come near. We reckon those tohave lived to the age of man, and to have had as large a share of life as they had reason toexpect, who live to be seventy years old; and how short a time is that compared witheternity! Moses was the first that committed divine revelation to writing, which, before,had been transmitted by tradition; now also both the world and the church were prettywell peopled, and therefore there were not now the same reasons for men's living long thatthere had been. If, by reason of a strong constitution, some reach to eighty years, yet theirstrength then is what they have little joy of; it does but serve to prolong their misery, andmake their death the more tedious; for even their strength then is labour and sorrow, muchmore their weakness; for the years have come which they have no pleasure in. Or it may betaken thus: Our years are seventy, and the years of some, by reason of strength, are eighty;

but the breadth of our years (for so the latter word signifies, rather than strength), the whole

extent of them, from infancy to old age, is but labour and sorrow. In the sweat of our face wemust eat bread; our whole life is toilsome and troublesome; and perhaps, in the midst of theyears we count upon, it is soon cut off, and we fly away, and do not live out half our days.

2. Barnes, “The days of our years - Margin, “As for the days of our years, in them areseventy years.” Perhaps the language would better be translated: “The days of our years!In them are seventy years;” or, they amount to seventy years. Thus the psalmist isrepresented as reflecting on human life - on the days that make up the years of life; - asfixing his thought on those days and years, and taking the sum of them. The days of ouryears - what are they?

Are threescore years and ten - �ot as life originally was, but as it has been narrowed downto about that period; or, this is the ordinary limit of life. This passage proves that the psalmwas written when the life of man had been shortened, and had been reduced to about whatit is at present; for this description will apply to man now. It is probable that human lifewas gradually diminished until it became fixed at the limit which now bounds it, and whichis to remain as the great law in regard to its duration upon the earth. All animals, as thehorse, the mule, the elephant, the eagle, the raven, the bee, the butterfly, have each a fixedlimit of life, wisely adapted undoubtedly to the design for which they were made, and to the

highest happiness of the whole. So of man. There can be no doubt that there are goodreasons - some of which could be easily suggested - why his term of life is no longer. But, atany rate, it is no longer; and in that brief period he must accomplish all that he is to do inreference to this world, and all that is to be done to prepare him for the world to come. It isobvious to remark that man has enough to do to fill up the time of his life; that life to manis too precious to be wasted.

And if by reason of strength ... - If there be unusual strength or vigor of naturalconstitution; or if the constitution has not been impaired or broken by toil, affliction, orvicious indulgence; or if the great laws of health have been understood and observed. Anyof these causes may contribute to lengthen out life - or they may all be combined; andunder these, separately or combined, life is sometimes extended beyond its ordinary limits.Yet the period of seventy is the ordinary limit beyond which few can go; the great mass falllong before they reach that.

Yet is their strength - Hebrew, “Their pride.” That of which a man who has reached thatperiod might be disposed to boast - as if it were owing to himself. There is, at that time oflife, as well as at other times, great danger lest that which we have received from God, andwhich is in no manner to be traced to ourselves, may be an occasion of pride, as if it wereour own, or as if it were secured by our own prudence, wisdom, or merit. May it not, also,be implied here that a man who has reached that period of life - who has survived so manyothers - who has seen so many fall by imprudence, or vice, or intemperance - will be inspecial danger of being proud, as if it were by some special virtue of his own that his lifehad been thus lengthened out? Perhaps in no circumstances will the danger of pride bemore imminent than when one has thus passed safely through dangers where others havefallen, and practiced temperance while others have yielded to habits of intemperance, andtaken care of his own health while others have neglected theirs. The tendency to pride inman does not die out because a man grows old.

Labour and sorrow - The word rendered “labour” - עמל ‛âmâl - means properly “toil;”that is, wearisome labor. The idea here is, that toil then becomes burdensome; that the bodyis oppressed with it, and soon grows weary and exhausted; that life itself is like labor orwearisome toil. The old man is constantly in the condition of one who is weary; whosepowers are exhausted; and who feels the need of repose. The word rendered “sorrow” - און'âven - means properly “nothingness, vanity;” Isa_41:29; Zec_10:2; then, nothingness as toworth, unworthiness, iniquity - which is its usual meaning; �um_23:21; Job_36:21;Isa_1:13; and then, evil, adversity, calamity; Pro_22:8; Gen_35:18. This latter seems to bethe meaning here. It is, that happiness cannot ordinarily be found at that period of life; thatto lengthen out life does not add materially to its enjoyment; that to do it, is but addingtrouble and sorrow.

The ordinary hopes and plans of life ended; the companions of other years departed; theoffices and honors of the world in other hands; a new generation on the stage that careslittle for the old one now departing; a family scattered or in the grave; the infirmities ofadvanced years on him; his faculties decayed; the buoyancy of life gone; and now in hissecond childhood dependent on others as he was in his first; how little of happiness is therein such a condition! How appropriate is it to speak of it as a time of “sorrow!” How littledesirable is it for a man to reach extreme old age! And how kind and merciful thearrangement by which man is ordinarily removed from the world before the time of“trouble and sorrow” thus comes! There are commonly just enough people of extreme old

age upon the earth to show us impressively that it is not “desirable” to live to be very old;just enough to keep this lesson with salutary force before the minds of those in earlier life;just enough, if we saw it aright, to make us willing to die before that period comes!

For it is soon cut off ... - Prof. Alexander renders this, “For he drives us fast;” that is, Goddrives us - or, one seems to drive, or to urge us on. The word used here - גז gāz - iscommonly supposed to be derived from גזז gâzaz, to cut, as to cut grass, or to mow; andthen, to shear, sc. a flock - which is its usual meaning. Thus it would signify, as in ourtranslation, to be cut off. This is the Jewish interpretation. The word, however, may bemore properly regarded as derived from גוז gûz, which occurs in but one other place,�um_11:31, where it is rendered “brought,” as applied to the quails which were brought ordriven forward by the east wind. This word means, to pass through, to pass over, to passaway; and then, to cause to pass over, as the quails were �um_11:31 by the east wind. So itmeans here, that life is soon passed over, and that we flee away, as if driven by the wind; asif impelled or urged forward as chaff or any light substance is by a gale.

3. Clarke, “Threescore years and ten - See the note on the title of this Psalm 90 (note). ThisPsalm could not have been written by Moses, because the term of human life was muchmore extended when he flourished than eighty years at the most. Even in David’s timemany lived one hundred years, and the author of Ecclesiasticus, who lived after thecaptivity, fixed this term at one hundred years at the most (Sirach 18:9); but this wasmerely a general average, for even in our country we have many who exceed a hundredyears. Yet is their strength labor and sorrow - This refers to the infirmities of old age,which, to those well advanced in life, produce labor and sorrow. It is soon cut of - It - thebody, is soon cut off. And we fly away - The immortal spirit wings its way into the eternalworld.

4. Gill, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten,.... In the Hebrew text it is, "thedays of our years in them are", &c. (a); which refers either to the days in which we live, orto the persons of the Israelites in the wilderness, who were instances of this term of life, inwhom perhaps it first took place in a general way: before the flood, men lived to a greatage; some nine hundred years and upwards; after the flood, men lived not so long; the termfixed then, as some think, was an hundred and twenty years, grounding it on the passage inGen_6:3, but now, in the time of Moses, it was brought to threescore years and ten, oreighty at most: of those that were numbered in the wilderness of Sinai, from twenty yearsand upwards, there were none left, save Joshua and Caleb, when the account was taken inthe plains of Moab; see �um_14:29, so that some must die before they were sixty; othersbefore seventy; and perhaps all, or however the generality of them, before eighty: and,from that time, this was the common age of men, some few excepted; to the age of seventyDavid lived, 2Sa_5:4, and so it has been ever since; many never come up to it, and few gobeyond it: this is not only pointed at in revelation, but is what the Heathens have observed.Solon used to say, the term of human life was seventy years (b); so others; and a peoplecalled Berbiccae, as Aelianus relates (c), used to kill those of them that lived above seventyyears of age, having exceeded the term of life. The Syriac version is, "in our days our yearsare seventy years"; with which the Targum agrees,

"the days of our years in this world are seventy years of the stronger;''

for it is in them that such a number of years is arrived unto; or "in them", that is, in someof them; in some of mankind, their years amount hereunto, but not in all: "and if by reasonof strength they be fourscore years"; through a good temperament of body, a healthful andstrong constitution, under a divine blessing, some may arrive to the age of eighty; therehave been some instances of a strong constitution at this age and upwards, but not verycommon; see Jos_14:11, for, generally speaking, such who through strength of body live tosuch an age,

yet is their strength labor and sorrow; they labour under great infirmities, feel much pain,and little pleasure, as Barzillai at this age intimates, 2Sa_19:35, these are the evil days (d),in which is no pleasure, Ecc_12:1, or "their largeness or breadth is labor and sin" (e); thewhole extent of their days, from first to last, is spent in toil and labor to live in the world;and is attended with much sin, and so with much sorrow: for it is soon cut off; either thestrength of man, or his age, by one disease or incident or another, like grass that is cutdown with the scythe, or a flower that is cropped by the hand; see Job_14:2, and we flyaway; as a shadow does, or as a bird with wings; out of time into eternity; from the place ofour habitation to the grave; from a land of light to the regions of darkness: it is well if wefly away to heaven and happiness. “

5. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “Moses discusses the life-span of man and the wrath of God,with verse10 focusing on the years of man. "What are the years of man?" "What isman’s life-span?" Moses says: The days of our years are [seventy]. That is a basic minimum,although many people live less than that. Then he says: Or even by reason of strength

[eighty] years. That is a basic maximum, although some live longer. In other words, Mosesgives us an average age-span of life, between seventy and eighty years. Whether we go thebasic minimum or the basic maximum, whether we live less or more, the writer says,regardless, it is all vanity. The vanity of it all is described as: Yet is their pride but labor and

sorrow. All these years are often spent in travail and vanity: For it is soon gone, and we

flyaway. In other words, what initially appears long to us, at the end is actually short, andlife flies away like a fleeting bird.

The Exodus Generation, then, was under a sentence of physical death in the wilderness,meaning they would die outside the Land. Based upon the population numbers given in theBook of �umbers, this means that Moses saw the death of about 1,200,000 people in a 38-yearperiod. This would be the entire adult population that left Egypt, those from age 20 upward.The wilderness, which God intended to be simply a place of passing through to a new Land,had become a huge cemetery. What does it mean to have 1,200,000 people die in a 38-yearperiod? It means that 31,580 people died per year. More specifically, 87 people died every singleday—87 funerals per day—all because of the sin at Kadesh Barnea. Having witnessed thistremendous death toll, Moses reflects and writes Psalm 90. To understand this Psalm, wemust understand the background. That is, Moses wrote it at the end of the 40 years ofWilderness Wanderings and at the end of seeing a whole generation die away in thewilderness—including members of his own family, Aaron and Miriam among them.”

