Psalm 90

November 16, 2015

Yahweh makes us happy (Ps 90:13-90:17)

“Return!

Yahweh!

How long will be?

Have compassion on your servants!

Satisfy us in the morning                                                   

With your steadfast love.

Thus we may rejoice.

We may be glad all our days.

Make us glad

As many days

As you have afflicted us.

Make us glad

As many years

As we have seen evil.

Let your work be manifest to your servants.

Let your glorious power be to their children.

Let the favor of Yahweh,

Our God,

Be upon us.

Let the favor of Yahweh

Prosper for us

The work of our hands.

O prosper the work of our hands.”

This psalm concludes with a cry for pity on us humans. They wanted to be happy. How long would they have to suffer? When would they have compassion? They wanted the morning steadfast love of God to endure. They wanted to be happy for as long as they had been afflicted and seen evil. They wanted to see the glorious work and the favor of Yahweh. They wanted the work of their hands to prosper.

November 16, 2015

The heart of wisdom (Ps 90:11-90:12)

“Who considers the power of your anger?

Your wrath is as great

As the fear that is due you.

So teach us to number our days.

Thus we may gain a wise heart.”

We have to consider the power of God’s anger. He is due respect and fear because of his great wrath. The psalmist wanted God to teach him the number of his days so that he would have a wise heart, a heart of wisdom.

November 16, 2015

The short life of humans (Ps 90:9-90:10)

“All our days pass away under your wrath.

Our years come to an end like a sigh.

The days of our life

Are seventy years.

The days of our life

Are perhaps eighty,

If we are strong.

Even though their span is only toil,

Even though their span is only trouble,

They are soon gone.

We fly away.”

Most of our days are spent under the wrath of God. However, our days come to an end like a sigh, a mere breath. The normal life was considered 70 years old, but if you were strong, 80 years might be possible. Even during these 70-80 years your life was nothing but toil and trouble. They pass away quickly as we soon fly away.

November 16, 2015

The sinfulness of man (Ps 90:7-90:8)

“We are consumed

By your anger.

We are overwhelmed

By your wrath.

You have set our iniquities

Before you.

Our secret sins are

In the light of your countenance.”

The anger and wrath of God has consumed and overwhelmed them. God knows their iniquities. Their secret sins are before his face.

November 16, 2015

Humans are like grass (Ps 90:5-90:6)

“You sweep them away.

They are like a dream.

They are like grass.

That is renewed in the morning.

In the morning,

It flourishes.

It is renewed.

In the evening

It fades.

It withers.”

This psalmist says that humans can be swept away. Humans are like grass that in the morning renews itself and flourishes. However, by the evening it fades and withers away.

November 15, 2015

The fragility of man (Ps 90:3-90:4)

“You turn us back to dust.

You say.

‘Turn back!

You mortals!

A thousand years in your sight

Are like yesterday when it is past.

A thousand years in your sight

Are like a watch in the night.”

God can turn humans back to dust with a simple word. 1,000 years in God’s sight is like yesterday. 1,000 years are like one night watch in the sight of God.

November 15, 2015

Eternal Yahweh (Ps 90:1-90:2)

A prayer of Moses, the man of God

“Yahweh!

You have been our dwelling place,

In all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth,

Before you had formed the earth,

Before you had formed the world,

From everlasting to everlasting,

You are God.”

Psalm 90 is one of the few psalms of Moses, not David or the other Temple singers. This is a hymn that praises eternal Yahweh who is the psalmist’s dwelling place. Yahweh existed before the mountains came to be. He existed before the earth or the world was formed. Yahweh is the eternal everlasting God.