"A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
7 For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?
12 So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!"
Psalm 90
With Psalm 90 we come to the beginning of the 4th of the five books contained in the Psalter. The inscription at the head of this Psalm attributes it to Moses, man of God. One notable scholar says of this that 'the reflective type of mind here exhibited, however, suggests a later rather than an earlier date'. But this is unconvincing: it presupposes an evolutionary idea of development, which has no basis in fact. Why should it be thought that Moses could not have a reflective mind? The idea is absurd. The same scholar says that there is a 'complete absence of any reference to historical events' - yet other commentators, like Maclaren, say that 7-12 are distinctly historical, and refer to the forty years wandering by Israel in the wilderness. The godly Delitzsch holds this also, and maintains that there are many echoes in the Psalm of Moses' words in Deuteronomy, especially 32, 33. This seems a much more likely interpretation; and to take 7-12 as a historical reference to the wilderness wanderings, illuminates the Psalm for us, although it makes very good sense also to take it to refer to mankind in general, rather than to Israel in particular.
There are two ways of dividing up the Psalm into stanzas or sections. Maclaren suggests the following: (i) the transitoriness of man set over against the eternity of God (1-6); (ii) that transitoriness is traced to its origin, namely sin (7-12); (iii) the prayer that God would visit His servants is built upon both His eternity and their fleeting gaze. This is a reasonable way to take the Psalm, but there is another, to which we shall turn in the next note.