6. “ The time of our life is threescore years and ten (saith Moses), or set it upon the tenters,and rack it to fourscore, though not one in every fourscore arrives to that account, yet canwe not be said to live so long; for take out, first, ten years for infancy and childhood, whichSolomon calls the time of wantonness and vanity (Ec 11:1-10.), wherein we scarceremember what we did, or whether we lived or no; and how short it is then? Take out of theremainder a third part for sleep, wherein like blocks we lie senseless, and how short is itthen? Take out yet besides the time of our carking and worldly care, wherein we seem bothdead and buried in the affairs of the world, and how short is it then? And take out yetbesides, our times of wilful sinning and rebellion, for while we sin, we live not, but we are"dead in sin", and what remaineth of life? Yea, how short is it then? So short is that lifewhich nature allows, and yet we sleep away part, and play away part, and the cares of theworld have a great part, so that the true spiritual and Christian life hath little or nothing inthe end.”—From a Sermon by Robert Wilkinson

7. “Threescore years and ten. It may at first seem surprising that Moses should describe thedays of man as "Threescore years and ten." But when it is remembered, that, in the secondyear of the pilgrimage in the wilderness, as related in �u 14:28-39, God declared that allthose who had been recently numbered at Sinai should die in the wilderness, before theexpiration of forty years, the lamentation of Moses on the brevity of human life becomesvery intelligible and appropriate; and the Psalm itself acquires a solemn and affectinginterest, as a penitential confession of the sins which had entailed such melancholyconsequences on the Hebrew nation; and as a humble deprecation of God's wrath; and as afuneral dirge upon those whose death had been preannounced by the awful voice ofGod.”—Christopher Wordsworth.

8. Spurgeon, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten. Moses himself lived longerthan this, but his was the exception not the rule: in his day life had come to be very muchthe same in duration as it is with us. This is brevity itself compared with the men of theelder time; it is nothing when contrasted with eternity. Yet is life long enough for virtue andpiety, and all too long for vice and blasphemy. Moses here in the original writes in adisconnected manner, as if he would set forth the utter insignificance of man's hurriedexistence. His words may be rendered, "The days of our years! In them seventy years": asmuch as to say, "The days of our years? What about them? Are they worth mentioning?The account is utterly insignificant, their full tale is but seventy." And if by reason ofstrength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow. The unusualstrength which over leaps the bound of threescore and ten only lands the aged man in aregion where life is a weariness and a woe. The strength of old age, its very prime andpride, are but labor and sorrow; what must its weakness be? What panting for breath!What toiling to move! What a failing of the senses! What a crushing sense of weakness! Theevil days are come and the years wherein a man cries, "I have no pleasure in them." Thegrasshopper has become a burden and desire faileth. Such is old age. Yet mellowed byhallowed experience, and solaced by immortal hopes, the latter days of aged Christians arenot so much to be pitied as envied. The sun is setting and the heat of the day is over, but

sweet is the calm and cool of the eventide: and the fair day melts away, not into a dark anddreary night, but into a glorious, unclouded, eternal day. The mortal fades to make roomfor the immortal; the old man falls asleep to wake up in the region of perennial youth. Forit is soon cut off, and we fly away. The cable is broken and the vessel sails upon the sea ofeternity; the chain is snapped and the eagle mounts to its native air above the clouds. Mosesmourned for men as he thus sung: and well he might, as all his comrades fell at his side. Hiswords are more nearly rendered, "He drives us fast and we fly away; "as the quails wereblown along by the strong west wind, so are men hurried before the tempests of death. Tous, however, as believers, the winds are favourable; they bear us as the gales bear theswallows away from the wintry realms, to lands"Where everlasting spring abidesAnd never withering flowers."

Who wishes it to be otherwise? Wherefore should we linger here? What has this poor worldto offer us that we should tarry on its shores? Away, away! This is not our rest.Heavenward, Ho! Let the Lord's winds drive fast if so he ordains, for they waft us the moreswiftly to himself, and our own dear country.”

9. We fly away.

Bird of my breast, away!The long wished hour is come.On to the realms of cloudless day,On to thy glorious home!

Long has been thine to mournIn banishment and pain.Return, thou wandering dove, return,And find thy ark again!

Away, on joyous wing,Immensity to range;Around the throne to soar and sing,And faith for sight exchange.

Flee, then, from sin and woe,To joys immortal flee;Quit thy dark prison house below,And be for ever free!

I come, ye blessed throng,Your tasks and joys to share;O, fill my lips with holy song,My drooping wing upbear.—Henry Francis Lyte, 1793-1847.

11 Who knows the power of your anger?

For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.

1. Henry, “They are taught by all this to stand in awe of the wrath of God (Psa_90:11):Who knows the power of thy anger? 1. �one can perfectly comprehend it. The psalmistspeaks as one afraid of God's anger, and amazed at the greatness of the power of it; whoknows how far the power of God's anger can reach and how deeply it can wound? Theangels that sinned knew experimentally the power of God's anger; damned sinners in hellknow it; but which of us can fully comprehend or describe it? 2. Few do seriously considerit as they ought. Who knows it, so as to improve the knowledge of it? Those who make amock at sin, and make light of Christ, surely do not know the power of God's anger. For,according to thy fear, so is thy wrath; God's wrath is equal to the apprehensions which themost thoughtful serious people have of it; let men have ever so great a dread upon them ofthe wrath of God, it is not greater than there is cause for and than the nature of the thingdeserves. God has not in his word represented his wrath as more terrible than really it is;nay, what is felt in the other world is infinitely worse than what is feared in this world. Who

among us can dwell with that devouring fire?

2. Barnes, “Who knoweth the power of thine anger? - Who can measure it, or take acorrect estimate of it, as it is manifest in cutting down the race of people? If the removal ofpeople by death is to be traced to thine anger - or is, in any proper sense, an expression ofthy wrath - who can measure it, or understand it? The cutting down of whole generationsof people - of nations - of hundreds of million of human beings - of the great, the powerful,the mighty, as well as the weak and the feeble, is an amazing exhibition of the “power” - ofthe might - of God; and who is there that can fully understand this? Who can estimate fullythe wrath of God, if this is to be regarded as an expression of it? Who can comprehendwhat this is? Who can tell, after such an exhibition, what may be in reserve, or whatfurther and more fearful displays of wrath there may yet be?

Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath - literally, “And according to thy fear, thywrath.” The word rendered “fear” would here seem to refer to the “reverence” due to God,or to what there is in his character to inspire awe: to wit, his power, his majesty, hisgreatness; and the sense seems to be that his wrath or anger as manifested in cutting downthe race seems to be commensurate with all in God that is vast, wonderful,incomprehensible. As no one can understand or take in the one, so no one can understandor take in the other. God is great in all things; great in himself; great in his power in cuttingdown the race; great in the expressions of his displeasure.

3. Gill, “ Who knoweth the power of thine anger?.... Expressed in his judgments on men: asthe drowning of the old world, the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, the consumption ofthe Israelites in the wilderness; or in shortening the days of men, and bringing them to thedust of death; or by inflicting punishment on men after death; they are few that take noticeof this, and consider it well, or look into the causes of it, the sins of men: such as are in hellexperimentally know it; but men on earth, very few closely attend to it, or rarely think of it:

even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath; or who knows thy wrath, so as to fear thee? whoconsiders it so, as that it has such an influence upon him to fear the Lord, and stand in aweof him, and fear to offend him, and seek to please him? or rather the wrath of God isanswerable to men's fear of him; and that, in some things and cases, men's fears exceed thethings feared; as afflictions viewed beforehand, and death itself: the fears of them areoftentimes greater, and more distressing, than they themselves, when they come; but so it isnot with the wrath of God; the greatest fears, and the most dreadful apprehensions of it, donot come up to it; it is full as great as they fear it is, and more so.”

4. Spurgeon, “Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Moses saw men dying all aroundhim: he lived among funerals, and was overwhelmed at the terrible results of the divinedispleasure. He felt that none could measure the might of the Lord's wrath. Even accordingto thy fear, so is thy wrath. Good men dread that wrath beyond conception, but they neverascribe too much terror to it: bad men are dreadfully convulsed when they awake to a senseof it, but their horror is not greater than it had need be, for it is a fearful thing to fall intothe hands of an angry God. Holy Scripture when it depicts God's wrath against sin neveruses an hyperbole; it would be impossible to exaggerate it. Whatever feelings of pious aweand holy trembling may move the tender heart, it is never too much moved; apart fromother considerations the great truth of the divine anger, when most powerfully felt, neverimpresses the mind with a solemnity in excess of the legitimate result of such acontemplation. What the power of God's anger is in hell, and what it would be on earth,were it not in mercy restrained, no man living can rightly conceive. Modern thinkers rail atMilton and Dante, Bunyan and Baxter, for their terrible imagery; but the truth is that novision of poet, or denunciation of holy seer, can ever reach to the dread height of this greatargument, much less go beyond it. The wrath to come has its horrors rather diminishedthan enhanced in description by the dark lines of human fancy; it baffles words, it leavesimagination far behind. Beware ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there benone to deliver. God is terrible out of his holy places. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah!Remember Korah and his company! Mark well the graves of lust in the wilderness! �ay,rather bethink ye of the place where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched.Who is able to stand against this justly angry God? Who will dare to rush upon the bossesof his buckler, or tempt the edge of his sword? Be it ours to submit ourselves as dyingsinners to this eternal God, who can, even at this moment, command us to the dust, andthence to hell.”

5. “Who knoweth the power of thine anger? We may take some scantling, some measure ofthe wrath of man, and know how far it can go, and what it can do, but we can take nomeasure of the wrath of God, for it is unmeasurable.”—Joseph Caryl.

6. “Who knoweth the power of thine anger? �one at all; and unless the power of that can beknown, it must abide as unspeakable as the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.”—John Bunyan.

7. “Moses, I think, here means, that it is a holy awe of God, an that alone, which makes ustruly and deeply feel his anger. We see that the reprobate, although they are severelypunished, only chafe upon the bit, or kick against God, or become exasperated, or arestupefied, as if they were hardened against all calamities; so far are they from beingsubdued. And though they are full of trouble, and cry aloud, yet the Divine anger does notso penetrate their hearts as to abate their pride and fierceness. The minds of the godlyalone are wounded with the wrath of God; nor do they wait for his thunder bolts, to whichthe reprobate hold out their hard and iron necks, but they tremble the very moment whenGod moves only his little finger. This I consider to be the true meaning of the prophet.”—John Calvin.

8. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? etc. The meaning is, What man doth truly knowand acknowledge the power of thine anger, according to that measure of fear wherewiththou oughtest to be feared? �ote hence, how Moses and the people of God, though theyfeared God, yet notwithstanding confess that they failed in respect of that measure of thefear of God which they ought to have had; for we must not think, but Moses and some ofhis people did truly fear God. But yet in regard of the power of God's anger, which wasnow very great and grievous, their fear of God was not answerable and proportionable;then it is apparent that Moses and his people failed in respect of the measure of the fear ofGod which they ought to have had, in regard of the greatness and grievousness of thejudgments of God upon them. See, that the best of God's servants in this life fall short intheir fear of God, and so in all graces of the Spirit; in that love of God, in faith inrepentance, and in obedience, we come short all of us of that which the Lord requires atour hands. For though we do know God, and that he is a just God, and righteous, andcannot wink at sin; yet what man is there that so fears before him as he ought to be feared?what man so quakes at his anger as he should; and is so afraid of sin as he ought to be? Wehave no grace here in perfection, but the best faith is mixed with infidelity; our hope withfear; our joy with sorrow. It is well we can discern our wants and imperfections, and cryout with the man in the gospel, "I believe; Lord, help my unbelief!"—Samuel Smith.

12 Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

1. Here is the good news after so much bad news about the brevity of life and certain death.Life still has a great purpose, and that is to so live with a wise use of the time we have todevelop a heart of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and so webegin there, and then live our short life span with a growing love for God and his wisdomrevealed to us in his word. Life is short, but even in this short time we can become wise inthe way God intends us to be wise. We can fulfill the purpose of God for our lives by using

time wisely to be prepared for eternity. Redeem the time is what Moses is saying. Make lifecount by developing wisdom. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. Use timeI such a way that you develop an eternal perspective and see life from God's point of view.Life is short, but everyone has enough time to become wise in the way that God wants hischildren to be wise, if they will redeem the time. This is wonderful news, and it means wecan have a great sense of optimism in spite of what sin has done. Death is real, but life iseven more real, and hope of what God has in store makes it possible for all God's childrento be joyful optimist. Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661) wrote a hymn to this end:

"The sands of time are sinking, The dawn of heaven breaks; The summer morn I’ve sighed for, The fair, sweet morn awakes.Dark, dark hath been the midnight, But dayspring is at hand, And glory, glory dwelleth In Immanuel’s land."

