Psalm 90

The psalmist asked God to bless His people in view of life's brevity.

The superscription attributes the authorship of this psalm to Moses (cf. Deut. 33:1). It is evidently the only one he wrote that God preserved in this book. The content suggests he may have written it during the wilderness wanderings. In any case it is probably one of the oldest of the psalms if not the oldest.

"In an age which was readier than our own to reflect on mortality and judgment, this psalm was an appointed reading (with 1 Cor. 15) at the burial of the dead: a rehearsal of the facts of death and life which, if it was harsh at such a moment, wounded to heal. In the paraphrase by Isaac Watts, O God, our help in ages past', it has established itself as a prayer supremely matched to times of crisis."¹⁵⁹

 1. The transitory nature of human life 90:1-12

90:1-6 Moses began by attributing eternality to Yahweh. All generations of believers have found Him to be a protective shelter from the storms of life. God existed before He created anything, even the "world"(Heb. tebel, lit. the productive earth). This Hebrew word is a poetic synonym for "earth."

God outlasts man. He creates him and then sees him return to "dust"(Heb. dakka, lit. pulverized material). From God's eternal perspective 1, 000 years are as a day is to us (2 Pet. 3:8). This does not mean that God is outside time. Time simply does not bind or limit Him as it does us. Time is the instrument we use to mark the progression and relationship of events. God's personal time line has no ends whereas ours stretches only about 70 years.

Human life is therefore quite brief compared to God's eternality. A watch in the night was about four hours long. The years of our lives sweep past as something a flood might carry off before we can retrieve them. Our lifetime is similar to one day from God's perspective or as a flower that only blooms for one day. Life is not only brief but frail.

90:7-12 Humans only live a short time because God judges the sin in their lives (cf. Rom. 6:23). God knows even our secret sins. They do not escape Him, and He judges us with physical death for our sins.

Assuming Moses did write this psalm it is interesting that he said the normal human life span was 70 years. He lived to be 120 and Joshua died at 110. Their long lives testify to God's faithfulness in providing long lives to the godly as He promised under the Mosaic Covenant.

Since our lives are comparatively short we should number our days (v. 12). Moses meant we should realize how few they are and use our time wisely (cf. Eccles. 12:2-7). Notice how often Moses mentioned "our days"or the equivalent in this psalm (vv. 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15).

 2. The compassionate nature of divine love 90:13-17

90:13-15 The psalmist asked God to have compassion on His sinful people. He wanted Him to balance judgment for sin with the loyal love He had promised them. Then they could live their brief lives with joy and gladness.

90:16-17 Moses also wanted God to display His majesty or splendor to His servants. He may have meant the splendor that God would demonstrate by extending mercy to them. When the Israelites saw God's work of showing mercy they could proceed with their work knowing that God would bless it. Even though their lives would be brief they could derive some pleasure from their work knowing that God would give it some relative permanence.

We might title this psalm, "Reflections on the Brevity of Life."Life is short because we are sinners. Even the most godly person dies eventually (except for Enoch, Elijah, and Christians alive at the Rapture). God removed the guilt of our sins when Jesus Christ died on the cross. He imputes the effects of that work to a person when he or she trusts in Christ as Savior. However the consequences of sin still follow. Chief among these is physical death. Nevertheless God extends His mercy to humankind and allows us to live as long as we do. His mercy enables us to enjoy life and make a profitable contribution to our world.