"O Christ, He is the Fountain, The deep, sweet Well of love; The streams on earth I’ve tasted, More deep I’ll drink above.There to an ocean fullness His mercy doth expand, And glory, glory dwelleth In Immanuel’s land."

"The bride eyes not her garment But her dear Bridegroom’s face; I will not gaze at glory But on my King of grace,�or at the crown He giveth, But on His pierced hand: The Lamb is all the glory Of Immanuel’s land."

"I’ve wrestled on towards heaven, ‘Gainst storm, and wind, and tide; �ow, like a weary traveler, That leaneth on his guide,Amid the shades of evening, While sinks life’s lingering sand, I hail the glory dawning In Immanuel’s land."

"With mercy and with judgment My web of time He wove, And aye the dews of sorrow Were brightened by His love;I’ll bless the hand that guided, I’ll bless the heart that planned, When throned where glory dwelleth In Immanuel’s land."

"The King there in His beauty Without a veil is seen; It were a well-spent journey, Though seven deaths lay between.The Lamb with His fair army Doth on Mount Zion stand, And glory, glory dwelleth In Immanuel’s land."

1B. Barnes, “So teach us to number our days - literally, “To number our days make usknow, and we will bring a heart of wisdom.” The prayer is, that God would instruct us toestimate our days aright: their number; the rapidity with which they pass away; theliability to be cut down; the certainty that they must soon come to an end; their bearing onthe future state of being. That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom - Margin, “Cause tocome.” We will bring, or cause to come, a heart of wisdom. By taking a just account of life,that we may bring to it a heart truly wise, or act wisely in view of these facts. The prayer is,

that God would enable us to form such an estimate of life, that we shall be truly wise; thatwe may be able to act “as if” we saw the whole of life, or as we should do if we saw its end.God sees the end - the time, the manner, the circumstances in which life will close; andalthough he has wisely hidden that from us, yet he can enable us to act as if we saw it forourselves; to have the same objects before us, and to make as much of life, “as if” we sawwhen and how it would close. If anyone knew when, and where, and how he was to die, itmight be presumed that this would exert an important influence on him in forming hisplans, and on his general manner of life. The prayer is, that God would enable us to act “asif” we had such a view.

2. Gill, “So teach us to number our days,.... �ot merely to count them, how many they are,in an arithmetical way; there is no need of divine teachings for that; some few instructionsfrom an arithmetician, and a moderate skill in arithmetic, will enable persons not only tocount the years of their lives, but even how many days they have lived: nor is this to beunderstood of calculating or reckoning of time to come; no man can count the number ofdays he has to live; the number of his days, months, and years, is with the Lord; but is hidfrom him: the living know they shall die; but know not how long they shall live, and whenthey shall die: this the Lord teaches not, nor should we be solicitous to know: but rather themeaning of the petition is, that God would teach us to number our days, as if the presentone was the last; for we cannot boast of tomorrow; we know not but this day, or night, oursouls may be required of us: but the sense is, that God would teach us seriously to meditateon, and consider of, the shortness of our days; that they are but as a shadow, and there is noabiding; and the vanity and sinfulness of them, that so we may not desire to live herealways; and the troubles and sorrows of them, which may serve to wean us from the world,and to observe how unprofitably we have spent them; which may put us upon redeemingtime, and also to take notice of the goodness of God, that has followed us all our days,which may lead us to repentance, and engage us in the fear of God:

that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom; to consider our latter end, and what willbecome of us hereafter; which is a branch of wisdom so to do; to seek the way of salvationby Christ; to seek to Christ, the wisdom of God, for it; to fear the Lord, which is thebeginning of wisdom; and to walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise; to all which anapplication of the heart is necessary; for wisdom is to be sought for heartily, and with thewhole heart: and to this divine teachings are requisite, as well as to number our days; forunless a man is taught of God, and by his Spirit convinced of sin, righteousness, andjudgment, he will never be concerned, in good earnest, about a future state; nor inquire theway of salvation, nor heartily apply to Christ for it: he may number his days, and considerthe shortness of them, and apply his heart to folly, and not wisdom; see Isa_22:21.

3. Henry, “These are the petitions of this prayer, grounded upon the foregoing meditationsand acknowledgments. Is any afflicted? Let him learn thus to pray. Four things they arehere directed to pray for: -

I. For a sanctified use of the sad dispensation they were now under. Being condemnedto have our days shortened, “Lord, teach us to number our days (Psa_90:12); Lord, give usgrace duly to consider how few they are, and how little a while we have to live in thisworld.” �ote, 1. It is an excellent art rightly to number our days, so as not to be out in our

calculation, as he was who counted upon many years to come when, that night, his soul wasrequired of him. We must live under a constant apprehension of the shortness anduncertainty of life and the near approach of death and eternity. We must so number ourdays as to compare our work with them, and mind it accordingly with a double diligence,as those that have no time to trifle. 2. Those that would learn this arithmetic must pray fordivine instruction, must go to God, and beg of him to teach them by his Spirit, to put themupon considering and to give them a good understanding. 3. We then number our days togood purpose when thereby our hearts are inclined and engaged to true wisdom, that is, tothe practice of serious godliness. To be religious is to be wise; this is a thing to which it isnecessary that we apply our hearts, and the matter requires and deserves a closeapplication, to which frequent thoughts of the uncertainty of our continuance here, and thecertainty of our removal hence, will very much contribute.”

4. Dr. Victory Shepherd, “�o wonder the psalmist asks God to "teach us to number ourdays, that we may get a heart of wisdom". "Teach us to number our days." It means,"Startle us with the importance of our days, since we have so few and so many of them arealready behind us. Grant us to see our days in the light of your eternal truth and purposeand mercy; and grant us henceforth to walk in your light."

I am aware of how important it is for me to number my days; especially aware every time Ibury someone younger than I. I have buried dozens of people who were no older than I.And therefore I am always aware that the sermon you are hearing from me now may be thelast one you will ever hear from me. Then I must not waste so much as one of the twentyminutes you allow me to magnify God's truth and purpose and mercy in order that youmay turn, return, to him.

5. Dave Russell, “Scott Goodyear, the race-car driver, talked about fatal crashes at theIndianapolis 500. “You don’t go look at where it happened,” he said. “You don’t watch thefilms of it on television. You don’t deal with it. You pretend it never happened.” TheSpeedway itself encourages this approach. As soon as the track closes the day of anaccident, a crew heads out to paint over the spot where the car hit the wall. Through theyears, a driver has never been pronounced dead at the racetrack. The Indianapolis MotorSpeedway Racing Museum, located inside the 2.5-mile oval, has no memorial to the 40drivers who have lost their lives here. �owhere is there even a mention. But we come toscripture and find that the Bible has no such qualms about dealing with death. It isapproached as a part of life, and Psalm 90 is one of the best examples. It was set to musicby Isaac Watts in the old hymn, “O God Our Help In Ages Past.” “Time like an ever-flowing stream bears all of us away,” we sing.

One morning in 1888 Alfred �oble, the inventor of dynamite, awoke to read his ownobituary. The obituary was printed as a result of a journalistic error. It was Alfred’sbrother that had died, and the reporter carelessly reported the death of the wrong brother.

The shock to Alfred in reading his obituary was overwhelming because he read about hislife as others saw him. He was the “Dynamite King,” a great industrialist who had made animmense fortune from explosives. As far as the public was concerned, this was the purposeof Alfred’s life. �one of his intentions to break down the barriers that separated people,

none of his ideas and hopes for peace were recognized. He was simply a merchant of death,and that was how he would be remembered. The experience of reading his own obituarymotivated him to make clear to the world the true meaning and purpose of his life. Theresult was the most valuable of prizes given to those who had done the most for the cause ofworld peace. We know it as the �obel Peace Prize.”

6. Bob Deffinbaugh, “If life really is as Moses has described it verses 1-10, man needs God’shelp. God’s help is the object of man’s petition in verses 11 and 12. “Who knows the powerof your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. Teach us to numberour days aright, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Man does not fully grasp the reality of what Moses has said in the first part of this psalm.We stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the dark side of life. We refuse to acknowledge theeternality and the righteousness of God. We do not focus fully on the sinfulness of man andthe sufferings of life, because that is not what we want to hear.

Proverbs teaches us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (9:10). The firstaspect of the wisdom for which man petitions God in verse 11 is the wisdom to acknowledgethe righteousness and the holiness of God. I believe that when Moses requests God to“teach us to number our days aright,” he asks that God would enable men to see life as it isand man as he is. �umbering our days involves seeing life as God has described it. We mustacknowledge that God is eternal and man is mortal; God is righteous and man is sinful.

We can only see ourselves as we really are when we come to see God for who He actually is.Isaiah gained an awareness of his own sin when he was granted a vision of therighteousness and holiness of God (Isa. 6:1-4). It was then that he cried out, “Woe to me! …for I am a man of unclean lips …” (Isa. 6:5). Like Isaiah, the first thing that we mustacknowledge and understand is the holiness and righteousness of God. Only then will wecorrectly perceive our own sinful condition.”

7. Someone put together this list to remind us how precious time can be.REALIZI�G THE VALUE OF TIME

To realize the value of one year: Ask a student who has failed a final exam.

To realize the value of one month: Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of one week: Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of one hour: Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of one minute: Ask the person who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize the value of one second: Ask a person who has survived an accident.

To realize the value of one millisecond: Ask the person who has won a silver medal in theOlympics.

8. Live, while you live, the epicure would say,

And seize the pleasures of the present day,

Live, while you live, the sacred preacher cries,

And give to God each moment as it flies.

Lord in my views let both united be,

I live in pleasure, when I live to thee. Dr. Doddridge

9. Steven Muncherian, “How valuable is our time? If you had a bank that credited youraccount each morning with $86,400 - that carried over no balance from day to day -allowed you to keep no cash in your account - and every evening canceled whatever part ofthe amount you failed to use during the day - what would you do? Draw out every centevery day, of course, and use it to your advantage! Well, you have such a bank, and itsname is TIME! Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off aslost whatever of this you failed to invest to good purpose. IT carries over no balances - itallows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. If you fail to use the day’sdeposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow.How valuable is your time - consider that the days of your life are a gift of God - He desiresfor you to experience fulfillment in them - that these days would be valuable - significantdays. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days, - to consider the value of the timewe are given - that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” - to see our days from God’sperspective.”

10. Spurgeon, “So teach us to number our days. Instruct us to set store by time, mourningfor that time past wherein we have wrought the will of the flesh, using diligently the timepresent, which is the accepted hour and the day of salvation, and reckoning the time whichlieth in the future to be too uncertain to allow us safely to delay any gracious work orprayer. �umeration is a child's exercise in arithmetic, but in order to number their daysaright the best of men need the Lord's teaching. We are more anxious to count the starsthan our days, and yet the latter is by far more practical. That we may apply our heartsunto wisdom. Men are led by reflections upon the brevity of time to give their earnestattention to eternal things; they become humble as they look into the grave which is so soonto be their bed, their passions cool in the presence of mortality, and they yield themselvesup to the dictates of unerring wisdom; but this is only the case when the Lord himself is theteacher; he alone can teach to real and lasting profit. Thus Moses prayed that thedispensations of justice might be sanctified in mercy. "The law is our school master tobring us to Christ", when the Lord himself speaks by the law. It is most meet that the heartwhich will so soon cease to beat should while it moves be regulated by wisdom's hand. Ashort life should be wisely spent. We have not enough time at our disposal to justify us inmisspending a single quarter of an hour. �either are we sure of enough life to justify us inprocrastinating for a moment. If we were wise in heart we should see this, but mere headwisdom will not guide us aright.”

11. “So teach us, etc. Moses sends you to God for teaching. "Teach Thou us; not as the

world teacheth—teach Thou us." �o meaner Master; no inferior school; not Moses himselfexcept as he speaks God's word and becomes the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; notthe prophets, not apostles themselves, neither "holy men of old", except as they "spake andwere moved by the Holy Ghost." This knowledge comes not from flesh and blood, but fromGod. "So teach Thou us." And so David says, "Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and I will walkin Thy truth." And hence our Lord's promise to his disciples, "The Holy Ghost, He shallteach you all things."—Charles Richard Summer, 1850.

12. “Teach us to number our days. The proverbial oracles of our parsimonious ancestorshave informed us that the fatal waste of fortune is by small expenses, by the profusion ofsums too little singly to alarm our caution, and which we never suffer ourselves to considertogether. Of the same kind is prodigality of life: he that hopes to look back hereafter withsatisfaction upon past years, must learn to know the present value of single minutes, andendeavour to let no particle of time fall useless to the ground. An Italian philosopherexpressed in his motto that time was his estate; an estate, indeed, that will produce nothingwithout cultivation, but will always abundantly repay the labours of industry, and satisfythe most extensive desires, if no part of it be suffered to lie waste by negligence, to beoverrun by noxious plants, or laid out for show rather than for use.”—Samuel Johnson.

13. To number our days, is not simply to take the reckoning and measurement of human life.This has been done already in Holy Scripture, where it is said, "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." �or yet is it, in theworld's phrase, to calculate the chances of survivorship, which any man may do in theinstance of the aggregate, but which no man can do in the case of the individual. But it is totake the measure of our days as compared with the work to be performed, with theprovision to be laid up for eternity, with the preparation to be made for death, with theprecaution to be taken against judgment. It is to estimate human life by the purposes towhich it should be applied, by the eternity to which it must conduct, and in which it shall atlast be absorbed. Under this aspect it is, that David contemplates man when he says, "Thou

hast made our days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee", Ps 39:5; andthen proceeds to include in this comprehensive estimate even those whose days have beenthe longest upon earth: "Verily, every man at his best estate is altogether vanity."—Thomas

Dale, 1847.

14. Apply our hearts unto wisdom. Moses speaketh of wisdom as if it were physic, whichdoth no good before it be applied; and the part to apply it to is the heart, where all man'saffections are to love it and to cherish it, like a kind of hostess. When the heart seeketh itfindeth, as though it were brought unto her, like Abraham's ram. Therefore God saith,"They shall seek me and find me, because they shall seek me with their hearts", Jer 29:13;as though they should not find him with all their seeking unless they did seek him withtheir heart. Therefore the way to get wisdom is to apply your hearts unto it, as if it wereyour calling and living, to which you were bound apprentices. A man may apply his earsand his eyes as many truants do to their books, and yet never prove scholars; but from thatday when a man begins to apply his heart unto wisdom, he learns more in a month afterthan he did in a year before, nay, than ever he did in his life. Even as you see the wicked,

because they apply their hearts to wickedness, how fast they proceed, how easily and howquickly they become perfect swearers, expert drunkards, cunning deceivers, so if ye couldapply your hearts as thoroughly to knowledge and goodness, you might become like theapostle which teacheth you. Therefore, when Solomon sheweth men the way how to comeby wisdom, he speaks often of the heart, as, "Give thine heart to wisdom", "let wisdomenter into thine heart", "get wisdom", "keep wisdom", "embrace wisdom", Pr 2:10 4:58:8, as though a man went a wooing for wisdom. Wisdom is like God's daughter, that hegives to the man that loves her, and sueth for her, and means to set her at his heart. Thuswe have learned how to apply knowledge that it may do us good; not to our ears, like themwhich hear sermons only, nor to our tongues, like them which make table talk of religion,but to our hearts, that we may say with the virgin, "My heart doth magnify the Lord", Lu1:46, and the heart will apply it to the ear and to the tongue, as Christ saith, "Out of theabundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," Mt 12:34.—Henry Smith.

15. Of all arithmetical rules this is the hardest—to number our days. Men can number theirherds and droves of oxen and of sheep, they can estimate the revenues of their manors andfarms, they can with a little pains number and tell their coins, and yet they are persuadedthat their days are infinite and innumerable and therefore do never begin to number them.Who saith not upon the view of another, surely yonder man looketh by his countenance asif he would not live long, or yonder woman is old, her days cannot be many: thus we cannumber other men's days and years, and utterly forget our own, therefore this is the truewisdom of mortal men, to number their own days.—Thomas Tymme.

16. So teach us to number our days, etc. Five things I note in these words: first, that death isthe haven of every man; whether he sit on the throne, or keep in a cottage, at last he mustknock at death's door, as all his fathers have done before him. Secondly, that man's time isset, and his bounds appointed, which he cannot pass, no more than the Egyptians couldpass the sea; and therefore Moses saith, "Teach us to number our days", as though therewere a number of our days. Thirdly, that our days are few, as though we were sent into thisworld but to see it; and therefore Moses, speaking of our life, speaks of days, not of years,nor of months, nor of weeks; but "Teach us to number our days", shewing that it is an easything even for a man to number his days, they be so few. Fourthly, the aptness of man toforget death rather than anything else; and therefore Moses prayeth the Lord to teach himto number his days, as though they were still slipping out of his mind. Lastly, that toremember how short a time we have to live, will make us apply our hearts to that which isgood.”—Henry Smith.

17. “In both the Scriptures of the Old and �ew Testament, the term "heart" is applied aliketo the mind that thinks, to the spirit that feels, and the will that acts. And it here stands forthe whole mental and moral nature of man, and implies that the whole soul and spirit, withall their might, are to be applied in the service of wisdom.”—William Brown Keer, 1863.

13 Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.

1. Barnes, “Return, O Lord - Come back to thy people; show mercy by sparing them. Itwould seem probable from this that the psalm was composed in a time of pestilence, orraging sickness, which threatened to sweep all the people away - a supposition by no meansimprobable, as such times occurred in the days of Moses, and in the rebellions of the peoplewhen he was leading them to the promised land.

How long? - How long shall this continue? How long shall thy wrath rage? How longshall the people still fall under thy hand? This question is often asked in the Psalms.Psa_4:2; Psa_6:3; Psa_13:1-2; Psa_35:17; Psa_79:5, et al.

And let it repent thee - That is, Withdraw thy judgments, and be merciful, as if thou didstrepent. God cannot literally “repent,” in the sense that he is sorry for what he has done, buthe may act “as if” he repented; that is, he may withdraw his judgments; he may arrestwhat has been begun; he may show mercy where it seemed that he would only show wrath.

Concerning thy servants - In respect to thy people. Deal with them in mercy and not inwrath.

2. Gill, “Return, O Lord,.... Either from the fierceness of thine anger, according to AbenEzra and Jarchi; of which complaint is made, Psa_90:7, or unto us, from whom he haddeparted; for though God is everywhere, as to his being and immensity, yet, as to hisgracious presence, he is not; and where that is, he sometimes withdraws it; and when hevisits again with it, be may be said to return; and when he returns, he visits with it, andwhich is here prayed for; and designs a manifestation of himself, of his love and grace, andparticularly his pardoning mercy; see Psa_80:14.

how long? this is a short abrupt way of speaking, in which something is understood, whichthe affection of the speaker would not admit him to deliver; and may be supplied, eitherthus,

how long wilt thou be angry? God is sometimes angry with his people, which, when theyare sensible of, gives them a pain and uneasiness they are not able to bear; and though itendures but for a moment, yet they think it a long time; see Psa_30:5. Arama interprets it,

"how long ere the time of the Messiah shall come?''

or "how long wilt thou hide thyself?" when he does this, they are troubled; and though it isbut for a small moment he forsakes them, yet they count it long, and as if it was for ever;see Psa_13:1, or "how long wilt thou afflict us?" as the Targum; afflictions come from theLord, and sometimes continue long; at least they are thought so by the afflicted, who areready to fear God has forgotten them and their afflictions, Psa_44:23, or "how long wiltthou defer help?" the Lord helps, and that right early, at the most seasonable time, and

when difficulties, are the greatest; but it sometimes seems long first; see Psa_6:3,

and let it repent thee concerning thy servants; men are all so, of right, by creation, andthrough the benefits of Providence; and many, in fact, being made willing servants by thegrace of God; and this carries in it an argument for the petition: repentance does notproperly belong to God; it is denied of him, �um_23:19, yet it is sometimes ascribed to him,both with respect to the good he has done, or promised, and with respect to the evil he hasbrought on men, or threatened to bring; see Gen_6:6, and in the latter sense it is to beunderstood here; and intends not any change of mind or will in God, which cannot be; buta change of his dispensations, with respect to desertion, affliction, and the like; which theTargum expresses thus,

"and turn from the evil thou hast said thou wilt do to thy servants:''

if this respects the Israelites in the wilderness, and their exclusion from Canaan, God neverrepented of what he threatened; he swore they should not enter it, and they did not, onlytheir children, excepting two persons: some render the words, "comfort thy servants" (f);with thy presence, the discoveries of thy love, especially pardoning grace, and by removingafflictions, or supporting under them.

3. Henry, “For the turning away of God's anger from them, that though the decree hadgone forth, and was past revocation, there was no remedy, but they must die in thewilderness: “Yet return, O Lord! be thou reconciled to us, and let it repent thee concerning

thy servants (Psa_90:13); send us tidings of peace to comfort us again after these heavytidings. How long must we look upon ourselves as under thy wrath, and when shall we havesome token given us of our restoration to thy favour? We are thy servants, thy people

(Isa_64:9); when wilt thou change thy way toward us?” In answer to this prayer, and upontheir profession of repentance (�um_14:39, �um_14:40), God, in the next chapter,proceeding with the laws concerning sacrifices (�um_15:1, etc.), which was a token that itrepented him concerning his servants; for, if the Lord had been pleased to kill them, he

would not have shown them such things as these.

4. Kyle, “The prayer for a salutary knowledge, or discernment, of the appointment ofdivine wrath is now followed by the prayer for the return of favour, and the wish that Godwould carry out His work of salvation and bless Israel's undertakings to that end. We hererecognise the well-known language of prayer of Moses in Exo_32:12, according to whichis not intended as a prayer for God's return to Israel, but for the turning away of His ׁשּוָבהanger; and the sigh ַעד־ָמָתי that is blended with its asks how long this being angry, whichthreatens to blot Israel out, is still to last. ְוִהּנֵָהם is explained according to this same parallelpassage: May God feel remorse or sorrow (which in this case coincide) concerning Hisservants, i.e., concerning the affliction appointed to them. The naming of the church bywֲעָבֶדי (as in Deu_9:27, cf. Exo_32:13 of the patriarchs) reminds one of Deu_32:36 :concerning His servants He shall feel compassion (Hithpa. instead of the *iphal). The prayerfor the turning of wrath is followed in Psa_90:14 by the prayer for the turning towardsthem of favour. In ַּבּבֶֹקר there lies the thought that it has been night hitherto in Israel.“Morning” is therefore the beginning of a new season of favor.”

5. Bob Deffinbaugh, “I have chosen four words to describe the petition that is found inverses 13-17.

The first word is relent. This term describes Moses’ petition that God would change in Hisresponse toward men. While God has been righteous in judging men for their sin, nowMoses implores God, not for justice, but for mercy and grace. In verse 13 Moses pleads,“Relent, O Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.” God is a God ofsalvation and here Moses petitions God to save, to turn to the help of His people.

�ext is the word reveal. He says in verse 16, “May your deeds be shown to your servants,Your splendor to their children.” It is as though God’s face, His personal intimate contactwith His people, has been veiled. God’s righteous power has not been employed for aconsiderable period of time. God has been standing distant and aloof from His people andso Moses asks that now God would intervene, breaking into history, that God would revealHis might, power and salvation to men.

Third, Moses asks God to restore. This life is not the ultimate purpose for which man wascreated. What we have seen described is a result of man’s sin and the fall. Moses cries outto God to restore all creation and mankind to what it could and should be. Life ought not tobe futile, but it is. Life ought not to be short, but it is. God is besought to remove the stigmaof sin, the futility of life, to restore and renew. We read in verses 14 and 15, “Satisfy us inthe morning with your unfailing love, That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, For as many years as we have seentrouble. Exchange sorrow for joy, frustration for fulfillment, fruitless toil for meaningfullabor.”

The last word is reward. While Moses looks forward to God again breaking into history,revealing His strong right hand, he does not see God’s actions as totally unrelated to man’sactivity. We read in verse 17, “May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; Establishthe work of our hands for us—Yes, establish the work of our hands.” While this life may becharacterized by limitations and frustrations, we are not only able to pray that God willchange us, but that He will change life. In addition, we may even pray that God would blessthe work of our hands by allowing us to accomplish eternal results.”

6. Spurgeon, “Return, O LORD, how long? Come in mercy, to us again. Do not leave us toperish. Suffer not our lives to be both brief and bitter. Thou hast said to us, "Return, yechildren of men", and now we humbly cry to thee, "Return, thou preserver of men." Thypresence alone can reconcile us to this transient existence; turn thou unto us. As sin drivesGod from us, so repentance cries to the Lord to return to us. When men are underchastisement they are allowed to expostulate, and ask "how long?" Our faith in these timesis not too great boldness with God, but too much backwardness in pleading with him. Andlet it repent thee concerning thy servants. Thus Moses acknowledges the Israelites to beGod's servants still. They had rebelled, but they had not utterly forsaken the Lord; theyowned their obligations to obey his will, and pleaded them as a reason for pity. Will not aman spare his own servants? Though God smote Israel, yet they were his people, and he

had never disowned them, therefore is he entreated to deal favorably with them. If theymight not see the promised land, yet he is begged to cheer them on the road with his mercy,and to turn his frown into a smile. The prayer is like others which came from the meeklawgiver when he boldly pleaded with God for the nation; it is Moses like. He here speakswith the Lord as a man speaketh with his friend.”

7. “Then we ask God to relent, to return to us. The word "relent" of verse 13 could betranslated "return." It's the same word as is used verse 3: "Return to dust." We ask Godwho has condemned sinful man to return to the dust to return to us. Moses and thechildren of Israel wandering in the desert asked God how long it would be and asked Himto turn to them in favor and grace. And so we, when we anger God by our sin, we ask Godto turn, to return us in his grace. To have compassion on us his servants. We pray forforgiveness.” author unknown

14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

1. Barnes, “O satisfy us early with thy mercy - literally, “In the morning;” as soon as theday dawns. Perhaps there is an allusion here to their affliction, represented as night; andthe prayer is, that the morning - the morning of mercy and joy - might again dawn uponthem. That we may rejoice and be glad all our days - All the remainder of our lives. Thatthe memory of thy gracious interposition may go with us to the grave.

2. Clarke, “O satisfy us early - Let us have thy mercy soon, (literally, in the morning). Let itnow shine upon us, and it shall seem as the morning of our days, and we shall exult in theeall the days of our life.

3. Gill, “ O satisfy us early with thy mercy,.... Or "grace" (g); the means of grace, the Godof all grace, and communion with him, Christ and his grace; things without which, soulshungry and thirsty, in a spiritual sense, cannot be satisfied; these will satisfy them, andnothing else; namely, the discoveries of the love of God, his pardoning grace and mercy,Christ and his righteousness, and the fulness of grace in him; see Psa_63:3, this grace andmercy they desire to be satisfied and filled with betimes, early, seasonably, as soon as couldbe, or it was fitting it should: it may be rendered "in the morning" (h), which someunderstand literally of the beginning of the day, and so lay a foundation for joy the wholeday following: some interpret it of the morning of the resurrection; with which comparePsa_49:14 and Psa_17:15 others of the day of redemption and salvation, as Kimchi andJarchi: it may well enough be applied to the morning of the Gospel dispensation; andChrist himself, who is "the mercy promised" unto the fathers, may be meant; "whosecoming was prepared as the morning"; and satisfied such as were hungry and thirsty,

weary and faint, with looking for it, Hos_6:3 The Targum is,

"satisfy us with thy goodness in the world, which is like to the morning;''

and Arama interprets it of the time of the resurrection of the dead.

that we may rejoice and be glad all our days; the love, grace, and mercy of God, hispresence, and communion with him, the coming of Christ, and the blessings of grace byhim, lay a solid foundation for lasting joy in the Lord's people, who have reason always torejoice in him; and their joy is such that no man can take from them, Phi_4:4.

4. Henry, “For comfort and joy in the returns of God's favor to them, Psa_90:14,Psa_90:15. They pray for the mercy of God; for they pretend not to plead any merit of theirown. Have mercy upon us, O God! is a prayer we are all concerned to say Amen to. Let uspray for early mercy, the seasonable communications of divine mercy, that God's tender

mercies may speedily prevent us, early in the morning of our days, when we are young andflourishing, Psa_90:6. Let us pray for the true satisfaction and happiness which are to behad only in the favor and mercy of God, Psa_4:6, Psa_4:7. A gracious soul, if it may but besatisfied of God's lovingkindness, will be satisfied with it, abundantly satisfied, will take upwith that, and will take up with nothing short of it. Two things are pleaded to enforce thispetition for God's mercy: - 1. That it would be a full fountain of future joys: “O satisfy us

with thy mercy, not only that we may be easy and at rest within ourselves, which we cannever be while we lie under thy wrath, but that we may rejoice and be glad, not only for atime, upon the first indications of thy favor, but all our days, though we are to spend themin the wilderness.” With respect to those that make God their chief joy, as their joy may befull (1Jo_1:4), so it may be constant, even in this vale of tears; it is their own fault if theyare not glad all their days, for his mercy will furnish them with joy in tribulation andnothing can separate them from it.”

5. Spurgeon, “O satisfy us early with thy mercy. Since they must die, and die so soon, thepsalmist pleads for speedy mercy upon himself and his brethren. Good men know how toturn the darkest trials into arguments at the throne of grace. He who has but the heart topray need never be without pleas in prayer. The only satisfying food for the Lord's people isthe favor of God; this Moses earnestly seeks for, and as the manna fell in the morning hebeseeches the Lord to send at once his satisfying favor, that all through the little day of lifethey might be filled therewith. Are we so soon to die? Then, Lord, do not starve us while welive. Satisfy us at once, we pray thee. Our day is short and the night hastens on, O give us inthe early morning of our days to be satisfied with thy favor, that all through our little daywe may be happy. That we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Being filled with divinelove, their brief life on earth would become a joyful festival, and would continue so as longas it lasted. When the Lord refreshes us with his presence, our joy is such that no man cantake it from us. Apprehensions of speedy death are not able to distress those who enjoy thepresent favour of God; though they know that the night cometh they see nothing to fear init, but continue to live while they live, triumphing in the present favor of God and leavingthe future in his loving hands. Since the whole generation which came out of Egypt hadbeen doomed to die in the wilderness, they would naturally feel despondent, and therefore

their great leader seeks for them that blessing which, beyond all others, consoles the heart,namely, the presence and favor of the Lord.”

6. “O satisfy us. That is everywhere and evermore the cry of humanity. And what a strangecry it is, when you think of it, brethren! Man is the offspring of God; the bearer of hisimage; he stands at the head of the terrestrial creation; on earth he is peerless; he possesseswondrous capacities of thought, and feeling, and action. The world, and all that is in it, hasbeen formed in a complete and beautiful adaptation to his being. �ature seems to be evercalling to him with a thousand voices, to be glad and rejoice; and yet he is unsatisfied,discontented, miserable! This is a most strange thing, strange, that is, on any theoryrespecting man's character and condition, but that which is supplied by the Bible; and it isnot only a testimony to the ruin of his nature, but also to the insufficiency of everythingearthly to meet his cravings.”—Charles M. Merry, 1864.

7. “O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. We passnow to this particular prayer, and those limbs that make up the body of it. They are many;as many as words in it: satisfy, and satisfy us, and do that early, and do that with thatwhich is thine, and let that be mercy. So that first it is a prayer for fulness and satisfaction,—satisfy: and then it is a prayer not only of appropriation to ourselves, satisfy me, but of acharitable dilation and extension to others, satisfy us, all us, all thy servants, all thy church;and then thirdly it is a prayer of dispatch and expedition, "Satisfy us early; "and after that,it is a prayer of evidence and manifestation, satisfy us with that which is, and which wemay discern to be thine; and then lastly it is a prayer of limitation even upon God himself,that God will take no other way herein but the way of "mercy." —John Donne.

8. Stedman, “You will notice that in the RSV all through the Psalms there is a repeatedreference to the steadfast love of God. In the Authorized Version it is translated, "lovingkindness." I admit I have an emotional preference for the term loving kindness. I oftenthink of the little boy in Sunday school who was asked to describe loving kindness. He saidto the teacher, "Well, teacher, if I ask my mother for a piece of bread and butter, and shegives it to me, that's kindness. But if she puts jam on it, that's loving kindness." That isstriking very closely to what the word really means. The Revisers are quite right in noting that there is a time quality about it. It is continuouslove. It is love that does not change. It is, in other words, unqualified acceptance. That islove that satisfies. It is a love that does not depend on whether I am good or bad but isready to receive me and forgive me and set me back on my feet again. That is the kind oflove God shows -- unqualified love; love that has already dealt with our behavior, alreadydealt with our misdemeanors and our rebellion -- and still loves. We sing the hymn, "O lovethat will not let me go." It is that kind of love that the Psalmist is talking about. That issatisfying love.”

9. “Here is the ultimate prayer for happiness, for if answered one would be happy and filledwith gladness all his life. It is a request that is not likely ever granted completely to anyone,but when asking of God why not go for the best and the ideal?

However few the days may be, they are satisfying if God is in them. Even though they befew and filled with toil, yet he wanted the best, and that was God’s love. He expects God’slove even in the midst of wrath. This is a high concept of God and of the value of time, forGod never forsakes and we need to make the best of even the worst situations. This is theultimate in optimism.” author unknown

10. Hello, God. I called tonightTo talk a little while...I need a friend who'll listenTo my anxiety and trial.

You see, I can't quite make itThrough a day just on my own.I need your love to guide me, So I'll never feel alone.

I want to ask you please to keepMy family safe and sound.Come and fill their lives with confidenceFor whatever fate they're bound.

Give me faith, Dear God, to faceEach hour throughout the day,And not to worry over thingsI can't change in any way.I thank you, God, for being homeAnd listening to my call;For giving me such good adviceWhen I stumble and fall.

Your number, God, is the only oneThat answers every time.I never get a busy signal,�ever had to pay a dime.

So thank-you, God, for listeningTo my troubles and my sorrow.Good-night, God. I love You, too.And I'll call again tomorrow!

~ Author Unknown ~

15 Make us glad for as many days as you have

afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.

1. Henry, “That it would be a sufficient balance to their former griefs: “Make us glad

according to the days wherein thou has afflicted us; let the days of our joy in thy favour be asmany as the days of our pain for thy displeasure have been and as pleasant as those havebeen gloomy. Lord, thou usest to set the one over-against the other (Ecc_7:14); do so in ourcase. Let it suffice that we have drunk so long of the cup of trembling; now put into ourhands the cup of salvation.” God's people reckon the returns of God's lovingkindness asufficient recompence for all their troubles.”

2. Barnes, “Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us - Let the onecorrespond with the other. Let our occasions of joy be measured by the sorrows which havecome upon us. As our sufferings have been great, so let our joys and triumphs be.

And the years wherein we have seen evil - Affliction and sorrow. They have beencontinued through many wearisome years; so let the years of peace and joy be many also.

3. Gill, “ Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us,.... The days ofaffliction are times of sorrow; and days of prosperity make glad and joyful; and thepsalmist here seems to desire an equal number of the one as of the other; not that an exactprecise number of the one with the other is intended; but that there might be a properproportion of the one to the other; and commonly God does "set the one over against theother": there is a mixture of both in the believer's life, which is like unto a chequer of blackand white, in which there is a proper proportion of both colours; and so prosperity andadversity are had in turns, "and work together for good" to them that love the Lord: andwhen it is said "make us glad", that is, with thy favour and presence, it suggests, that theseare a sufficient recompence for all affliction and trouble; and if so here, what must theenjoyment of these be in heaven! Between this and present afflictions there is noproportion, neither with respect to the things themselves, nor the duration of them; seeRom_8:18 and "the years" wherein "we have seen evil"; afflictions are evils; they flowfrom the evil of sin, and to some are the evil of punishment; and even chastisements are notjoyous, but grievous: this may have respect to the forty years' travel in the wilderness, inwhich the Israelites saw or had an experience of much affliction and trouble; and even tothe four hundred years in which the seed of Abraham were afflicted in a land not their's;see �um_14:33. Hence the Jews (i) make the times of the Messiah to last four hundredyears, answerable to those years of evil, and which they take to be the sense of the text; andso Jarchi's note on it is,

"make us glad in the days of the Messiah, according to the number of the days in whichthou hast afflicted us in the captivities, and according to the number of the years in whichwe have seen evil.''

4. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “In verse 15, he prays for proportionate restoration. The point isthat afterthe restoration of God’s favor, may the enjoyment of abundant life beproportionate to the period suffered while the wrath of God burned against them. The

wrath burned against them for forty years, and now may His favor be restored for fortyyears. Moses is asking for proportionate restoration.

5. Spurgeon, “Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the

years wherein we have seen evil. �one can gladden the heart as thou canst, O Lord,therefore as thou hast made us sad be pleased to make us glad. Fill the other scale.Proportion thy dispensations. Give us the lamb, since thou has sent us the bitter herbs.Make our days as long as our nights. The prayer is original, childlike, and full of meaning;it is moreover based upon a great principle in providential goodness, by which the Lordputs the good over against the evil in due measure. Great trial enables us to bear great joy,and may be regarded as the herald of extraordinary grace. God's dealings are according toscale; small lives are small throughout; and great histories are great both in sorrow andhappiness. Where there are high hills there are also deep valleys. As God provides the seafor leviathan, so does he find a pool for the minnow; in the sea all things are in fitproportion for the mighty monster, while in the little brook all things befit the tiny fish. Ifwe have fierce afflictions we may look for overflowing delights, and our faith may boldlyask for them. God who is great in justice when he chastens will not be little in mercy whenhe blesses, he will be great all through: let us appeal to him with unstaggering faith.

The Psalm plainly ascribes the sadness to the Lord—“You turn man to destruction; andsay, Return, you children of men.” “We are consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrathare we troubled.” God is seen in bereavements—death comes distinctly at His command—second causes are left behind. Since we have a distinct idea that the sadness comes fromGod, our text expresses an equally distinct desire that the gladness may come from God. Webeg for Divine comfort under Divine chastening. The words of the prayer are eminentlysimple and childlike—“Make us glad.” They seem to say, “Father! You have made us sad;now make us glad! You have saddened us grievously; now therefore, O Lord, most heartilyrejoice us.” The prayer as good as cries, “Lord, no one but Yourself can make us gladunder such affliction, but You can bring us up from the lowest deep. The wound goes toonear the heart for any human physician to heal us; but You can heal us even to the makingof us glad!” The prayer is full of buoyant hope, for it does not merely say, “Comfort us;bear us up; keep our heads above water; prevent us from sinking in despair”—no, but—“Make us glad.” Reverse our state: lift us up from the depths to the heights. “Make usglad!”

6. “In other words, Moses wants at least as much happiness in life as sorrow. He is satisfied

with 50-50 balance. We ought to seek a higher ratio than that. The two clauses in this and in

the second half of the verse are synonymous pleadings with God to, Balance the evil with good

things. It is as if Moses is saying, O God, let us at least have good times that are as long as the

evil times we have suffered.” author unknown

16 May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.

1. Barnes, “Let thy work appear unto thy servants - That is, thy gracious work ofinterposition. Let us see thy power displayed in removing these calamities, and in restoringto us the days of health and prosperity. And thy glory unto their children - Themanifestation of thy character; the display of thy goodness, of thy power, and thy grace.Let this spreading and wasting evil be checked and removed, so that our children may live,and may have occasion to celebrate thy goodness, and to record the wonders of thy love.

2. Clarke, “Let thy work appear unto thy servants - That thou art working for us we know;but O, let thy work appear! Let us now see, in our deliverance, that thy thoughts towardsus were mercy and love. And thy Glory - Thy pure worship be established among ourchildren for ever.

3. Gill, “Let thy work appear unto thy servants,.... Either the work of Providence, inconducting the people of Israel through the wilderness, and bringing them into the land ofCanaan; which God had promised to do for them, especially for their posterity, andtherefore their "children" are particularly mentioned in the next clause; or the work ofsalvation, as Kimchi; even the great work of redemption by the Messiah, which is the workof God, which he determined should be done, appointed his Son to do, and gave it him forthat purpose now this was spoken of, and promised, as what should be done; but as yet itdid not appear; wherefore it is prayed for, that it might; that the Redeemer might be sent,and the work be done: or else the work of grace upon the heart, which is God's work, andan internal one, and not so obvious to view; and hence it is entreated, that, being wroughtby him, he would shine upon it, bear witness to it, and make it manifest that it was reallywrought, and a genuine and true work; and moreover this may reach to and include thegreat work of God, to be brought about in the latter day, respecting the conversion of theJews, the bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles, the destruction of antichrist, and theestablishment and glory of the kingdom of Christ:

and thy glory unto their children; the glory of God, displayed in the above works ofprovidence and grace, particularly in the work of redemption, in which all the divineperfections are glorified; or Christ himself, who is the brightness of his Father's glory, thathe would appear to them in human nature, and dwell among them; and they behold hisglory, as they afterwards did, Joh_1:14, or else the sense is, that the glorious grace of Godmight appear unto them, and upon them, by which they would be made all glorious within,and be changed into the image of Christ, from glory to glory; or that the Shechinah, theglorious majesty and presence of God, might be among them, and be seen by them in hissanctuary, Psa_63:2.

4. Henry, “For the progress of the work of God among them notwithstanding, Psa_90:16,Psa_90:17. 1. That he would manifest himself in carrying it on: “Let thy work appear upon

thy servants; let it appear that thou hast wrought upon us, to bring us home to thyself andto fit us for thyself.” God's servants cannot work for him unless he work upon them, andwork in them both to will and to do; and then we may hope the operations of God'sprovidence will be apparent for us when the operations of his grace are apparent upon us.“Let thy work appear, and in it thy glory will appear to us and those that shall come afterus.” In praying for God's grace God's glory must be our end; and we must therein have aneye to our children as well as to ourselves, that they also may experience God's gloryappearing upon them, so as to change them into the same image, from glory to glory.Perhaps, in this prayer, they distinguish between themselves and their children, for so Goddistinguished in his late message to them (�um_14:31, Your carcases shall fall in this

wilderness, but your little ones I will bring into Canaan): “Lord,” say they, “let thy work

appear upon us, to reform us, and bring us to a better temper, and then let thy glory appear

to our children, in performing the promise to them which we have forfeited the benefit of.”2. That he would countenance and strengthen them in carrying it on, in doing their parttowards it.”

5. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “Verse 16 states two things in emphasizing the work of God.First: Let thy work appear unto thy servants. In other words, the work of God’s providenceis to be made evident in His work with the new generation, the wilderness generation.Likewise, the work of God’s providence is to remain evident in His dealings with our ownlives. Secondly, Moses says: And thy glory upon their children. The word glory is not theusual Hebrew word for glory, but is another Hebrew word that means "beauty." Itemphasizes the beauty of the Lord. In other words, let Israel have a demonstration of thebeauty of the Lord by seeing the divine splendor as revealed in God’s saving power. Letthem see the beauty of the Lord, in that, just as God is able to punish, He is also able tobless. When He says: upon their children, he is asking not only for the present-daywilderness generation, but also for subsequent generations to be able to experience thebeauty of the Lord. For such is the work of God.”

6. Spurgeon, Let thy work appear unto thy servants. See how he dwells upon that wordservants. It is as far as the law can go, and Moses goes to the full length permitted himhenceforth Jesus calls us not servants but friends, and if we are wise we shall make full useof our wider liberty. Moses asks for displays of divine power and providence conspicuouslywrought, that all the people might be cheered thereby. They could find no solace in theirown faulty works, but in the work of God they would find comfort. And thy glory untotheir children. While their sons were growing up around them, they desired to see someoutshinings of the promised glory gleaming upon them. Their Sons were to inherit the landwhich had been given them by covenant, and therefore they sought on their behalf sometokens of the coming good, some morning dawnings of the approaching noonday. Howeagerly do good men plead for their children. They can bear very much personal afflictionif they may but be sure that their children will know the glory of God, and thereby be led toserve him. We are content with the work if our children may but see the glory which willresult from it: we sow joyfully if they may reap.”

7. Stedman, “There is something in human life that persists from one generation to another.Though you or I may become a Christian and God begins to heal our personal life, we willnever experience the full effect of that healing in our lifetime. But our children will! That iswhat the psalmist is saying here. �otice how he puts it. "Let thy work be manifest to thyservants," i.e., his own generation. Let me understand how you work, Lord, give me anunderstanding of your methods in society and life, and then let the effect of thatunderstanding be evidenced in my children." That is what often happens. I have seenyoung men and women beginning a family, as new Christians. They are discovering forthemselves the healing power of God to change a wretched, miserable, and wasted life, andthey experience much of the loving grace, kindness, and restoration of God. But theirchildren go on to even greater and richer experiences than the parents had. They arebenefiting from the change and understanding that has come into the lives of their parents.That benefit can be passed on, say the Scriptures, to the third and fourth generations. Thatis why, oftentimes, children are either much worse or much better than their parents.”

17 May the favor [BEAUTY] of the Lord our God restupon us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes,establish the work of our hands.

1. Barnes, “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us - The word translated“beauty” - נעם nô‛am - means properly “pleasantness;” then, beauty, splendor; then graceor layout. The Septuagint renders it here, λαµπρότης lamprotēs, “splendor;” and so theLatin Vulgate. The wish is clearly that all that there is, in the divine character, which is“beautiful,” which is suited to win the hearts of people to admiration, gratitude, and love -might be so manifested to them, or that they might so see the excellency of his character,and that his dealings with them might be such, as to keep the beauty, the loveliness, of thatcharacter constantly before them.

And establish thou the work of our hands upon us - What we are endeavoring to do.Enable us to carry out our plans, and to accomplish our purposes.

Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it - The repetition of the prayer here isemphatic. It indicates an intense desire that God would enable them to carry out theirplans. If this was written by Moses, we may suppose that it is expressive of an earnestdesire that they might reach the promised land; that they might not all be cut down andperish by the way; that the great object of their march through the wilderness might beaccomplished; and that they might be permanently established in the land to which theywere going. At the same time it is a prayer which it is proper to offer at any time, that Godwould enable us to carry out our purposes, and that we may be permanently established inhis favor.

2. Clarke, “And let the beauty of the Lord - Let us have thy presence, blessing, andapprobation, as our fathers had.

Establish thou the work of our hands - This is supposed, we have already seen, to relateto their rebuilding the temple, which the surrounding heathens and Samaritans wished tohinder. We have begun, do not let them demolish our work; let the top-stone be brought onwith shouting, Grace, grace unto it.

Yea, the work of our hands - This repetition is wanting in three of Kennicott’s MSS., inthe Targum, in the Septuagint, and in the Ethiopic. If the repetition be genuine, it may beconsidered as marking great earnestness; and this earnestness was to get the temple of Godrebuilt, and his pure worship restored. The pious Jews had this more at heart than theirown restoration; it was their highest grief that the temple was destroyed and God’sordinances suspended; that his enemies insulted them, and blasphemed the worthy nameby which they were called. Every truly pious man feels more for God’s glory than his owntemporal felicity, and rejoices more in the prosperity of God’s work than in the increase ofhis own worldly goods.

3. Gill, “ And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,.... Either the grace and favourof God, his gracious presence vouchsafed in his ordinances, which makes his tabernaclesamiable and lovely, and his ways of pleasantness; or the righteousness of Christ, which isthat comeliness he puts upon his people, whereby they become a perfection of beauty; orthe beauty of holiness, which appears on them, when renewed and sanctified by the Spirit;every grace is beautiful and ornamental: or Christ himself may be meant; for the wordsmay be rendered, "let the beauty of the Lord be with us" (k); he who is white and ruddy,the chiefest among ten thousand altogether lovely, fairer than the children of men, let himappear as the Immanuel, God with us:

and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establishthou it; or "direct it" (l); though God works all works of grace for us, and in us, yet there isa work of duty and obedience to him for us to do; nor should we be slothful and inactive,but be the rather animated to it by what he has done for us: our hands should becontinually employed in service for his honour and glory; and, whatever we find to do, do itwith all the might of grace we have; and in which we need divine direction and strength,and also establishment, that we may be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in thework of the Lord: and this petition is repeated, to show the sense he had of the necessity ofit, and of the vehemence and strength of desire after it. Jarchi interprets this of the work ofthe tabernacle, in which the hands of the Israelites were employed in the wilderness; soArama of the tabernacle of Bezaleel.

4. Henry, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; let it appear that God favours us.Let us have God's ordinances kept up among us and the tokens of God's presence with hisordinances; so some. We may apply this petition both to our sanctification and to ourconsolation. Holiness is the beauty of the Lord our God; let that be upon us in all we say anddo; let the grace of God in us, and the light of our good works, make our faces to shine (thatis the comeliness God puts upon us, and those are comely indeed who are so beautified),

and then let divine consolations put gladness into our hearts, and a lustre upon ourcountenances, and that also will be the beauty of the Lord upon us, as our God. (2.) That hewould prosper them in it: Establish thou the work of our hands upon us. God's workingupon us (Psa_90:16) does not discharge us from using our utmost endeavours in servinghim and working out our salvation. But, when we have done all, we must wait upon Godfor the success, and beg of him to prosper our handy works, to give us to compass what weaim at for his glory. We are so unworthy of divine assistance, and yet so utterly insufficientto bring any thing to pass without it, that we have need to be earnest for it and to repeat therequest: Yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it, and, in order to that, establish us init.”

5. JOH� DA�IEL JO�ES – 1865-1942. He has written about the beauty of God in a waythat few if any can match, and I want to share a good deal of what he has written, for itdeserves to be seen, and most people will never find it.

“THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD OUR GOD." It was Charles Kingsley, was it not, who wasoverheard in his last illness murmuring quietly to himself, "How beautiful God is! Howbeautiful God is!" Perhaps the phrase, "the beauty of God," strikes us as just a littleinappropriate and incongruous. We do not often apostrophized God as Augustine did—-"Obeauty, so old and yet so new, too late I loved Thee." And yet it must be true that God isbeautiful. He is indeed the supreme and absolute beauty. The old Greeks put into theirstatues and representations of their gods their highest conceptions of human beauty; intotheir Aphrodite, all they knew of womanly charm; into their Apollo, all they knew of manlygrace; into their Zeus, all they knew of royal majesty and dignity. The instinct that madethem thus identify the divine with the beautiful was altogether right. It was only the modeof expression that was wrong. It was physical beauty they attributed to their deities, andthey did this because their conception of deity was material and anthropomorphic. But theGodhead is not like unto silver or gold graven by art and man's device. God is a Spirit, andthe beauty that characterizes Him is moral and spiritual beauty. You cannot express thisbeauty on canvas or in stone, but you can always feel it with the worshipful and believingheart.

From this point of view—that is, from the standpoint of beauty of character—howbeautiful God is! You could guess as much from glancing at His works. I remember a friendof mine, after reading a chapter from, I believe, one of John Ruskin's works, remarking tome, "What a beautiful mind the man has!" And so exactly when I look out upon the worksof God's hands I always feel moved to say, "What a beautiful mind God has!" Take theglory of the springtime. The earth in springtime fills anyone who has any sense of beautywith a perfect exhilaration of delight. It is full of light and fragrance and life and color. Ilook upon the trees dressed in their new robes of fresh and vivid green; I look upon thefields, decked as they are with innumerable white-eyed daisies and yellow buttercups; Ilook at the wealth of color in our gardens; I listen to the joyous song of the birds; and whenI remember that God is the Author and Giver of all this color, fragrance, glory, and song, Iam constrained to cry with Kingsley, "How beautiful God is! How beautiful God is!"

6. The following quotes are from the writings of John Daniel Jones.

“True beauty, which is the basis for all the arts, exists originally and eternally in the mindand nature of God. Our concept of beauty must correspond to God's mind which we canknow only through Scripture and with such a mind properly interpret the remnants of Hisbeauty which are observable in a cursed creation. What is beautiful? Whatever God hassaid is beautiful, could say is beautiful, or would say is beautiful according to theunchanging principles of His Word. God commands us to mirror His holiness andperfection in all we do.”

“God is beautiful in His perfections. God's attributes unite in perfect harmony. There is nogreater variety than God's infinite perfections, nor a more intensive unity. Though holinessgoverns all of God's attributes (Isa 6), the Bible does not exalt one attribute of God toexpense of the others. They form a glorious, harmonious whole without any inherentcontradiction. The absence of chaos or monotony in His divine attributes amplifies Hisabsolute beauty. They also mutually contribute to God's purpose and performancemanifesting the splendor to which man should respond.”

“But no human life ever lived on this earth as ever created the impression of perfect beauty.The combination is never complete. Some element is always lacking. There is always somedefect, some flaw, some fault. The only perfect and flawless beauty is the “Beauty of theLord.”

“God is absolute, awful purity, that is almost the main lesson of the Old Testament. BeforeHim even the cherubim veil their faces in their wings and continually do cry, “Holy, holy,holy, it is the Lord God of Hosts.” So absolute is the holiness of God, that, compared withHim, even the whiteness of the angel’s wing seemed stained and soiled. And this quality ofholiness is a permanent element in the beauty of the Lord. In Jesus Christ, He revealedHimself as the Holy One. Our Lord was the chiefest among 10 thousand and the altogetherlovely, and the basal element in His beauty is His holiness.” He did no sin, neither was guilefound in His mouth.” (I Pet. 2:22).

“This is a basic prayer of life, for it is the goal of life to have the beauty of God reflected inour lives. This is why we are created and redeemed. Beauty is the bottom line. We are madeto be beautiful. All that is done for the body in beauty goes to extremes when its focus isthat alone and not on the beauty of God, which is beauty of character and holiness. This isa prayer that can be answered and we can become beautiful for God with His beauty.”

7. "The 90th psalm ... reflects [Moses'] thoughts, perhaps toward the close of his sojourn inMidian [Exod. 2:11-3:3]. If so, the following interpretation seems appropriate: The openingverses of this psalm seem to mirror the mountain solitudes of Sinai and the majesty of God,in contrast with human frailty in general and the great mistakes of his own life (vss. 7, 8).Knowing the role Providence had marked out for him (Acts 7:25), Moses doubtless

reflected that his impetuous act in slaying the Egyptian had frustrated God's purpose andthwarted the divine plan for his life. He had already passed the mark of 'threescore yearsand ten' and was approaching 'fourscore years' (Ps. 90:9, 10), but with his greatdisappointment in mind he prayed that God would teach him to 'number' his days that hemight apply his heart unto wisdom (vs. 12). He still had faith in the promises of God to thefathers and hoped for their fulfillment. His thoughts then turned to his suffering brethrenin the land of Egypt (vss. 13, 14) and he prayed for their deliverance (vss. 15, 16). Finally,he pleads with God that the work of his own hands may be established, that his life may nothave been altogether in vain (vs. 17)."—SDA Bible Dictionary (1979 edition), "Moses," p.763.

Considering the tone of this prayer, take some time to examine your priorities (see vs. 12).Have you been expending energy on things that don't really matter? What are you doingnow that in a few years, looking back, you might regret? What can you say to someonewho, looking regretfully over his or her past, is in need of encouragement?”

8. Spurgeon, “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Even upon us who mustnot see thy glory in the land of Canaan; it shall suffice us if in our characters the holiness ofGod is reflected, and if over all our camp the lovely excellences of our God shall cast asacred beauty. Sanctification should be the daily object of our petitions. And establish thouthe work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. Let what we dobe done in truth, and last when we are in the grave; may the work of the present generationminister permanently to the building tip of the nation. Good men are anxious not to workin vain. They know that without the Lord they can do nothing, and therefore they cry tohim for help in the work, for acceptance of their efforts, and for the establishment of theirdesigns. The church as a whole earnestly desires that the hand of the Lord may so workwith the hand of his people, that a substantial, yea, an eternal edifice to the praise andglory of God may be the result. We come and go, but the Lord's work abides. We arecontent to die so long as Jesus lives and his kingdom grows. Since the Lord abides for everthe same, we trust our work in his hands, and feel that since it is far more his work thanours he will secure it immortality. When we have withered like grass our holy service, likegold, silver, and precious stones, will survive the fire.”

9. “God is glorified and his work advances when his church is beautiful. The

beauty of the Lord is the beauty of holiness,—that beauty which in the LordJesus himself shone with lustre so resplendent, and which ought to be repeatedor reflected by every disciple. And it is towards this that all amongst us wholove the Savior, and who long for the extension of his Kingdom, should verymainly direct their endeavors. �othing can be sadder than when preaching orpersonal effort is contradicted and neutralized by the low or unlovely lives ofthose who pass for Christians; and nothing can go further to insure successthan when prayer is carried out and preaching is seconded by the pure, holy,and benevolent lives of those who seek to follow the Lamb whithersoever hegoeth.”—James Hamilton.

10. "Thy work." "The work of our hands." You will observe a beautiful parallelismbetween two things which are sometimes confounded and sometimes too jealouslysundered: I mean God's agency and man's instrumentality, between man's personal activityand that power of God which actuates and animates, and gives it a vital efficacy. For fortyyears it had been the business of Moses to bring Israel into a right state politically, morally,religiously: that had been his work, And yet, in so far as it was to have any success orenduringness, it must be God's work. "The work of our hands" do thou establish; and thisGod does when, in answer to prayer, he adopts the work of his servants, and makes it hisown "work", his own "glory", his own "beauty."—James Hamilton.

11. “There is a twofold Rabbinical tradition respecting this verse and the preceding one;that they were the original prayer recited by Moses as a blessing on the work of making theTabernacle and its ornaments, and that subsequently he employed them as the usualformula of benediction for any newly undertaken task, whenever God's glorious Majesty

was to be consulted for an answer by Urim and Thummim.”—Lyranus, R. Shelomo, and

Genebrardus, quoted by *eale.

12. “It is worthy of notice that this prayer was answered. Though the first generation fell inthe wilderness, yet the labours of Moses and his companions were blessed to the second.These were the most devoted to God of any generation that Israel ever saw. It was of themthat the Lord said, "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals,when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel washoliness unto the Lord, and the first fruits of his increase." It was then that Balaam couldnot curse, but, though desirous of the wages of unrighteousness, was compelled to foregothem, and his curse was turned into a blessing. We are taught by this case, amidst temporalcalamities and judgments, in which our earthly hopes may be in a manner extinguished, toseek to have the loss repaired by spiritual blessings. If God's work does but appear to us,and our posterity after us, we need not be dismayed at the evils which afflict the earth.”—Andrew Fuller.

13. Stedman, “This is a prayer for the visible manifestation of God's beauty. It is what the�ew Testament calls "godlikeness," or godliness. What is the beauty of God? God isbeautiful because he is two things: truth and love. Truth is always necessary to beauty. Youcan never have anything beautiful that is not true. And love is warmth, graciousness, andattractiveness, which, added to truth, constitutes beauty. A man or woman, boy or girl,whose life is characterized by truth and love is a beautiful person. We hear much aboutbeautiful people today. The world uses that term. What does it mean? Basically it means tothem someone who pleases me, whom I like; that is a beautiful person. But in theunderstanding of life which the Scripture represents, beauty is the manifestation of truthand love. The only place you can get those, in the ultimate sense, is from God. So thePsalmist prays, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, What does this mean?The last result of God's love is to make our labor, our work, meaningful, valuable, andenduring. It will not be something wasted, or frantic and frenetic, spent in a moment. Thework of our hands becomes an enduring thing, impressive, affecting others, having in itselfgreat value. Who does not long for this?”

14. “This last verse is surprising for two reasons. First, it is the only verse which is not a

direct address to God. Second, it refers to the work of human hands rather than God's.

Why has this verse suddenly become so grounded in the human rather than the divine? To

whom is the psalmist talking, and for what is he really asking? The answer lies in the

partnership between human and God. Theologically, we know that all our actions are

reflections on God. Divine work is done in this world through human hands and, when

God acts, it is often through us. Human actions do not take place in a vacuum, but rather

they are often reflections of divine will. This is why it is said that the balance between

good and evil lies in every individual's action rather than some abstract cosmic place.

Human actions have real consequences in both the human and divine realm. Asking for

the work of "our" hands to prosper is really asking for God's work to be realized rightly

through us. At a time of life and death, which this psalm is most definitely pertaining to, it

is important to ask if one has done the work of God in life.” author unknown

15. �ot color, line or harmonies

Alone can make the perfect whole-

Beauty supreme is more than these,

It is the flowering of the soul. Dorothy F. Gurney

16. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “In verse 17, Moses discusses the work of man, beginningwith a request: And let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us. The Hebrew word forfavor means “the pleasantness of God.” He not only asks God to display His beauty, he alsoasks Him to display His pleasantness to Israel. Let Israel now enjoy the beauty andpleasantness of God in contrast to the wrath and judgment of God. More specifically, letIsrael experience Your beauty in place of Your wrath, Your pleasantness in place of Your

judgment. The request is, therefore, Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us.

Moses concludes by emphasizing the means by which the favor of the Lord our God willbe upon us. He makes two statements that are repetitious, thus emphatic. The first pointMoses makes is, And establish thou the work of our hands upon us. The work of ourhands refers to our daily tasks, done in obedience and according to the will of God toglorify Him. In other words, the work of God described in verse sixteen He did throughthe work of man. We need to learn to work skillfully, having wisdom or skillfulness inliving daily for the work of the Lord. Then, Moses’ second statement is, Yea, the work of

our hands establish thou it. This repeats for emphasis. The Lord’s servants shouldaccomplish the work of God and they will thus enjoy success in their labors althoughlife is short.”

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 90:10 Or yet the best of them 2. Psalm 90:17 Or beauty

APPE�DIX

Below, I have added some of the ways men of the past haveput this Psalm into poetic form.

1. Scottish Psalter of 1635

1 O Lord thou hast been our refuge and kept us safe and sound From age to age as witness can all we which true it found. 2 Before the mountains were fourth brought ere thou the earth didst frame, Thou wast our great eternal God, and still shalt be the same.

3 Thou dost vain man strike down to dust; though he be in his flower, Again thou sayest, Yea Adam's sons return to show your power, 4 For what is it a thousand years to count them in thy sight? But as a day which fast is past or as a watch by night.

5 They are so soon as thou dost storm even like a sleep or shade: Or like the grass, which as we know betimes away doth fade. 6 With pleasant dews in break of day it groweth up full green: By night cut down it withereth as no beauty can be seen

7 O Lord, how sore do we consume in this thy wrath so hot? We fear thy fury be so fierce, that death shall be our lot. 8 Thou hast so mark-ed our misdeeds, that they are in thy mind: Our secret sins are in thy sight, as though none grace should find.

9 For when thine anger kindled is, our days consume forth with: Then end our years as thoughts most vain which have in them no pith.10 The days of man we find to be of years ten and three-score; And though that some by nature strong attain to live ten more.

Yet is there strength (brag what whey list) but labor, grief and care: And passeth hence to haste their end, ere they themselves beware.11 Yet who regarded well the power of this thy wrath so great? All such truly as do thee know, thy plagues when thou dost threat.

12 Teach us therefore to count our days that we our hearts may bend, To learn thy wisdom and thy truth, for that should be our end.13 Turn yet again O Lord, how long wilt thou be angry still? Be merciful unto thy flock, and grant them thy goodwill.

14 Oh, fill us with they mercies great in the sweet morning spring: So we rejoice shall all our days, and eke be glad and sing.15 Declare est soon some sing of love, thy scourges to assuage: And for the years of our distress sustaining such great plagues.

16 Show forth thy mercy thine own work

unto thy servant dear: And let thy glory to their seed for evermore appear.17 And let the beauty of the Lord Upon us still remain: Lord, prosper thou our handy-work, and still the same maintain.

2.Isaac Watts version

Part 1. v.1-5Man frail, and God eternal. 1 Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home.

2 Under the shadow of thy throne Thy saints have dwelt secure; Sufficient is thine arm alone, And our defense is sure.

3 Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame, From everlasting thou art God, To endless years the same.

4 Thy word commands our flesh to dust, "Return, ye sons of men:" All nations rose from earth at first, And turn to earth again.

5 A thousand ages in thy sight Are like an ev'ning gone; Short as the watch that ends the night Before the rising sun.

6 [The busy tribes of flesh and blood, With all their lives and cares, Are carried downwards by the flood, And lost in following years.

7 Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away;

They fly, forgotten, as a dream Dies at the op'ning day.

8 Like flowery fields the nations stand Pleased with the morning light; The flowers beneath the mower's hand Lie with'ring ere 'tis night.]

9 Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Be thou our guard while troubles last, And our eternal home.

3. Part 2. v. 8--12. Part 2 Infirmities and mortality the effect of sin. 1 Lord, if thine eye surveys our faults, And justice grows severe, Thy dreadful wrath exceeds our thoughts, And burns beyond our fear.

2 Thine anger turns our frame to dust; By one offence to thee Adam with all his sons have lost Their immortality.

3 Life, like a vain amusement, flies, A fable or a song; By swift degrees our nature dies, �or can our joys be long.

4 'Tis but a few whose days amount To threescore years and ten; And all beyond that short account Is sorrow, toil, and pain.

5 [Our vitals with laborious strife Bear up thc crazy load, And drag those poor remains of life Along thc tiresome road.]

6 Almighty God, reveal thy love, And not thy wrath alone; O let our sweet experience prove The mercies of thy throne!

7 Our souls would learn the heav'nly art

T'improve the hours we have, That we may act the wiser part, And live beyond the grave.

4. Part 3. v.18,8&c. 1 Return, O God of love, return; Earth is a tiresome place: How long shall we, thy children, mourn Our absence from thy face ?

2 Let heav'n succeed our painful years, Let sin and sorrow cease, And in proportion to our tears So make our joys increase.

3 Thy wonders to thy servants show, Make thy own work complete; Then shall our souls thy glory know, And own thy love was great.

4 Then shall we shine before thy throne In all thy beauty, Lord; And the poor service we have done Meet a Divine reward.

5. Man mortal and God eternal A mournful song at a funeral

1 Through ev'ry age, eternal God, Thou art our rest, our safe abode; High was thy throne ere heav'n was made, Or earth thy humble footstool laid.

2 Long hadst thou reigned ere time began, Or dust was fashioned to a man; And long thy kingdom shall endure When earth and time shall be no more.

3 But man, weak man, is born to die, Made up of guilt and vanity; Thy dreadful sentence, Lord, was just, "Return, ye sinners, to your dust."

4 A thousand of our years amount Scarce to a day in thine account; Like yesterday's departed light, Or the last watch of ending night.

PAUSE.

5 Death, like an overflowing stream, Sweeps us away; our life's a dream, An empty tale, a morning flower, Cut down and withered in an hour.

6 [Our age to seventy years is set; How short the time! how frail the state ! And if to eighty we arrive, We rather sigh and groan than live.

7 But O how oft thy wrath appears, And cuts off our expected years! Thy wrath awakes our humble dread; We fear the power that strikes us dead.]

8 Teach us, O Lord, how frail is man; And kindly lengthen out our span, Till a wise care of piety Fit us to die, and dwell with thee.

6. V.5,10,12 The frailty and shortness of life.

1 Lord, what a feeble piece Is this our mortal frame ! Our life how poor a trifle 'tis, That scarce deserves the name !

2 Alas, the brittle clay That built our body first! And ev'ry month, and ev'ry day, 'Tis mould'ring back to dust.

3 Our moments fly apace, �or will our minutes stay; Just like a flood, our hasty days Are sweeping us away.

4 Well, if our days must fly, We'11 keep their end in sight; We'11 spend them all in wisdom's way, And let them speed their flight.

5 They '11 waft us sooner o'er

This life's tempestuous sea; Soon we shall reach the peaceful shore Of blessed eternity.

7. LIKE A WATCH I� THE �IGHT (PSALM 90)

1. Like a watch in the night,a thousand years in Your sightis but a day fleeting by.How quickly we die!

Like the grass that is new —springing forth in the dew,yet soon withered and dry.How quickly we die!

Relent, O Lord!How long will it bebefore You shed Your love on me?Restore our joyduring our remaining days,be-fore the sleep of death sweeps us away.

2. How short is our life.Filled with sorrow, filled with pain —Lord, the days, the pas-sing years,they are filled with our tears.

Have mercy, O God.Lift this weight, lift Your rod,for we cannot long sustainall the trials and pain.

Relent, O Lord!Show compassion once again.We confess our errors. We know our sins!Grant Your Grace, O God.Hear our mis-'ry, hear our moans.Shall our dying prayer to You, be but a groan?

3. How short be our days.Teach us truth, teach Your way,that our lives might fulfillThy purpose, Thy will.Thy purpose, Thy will.Let us do Your will.